How do independent brands go overseas?

Perhaps no longer willing to be controlled by others, SAIC not only accounted for 51% of the shares in the joint venture between Thailand and Chia Tai Group, but also authorized the Thai joint venture company to produce and sell its own brand MG series sedan with a technology license and a trademark license. In a word, SAIC Motor’s position in Thailand is comparable to that of Volkswagen, GM and other multinational car companies in China.

For a long time, under the pressure of joint ventures, self-owned brands have been breathing hard, and most of them can only breed and develop in the low-end market that the joint venture disregards. When accumulated to a certain period of time, the independent brand has confidence and determination to break through to the high end, the joint venture also began to explore the low-end market, especially when the auto market growth suddenly slowed from 40% to single digits. Once again, the brand felt the pressure of survival. Fortunately, long-term overseas market development has made significant progress at this time. Chery has reached 16 overseas factories and has an annual production capacity of 900,000 complete vehicles, 900,000 sets of engines and transmissions, and established five passenger vehicle platforms for A00, A0, A, B, and SUV. Micro-cars, passenger cars and heavy trucks and other product platforms, models reached 26 models. Geely, the rising star, has aggressively expanded overseas after completing the acquisition of Volvo. It has invested in KD factories in Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, and completed the task of exporting 80,000 vehicles this year in advance.

SAIC’s overseas road will go even further. Following the joint venture with GM to bring SAIC-GM-Wuling products to India, it will no longer be a "GM" tycoon. It will independently establish a joint venture with Thailand Chia Tai Group to produce a Right Rudder MG series sedan from the United Kingdom. After years of joint venture with General Motors, SAIC finally played GM's role in China overseas. Informed sources disclosed that SAIC has been unwilling to resign from its ranks. When it established a joint venture with GM to enter India, its main purpose was to export its products and make it possible for SAIC to recognize overseas. Therefore, when GM continues to increase capital, SAIC considers that Indian companies have been losing money, and the possibility of profit in the short term is very small. Therefore, it voluntarily gave up its second round investment in Indian companies and became a minority shareholder. In the cooperation with Thai Chia Tai Group, SAIC is a substantial shareholder. Like the foreign partner in a Chinese joint venture, SAIC Motor exports technology and brands. For this cooperation model, SAIC is very confident that the MG brand has a certain reputation around the world. Currently, it owns many products such as MG7, MG6, MG5 and MG3. Among them, the new right rudder MG6 model officially landed in the UK market in 2011 and was well received by local consumers.

It can be said that although the cause is that the domestic situation forced the independent brands to leave overseas, the overseas road of independent brands did go a long way. However, this is only the beginning. If independent brands want to play the roles of the general public and GM in China in overseas markets, they still need better products and stronger technology, as well as the determination to break through the “glass walls” established by other countries for Chinese companies. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile, deeply understands the “glass wall”. “This is an ideological issue and a difference in value orientation and cultural identity. Dealing with foreign glass walls requires Chinese companies to use their own actions to resolve. Business is commerce, we must fully respect the mature commercial civilization of the West, and govern enterprises in an open, transparent, and transparent manner.While people in the West see the nature of problems, it doesn’t matter how you say them, and it is useless to blow off the big cows.We must use our own actions to prove It is a very difficult process and it requires continuous efforts."