GM to Sell Chinese-Built Car in the United States for First Time

The labor contracts for 140,000 autoworkers expires at midnight, and negotiators for the United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler are back at the negotiating table on Monday, September 14, 2015. A deal could determine the competitiveness of the U.S. auto industry over the next four years. FILE - GM's plant in Orion Michigan is producing new Chevy Sonic's which hit the market this Fall. It is the first subcompact to be built in the U.S. in decades. The plant is putting 15-hundred GM employees back to work after several years of lay-offs. It took a half-billion dollar investment from GM, and some major union concessions to make the plan feasible. Both GM management and the UAW are making a high stakes bet on the plant's success.

BEIJING — (CNN) Built in China, sold in the U.S.: It’s a first for GM and any U.S. automaker.

GM said it will sell the Chinese-built Buick Envision, a crossover SUV, in the U.S. market starting next year.

The UAW attacked the plan, saying it was “a slap in the face.” It said GM should reconsider its plans and instead build a version for the U.S. market at a U.S. plant.

“The men and women of GM and the American taxpayers who invested so much in GM’s future deserve better,” said the union.

GM agreed in its latest labor deal to invest $8.3 billion in its U.S. plants over the next four years to create or retain an estimated 3,300 jobs. It increased U.S. employment by 14,000, or 18%, between the end of 2009 and the end of last year.

GM already has big operations in China, and sells more cars there than in the United States. It does export a limited number of Buicks from U.S. plants to China. Buick has been a very successful brand in China.

Automakers prefer to build cars close to where they’re sold. Even Asian automakers such at Toyota and Honda build most of the cars they sell in the United States at their U.S. plants. But critics of U.S.-China trade policy are concerned that China, with lower labor costs, could steal share in the U.S.

GM says the Envision was designed in Michigan. It says it will fit well into the Buick lineup between two other crossover offerings, the Encore and the Enclave.

Auto research firm IHS forecasts estimates that GM will be selling about 38,000 Envisions in the U.S. by 2017, compared to about 126,000 it is now selling annually in China.

IHS analyst Stephanie Brinley does not expect a flood of Chinese car exports to the U.S.

“It’s not going to be viewed by buyers as a Chinese vehicle,” she said. “Most people don’t even know where the cars come from. I don’t think this means U.S. consumers will be more inclined to accept a Chinese automaker.”

The only other Chinese built car sold here is the Volvo S60 Inscription, which went on sale at U.S. dealers in September.

Volvo was originally a Swedish automaker now owned by Chinese automaker Geely. It just announced plans for its first U.S. plant earlier this year.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)

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