An Ode to the Chevrolet brand in China

I covered the launch of the Chevrolet brand in China at the introduction of the Aveo in 2005. I vividly remember the event, with Dale Sullivan desparately trying to look cool (I feel a bit bad writing that because I really like Dale…). Produced at Shanghai GM, the automaker’s joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp aka SAIC, the Chevrolet brand including the Aveo subcompact, sold close to 150,000 units in 2006 (some of those may have been imported; I just asked Google for a list of Chevy sales in China from 2006 to 2025). By 2025 that sank to just 5,314 units.

Alas, the demise of the Chevrolet brand in China is just another sign of GM’s failure to respond to a changing market. I’ve blogged about missed opportunities before. I mean, GM was partnered with one of China’s largest automakers and it had PATAC, a local engineering center. But I digress.

A few months ago, I read that SGM would cease production of the Chevrolet brand. A wave of nostalgia swept over me. Also confusion as reports were mixed as to what exactly the status of the brand in China was. So I sent an email to Lv Nengneng, a GM China spokesperson. She replied:

“Our joint ventures will continue to build Chevrolet products in China and explore opportunities in non-US overseas markets. Chevrolet will continue in its role as GM’s largest global brand by volume. 

We believe that Cadillac and Buick are well positioned to compete in the segments we are targeting in China to support sustainable growth, while our JVs’ Chevrolet portfolio is best positioned for our export markets.”

So, Chevrolet production is not leaving China though the Chevy brand is. Although she refers to “our joint ventures,” I am pretty sure that the brand will only be produced for export at SGMW, the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture in Liuzhou, Guangxi province. (I was the first foreign journalist to visit SGMW, in 2002, as the JV was being officially established.) And, those Chevy-badged export vehicles will be built on an Wuling platform. Economies of scale and all. Ironically, the first Baojun vehicles (Wuling’s passenger car brand) were build on a GM Daewoo platform.

SGMW is an export powerhouse. In April of 2025, it held a ceremony to celebrate the export of 1.5 million vehicles including kits. In 2025, it exported 267,000 units. It doesn’t break out how many were Chevrolet brands, but given that another report puts Chevrolet exports from China in the first half of 2026 at fewer than 7,000, it is safe to assume most of the 2025 exports had were badged Wuling or Baojun.

The SGMW JV was a master stroke for GM. It accounted for half or more of GM’s sales in China, including the Wuling brands, for many years. But I always suspected it was destined to become an export base. I blogged about it in December of 2012!

It seems the exported Chevrolets may be competing against Baojun vehicles in some markets. Baojun is Wuling’s passenger vehicle brand. Baojun is sold in more than 40 countries, according to its website. Chevrolet-badged vehicles and Wuling-badged vehicles are both sold in Mexico, SGMW’s biggest export market, but those are different segments. Ironically, the Chevrolet Aveo is a top seller in Mexico for SGMW.

When I visited the plant back in 2002, there were still train tracks running into the plant to supply coal to power it. The red brick buildings has seen better days. The inside of the plant showed clear signs of GM influence, however. The production lines were clean and partly mechanized. There was a digital board listing the number of days without an injury. Plus much more. Now the Wuling manufacturing hub is a massive, modern complex.

SGMW is now GM’s export hub and Wuling is exporting a lot more units than GM. Perhaps the U.S. automaker can learn from its partner Wuling, just as Wuling learned from it in the early days.