DETROIT, Michigan, Jan 10 (AFP) - China has made its presence felt at the Detroit auto show even though no Chinese vehicles were on display.
The Chinese force was apparent at the North American International Auto Show, which opened Sunday, as a man backing a venture to bring Chinese cars to the US market said he would be back next year showing those vehicles to the US public.
"January next year, right here, we will show our cars," Malcolm Bricklin, founder and chief executive of New York-based Visionary Vehicles, told AFP.
Bricklin, who was behind the failed Yugo and successful Subaru launches in the United States, announced a plan earlier this month to import a line of Chinese autos from the Chery Automobile Company by 2007 at prices about 30 percent below the current market.
The executive said the company -- built specifically for exporting from China -- has ambitious goals.
"We're going after Lexus," he said, referring to the Toyota luxury nameplate. "We'll beat General Motors on quality in the US market."
But a top General Motors executive said as the show opened that Chinese cars are not ready for the US market.
"I don't think China is ready to export," GM chief financial officer John Devine said in an interview.
"When does China export vehicles? I'd probably say down the line, but it's very difficult to pinpoint when and how.
"There are still a lot of things that have to be done to make those vehicles as competitive as they have to be, certainly on the cost side. I'm not going to say it's not possible to export vehicles from China. It might happen some time, but I think it's too early."
Devine shrugged off the announcement about Bricklin's venture.
"It's a lot easier to announce those projects than to deliver them," he said.
Devine said GM is more focused on producing cars for the rapidly growing Chinese market. General Motors said its 2004 vehicle sales in China grew 27.2 percent to a record 492,014 units, as it looks to close in on market leader Volkswagen AG of Germany.
"We're quite aware of where we are in China and our focus is on making sure our product lineup and our brand lineup is expanded," he said.
"Our focus at GM is providing the local market because of the growth."
Bricklin said the major automakers have not been involved in any exports from China because of their deals struck with the Chinese government.
"The reason they say China is not ready to export is because they have factories there and are not allowed to export under their contracts," he said.
A number of other Chinese companies would like to export, he said, "but Chery is the only one to have a brand-new factory."
David Littmann, economist at Detroit-based Comerica Bank, said competition is becoming more intense in the US market, with the Asian makers in the forefront grabbing market share.
"If it were just Toyota, Nissan and Honda, it's possible the next five years we would see stability and the beginning of a turnaround," he said.
But the Japanese car makers are looking over their shoulders at the Koreans and, farther down the road, at the Chinese.
"Asian share is going to grow ... even if it comes out of the hide of Nissan and other Japanese companies," he said.
GM chairman Rick Wagoner said China will eventually be a major auto exporter, but does not see that happening in the next five years until quality and other issues are resolved.
"The Chinese are fast learners, and they have a huge domestic market, so one would be crazy to assume they won't be a competitive force," Wagoner said.
"They won't do it tomorrow and they're likely to do it in 10 or 15 years ... it takes a while to get the beat of the market."
01/10/2005 19:55 GMT - AFP