GM Establishes Uzbekistan Joint Venture

GM Establishes Uzbekistan Joint Venture

By Michelle Krebs March 24, 2008

General Motors and UzAvtoSanoat have established a joint venture to manufacturer and distribute vehicles in Uzbekistan. GM said the joint-venture company will play a defining role both in the automotive industry of Uzbekistan and in the continued, rapid global growth of GM’s largest brand, Chevrolet.

GM said the new joint-venture company, called General Motors Uzbekistan, has the potential in the mid-term to build as many as 250,000 Chevrolet models in the country and distribute a variety of Chevrolet cars and SUVS through a network of more than 60 dealers.

Three Chevrolet models — the Captiva, Epica and Tacuma — are already being assembled at the joint venture’s plant in Asaka, Andijan province. The Chevrolet Lacetti will join the line-up later this year. Other models from Chevrolet’s global portfolio will follow over the next few years, utilizing the plant’s full annual manufacturing capacity of 250,000. Selected models will be exported to neighboring markets.

UzAvtoSanoat holds the majority stake in the new joint venture with GM, 25 percent plus one share, with the option of increasing that stake in the future.

With a population of 27 million, Uzbekistan has a vehicle market with significant potential for future expansion, said GM. The country’s economy has grown more than 7 percent per year over the past five years. In 2007 vehicle sales surpassed 70,500, which represented an increase of 7.5 percent from the previous year. In 2007, GM Daewoo exported to Uzbekistan more than 170,000 complete knockdown kits (CKD) and semi-knockdown vehicles (SKD) for local assembly.

"As a key element of our growth strategy, GM has moved aggressively in recent years to establish a leadership position in the world's fastest-growing markets,” said GM CEO Rick Wagoner at a news conference in Uzbekistan to announce the partnership. “We are confident that General Motors Uzbekistan will make a strong contribution to the growth and development of the Uzbek auto industry and economy… . And support GM and Chevrolet’s continued growth in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.