General Motors on Tuesday revealed a German-made Buick crossover wagon it prepares to offer in the United States, and in so doing highlighted the country’s auto market vulnerability to moving trade politics.
The Buick Regal TourX, arranged to release later this year in the United States, is focused on imported all-wheel drive vehicles such as those provided by Subaru and Volvo Cars.
In a strategy drawn up long before the Trump administration and Congress started discussing taxing imported products, GM planned to develop the TourX at a factory located in Ruesselsheim, Germany, near Frankfurt.
Asked how a possible “border tax” on imported products might impact the TourX, General Motors product development chief Mark Reuss informed reporters that such a levy might hurt, however added: “I don’t know what the border tax is.
“How can you make a product strategy based on something you do not know?” he questioned.
Reuss stated GM is making strategies to deal with a border tax, which might impact not simply the Regal TourX. GM imports a Buick sport utility vehicle named the Envision from China, and has electric vehicles it requires for the Chinese market that it presently builds just in the United States. China levies high tariffs and taxes on imported cars.
In a different interview, the head of GM’s North American operations stated he is motivated that President Donald Trump and administration authorities are listening as car industry executives discuss the complex, international supply chains behind their model lineups.
“It’s prematurely to speculate, however our company believe the new administration is more lined up with us than different,” stated Alan Batey, who runs GM’s North American automobile organisation and the Chevrolet brand worldwide. There is an extremely “open and constant” discussion with administration authorities, he stated.
