Cadillac anticipates double-digit sales growth in China

General Motors’s Cadillac anticipates sales in China to keep growing at a double-digit rate this year, however at a slower rate than it did in 2016 when volumes saw a sharp spike after the brand started its first devoted factory in the nation.

Cadillac, fairly late to present regional production in China is amongst a 2nd wave of high-end vehicle brands in the country that seek to take market share from developed brands including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi.

While it exceeded Toyota’s Lexus, which does not produce in China, in sales to become the 5th best selling premium marque in the nation in 2016, Cadillac still lags the German “Big 3” and No. 4 Jaguar Land Rover.

The brand needs to do a “mind shift” to no longer consider itself as a second-tier brand, Cadillac’s China chief, Andreas Schaaf, informed Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “We want to move up to the top three,” he stated, including he anticipates China to become Cadillac’s greatest market in no less than 5 years.

For 2017, Schaaf stated he was “optimistic”.

“We are anticipating another double-digit development in China. Probably not in the very range as what we have seen in 2016 since development of almost 50 percent is really a really remarkable year,” he stated.