General Motors To Stop Production Of Chevrolet Cars In South Africa

General Motors today announced that the company will stop selling cars in India as of 31st December 2017. The decision was announced as part of a series of restructuring actions from the Detroit automaker on Thursday. In addition to that, the company announced that it will also stop manufacturing Chevrolet Vehicles in South Africa.GM's manufacturing facility over there will be sold off to the company's Japanese partner, Isuzu Motors along with the 30 percent stake the U.S. automaker owns in a truck venture with Isuzu Motors. In February Isuzu agreed to buy out the 57.7 percent stake that General Motors had in their joint venture in Kenya.

In fact, last year GM sold only 49,000 vehicles in India and South Africa combined. This shows that General Motors is struggling really hard to compete in emerging markets outside of China. By closing sales operation in the aforementioned countries the company has narrowed down its focus to China, North America and, Latin America. In addition to India and South Africa, Singapore has also been affected, as the company will lay off an undisclosed number of employees at its GM International Operations headquarters, which currently has about 200 people working there.

General Motors entered the South African market about 104 years ago in 1913. Initially, the company began with just the distribution of Chevrolet Vehicles and began production thirteen years later only in 1926. Despite ending production in the country, General Motor South Africa dealerships in the country will continue to operate. General Motors also sells Opel cars in South Africa but following the recent announcement of the sale of Opel to the PSA group, GM will work with PSA to develop the future strategy for the Opel brand in the country.