GM doing very well in China

General Motors Corp., the world's largest carmaker, said profit in China is healthy because incentives remain lower than in the United States, the company's largest market.

Incentives in China are $200 to $300 a car compared with thousands of dollars a car in the United States, said Nick Reilly, president of GM Asia Pacific, in an interview Thursday in Shanghai.

"There is tremendous downwards pricing pressure in China now and everybody sees the opportunity," Reilly said. "Up till now, we have been pretty successful to offset that with bigger volume and great performance in manufacturing operations."

GM and other automakers in China saw profits rebound last year after a two-year decline, as a record number of new models increased car sales. China became the world's second-largest auto market with sales of 7.22 million units in 2006.

GM may sell close to 1 million units in 2007 as it plans to bring new concepts and models to China shortly, Reilly said. More at Detroit Free Press