Foreign automakers aim for SUV market

Multinational automobile manufacturers are building up their capacity in China to boost their sports utility vehicle (SUV) sales here, the fastest-growing sector in the world's No.1 auto market, senior executives from Fiat S.p.A. and Ford Motor said Sunday at a forum in Shanghai.

"We have made significant progress in bringing the Jeep brand over (to China) … We're going to work to try to develop it locally," Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat S.p.A., which holds a majority stake in the Jeep brand owner, Chrysler Group LLC, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the automotive industry forum held by the China Europe International Business School.

"Our objective in bringing Jeep to China was simply to manufacture cars in this country," Marchionne said. Until now, all Jeep SUVs have been made in the US.

Amid the ongoing slowdown in growth, SUV sales were the only bright spot in September passenger car sales in China, increasing by 17.65 percent year-on-year to 171,400 units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia, told Bloomberg News on October 22 that the carmaker is having "very detailed conversations" with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co about manufacturing all Jeep models in China.

Misinterpreting the Bloomberg report, US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney falsely claimed Thursday that Chrysler was considering moving all Jeep production to China, and he vowed to fight for American jobs, The Detroit News reported Friday.

"Governor Romney has made a number of comments over the fact that we're trying to de-localize Jeep from the US. That is not true. I think, unfortunately, he's been fed a lot of incorrect facts," Marchionne told the Global Times.

The auto industry's capacity growth in China is intended to support the local market, rather than producing goods for export, and "this is true for almost all of the JVs," Joseph Hinrichs, president of Asia Pacific and Africa for Ford Motor Co, said at the same forum.

Ford has also been making long strides in the Chinese car market. Its total sales in September in China surged by 35 percent year-on-year to a record high of 59,570 units, benefiting from strong sales of its Focus models, the company said earlier this month.

Ford will introduce four different SUVs in China in early 2013, two of which, namely the EcoSport and Kuga models, will be made in Chongqing, Hinrichs said.

The loss of auto jobs in the US has had more to do with "necessary" restructuring to resuscitate the US auto industry and "far less to do with China," Hinrichs said, adding that the two countries should strengthen cooperation on car manufacturing in the future.