About company. History of General Motors General motors company

Contrary to the assumptions that it would be difficult for GM to leave the Russian Federation, it was not noticeable that the concern somehow suffered from its sudden decision for the participants in the Russian car market. In contrast, among other things, from manufacturers of auto components. So, due to the cessation of production, GM (and reduced supplies to Ford) closed the plant in Leningrad region Johnson Controls, as well as the Canadian company Magna, and Japanese company Unipress suspended the construction of an enterprise in St. Petersburg.
Perhaps this was determined by the fact that the Russian market was important for GM, but not strategically significant, and the company integrated with production structure countries are not as crowded as Volkswagen or Hyundai. The GM plant has been operating in Shushary since 2006, the volume of investments in the enterprise amounted to $300 million.
The volume of production grew quite quickly against the backdrop of a booming growth in sales of foreign cars. The cars were “stamped” in three shifts, and at the beginning of 2012, the 100,000th car (Chevrolet Cruz) rolled off the assembly line.

However, when the crisis broke out in Russia, GM immediately left Russia. So quickly that a conspiracy version immediately arose about the political background of the actions of the automaker. GM, however, immediately rejected this version, announcing that it was changing its strategy in Russia due to the economic situation. The head of the company in Europe, Karl-Thomas Neumann, explained in March 2016 that the company does not want to constantly incur costs in order to meet localization requirements in an environment where these costs cannot be recouped due to market conditions.
The dynamics of the car market after the company's departure proves that GM's decision at that time was hardly wrong. Note, by the way, that the company mothballed production, but does not get rid of it. In February 2016, Karl-Thomas Neumann said that GM had no plans to resume production, but noted that the automaker had "building blocks" in place in case a decision was made to restore production in Russia: "We still have a dealership net. So "never say never".
Regarding the plant, Neumann stressed: “If we sell it, we will get a small profit in the short term, but it costs us little to keep it.” At the same time, Neumann, in fact, rejected the return of Opel brand cars to Russia.
In July 2016, it became known that, allegedly, General Motors would sell cars by importing them to Russia from Kazakhstan. Deliveries of Chevrolet cars are planned to be established within three years from the Asia Auto plant, some media sources reported.
As far as is known, GM has not confirmed the existence of such a project. Later, GM announced that they planned to concentrate on the premium segment of the Russian automotive market. As part of this strategy, the concern has abandoned the budget models of Chevrolet and Opel cars, although the maintenance of these cars continues. By the way, in September, the Russian division of the General Motors concern, GM Auto LLC, recalled from Russia 3,257 Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Orlando cars sold from October 2011 to July 2012. The reason for the recall is possible malfunction power steering return hose.
Having ceased sales of cars in the mass segment, the company continues to sell Cadillac models and classic American Chevrolet models - Corvette, Camaro and Tahoe. It should be noted that the segment of premium cars in Russia is growing, in contrast to the budget.
For comparison, according to the results of nine months of 2016. 22,947 GM cars were sold on the Russian market, of which 22,063 cars belong to the mass segment of the Chevrolet brand, which is 45% less than the APPG, but Cadillac brand cars were sold in the period under review by 33% more (849 units). By the way, after leaving Russia, General Motors signed an agreement with the Belarusian automobile plant Unison on the SKD assembly of the fourth generation Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Tahoe for deliveries to the Russian car market.
In September 2016, information again appeared that the General Motors enterprise in St. Petersburg could resume car assembly. The peculiarity of this news was that it came from the head of the committee on industrial policy and innovation, Maxim Meiksin.
According to him, in late 2016 - early 2017, the GM plant in St. Petersburg will resume production of passenger cars, but not GM ™, which is unusual in itself, so the media voiced different versions of what kind of cars these could be. However, the versions were not destined to be confirmed, as GM denied the information about the resumption of work of the plant in St. Petersburg. In turn, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said that it had not received proposals to resume production at the General Motors plant site, Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia, said at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.
Another September rumor about the GM plant is the possible transfer of its St. Petersburg automobile plant to the Belarusian automaker Unison CJSC for the production of Cadillac cars.
Presumably, the companies will sign an agreement on this in October 2016, but the details of the project are still unknown. First Deputy Minister of Industry of Belarus Gennady Svidersky, without refuting the very fact of negotiations between GM and ZAO Unison, stressed that real plans for plant management in St. Petersburg does not exist.
On January 25, 2017, the rumor about the resumption of GM production in the Russian Federation gradually revives again, Vice Governor Sergey Movchan said: “Negotiations are underway. I can't give you any details." We are forced to wait for a refutation or confirmation of this information from GM representatives. One of the reasons why
GM easily left the Russian car market in 2015 and was in no hurry to return, it was that at that time the car market developed countries basically overcame the crisis, GM's global sales have steadily increased, and besides, the company coped with the colossal scandal of 2014 associated with the recall of millions of faulty brand vehicles around the world.
According to some reports, the loss of General Motors (GM) from leaving with Russian market left 443 million dollars - this became known at the beginning of 2016, and in 2015 this figure was 644 million dollars (according to the results of the third quarter), but, apparently, these losses did not bring significant harm to the company. So, by the end of 2016, General Motors expects record profits, and China becomes the main market, where 3,870,000 cars were sold, which is 7.1% more than in 2015, and this is a record sales figure. And in Russia, at the end of last year, GM car sales amounted to 31,737 units, 53% less than in 2015. 96% of this number are Chevrolet cars, 4% - Cadillac.

We managed to have a short conversation with a person who is intimately familiar with the situation at the assembly plant in Shushary, and here is a short interview with him.

Kolesa.ru:- Was the announcement of the conservation of production a surprise for the plant staff?

Source: Of course, no one expected this. Yes, last year was difficult for us, we reduced a large number of staff, but loading in one shift allowed us to keep the remaining workers, even in the face of a declining market.

Photo: GM plant assembly line

TO:– When did you learn about the plans for the conservation of production? AND:- We found out together with everyone from the official message on the website and publications in the media. TO:- Were there any problems with the download production capacity in recent months? AND:- No, our production plan was calculated to cover the needs of the market. TO: Has the plant stopped now? AND:– The main conveyor stopped, but the SKD remained. TO:- When was the main staff dismissed? AND:- Basic production personnel the conveyor line, where, for example, Cruz and Astra were assembled, was disbanded on March 19. There was a general factory meeting, at which they announced that production would stop from that day on, workers would be compensated and everyone could go home. TO:- So people were thrown out of the factory? AND:- In no case. The management spoke in detail about the plans to stop production and about compensation to the staff. To avoid provocations and uncontrolled actions, and since the assembly line is no longer working, the workers were taken on corporate buses to their homes. This is a common practice in large industrial enterprises.

In the photo: GM body painting line

Photo from the official GM website

TO: What is the compensation paid to the workers? AND:- Everyone will be paid 7 salaries. TO: Did that suit everyone? AND: There are always dissatisfied people. TO:- If the plant is mothballed, for example, in a year, will all the personnel be taken back? AND:- This was not reported. We add that the conservation of production does not mean that the plant will be closed and dismantled. The equipment will not be dismantled, there will be security, a minimum staff of technicians and accounting. According to Koles, last year the plant was preparing for a major modernization of painting equipment, but the sanctions imposed in the summer suspended this process and the equipment was not even imported into the country. In addition, the plant has invested several million dollars in new treatment facilities, which were launched only a few months ago.

In the photo: satellite view of the plant

Also, do not forget that the big drop in sales of Opel and Chevrolet was not the biggest yet. For example, Honda lost 90% of its customers in February, Suzuki lost 76%, but these companies have publicly announced that they do not plan to leave, although they depend on the exchange rate even more than GM, as they export their entire lineup. Therefore, there is less and less doubt that the decision to leave Opel and Chevrolet was more political. If the situation in the domestic economy does not improve, then the next of the St. Petersburg plants to stop production may be Ford, which is also controlled from overseas. The Japanese Toyota and Nissan, as well as the Korean Hyundai-Kia, will obviously last longer, but no one can guess.

At the end of last week, the GM plant began production of a new generation of Opel Astra. Today, this is the fourth model launched at the General Motors plant in the village of Shushary near St. Petersburg. Taking this opportunity, we continue our series of excursions to the factories of the largest manufacturers operating in Russia.

Factory American company began its work a little less than two years ago - November 7, 2008. For its construction, it took 300 million dollars to shell out - a considerable amount, but the design capacity of the plant is 60,000 units per year - this is 10,000 more than at the Nissan plant in Kamenka.

Initially, only two models were assembled at the enterprise - the Chevrolet Captiva and Opel Antara crossovers, but already in August 2009, the Chevrolet Cruze joined them. At present. According to Hans Jürgen Michel, CEO GM Auto, it was not easy to launch such a number of models in that short period, however, "modern flexible production equipment and a young motivated team of employees made possible solution difficult task."

It is noteworthy that before the start of production of the new Opel Astra, the plant worked in just one shift. Now everything has changed - with the advent of a new model on the conveyor, the plant switched to a two-shift mode and, accordingly, recruited 700 new employees. From now on total strength The company has over 1500 employees. Of course, all new employees have undergone special training - during intensive multi-month trainings on a single international system made by GM. Hans Jurgen Michel is convinced: "The GM Auto plant operates to the same high standards as GM plants around the world." So Russian buyers should not worry about the build quality.

The GM assembly plant in Shushary, minus a few nuances, is very similar to the Nissan plant in Kamenka. Car assembly is carried out here in a full cycle, including welding and body painting. Just like in Kamenka, the Jim plant has a low level of automation – manual labor distributed throughout all stages of production. Welding is done manually, using a variety of manipulators, and finished bodies are rolled between posts directly on trolleys. The only robot in the entire assembly shop, like at the plant in Kamenka, applies glue to the glass before installing it.

Like at the Nissan plant, different models are interspersed along the assembly line. After body welding, past mandatory check, are sent to the painting shop, where not only a paint and varnish coating is applied, but also anti-corrosion treatment is carried out. Then the car begins to acquire details: lighting, doors, trunk and hood. And a little later - interior elements.

Then the long-awaited moment occurs - the meeting of the body and the chassis, which move along the conveyor in a parallel line. A special automatic trolley helps to dock the engine, transmission with a prepared body.

Workers only raise the units to the desired height and fasten the connections. On final stage Assemblies put wheels on the car and fill it with process fluids, after which the finished car enters the quality control stand.

However, careful control is carried out at all stages of production - as in the Nissan plant, most defects are eliminated right on the conveyor. The algorithm is as follows: if the problem could not be solved within the allotted time, the assembler gives a signal to the foreman, who takes the car under his responsibility and continues troubleshooting at the next post. At the same time, the conveyor does not stop, and this is the main difference from the Nissan plant system.

The last moment is checking the car on a test track. At this stage, extraneous noises or squeaks are detected, as well as the serviceability of all equipment. If necessary, the car is returned to production for troubleshooting, and if everything is in order, the car is sent to the finished product site.

The conveyor capacity is 15 new cars, and with the introduction of the second shift, the plant will be able to produce up to 240 cars daily (87,600 per year). At the same time, the Nissan plant, even at full capacity, cannot produce more than 139 cars per day (50,000 per year).

Now about the prospects of the model itself. For 1.5 months, about 3,000 orders were received for the new Opel Astra. This means that the first cars that will be assembled in the near future have already been bought. At the same time, no specific production volumes, apparently, are planned. The number of cars produced will be determined solely by demand - like colleagues, GM representatives prefer to "work for the customer."

According to the press service of the company, General Motors managed to win a major tender for the supply of 12,000 cars, held by the DPRK authorities in March. It is noted that General Motors participated in the tender on behalf of a division of General Motors Russia, thanks to which it was possible to bypass the US State Department's ban on working with the DPRK on the one hand, and the DPRK's ban on working with Americans on the other.

The entire batch of cars ordered by North Korea will consist of black Chevrolet Cruze (first generation) sedans. These cars will be distributed among the government agencies of the DPRK.

The sedans assembled for the DPRK will be significantly different from the Cruze we are used to. Since the repair and technical base of North Korean enterprises is largely tailored to Soviet and Russian cars, 60% of the Chevrolet Cruze will be equipped with 8-valve VAZ-21083 carburetor engines (1.5 l, 68 hp), and the remaining 40% will be equipped with ZMZ-406 injection engines (2.3 l, 130 hp) .

Outwardly, Cruze for North Korea will be distinguished by unpainted bumpers and round headlights with sidelights from the UAZ-469 car, installed in place of regular block headlights.

According to the press service of GM, the North Koreans paid $145 million for the entire batch, and part of this amount was paid in goods - 1,500 tons of carrots, 17,000 square meters. m of army cloth and 300,000 liters of Taedongan beer. GM plans to pay with carrots and cloth to Russian suppliers of components, and beer - to the workers of the St. Petersburg plant.

Production of the batch for North Korea will be carried out at the Russian plant from April 15 to June 15.

General Motors mothballed its plant in St. Petersburg in the spring of 2015 after it decided to stop selling Opel cars and Chevrolet mass models in Russia.

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