Global automakers target luxury segment in China

"China has indeed been a very rewarding market for GM. We've benefited from tremendous growth. China has taken a very big role in GM and China's voice is a very strong voice within GM," GM China President Matt Tsien said during a recent conference in Wuhan. GM created the post in January to coordinate the US company's growing operations in China.

General Motors is not the only US company looking at luring the Chinese high-end buyers. Ford Motor Company has just launched its Lincoln nameplate there.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the No 2 US automaker, hopes to sell more than a million cars in China this year for the first time and is banking on the appeal of a reimagined Lincoln.

The best-selling luxury brand in the United States two decades ago, Lincoln has been lagging behind luxury German and Japanese sedans.

In October Ford launched its first vehicles under the Lincoln brand in China, especially designed for the market: a mid-sized sedan, the MKZ, and a compact SUV, the MKC.

In early November, Lincoln opened its first dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

Kumar Galhotra, president of Lincoln, said a total of eight Lincoln stores will open in China by the end of the year and by 2016, 60 Lincoln stores will be open in 50 cities nationwide, under a marketing program called "The Lincoln Way".

"The Lincoln Way demonstrates how a storied brand with a nearly 100-year history is innovating for Chinese customers while staying true to its roots of personal service," Galhotra said.

Created in 1917 by former Cadillac executives, Lincoln is named after Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Ford has owned the brand since 1922.

The first US automaker to launch itself in the Chinese market, in the 1980s, is Chrysler, which today is part of Italian group Fiat Chrysler Automobiles based in Milan.

But it was a bumpy road for Chrysler, which had teamed up with Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz.