China's cars may finally make inroads in Western markets: Here's how

After a decade of development, often through buying or benchmarking foreign technology and know-how, Chinese automakers are looking with greater ambition at selling their cars in major Western markets.

Improvements in car design, technology and marketing at firms including Geely, GAC Motor and Great Wall Motor have brought them a bigger share in their home market, the world's largest, and give them a better chance of survival in competitive markets in Europe and the United States.

Once distant dreams of staking a claim in Western strongholds may now be edging nearer.

"We have in the Western world an outrageous arrogance. We think we're ahead. It's going to change," says Alain Visser, Senior Vice President of Lynk & Co, a new brand set up by Geely.

"China is passing you at a speed that in our arrogance we don't even see," Visser told Reuters earlier this month.

Hangzhou-based Geely, which owns Volvo Cars and Lotus and makes London black cabs, has its sights set on selling cars in Europe in 2019 and the United States a year later. The Lynk & Co brand, set up in Sweden with Volvo, will spearhead its attack.
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Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has not received any offer for the company nor is the world's seventh-largest carmaker working on any "big deal", Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix, Marchionne said the focus remained on executing the company's business plan to 2018.

Asked whether FCA had been approached by someone or whether there was an offer on the table, he simply said: "No."

The company's share price jumped to record highs last month after reports of interest for the group or some of its brands from China.

China's Great Wall Motor Co Ltd openly said it was interested in FCA, but had not held talks or signed a deal with executives at the Italian-American automaker.

The stock move was also helped by expectations that the company might separate from some of its units.

Marchionne reiterated on Saturday that FCA was working on a plan to "purify" its portfolio and that units, such as the components businesses, would be separated from the group. He hopes to complete that process by the end of 2018.
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