Mexican retailer and banking chain Grupo Elektra
said Thursday it plans to begin selling Chinese-made cars in Mexico
early next year.
The company said in a statement that it was forming an alliance
with one of China's biggest car manufacturers, the state-owned FAW
Group Corp.
In addition to selling Chinese-made cars in Mexico and Central
America, the agreement calls for producing cars at a US$150 million
(C101 million) plant to be built in the western Mexican state of
Michoacan by 2010. The plant is expected to churn out 100,000 cars
each year.
Elektra said the cars will be priced up to 10 per cent less than
the average for major competitors, ``allowing the car market to
incorporate a large segment of the population who, at this moment,
aren't clients of the industry.''
The low-cost retailer plans to use its Banco Azteca to provide
financing. Grupo Electra has more than 1,700 stores in Mexico,
Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Panama, El Salvador and Argentina.
FAW group is based in Changchun in China's northeast and has
joint ventures with Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp.
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