GM is going to kill off its big Buick and Cadillac sedans in the US, but they are still alive and well in China
- On Monday, General Motors announced that it would close three assembly plants in 2019 and discontinue six passenger cars made at the plants.
- The six discontinued models are mostly slow-selling sedans from Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick.
- However, GM has confirmed that three of the six models will continue to be built in China.
Even as the China-US trade war heats up, Chinese demand for American cars remains strong. And that includes good old-fashioned American sedans.
But even as General Motors announced the discontinuation of six sedans in the US market, three of the models will live on in China.
General Motors confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday that the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, and Cadillac XTS will continue to be produced at its factory in Shanghai, China.
"China production is not affected by these actions," a GM spokesperson said in an email. "Those products will remain in production in China."
Read more: 'Tariffs are coming': GM's massive layoffs could spur Trump to hit imported cars and trucks with tariffs, a potentially devastating move.
China is actually GM's single largest market. Over the first three quarters of 2018, the Detroit-based automaker sold 2.57 million cars in North America. Over the same period, the company sold 2.68 million cars in China alone.
On Monday, General Motors announced that it would close three assembly plants in 2019 and discontinue six slow-selling passenger cars made at the plants.
GM's bold strategic shift is a preemptive measure to protect the company by aligning its production capacity with consumer demand in anticipation for a sales slowdown that's expected to take place in the near future.
The soon-to-be-shuttered plants include Oshawa Assembly in Canada, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan, and Lordstown Assembly in Ohio.
As a result, the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac CT6, and Cadillac XTS sedans will all be discontinued in the US by the end of 2019.