By Kim Hyun-bin
Steven Kiefer, General Motor's senior vice president (VP) overseeing South America and international operations, is in Korea to inspect the management and operations of the U.S. carmaker's factories here.
All eyes are on whether his visit will bring new changes to the models produced at the three factories of the Korean operation.
Kiefer arrived Monday, and is scheduled to tour the local plants and have meetings with the management and the company's union during his planned five-day visit.
| Steven Kiefer |
The visit by Kiefer comes after the GM Korea union requested an executive visitation during a visit to GM's Detroit headquarters in June after touring the facilities there and in Mexico. The senior VP promised to visit Korea in August but this was delayed due to GM Korea's wage negotiations conflict with the union.
The carmaker's union requested headquarters to allocate the production of electric vehicles and future models to plants here during its members U.S. visit, which some believe will be the main issues discussed with management during Kiefer's visit along with chip shortage issues.
GM announced its plan to spend $35 billion by 2025 on EV and autonomous driving technologies, aiming to sell 1 million EVs annually. The company also plans to halt production of most of its conventional engine vehicles by 2035.
However, industry officials say GM won't allocate production of new models or EVs to Korea.
"Around 80 percent to 90 percent of the GM Korea exports are to the U.S. including its Trailblazer. Most of the vehicles exported from here were developed independently in Korea including all the related technologies. Unless the vehicle was developed independently, there is no reason for GM to export from here, when they can cover production from the U.S.," an industry official said.
"Also GM is building several EV plants in the U.S. that can cover global demand, so there is no reason for GM to allocate EV production here with high shipping costs back to the U.S., and as the Korean market has low demand for EVs as most current sales rely heavily on government subsidies."
According to GM Korea's union, Kiefer is scheduled to visit the plant in Bupyeong District, Incheon, Tuesday, and the plants in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, and Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, Wednesday. On Thursday, he will meet with executives from the Korea Development Bank (KDB), the second-largest shareholder of the firm, along with government officials.