J'ai trouvé une autre déclaration de Duke HALE (qui était hier à un salon automobile à DETROIT), déclaration transmise aujourd'hui par l'agence REUTERS :
"les américains sont prêts à acheter des voitures chinoises". Il affirme que la NAC pénétrera plus rapidement le marché américain que les japonais ou les coréens dans le passé...et pense en gros qu'il sera décisif d'être le premier constructeur chinois à vendre des voitures aux U.S.A. pour se partager le marché. A la fin il parle d'une qualité raisonnable par rapport au marché, qualité inférieure à Lexus
...etc
Duke Hale (07/2006)
MG exec says U.S. ready for Chinese cars
Reuters / September 12, 2006 - 9:00 am
DETROIT -- A top executive with the Chinese automaker that hopes to reintroduce the MG sports car said he was confident Chinese-made vehicles will penetrate the U.S. market more rapidly than the Japanese and Korean cars that preceded them.
Duke Hale, chief executive of MG Cars North America, which is backed by China's Nanjing Automobile Corp., also said his company was keen to beat Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Chery Automobile Co., two rival Chinese automakers, to the U.S. market because "being the first mover makes a difference.
"If you talk about who was the first mover among the Japanese," Hale said Monday, Sept. 11, at the Reuters Auto Summit, "and then if you talk about that with Koreans, I think you'll find that first mover has a direct correlation with share in the marketplace."
In a move that surprised many observers, Nanjing said it hopes to be the first Chinese carmaker to open a factory in the United States. The facility, on Chickasaw Indian land in Ardmore, Okla., is expected to begin assembling of MG coupes in 2008 using engines, transmissions and other key components made in China.
Nanjing bought the assets of MG Rover Group for about $90 million in 2005 after the automaker, once one of Britain's largest, filed for bankruptcy.
Hale said that Americans were so used to seeing the "Made in China" label on so much of what they buy these days that they would be unfazed when it begins showing up their cars.
He said he believed Chinese automakers would quickly become players at the budget-end of the North American light vehicle market, an area currently dominated by Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co.
Both Korean automakers have begun moving up-market, in search of wider profit margins and a safe haven as their cheaper Chinese rivals eye the U.S. market's budget end, Hale said.
"I think China's overall going to be a big surprise and that they'll move much faster into the market than some of the doomsayers are suggesting," Hale said. "I think they're going to be formidable."
Hale acknowledged that problems with product quality in the early days of the MG reintroduction could set Nanjing's ambitions back years, but insisted the company was taking great pains to make sure the cars it introduced were of "reasonable quality."
"I'm not suggesting we're going to bring quality into the marketplace that is equal to Lexus or Infiniti or Acura," Hale said. "But I am saying if we can bring a reasonable level of quality to the marketplace, along with creating the right experience for the customer, along with the right brand proposition, we can be successful."
SOURCE: Automotive News