GM intends to do something never done before; export cars from China to the U.S. Chinese automakers have long had the goal of selling their cars in the U.S. but repeatedly came up embarrassingly short in the crash test arena. GM plans pre-empt them by introducing a line in the mini-car segment, comparable to the Volkswagen Up or the Tata Nano, both of which will be brought to U.S. dealers this year.

In a no-holds-barred effort to achieve sustainability through aggressive restructuring, GM predicts that it will save billions in production costs by using its vast manufacturing complex in China to build cars there and export them to the U.S. This move would put over 17,000 cars on U.S. lots by 2011 and reverse a covenant it had made to auto unions to first serve the market in China before supplying cars to the U.S.

Any allowances which GM was able to win from auto trade unions to help them restructure will be in jeopardy as a result of its plan to export these units built by Chinese labor. The gamble GM is taking underscores its desperation as it reaches out to formulate a restructuring plan which will prevent the automaker from following Chrysler LLC as the next candidate for bankruptcy protection.