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General Motors To Start Producing A Battery-Electric Vehicle In China Within Two Years

General Motors is slated to start production of a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) in China within two years, GM China President Matt Tsien said today at the Shanghai Auto Show. The automaker plans to roll out ten or more new electrified vehicles in the country by 2020.

“In the next several years, out to 2020, we expect to launch at least 10 new-energy vehicles into the marketplace,” said Mr. Tsien, according to the Associated Press. “We have a pipeline that is going to materialize, that’s going to put us in a very good position from a fuel economy requirement perspective.”

Automotive News suggests that GM’s new battery plant in Shanghai could help support the automaker’s ambitious electrified-vehicle goals in China. The plant should be ready to start delivering battery packs next year, the outlet says.

General Motors’ accelerated electrification plans in the market come largely as a response to government pressure. Regulators have proposed requiring 8 percent of all new-vehicle sales in China to be of electrified vehicles by 2018, increasing to 10 percent by the following year – although those quotas might be retracted. The government is also planning to enforce some of the most stringent emissions regulations in the world.

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.

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Comments

  1. The assembly and sale of BEVs in China is an indirect blessing to U.S. domestic sales, because as GM gains experience and lowers manufacturing cost for that market, those same savings will apply domestically. An example is the Chevy Spark which is now the lowest cost four door-five seat compact in the GM lineup, because it is manufactured and sold worldwide.

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  2. I find this news saddening, Raymond. Volt designed and built in Michigan with American labor. Bolt designed at GM-Korea and built in Michigan with American labor. Unless these future electric cars, designed in China, are built in America with American labor, I can see them being Trumptaxed. That added cost will make those cars much less attractive to prospective buyers.

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    1. GM has a bigger plug-in market in China than in the U.S. because many here will not buy a plug-in hybrid to save gas and the environment. China has environmental problems that the U.S. had in the past, so they need these cleaner vehicles, and GM-SAIC will comply.

      If more domestic drivers think more “green” then GM can make them here. But even if these new plug-ins are assembled in China, they are still “American” because they are “American” designed and “American” branded. The income and profits will be shared between GM here and SAIC there. The assembly cost per car is only in the hundreds of dollars. The brand always gets the most money. A foriegn plant in the U.S. will not help the domestic car market at all. Every auto worker in a foreign plant has sold their souls to the foreigners.

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