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Cadillac Jinqiao, Pudong, Shanghai, China Plant

The Cadillac China manufacturing facility, otherwise known as Cadillac Jinqiao or Shanghai-GM Jinqiao, is located in the town of Jinqiao, Pudong, Shanghai, China. It currently produces various Cadillac and Buick vehicles for the Chinese automotive market.

Quick Facts

  • Opened: January 21st, 2016
  • Operations:
    • Body shop
    • Paint shop
    • General assembly
    • High-speed test track
    • Auxiliary facilities
  • Facility size: 477,000 square meters (approximately 5,134,385 square feet)
  • Annual production capacity: 160,000 vehicles

Products

The Cadillac Jinqiao factory produces the following vehicles for the Chinese market:

Overview

The Cadillac Jinqiao factory was built specifically to produce Cadillacs in China for the Chinese market, representing the first facility outside North America to be able to completely build Cadillac models.

Prior to its construction, most Cadillac vehicles were produced in North America and exported to China. This practice resulted in imported Cadillac vehicles being levied with significant import tariffs in the 30 percent range, increasing their price to levels that most Chinese luxury car buyers did not feel was worth paying. And so, as General Motors set out to grow the Cadillac brand globally, it embarked on building Cadillacs in China for China.

Located in the Jinqiao area of Shanghai, China, the plant is near the corporate headquarters of SAIC-GM, GM’s primary joint venture in China. The plant opened on January 21st, 2016 and the then-new Cadillac CT6 full-size prestige-luxury sedan was the first car to be produced at the plant. The vehicle was officially introduced in China on January 27.

GM-Cadillac Jinqiao Shanghai China Factory Plant 005 CT6 on line

2016 Cadillac CT6 at GM-Cadillac Jinqiao plant

The 477,000 square-meter plant is the result of an RMB 8 billion ($1.22 billion USD) investment. According to GM, the flexible and intelligent state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will “support the growth of the Cadillac luxury brand in China while strengthening GM’s overall industry position.”

The facility has a planned annual capacity of 160,000 units and includes a body shop, paint shop,  general assembly shop, a high-speed test track and auxiliary facilities. The plant’s three shops use various advanced manufacturing technologies and processes:

  • Body Shop: the body shop is the first in China that is capable of manufacturing all-aluminum bodies. It consists of two fully, 100 percent automated production lines – one steel and the other aluminum – with 386 robots. In doing so, it is the first in China to achieve 100 percent welding automation. The shop has adopted GM’s patented mixed material welding technologies that include resistance spot welding of aluminum (a global first on the Cadillac CT6), laser brazing of aluminum (a Chinese industry first), which improves the structural strength of a vehicles 20 percent. What’s more, extensive use of the industry-leading cold body connection process uses self-tapping screws and self-pierce rivets. Specifically, the self-pierce riveting technology enables the high-strength connection of different materials without generating smoke and heat.
  • Paint Shop: the paint shop utilizes robots to fully apply paint and coating. World-leading technologies and processes, including membrane pretreatment, electrophoretic coating with high throwing power, second color coating and transparent color coating, providing a translucent finish that showcases the ultimate luxury of Cadillac vehicles.
  • General Assembly Shop: the highly flexible and intelligent general assembly shop supports the production of up to seven models simultaneously. The world-class digital assembly facility has incorporated the industry-leading Internet of Things system, which can monitor torque information for every key fastening point.
GM-Cadillac Jinqiao Shanghai China Factory Plant 010 body shop robots

Body shop robots at GM-Cadillac Jinqiao plant

The Jinqiao Cadillac China plant serves as a “green” benchmark for vehicle manufacturing globally:

  • The paint shop is the only facility of its kind in China without a concrete chimney. The environmentally-friendly spray booth exhaust treatment system and dry venturi scrubbers make the shop nearly 300 percent cleaner than conventional paint shops, with significantly reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and power consumption.
  • The general assembly shop introduced an industry-leading automatic exhaust collection and pumping system that substantially increases exhaust collection. In addition, parts in the general assembly shop are distributed on automatic guided carts (AGC).
  • The highly flexible and intelligent general assembly shop supports the production of up to seven models simultaneously.

Investments

The GM-Cadillac Jinqiao plant was built with an investment of RMB 8 billion ($1.22 billion USD).

Pictures

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