GM says China ‘at heart’ of NEV strategy

General Motors Co’s (GM) China unit will sell a “substantial portion” of the automaker’s future electric vehicles, GM China President Matt Tsien said on Wednesday.

“China is at the heart of our electrification strategy,” Tsien said in a briefing at GM headquarters in Detroit. He did not say which GM brands would sell electric vehicles in China.

But Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said at the Detroit auto show the luxury brand “will play a central role” in GM’s electrification strategy, including China.

The broader electrification strategy, detailed in mid-November by Chief Executive Mary Barra, includes the introduction in 2021 of a new dedicated electric vehicle architecture and an advanced battery system, which will support the development of at least 20 new models in the US and China.

GM has a long way to go to reach Barra’s lofty target.

Last year, GM China and local partners sold 4 million vehicles, about 40 percent of the automaker’s global tally, but only 11,000 were pure electric vehicles, sold under GM’s local Baojun brand.

The automaker sold about 50,000 pure electric vehicles worldwide in 2017, most of them the Chevrolet Bolt EV, or about 0.5 percent of its global sales.

Tsien said plug-in electric vehicles, including hybrids, are expected to account for about 20 percent of the industry’s projected 35 million vehicle sales in China in 2025.