GM's Chinese Plug-Ins - How are they doing?

Everyone knows the Bolt and Volt. They're major players here in North America but not so much globally. And global EV sales will probably outpace NA EV sales for quite some time.

China in particular will be a big market for electric vehicle manufacturers. But china has some strict protectionist laws regarding foreign automakers. Foreign automakers must form unique partnerships with Chinese manufacturers, and China's recent restrictions on foreign made battery sourcing means creative use of Chinese partnerships are required.

LG Chem sourced batteries were denied subsidies in China last year. As a result, the Bolt likely could not qualify for subsidies due to the deeply rooted LG-GM partnership. (That is probably why GM announced a new battery factory for China last summer.)

In the mean time, over the past year or two GM brands have launched 2 PHEVs and 1 BEV in China under their Buick, Cadillac and Baojun brands. How did they fare last year?

I was surprised to learn that GM's best selling EV in December was not the Bolt... but the Baojun E100 at 5,545 units!

Never heard of it? Completely forgot about it? You probably aren't alone. https://insideevs.com/gms-baojun-e100-surges-to-1700-sales-in-china-for-october/

Baojun E100 is the right car for the right market. And thanks to subsidies it is at a price that is unbelievably low. For the year, GM sold roughly 14,500 EVs in China. But the little Baojun E100 was only sold at high volumes for about 5 months. And the Buick and Cadillac models are very expensive compared to the other top selling EVs in China.

Baojun E100 - 11,420 (source)
Buick Velite - 1,629 (source)
Cadillac CT6 - estimated 2,000 (source)

I wonder if the E100 will from here on out be GM's volume leader in EV sales and if the car will ever expand out of China. There are a lot of regions (in Asia specifically) where I think the E100 would thrive.

Combined with Bolt/Volt/Ampera-e sales, that makes for ~70,000 EV/Plug-In sales for the year. Not too shabby, although still far behind the world leaders in EV sales.

If GM continues to sell the E100 at numbers between 2,000 and 5,000 a month... I think the little 2 seater has a chance to become GMs highest selling Plug-In model for 2018.

 

Oh, one more other interesting tid-bit of info about the E100.

"Tsien said GM is off to a good start with an electric battery car that it launched in July. The car, called the Baojun E100, is undergoing a feasibility study of a direct-sale method GM devised for it and is currently available only in the south China city of Liuzhou where GM’s three-way joint venture produces them."

No dealerships to worry about with this little car. No sales person needs to be convinced to sell it over a more expensive model. This is probably contributes to the lower price. (About $5,000 after subsidy. $14,000 without subsidy)