GM to Make Hybrid in China in 2008

Filed in archive News on December 25, 2007

General Motors is set to begin production next year of a hybrid car in China. The automaker hopes to be able to roll of the new vehicle in time for the Beijing Olympics in August, GM said on Wednesday.

CNBC reported that Shanghai GMand SAIC Motor in Shanghai "will disclose details closer to the undisclosed model's launch, a spokesman for GM Asia-Pacific said."

China's current market for hybrid vehicles, in the words of blogger Alysha Webb, is "tiny" and there are no government incentives at the moment for consumers in China to look toward hybrids. But there is a big push toward green technology in other sectors of the economy. Webb says that the Toyota Prius is the only hybrid assembled in China and it sold only 2,000 in 2006.

Because the biggest obstacle to hybrid sales inside China is their cost, government incentives that brought down those costs could would create a demand for hybrids.