SAIC-GM-Wuling is aiming for annual sales of one million new energy vehicles (NEVs) as early as 2023. To achieve this, the Chinese joint venture also wants to invest heavily in development and also its own battery plant in China.
SAIC-GM-Wuling manufactures the Hongguang Mini EV, which is very popular in China, and has sold a total of 800,000 NEVs so far, 452,238 of them in 2021. The new sales target of one million NEVs in 2023 would thus correspond to more than a doubling compared to 2021.
The most important model here is the Mini EV; cumulative sales of the electric small car exceeded 550,000 units at the end of last year. A new top version was announced in September 2021.
In addition, the even smaller Nano EV model was presented in November, which is another 42 centimetres shorter. Wuling hopes, however, that the Nano EV will have a similar impact as the Mini EV, which led the NEV statistics in China for months in the 2021 models. The Nano EV borrows technology from that best-seller – both are based on the company’s Global Small Electric Vehicle (GSEV) architecture.
SAIC-GM-Wuling plans to step up its efforts in core technologies such as batteries, motors and electric control systems. The company is planning a battery production facility with an annual capacity of 20 GWh for battery systems and 20 GWh for battery cells.
Further details on the planned production facilities are not yet known, but they are likely to be built in the immediate vicinity of the headquarters. Wuling – whose full name is Liuzhou Wuling Automobile – is based in the city of Liuzhou in the autonomous region of Guangxi in southern China near the border with Vietnam.
Keyword: SAIC-GM-Wuling aims to double NEV sales