GM Doubles EV Plans for China

General Motors Co. plans to launch 10 electrified vehicles in China from 2021 to 2023, equaling the number the carmaker expects to introduce there by 2020.

The vehicles will enable GM to meet China’s sales quotas for so-called new-energy vehicles without having to buy credits from other companies. The quotas mandate that at least 10% of a carmaker’s sales in China come from hybrids, EVs or fuel cell vehicles by 2019 and rises to 12% of sales in 2020.

GM introduced its first all-electric model in China, the Baojun E100, last summer. As with GM’s first wave of hybrids and all-electric vehicles in China, the next-generation models will be produced locally through the carmaker’s existing joint ventures, Matt Tsien, who heads GM China, tells reporters in Shanghai.

Foreign carmakers producing vehicles in China have been required to do so through joint ventures in which local partners had at least a 50% stake. China is eliminating those restrictions for makers of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles this year, followed by all commercial vehicles in 2020 and all passenger cars in 2022.