Rejoice, For Springo Is Here
Published: November 12th, 2012
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Our other man in China, (the Dutchman, not Bertel) has some spy shots of a new General Motors EV. It looks like a Chevrolet Sail, but may not be dubbed as such.
The mystery EV in question appears to wear “Springo” badges, and this would have some precedent, according to Tycho from Carnewschina
“When the ‘Sail EV’ debuted as a concept on the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show it had a new S-shaped logo on the bonnet, leading the intense speculation that Shanghai-GM was planning a green-energy brand.”
More by Derek Kreindler
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Most sources seem to be referring to this as a "Chevrolet Springo". Could be that Shanghai GM is following the lead of Japanese and Korean luxury cars (and many old American personal luxury coupes) and just giving this model a unique badge, but not a unique brand. But, then, in China, branding strategy often stops at designing a new badge, so who knows. Shanghai GM is only required to introduce one domestic brand, which they've done with Baojun, but nothing says they can't have a second.
Being that SAIC days ago introduced the Roewe E50 EV, I'm wondering if this Springo/Sail EV also uses the A123 battery. The other option is LG Chem, which supplies the Volt, and which is planning on a new Nanjing factory (haven't heard anything new since it was announced last year). The Chinese EV market seems to have kinda sputtered away even with all the big talk a few years ago. The Roewe E50, at 234k yuan, has incredibly low sales targets of 1,000 cars. Can't imagine this car doing much better. There seems to be a massive overcapacity of EV battery factories around the world right now. Last year, LG Chem alone expected EV battery demand to hit 350,000 by 2013 and built capacity to match. Its absolute madness.