GM to Outsource Hybrid Powertrains to China
That's not exactly how Reuters spins the news that GM and its mandatory Chinese partner (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp) have announced plans to build a hybrid vehicle in China by next year's Olympics. But you gotta give Reuters credit for sensing that selling hybrids to the Chinese market is what the Brits call a "non-starter." "Demand for hybrids is negligible in China, where fuel economy figures little in consumers' purchasing decisions,' reporter Chang-Ran Kim writes. "Hybrid cars are also expensive since the government offers no incentives on their purchase. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China. It sold just 2,000 of the Prius hybrid last year." Although the scribe reckons the Chinese hybrid is a part of GM's wider greenwashing campaign, what's the bet those Chinese-made hybrid powertrains find their way into GM's other markets?
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well this should be good for the environment. save a gallon of gas and dump a barrel of PCBs in the river.
Sorry, but your headline "GM to outsource hybrid powertrains to China" is grossly misleading. It's based on pure speculation, and no facts. This does not belong in a "news" blog. Have you considered that GM could much more easily export a few of its perfectly fine hybrid powertrains from the US to China rather than develop a new one from scratch in China?
BerettaGTZ, I looked the articles over closely, including the Reuters article and I did not see anything that said that GM was developing a new one from scratch in China. What am I missing? I see it as being manufactured in China, not developed.