Wuhan will become Shanghai GM New Energy Base

With the release of the latest batch of environmental assessment reports of the Hubei Provincial Environmental Protection Agency, the passenger car project of the Shanghai General Motors’s fourth passenger car base, the Shanghai General Motors Wuhan Branch, surfaced. The new factory will be located in Jiangxia District of Wuhan City. It is worth noting that Jiangxia is building a new energy automobile base in Wuhan, which means that the grand plan for new energy vehicles that Shanghai GM once mentioned will be used as a base for this plant.

According to the announcement, the total investment of the project is 7 billion yuan, and the total land use of the project is about 2.2 square kilometers, which is constructed in two phases. The main construction content includes: stamping, body, painting, assembly of the four major workshops and PDC warehouse (aftermarket parts distribution center), joint station and other ancillary works. After the completion of the project, an annual output of 300,000 vehicles will be produced.

Shanghai General Motors expressed no comment on the planning of the new factory. The reporter obtained information that in the entire planning of Wuhan, Jiangxia is positioned as an environmentally friendly modern equipment manufacturing base. In November last year, Wuhan's new energy vehicle base officially settled in the new area of ​​Jiangxia Bridge. Jiangxia also has a bio-power plant and the first compressed natural gas parent station exclusively for vehicles in Wuhan. In the next few years, building a new energy industry chain has become the focus of Jiangxia's development. Industry insiders pointed out that it is clear that the fourth production base Shanghai GM will invest and build in Wuhan will be a new energy base.

The project is currently in the state of approval of the construction project proposed by the Hubei Provincial Department of Environmental Protection. According to sources, the factory will be completed in 2014.

This also echoes the goal of Shanghai GM to achieve substantial breakthroughs in the new energy sector in the next five years. In August last year, Shanghai GM launched the new LaCrosse hybrid midsize sedan, which has a 20% increase in fuel economy compared to regular gasoline models.

According to the plan, in the next five years, Shanghai GM will face the transition from traditional models to new energy models. Among them, by 2014, Shanghai General Motors will use the predecessor plug-in type or strong hybrid technology equipped with the S6 six-speed gearbox on the leading models. Prior to 2015, Shanghai GM will launch a number of new energy models, including electric cars and plug-in hybrids.