China: SAIC-GM & CATL forge new battery alliance
General Motor’s joint venture in China, SAIC-GM agreed a cooperation with battery giant CATL. They aim to deepen cooperation in R&D for GM’s next battery technology for new energy vehicles in China. The move is a necessary one for GM.
Usually General Motors receives batteries for its electric cars from LG Chem. However, if they want to be eligible for NEV subsidies in China, they need to cooperate with a local battery company – CATL in this case.
A previous cooperation with A123 Systems had failed. Their batteries did not meet GM’s internal performance and safety standards during testing. Hence, the planned launch of the Buick Velite 6 PHEV and the fully-electric version planned for the start of next year have had to be postponed in China (we reported).
The cooperation with CATL regards research and development mainly but also improvements in innovation and sustainability processes.
SAIC-GM want to launch ten new energy vehicle models by 2020 in China and aim to sell 100,000 units in that same year.
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