Winning China Market, GM Develops Integrated Electric Car In Shanghai

JAKARTA - General Motors Co said on Monday July 5 that it is expanding its design studio in China. This is done to focus on developing integrated electric cars so that they no longer design gasoline vehicles.

The move comes as the United States' biggest automaker prepares to phase out gasoline and diesel vehicles from its fleet by 2035. They underscore its efforts to gain a greater foothold in China, the world's largest electric car market.

It also plays into GM's ambition to add recurring revenue streams from software and services long after the initial product is sold, a la Apple Inc., for example by selling electric vehicle battery charging and swapping services.

GM says it wants to surpass annual sales of 1 million electric vehicles in the United States and China by 2025.

Last month, the company said it would increase spending on electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, which cost $35 billion through 2025, up 75 percent from March 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic stifled the industry.

With new facilities and an ever-expanding team of studio employees, “We have the right organization and people to bring the most desired products to Chinese consumers,” GM China Executive Vice President and President Julian Blissett said in a statement.

The new state-of-the-art design studio, one of three worldwide to design next-generation GM vehicles, was built by redesigning an existing studio on the same campus as GM China's technology center in Shanghai.

GM says the studio has nearly doubled to 5,000 square meters, and is recruiting for an expanded design team. The company did not say how many employees it would add.

A person close to the automaker said the team currently has fewer than 40 designers, digital and physical modelers, virtual reality experts and support personnel.

GM, which sells cars in China through two joint ventures with SAIC Motor Corp. sold 170,000 electric vehicles in China last year, up from 50,000 in 2019.