GM showed off new, colorful versions of its tiny sub-$6,000 electric cars that outsell Teslas in China. Take a look.
- General Motors has released a new range for its best-selling Hong Guang Mini EV in China.
- The car now comes in three pastel shades, and the Mini EV Cabrio convertible is planned for 2022.
- Sales of the Mini EV were reportedly nearly double that of Tesla's Model 3 in China during January.
General Motors (GM) has released new, colorful versions of China's best-selling electric car, the tiny Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV.
State-backed SAIC-GM-Wuling, a company partly owned by GM, on Monday showed off models of the Mini EV Macaron, which is 115 inches, or 9.6 feet, long, and comes in three pastel colors: yellow, pink and green.
It's available to buy in China now for between $5,775 and $6,700. The regular Mini EV costs $4,400.
The model has extra safety features compared to the regular Mini EV, including a sound that plays when it travels at low speed to warn nearby pedestrians.
It can reach a top speed of 63 mph and travel up to 105 miles per charge, CNN reported.
SAIC-GM-Wuling also unveiled a new convertible version, the Mini EV Cabrio, which will start production in 2022. It doesn't yet have a price.
China is the world's largest car market. Demand for electric vehicles surged last year, and the region made up more than a fifth of Tesla's revenue. Chinese EV start-up Nio said its sales doubled in 2020.
GM said that 270,000 Hong Guang Mini EVs had been sold since its July 2020 release, in part thanks to its modest $4,400 starting price. It is outselling Tesla's Model 3 by nearly two to one, the BBC reported.
The cheapest version of Tesla's Model 3 sells for $39,000, more than eight times the price of the Mini EV. Still, Tesla doubled its China sales to $6.66 billion in 2020.