Later this year, General Motors Company [NYSE:GM] will start selling in the United States its Buick Envision crossover, which the automaker will source from a plant in China. According to Bloomberg, it will soon be joined in GM’s American showrooms by a second vehicle sourced from China: the Cadillac CT6 PHEV plug-in hybrid sedan.
GM is yet to confirm the news but Cadillac marketing chief Uwe Ellinghaus did concede that the CT6 PHEV will be built exclusively in China where the government is toughening emissions regulations in an effort to curb pollution. While gasoline-only versions of the CT6 will be built in the U.S., expected volumes for the plug-in hybrid are likely too low to justify local production.
The CT6 PHEV made its world debut at the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show. The vehicle pairs a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with a pair of electric motors for a combined output of 335 horsepower and 432 pound-feet of torque. Powering the electric motors is an 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that’s said to provide more than 37 miles of range.
Should the Chinese-built Cadillac end up here, it will mean that GM views its Chinese plants as having the quality necessary for the brand’s most premium models. It means we could see more models sourced from China where production costs are lower than in the U.S., since one of the biggest hurdles in past times has been quality concerns.
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