Nikkei reported that SAIC-GM-Wuling Hongguang MINI EV is about to enter the Japanese market. This model began market research in March this year, and will be sold by Apatech Motors, a Japanese electric vehicle dealer and leasing company, and is expected to be released to the Japanese market next spring.
Wuling Hongguang, known as the “substitute for scooters”, went on sale in July 2020 and has been China’s No. 1 electric vehicle in sales for 25 consecutive months until September. Hongguang Mini EV has been exported to the European market.
According to reports, Hongguang Mini EV plans to be released in Japan at a starting price of 650,000 yen, or about 31,980 CNY.
That price is less than half the price of a Japanese-made minicar, said Sun Feng, president of Tokyo-based Apatech Motors. The company was hired to do market research for SAIC-GM-Wuling.
According to SAIC-GM-Wuling production and sales data, the cumulative production and sales from January to September reached 1.154 million units and 1.076 million units respectively, up 10.2% and 2.4% year-on-year. Among them, the production and sales in September were 182,000 units and 164,000 units, an increase of 29.8% and 9.5% year-on-year. In the first three quarters, SAIC-GM-Wuling’s cumulative output value reached 63.97 billion CNY.
Wuling Motors said that from January to September, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV continued to top the sales list, with sales of 364,500 units, ranking first in China’s new energy pure electric car sales for 25 consecutive months. Wuling also proposed a “one-two-five” strategy, in which hybrid products should reach the million-vehicle level.
