In May, General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab marked a rare milestone for a foreign automaker in China, selling more than 10,000 of its new Buick Electra E7 in the first month.
While the nameplate is all-American, everything else about the car is Chinese — it was developed entirely at the technical centre GM runs with local partner SAIC (600104.SS).
GM plans to export the car to South Korea and use its China-built ‌platform in the next iteration of the Cadillac Optiq, said a person with direct knowledge of the plans, which are reported here for the first time.
For years, global automakers used China as a low-cost manufacturing base to churn out cars developed at headquarters. Now, GM, Volkswagen (VOWG.DE), opens new tab and Renault (RENA.PA), opens new tab are handing development to Chinese engineers, leveraging the country's growing advantage in critical technology such as electric powertrains and advanced software.
China teams are getting more autonomy, too. As a result, headquarters no longer call all the shots, said Zhu Yulong, a former GM engineer in China and now an independent auto analyst. (....)