China’s best-selling EV last year was the newly introduced Hong Guang MINI EV, which is produced by General Motors and its Chinese partner Wuling. This year, some projections suggest that the automaker might sell as many as 400,000 units of the car.
One of the biggest appeals of the little EV is its price, as it sells for the equivalent of just over $4,000 USD. This, however, means that there isn’t much room for profit. In fact, China’s Xcar reports that GM and Wuling make a profit of 89 Yuan on each example they sell. At today’s exchange rates, that’s the equivalent of just $13.73 USD.
Despite the low profit, GM and Wuling are unlikely to be too frustrated. First of all, if they indeed sell 400,000 vehicles, that amounts to nearly $5.5 million, which though not massive on the scales that GM operates, is still nothing to sniff at.
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More importantly, though, GM is borrowing a trick from Tesla. It may well be that any profits GM and Wuling make on the sale of the Hong Guang MINI EV is just gravy on top. The companies may be looking to sell the car for the valuable positive energy points it can net them.
Like in the U.S., Chinese automakers get credits for the green cars they sell and lose them for their polluting cars. Any leftover positive credits they have at the end of the year can be sold to other manufacturers. Xcar reports that each credit is worth about 3,000 yuan ($462 USD) and every Hong Guang MINI EV is worth two positive points for GM and Wuling, so maybe the little EV’s worth to them isn’t so little after all.
Introduced last summer, the Hong Guang MINI EV features a 17.4 hp (13 kW) electric motor and either a 9.2 kWh or a 13.8 kWh battery. With the smaller battery, it’s capable of 120 km (75 miles) of range and with the larger, it can travel up to 170 km (110 miles) on a charge. Finally, it has a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).
