The Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid will be manufactured in China and then imported into the US for sale there, according to a recent announcement from General Motors.
The decision was apparently the result of low expected demand for the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the CT6 luxury sedan — largely owing to (currently) very low gas prices (~$2/gallon). The conventional version of the CT6 will still be manufactured in the US, reportedly (in Detroit).
As one should be able to surmise, the CT6 PHEV will be sold in China as well as in the US — and trends suggest that sales will be much higher there than in the US market. Considering that many Americans prefer to buy American-made products when possible, it also seems likely that Cadillac CT6 PHEV sales in the US will be lowered somewhat by the decision to manufacture the model in China rather than in the US.
I suppose that some would-be buyers will just end up purchasing the American-made conventional version of the CT6 instead of the China-made PHEV version, though, won’t they?
Asia One Transport provides more:
GM’s move to sell the two Chinese-made vehicles shows that the company is confident in the quality of the products that are produced on the mainland.
“Longer term, we should see more of this because GM’s Chinese operations have every capability required to provide cars for North America,” Eric Noble, president of CarLab, a consulting firm in Orange, California, told Bloomberg. “They would import here instead of from Europe because Chinese consumer tastes align more closely to American tastes than Europe’s ever did.”
(Thanks to “Eric” on the GM Volt discussion forum for this.)