GM will make next electric car in Korea; expected to be bigger than Spark EV

GM reportedly will produce next-generation electric vehicles in South Korea, alongside the Chevrolet SparkEV (pictured), due to arrive in American showrooms by summer, and later this year in Europe. The Spark EV also will be available for fleets in Canada.

GM Korea honcho Sergio Rocha told journalists at the Seoul Auto Show, now underway, that the new electric will be an entirely new design and will be a bit larger than the current Spark. Also, it will be an EV-specific design, not a gas-to-electric model, and GM's first dedicated EV since the bullet-shaped EV1, whose demise was well-documented in the 2006 film Who Killed the Electric Car? GM has vaguely mentioned plans for two other new EVs, one with a 100-mile range, another with 200. Stay tuned to find out which one will be produced first. Whichever it is, the lithium-ion batteries will be from LG Chem, according toReuters.

GM Korea makes more than 40 percent of Chevrolet's smaller models at its Bupyeong plant, including Aveo, which is no longer sold in the US, and Malibu, which is.



Source: Autoblog Green