AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/10 Report--

General Motors announced on March 9 that Cadillac cancelled its plan to launch its first all-electric crossover, the Lyriq, in Los Angeles on April 2, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, and reevaluated the Lyriq model. At present, Cadillac has not yet announced the specific date of the new press conference.

Last week, at GM's "EV Day" in Warren, Michigan, GM showed off for the first time its modular drive system and a third-generation global electric vehicle platform with Ultium batteries. According to GM, the platform will be used in all its electric cars in the next few years, and the Lyriq is the first model with the new module's all-electric architecture and Ultium battery pack, which is expected to go on sale in China in 2021.

At the EV Day event, the company showed an early version of the Lyriq, which shows the roof of the Lyriq slipping from the B-pillar to the rear, somewhat similar to the range Rover star vein. The car is equipped with a 34-inch large screen, electric doors, long wheelbase and a large number of high-end materials, but no details of the car have been released.

In addition to the Cadillac Lyriq, nine models based on the BEV3 platform include the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, the GMC Hummer pure electric, the GMC Hummer EV SUT, the Chevrolet medium-sized EUV, two Buick all-electric SUV, the Cadillac Celistiq and the Chevrolet pure electric truck.

Electrification and automation are the inevitable trend of the development of the automobile industry. Although Tesla has not yet made a profit, his models are highly sought after by the market. GM plans to launch a number of all-electric models in an effort to show that the 110-year-old carmaker can compete with Tesla.

But the transformation also has to pay an important price, and the frontier investment is a huge amount. In recent years, GM has been frantically slimming down, cutting off non-core brands, pulling out of the unnecessary car market, laying off workers and closing factories, even thinking that drastic actions have led to employee strikes.

After slimming down, GM focused on the American market and the Chinese market. GM has always had high hopes for the Chinese market, which replaced the US market as GM's largest single market in the world in 2014.

As the world's largest automobile market and the largest new energy vehicle market, the Chinese market has played an important role in the development of General Motors. However, GM's performance in the Chinese market has been somewhat unsatisfactory in the past two years, with GM's sales in China falling 15 per cent to 3.09 million vehicles last year, the second consecutive year of year-on-year decline. Falling sales led to a return on equity in GM's joint venture in China last year of just $1.132 billion, down 42.8 per cent from a year earlier.

In addition to the overall sales downturn caused by the car market, GM's own criticism has also led to a decline in sales, the biggest of which is the installation of three-cylinder engines in a number of models.

Three-cylinder engine is a solution to reduce power consumption and emissions. Buick Ankora, Chevrolet Chuangjie and other models launched in the second half of last year are all equipped with three-cylinder engine. Because of the three-cylinder engine, GM is not popular with consumers in the market, resulting in a decline in sales of the Buick and Chevrolet brands.

Of course, GM is aware of the problem. Qian Huikang, president of GM China, said that he is still full of confidence in the three-cylinder engine technology, and that the three-cylinder engine still has great advantages in terms of fuel consumption and power output. However, many consumers have some concerns about the three-cylinder engine, so the option of four-cylinder engine will be added to some models in the future to provide consumers with a richer product portfolio and more choice.

General Motors is also having a hard time entering 2020. According to sales figures released by SAIC, sales in China in February were 7612, down 92.17 per cent from 97177 in the same period last year, and 133076 this year, down 52.07 per cent from 277674 last year.

GM is also in a critical position in the U. S. market. The epidemic is spreading in the United States, with a total of 717 cases of pneumonia infected by novel coronavirus as of March 9, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. GM's domestic and international business trips, which began on Friday, "need to be approved by senior leaders."

Affected by the epidemic, GM shares fell as much as 13.94% on Monday to close at $24.69, the lowest since 2012 and currently has a market capitalization of 35.282 billion yuan.

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