GM will launch the Chevrolet Volt in China in 2010 - one year after its launch in the united States.

GM’s plan to launch a car like the Volt in China means that the car giant sees China as a very important market. China, in fact, will be among the first among the global markets to offer the Chevy Volt.

The Volt is a different kind of hybrid in that its drive unit is not hybrid - its pure electric. A separate gas engine is there, but it comes into play only when the batterry runs out of juice - then it turns on charges the battery and the final drive is still electric. The engine is purely for charging the lithium-ion battery pack consisting of 220 battery cells that can store up to 16 kilowatt-hours of electric power.

The battery will provide power to a 111-kilowatt electrical drive unit that will produce 150 horsepower and 273 foot-pounds of torque, allowing the Volt to reach a maximum speed of 100 miles per hour.  The Volt can be recharged in about eight hours using a standard 120-volt outlet or in less than 3 hours using a 240-volt outlet.

This means that for those with short driving requirements, the Volt never uses its gas engine. It operates as a traditional battery-electric vehicle with a driving range of about 64 km.  If it need sto go further on, the small engine will automatically kick in to supply the electricity to recharge the battery and keep the vehicle moving.

As part of the centennial birthday, the car giant also kick-started work on its GM China and Asia Pacific campus at Pudong in Shanghai. The China campus is estimated to come up on an investment of $250 million. GM belives that the introduction of the Volt in China along with the start of work for its Shanghai campus is a step forward toward the role it expects to play in China for years to come. It is expected that China will play a major role in General Motors Corp’s global strategies forward.