GM thinks its newest Starlight L PHEV SUV could be China’s best value hybrid, offering 260 km (~160 miles) of all-electric range, spacious six-passenger seating, and a modern technology package at an affordable price. And it’s exactly the kind of vehicle that the company could try to rebadge for North America
The newest flagship of the joint SAIC-GM Wuling brand, the Starlight L PHEV offers Chinese buyers a pure EV-like driving range with an ICE backup. Not the most popular kind of vehicle in that market, but with the rapidly increasing popularity of plug-in hybrids in North America, Canada’s relaxed stance on Chinese imports, and GM’s lack of full-sized PHEVs on this side of the Pacific, it seems like an easy, low-risk experiment for GM with plenty of upside.
To see what kind of a fit this new GM PHEV might be for North America, let’s take a look at the machine itself.
The headline spec isn’t the 106 hp 1.5-liter Atkinson-cycle ICE or even the electric drive motor that combine for a respectable 170 kW (~230 hp). Instead, it’s the Starlight L PHEV’s (relatively) massive 37.9 kWh LFP battery pack that offers roughly twice the capacity of a modern RAV4 Prime from Toyota and that’s about the same size as the batteries in the first-gen Nissan LEAF.
