Just weeks after the Chinese government scrapped its decades-old single-child policy easing the restrictions on the number of children allowed for every married couple in China, the local General Motors joint venture quickly took action announcing a vehicle with 9 seats.
In 2016, China abandoned its one-child policy introduced back in the ’70s, replacing it with a two-child limit. That change wasn’t able to fix the problem of the aging population and reverse the declining birth rates, so now there is a new three-child policy. The new rules will potentially lead to larger families, naturally generating the need for larger vehicles.
While we don’t understand why a regular 5-seater or even a proper 7-seater wouldn’t be roomy enough for a family of five, AutoNews China reports that GM is planning on offering a full 9-seater. That means three children, two parents and all four grandparents could fit in a single car.
The new model will be produced locally by the SAIC-GM-Wuling venture with a Wuling badge. As we can see from the teaser unveiled in WeChat, nine independent seats will be arranged in four rows (2+2+2+3) and two sliding doors will provide easier access to the cabin.
This layout reminds us of a passenger van and will definitely result in a quite long wheelbase. The company describes it as comfortable and touches on the easy ingress/egress feature in order to attract large families.
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The SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture based in Liuzhou is currently producing Wulling’s minibusses and Baojun’s most affordable models so we expect the 9-seater to be a budget-friendly Minivan.
We don’t have an official release date for Wuling’s 9-seater yet, but according to General Motors, we should expect it to arrive soon.
