SAIC-GM-Wuling responds to China’s three-child policy with plan to launching 9-seater vehicle

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), a joint venture between General Motors and two Chinese automakers, announced on June 3 it is about to launch an all-new nine-seater vehicle model to meet the future travelling demands from larger families, appearing to be the first car manufacturer respond directly to China's three-child policy by releasing a new product.

Photo credit: SGMW

According to a posting on SGMW's WeChat account, the yet-to-be-launched model will adopt a 2+2+2+3 seating arrangement to enhance the space utilization, and features a sliding side door to facilitate passengers in getting into/out the vehicle.

The joint venture teased the new 9-seater minivan after China unveiled on May 31 a policy that would allow all married couples to have up to three children, in place of the current universal two-child policy, in order to cope with an increasingly aging society that presents many social and economic challenges.

The policy will come with “supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an ageing population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources", according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2015, replacing it with a two-child limit, which still failed to lead to a sustained growth in births after a temporary upsurge in 2016. Last year, only 12 million babies were born in China, the lowest level since 1961, according to a once-in-a-decade census released last month.