GM China joint venture building $470 million green car plant

BEIJING (Reuters) - A General Motors Co joint venture in China will invest 3 billion yuan ($470 million) to build a factory dedicated to green cars, a spokeswoman said on Monday. The plant will have annual capacity to build 200,000 "new energy vehicles," a Chinese term used as a catch-all for electric and highly electrified cars, the spokeswoman said in an emailed response that did not say when the factory would be completed. SAIC-GM-Wuling, a three-way joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp Ltd and Wuling Motors Holdings Ltd, began construction of the plant on Friday in the southwestern province of Guangxi. Automakers in China are racing to build electric and hybrid cars to meet national fuel economy standards that will become increasingly strict to 2020, part of a broad effort to curb pollution that chokes many urban areas. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Susan Fenton)