GM Wraps Up Shanghai Expo Presence

The honeymoon American manufacturer GM had with its Chinese partner SAIC at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is about to end, after for some six months no less than 2.2 million visitors came by to visit.

To mark the end of their first joint exhibition, GM and SAIC will create a time capsule, containing a SAIC-GM Pavilion brochure (Freedom of Mobility Brings People Closer Together) pavilion videos and a T-shirt on which the visitors wrote whatever they felt like writing over these past months.

GM and SAIC plan to reopen the time capsule 20 years from now. By then, GM probably hopes it will come to rule China, if possible without SAIC, and the outer space, through the soon-to-launched-on-orbit Robonaut 2. That is if another 2009-like hick-up won't send the carmaker to the history books.

“Over the past six months at World Expo 2010 Shanghai, GM has defined for many the direction of the automotive industry,” Kevin Wale, GM China president said. “We have shown the world the possibilities of a greener, safer, and more convenient society in which the automobile and General Motors will continue to play an important role.”

The two carmakers announced their joint display back in April. Their pavilion included Pre-Show, Main Show and Post-Show areas, filled with the best tech made or coming from the two, including the EN-V tiny little personal transporter, the YeZ breathing car and the Shell car/bedroom/office/gym.

The joint pavilion managed to impress, as the setup received six Expo Oscars at the Expo Oscar Awards Ceremony, ranked first among corporate pavilions on Tencent’s Expo Award List and voted one of the Pavilions with the Greatest Impact on the Future by East China Normal University.