China - Volkswagen is set to build a new plant for the production of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as part of its joint venture with local Chinese OEM Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC). The plant will cost around 5.06 billion yuan (US$750.8m) and will be located in eastern Hefei city. It will have an annual output of 100,000 units.
Information of these plans was included in a document posted online by the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Area. It revealed that the two companies have obtained permission from environmental authorities to start construction.
According to a Reuters report, VW has confirmed the plans and said that the JAC-VW joint venture will soon launch its first model, titled the E20X. A pre-production version of the model was first shown at the Beijing Motor Show in April 2018.
VW has promised to launch 14 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China during 2019. This, it says, will be a key part of its plans to produce 22m EVs in the next ten years, over half of which are to be built in China. As well as working with JAC, the German has started building a $2.5bn NEV plant in Shanghai with SAIC.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) predicts that NEV sales could hit 1.6m units this year.