Electric vehicle startup Bordrin Motors will launch output of its first product, an electric crossover, at FAW Xiali Automobile Co. in the north China port city of Tianjin before the end of the year.
The electric crossover, the iV6, will go on sale in the first quarter of next year, Bordrin said.
Production of the vehicle will be carried out by a joint venture to be established between Bordrin and FAW Xiali, according to an agreement the two sides finalized last week.
The 2.54 billion-yuan ($356.7 million) partnership will be 80.1 percent owned by Bordrin. FAW Xiali, a car subsidiary of state-owned Chinese automaker FAW Group Corp., will hold the remaining 19.9 percent interest.
The deal will enable Bordrin to clear regulatory oversight in China for EV output. It will also benefit FAW Xiali after the company idled much of its production capacity in early 2018 due to limited sales and heavy losses.
The Bordrin iV6, unveiled at the Shanghai auto show in April, has a range of more than 530 kilometers on one charge.
Bordrin was founded by former Ford senior engineer Ximing Huang in Shanghai in 2016.
In 2018, the EV startup announced plans to build a factory in Shanghai’s Lingang area, where Tesla Inc. is now constructing a major assembly plant. The Lingang factory will start output sometime in 2020, according to Bordrin.
FAW Xiali, with annual production capacity of 400,000 vehicles, only assembled 21,600 vehicles and delivered 18,800 vehicles in 2018, according to China Passenger Car Alliance, a Shanghai-based consultancy.
