China Evergrande Group has formed a joint venture with German automotive powertrain specialist Hofer to develop electric vehicle powertrains as the leading Chinese real-estate developer seeks to expand its presence in the domestic EV sector.
The joint venture, in Stuttgart, was unveiled Tuesday as a 67-33 partnership between Evergrande Group’s health care subsidiary, Evergrande Health Industry Group, and Hofer with Hofer’s founder, Johann Hofer, as its chairman.
The joint venture will develop integrated electric drive units in Germany and carry out r&d and production in China, Evergrande Group said, without giving additional details about the partnership.
Hofer, headquartered in Nürtingen, Germany, also has offices in the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, China and the United States.
Evergrande Group, since failing to acquire domestic EV startup Faraday Future, has made several EV-related acquisitions this year via Evergrande Health Industry Group, including National Electric Vehicle Sweden, a Swedish company that bought the assets of bankrupt Saab Automobile in 2012 to build EVs on the Saab 9-3 platform; Shanghai EV battery supplier CENAT New Energy Co.; U.K. electric motor maker Protean Holdings Corp.; and Dutch electric motor manufacturer e-Traction.
In June, Evergrande Group signed framework agreements with local governments to build major EV plants in the south China city of Guangzhou and northeast China city of Shenyang.
Evergrande Group is headquartered in the south China city of Shenzhen and is listed in Hong Kong. It reported net profit of 72 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) on revenue of 466 billion yuan for 2018.
