Volkswagen Group began construction on a factory at its joint venture with Jianghuai Automobile Co. in the eastern city of Hefei to ramp up electric-vehicle production in China.
The plant, due to launch output in the second half of 2023, will become its third facility to build MEB-based EVs in the country, the German auto giant said last week.
The factory, covering 500,000 square meters, will produce up to 350,000 EVs annually after reaching full capacity.
Two other VW Group joint ventures – one with China FAW Group Corp. and one with SAIC Motor Corp. -- each have a plant dedicated to assembling MEB-based EVs.
The two factories, each with annual capacity of 300,000 EVs, build the MEB-based VW ID4 crossover. Output of a second MEB-based product, the ID6 crossover, will start later this year.
VW Group is the largest carmaker in China. It delivered 990,600 vehicles under various brands in the first quarter, a jump of 61 percent from the coronavirus pandemic-stricken same period last year.
The German company didn’t disclose first-quarter EV sales in China.
