Hefei, the provincial capital of east China’s Anhui province, will become the third Chinese city to host a plant for Volkswagen Group’s electric vehicles developed on a new EV platform MEB.
Production of MEB-based EVs at a joint venture with Jianghuai Automobile Co. will begin in 2023, VW Group China said this week.
The joint venture will start expanding an existing EV plant next year.
With the expansion, which is due to be completed at the end of 2022, the annual production capacity at the site will rise to 350,000 vehicles.
VW Group and JAC this week also unveiled an r&d center at the joint venture in Hefei. The center will employ some 500 people by 2025, according to VW Group China.
VW Group didn’t disclose details on products to be built at the Hefei plant.
The German group also runs China joint ventures with SAIC Motor Corp. and FAW Group Corp.
VW Group China said last month that production of the first MBE-based product for sale in China, the ID4 electric crossover, began at SAIC-VW’s Shanghai plant and FAW-VW’s factory in the south China city of Foshan. The two plants can each produce up to 300,000 vehicles a year.