Audi and FAW, China’s oldest carmaker, have started a new company to produce fully electric vehicles in northeast China, in a bid on the world’s largest car market. the world.
The 60% joint venture will be controlled by Audi and the Chinese division of its parent group, Volkswagen VOW,
the FAW 000800,
controlling 40%.
The new company, based in Changchun, is expected to be set up in the first quarter of this year, pending regulatory approval from stakeholders and China. Production is expected to begin by 2025, Audi said late Monday.
The factory locally makes fully electric Audi models on the high-end electric platform developed by the German car maker developed by Porsche, also by Volkswagen.
“With the new Audi-FAW company in Changchun, we are expanding our presence in the Chinese market and strengthening our position as a manufacturer of full-power electric vehicles through local production,” said Markus Duesmann, chairman of the audi boards at Audi.
This is Audi ‘s first time ownership of most of China’ s enterprise, but it will build on a long – standing relationship with FAW.
In October 2020, the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding on the production of electric vehicles in Changchun, where both Volkswagen and Audi cars have been manufactured by FAW since 1991. Audi and FAW also make two electric and hybrid electric vehicle company.
“We are continuing Audi’s success story in China and actively helping to shape the transformation of China’s car industry as it moves toward a sustainable transition,” said Duesmann.
FAW is the oldest car manufacturer in China, and the third largest in the country. Founded during Mao Zedong’s entrepreneurial campaign in the 1950s, it still makes limousines for the leaders of the Communist Party of China.
China is already Audi’s largest market, as well as the world’s largest electric vehicle market. The China Automobile Manufacturers Association, or CAAM, estimated that in December 2020 sales of electric vehicles in the world’s largest country rose 1.3 million units, an 8% increase from 2019.
And CAAM projects that electric vehicle sales in China will exceed 1.8 million units by 2021.
Audi is not the first German carmaker to bet on the EV market in China. BMW Rival BMW,
who also make Mini cars, have a joint venture to make electric vehicles with Great Wall, the country ‘s largest SUV manufacturer and pickup truck.