SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Germany’s BMW reported on Thursday that manufacturing has formally started at a new plant in China with an financial commitment of 15 billion yuan ($2.24 billion) as the carmaker accelerates electric vehicle (EV) output.
The Lydia plant, BMW’s 3rd motor vehicle assembly facility in China, found in the northeastern town of Shenyang, Liaoning province, will boost BMW’s yearly output in the world’s major car industry to 830,000 cars from 700,000 in 2021, the business claimed.
The plant is intended to be able of developing battery-run electric autos only according to market demand from customers on its flexible producing lines, BMW mentioned.
The very first model that will roll off the Lydia plant’s production traces is the i3, a pure electric powered mid-sized sports sedan, BMW said, increasing the assortment of its EV models for Chinese prospects to 13 following 12 months.
Tesla and Chinese automakers these as BYD dominate the booming EV sector in China, with profits additional than doubling from a calendar year back. Meanwhile kings of the inner combustion engine age these types of as Typical Motors and Volkswagen are slipping behind.
Approximately a quarter of the vehicles bought in China in the initial 5 months of this 12 months were driven by batteries, according to info from China Affiliation of Automotive Manufactures.
Meanwhile BMW marketed 208,507 automobiles in China, its most important industry, in the very first quarter, marking a 9.2% fall from a yr in the past, in accordance to a corporation filing.
($1 = 6.6983 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(This tale has been refiled to eliminate extraneous digit in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
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