GAC plans 2 billion yuan EV, hybrid plant
Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor plans to invest 2 billion yuan ($322 million) in a Chinese assembly plant that will exclusively build electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, a senior executive said.
Chinese carmakers are rushing to market with such vehicles to meet fuel economy standards that grow increasingly strict each year to 2020, part of the government's effort to tackle pollution that chokes many major urban areas.
Guangzhou's factory will have an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles and is slated for completion in 2018, but that timetable may be accelerated depending on sales of such vehicles, Vice General Manager Liang Weibiao said in an interview on Friday.
The company, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, produces cars for GAC's brands.
Liang, who oversees sales and several other departments, declined to say where the factory will be built. "Many places ardently want us to build there," he said. "There are some that, in order to get us to build locally, make known that they are now thinking of buying a large quantity of our products."
GAC aims to sell 3,000 EVs and hybrids this year and targets sales of 10,000 in 2016. The company will produce only as much as there is demand for, Liang said.
The automaker sells hybrid and range-extended electric versions of its GA5 sedan, with a hybrid version of the GS4 SUV set to hit the market next year, he added.
Foreign and domestic automakers in China are continuing to build assembly plants despite the biggest economic slowdown in a quarter of a century.
Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor chief Wu Song told Reuters in April that it separately plans to build two factories in 2016 and 2018, each with a capacity of 200,000 vehicles.
Chinese auto sales contracted year on year for the second consecutive month in May, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Wednesday.
In March, CAAM said sales growth this year could be slower than the 6.9 percent growth in 2014.
Guangzhou's factory will have an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles and is slated for completion in 2018, but that timetable may be accelerated depending on sales of such vehicles, Vice General Manager Liang Weibiao said in an interview on Friday.
The company, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Group, produces cars for GAC's brands.
Liang, who oversees sales and several other departments, declined to say where the factory will be built. "Many places ardently want us to build there," he said. "There are some that, in order to get us to build locally, make known that they are now thinking of buying a large quantity of our products."
GAC aims to sell 3,000 EVs and hybrids this year and targets sales of 10,000 in 2016. The company will produce only as much as there is demand for, Liang said.
The automaker sells hybrid and range-extended electric versions of its GA5 sedan, with a hybrid version of the GS4 SUV set to hit the market next year, he added.
Foreign and domestic automakers in China are continuing to build assembly plants despite the biggest economic slowdown in a quarter of a century.
Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor chief Wu Song told Reuters in April that it separately plans to build two factories in 2016 and 2018, each with a capacity of 200,000 vehicles.
Chinese auto sales contracted year on year for the second consecutive month in May, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Wednesday.
In March, CAAM said sales growth this year could be slower than the 6.9 percent growth in 2014.
