JAC has also signed an agreement in Taiwan with local steelmaker China Steel Corp. (CSC) to purchase 2,000 tons of steel per month.

The JAC-Foxconn agreement, which became effective after signing and will expire April 2013, stipulates that the two parties will work on new-energy vehicles, especially battery technologies and engage in R&D of automotive electrical systems, weight-cutting magnesium-aluminum alloy, in-car monitor, LED lighting etc.

Such projects will focus on systemization, modularization, standardization, and commercialization, as well as see the two parties perhaps set up joint ventures to develop, manufacture and sell commercialized products.

A top-10 auto-manufacturing conglomerate in China, JAC has the capacity to produce new-energy cars (annual capacity of about 10,000 units) and aims for capacity of 100,000 new-energy vehicles by 2015.

JAC has developed two new-energy vehicles, including a battery electric vehicle (BEV) and a PHEV plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), as well as having shipped 885 units of BEVs in January to lead counterparts in China. The firm unveiled in mid-April the 300km-range PHEVs and aims to produce about 500 such vehicles per month this year.