Isra-Mart srl:Volkswagen powers up plan for Chinese electric car plant

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Volkswagen will begin manufacturing electric cars in China for the domestic market by 2014, according to a senior executive at the company.

Yang Meihong, vice president of Volkswagen Group China, told China Daily yesterday that the company was working on a number of fronts to bolster its presence in the fast-expanding Chinese green car market.

He said that initially Volkswagen will bring a fleet of Golf blue-e-motion and Lavida blue-e-motion electric vehicles to China for test drives to collect data from field tests and help choose an appropriate local battery supplier.

He added that the German car maker will also export the Touareg Hybrid to sell in the Chinese market from 2011.

Ultimately, the firm plans to build 10,000 electric cars a year in China from 2014 in conjunction with SAIC Motor Corporation and FAW Group. Yang said the group will look to build a local manufacturing capability wherever possible.

"To import parts is easier, but we want to have a high localisation rate for components and to cultivate local suppliers of the battery unit," he explained.

China is offering buyers of plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars in five cities subsidies of 60,000 yuan (£5,600) to help spur the market.

Nissan, Toyota, GM, Daimler and Chevrolet are all planning to launch electric vehicles in the country, which is now the world's biggest car market, over the next few years.

The nation will have as many as 20,000 plug-in hybrids and electric cars by 2013, Wan Gang, China's minister for science and technology, said last week.

Also last week Volkswagen displayed the technologies behind its Golf blue-e-motion, Lavida blue-e-motion and Touareg Hybrid vehicles in China.

The Lavida Blue-e-motion was developed specifically for the Chinese market. It is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack and has a range of 130km to 150km.

In contrast, the Golf blue e-motion is an electric vehicle version of the well-known Golf model and has a similar 150km range, while the Touareg Hybrid is also a version of an existing model with a 25 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency.