Changan building large scale NEV factory

China’s Changan has begun works in Nanjing to build a production facility with an annual capacity for 240,000 new energy vehicles. Start of production is set for June 2020. By 2025, Changan want to build plug-in cars only.

In order to become a sole electric vehicle maker, Changan want to create three NEV platforms and invest a total of 100bn Yuan (12bn euros) into their electrification, a strategy dubbed the ‘Mission of Shangri-La’ reportedly.

One fifth of the budget, that is 20 billion yuan have been allocated to build said new facility in Nanjing. Changan positions the production project as their NEV manufacturing base, which will introduce a high-speed, flexible and closed autonomous production line. The new plant is expected to deliver an annual production value of RMB 100 billion.

Last year, Changan delivered 61,237 NEVs in 2017, almost doubling its sales compared to 2016. The company is expected to launch a plug-in hybrid SUV model and a pure new energy vehicle in 2019, the latter in cooperation with Mazda (we reported).