Audi and FAW have received approval from the Chinese authorities to build an electric car plant as part of their joint venture. Production of up to 150,000 electric cars per year is scheduled to start at the end of 2024.
According to the planning authority of China’s northeastern province of Jilin, work on the plant in the provincial capital Changchun, in which both companies are investing a total of 20.93 billion yuan (2.91 billion euros), is due to start in April. According to current information, production is scheduled to start in December 2024.
This leaves Audi little room for delay if the original announcements are to be kept. In January 2021, the Ingolstadt-based company issued a target for the joint electric car plant with FAW to start production in 2024. However, it is certain that the electric Audis built there will be based on the ‘Premium Platform Electric’ (PPE) developed jointly with Porsche – i.e. higher-positioned models such as an electric A6, not MEB models.
The authorisation for the plant became a little more concrete at this point: The production of three electric models, including an SUV, is planned. So far Audi has announced two PPE SUVs, the Q6 e-tron (to be built in Ingolstadt) and the Q8 e-tron from Brussels. It is not known whether the Chinese-built model is one of the two series or an offshoot developed specifically for China.
“The Audi FAW NEV project is an important cornerstone of Audi’s electrification strategy in China,” a Volkswagen spokesman confirmed the approval when asked by Reuters. “We are consistently pushing ahead with the relevant work in this project. Construction of the plant is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2022.”
The second quarter would be in line with the information in the permit, which states that construction should start in April. FAW, unlike Volkswagen China, did not respond to a Reuters query.
Audi holds a 60 per cent stake in the electric joint venture with FAW, meaning it controls the majority of the company.
Keyword: Audi & FAW receive approval to build EV plant in China