Volkswagen will invest $1 billion into a new China electric vehicle centre

Emmanuel Oyedeji -

Volkswagen says it will invest around one billion euros ($1.1 billion) in a new China centre for the development, innovation and procurement of fully connected electric cars in the southern Chinese city of Hefei.

The new unit, with the project name ‘100%TechCo’, combines vehicles and components R&D teams with procurement and will help Volkswagen shorten the development times of new products and technologies by around 30%.

It also aims to integrate state-of-the-art technologies from local suppliers into the development process at an early stage, to align the Group’s vehicles even more quickly with the wishes of customers and achieve a shorter time to market.

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German automaker BMW will invest 10 billion yuan ($1.40 billion) to expand the production of electric vehicle batteries in China, according to Jochen Goller, China CEO of BMW Group. As the largest EV manufacturer, China’s EV production amounted to 3.5 million units in 2021, an increase of
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It is expected to launch in early 2024 and will comprise more than 2,000 employees from procurement and R&D. The CEO will be Marcus Hafkemeyer, Chief Technology Officer of Volkswagen Group China.

Last year, German automaker BMW also announced that it will invest 10 billion yuan ($1.40 billion) to expand the production of its electric vehicle batteries in China.

It is interesting to see that amidst the ongoing Washington-Beijing supply chain tension, auto market leaders like Volkswagen, Tesla and BMW are undeterred from making sizeable investments in the China auto market.