Despite recent controversy over over-reliance on China has the German car manufacturer bmw opened a third assembly plant in China. Production at the new plant has officially started, BMW announced on Thursday. With an investment sum of 15 billion Chinese yuan, the equivalent of more than two billion euros, it is the Munich carmaker’s largest project in China.
The Lydia plant in the north-eastern city of Shenyang in Liaoning province is to produce electric vehicles accelerate. BMW’s annual production in the world’s largest car market is set to increase to 830,000 vehicles from 700,000 vehicles in 2021, the company said.
“The Lydia plant was born digitally and is fully geared towards e-mobility,” said Milan Nedeljković, BMW AG Board Member for Production. The flexibility of production to react to customer requirements sets standards in competition, said the manager. The new manufacturing facility is designed to be able to produce battery-powered electric cars according to market demand with its flexible production lines, according to BMW.
The first model to roll off the assembly line in Lydia is the i3, an all-electric mid-size sports sedan. Production already started in May. This increases BMW’s range of electric car models for the Chinese market to 13.
BMW struggles with falling sales in China
Tesla and Chinese automakers like BYD are dominating the booming electric car market in China. The sales of the groups have more than doubled compared to the previous year. The pioneers from the age of the internal combustion engine, General Motors and Volkswagen, meanwhile fall behind. Volkswagen has been struggling with weak sales of its electric models in China for years
. VW only sold a good 70,000 of the newly introduced ID models in the whole of 2021, Tesla sold more in December alone.
Sales in China, the carmaker’s largest market, also fell at BMW. According to a company report, the Munich company sold 208,507 vehicles in the first quarter, around 9 percent fewer vehicles than in the same period last year. And that despite the fact that the electric car market in China has grown. Almost a quarter of cars sold in the first five months of this year were battery-powered, according to data from the China Association of Automotive Manufactures.
oppression of the Uyghurs
The opening of the plant comes shortly after concrete media reports about the oppression of the Uyghur ethnic group in the Xinjiang region, where rival VW also operates a plant. This increased the pressure on Volkswagen to close the factory.
BMW’s China boss Jochen Goller (51) confirmed at the opening that he would continue doing business in China. “The expansion of our manufacturing presence in China shows that we are preparing for further growth in the world’s largest electric car market and that we are convinced of China’s long-term prospects. We are increasing our commitment to electric mobility. By 2025, more than a quarter of our sales will be in China be fully electric. With BMW’s expanded production base in Shenyang, we are now fully prepared to serve the growing market demand for e-mobility in China.”