Yahoo Finance Volkswagen begins pre-production of its ID.3 EV in China
Its new factory in Anti, Shanghai, will produce 300,000 EVs annually.
Just days after Volkswagen showed off the first all-electric ID.3 produced at its Zwickau plant in Germany, the company announced that it has entered pre-production in China, too. Like the Zwickau factory, the new plant in Anti, Shanghai, will produce all-electric vehicles on Volkswagen's MEB platform, a modular design that's built for battery packs of varying sizes.
Production at the factory, a joint venture with SAIC, is expected to start in October 2020, and it will have an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. FAW-Volkswagen plans to manufacture another 300,000 ID. model vehicles in Foshan, China.
Volkswageg expects to sell 22 million all-electric cars worldwide by 2028, and more than half of those sales are expected to be in China. "The country plays a crucial part in our electrification strategy, which will pave the way to Volkswagen's goal of becoming net carbon-neutral by 2050," said Dr. Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG.
