BMW and Great Wall Motor have signed an agreement to build new Mini electric vehicles in China.
The 50:50 joint venture will be based in China under the name Spotlight Automotive Limited, with a new state-of-the-art production facility to be built at Jiangsu Province
Along with electric Minis, the joint venture will also produce electric vehicles for Great Wall.
The joint venture agreement was signed by Wei Jianjun, Founder and Chairman of Great Wall Motor, and Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG for Development.
“Today’s signing represents a new level of cooperation between China and Germany,” said Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, during the signing ceremony.
“This strategic partnership is a clear win-win for the BMW Group and Great Wall Motor, enabling us to contribute to China’s ambitious plans to ramp-up new energy vehicles and reduce emissions in the mobility sector,” he added.
The partnership has some lofty goals, activities will be focussed on the development, procurement and production of electric vehicles for the Chinese market.
BMW has also announced plans to expand the production operations of BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA). Brilliance is BMW’s production partner, producing two-thirds of all BMW vehicles sold in China in 2017.
China is BMW’s largest market, in 2017 the brand sold around 560,000 vehicles in China – more than in the next two largest markets combined (the US and Germany).
The electric Mini is due to be released in 2019 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the classic Mini.
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