The German automaker BMW will make an additional investment of 10,000 million yuan (1,383 million dollars, 1,417 million euros) to expand its factory of high-voltage batteries for electric vehicles in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, according to local media.
The official newspaper Global Times cites sources from the local branch of the company, which has not yet officially confirmed this new investment.
BMW opened the Shenyang high-voltage battery factory – its first such centre outside Germany – in 2017 and three years later opened a second phase of the facility.
“BMW’s new investment and production plans in China show that they are very optimistic about demand for electric vehicles here. The complete supply chain for cars in the world’s largest electric market has also driven it to move production facilities to China,” said analyst Gao Shen, quoted by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.
The company recently announced that its worldwide vehicle deliveries had fallen 9.9% year-on-year in the first nine months of the year, down 11.5% in the case of the Chinese market.
Last Saturday, the British newspaper The Times published an article in which it stated that BMW was going to end its production chains of electric Mini in the United Kingdom to take them to China, something to which the Teutonic company responded by ensuring that it continues to have its Oxford factory for the Mini Cooper of three and five doors, as well as for the Mini Convertible convertible.
In 2018, the German automaker had already announced the creation of a joint venture with the Chinese firm Great Wall Motor to produce the electric Mini in the Asian country.