BMW and Great Wall tie up to make e-MINI cars

BMW Group and the biggest Chinese SUV brand, Great Wall Motor, announced a partnership yesterday to produce electric MINI vehicles in China as global automakers ramp up development.

The companies said they signed an agreement on Monday.

BMW and Great Wall said their venture, Spotlight Automotive Ltd, also will make electric cars for the Chinese partner’s brand. Great Wall put total investment in the venture at 5.1 billion yuan (US$770 million) and said it is aiming for annual production of 160,000 vehicles.

Each side will hold a 50 percent stake in the new company.

The new company is registered in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, and will be involved in research, development and manufacture of new energy cars.

Automakers are pouring billions of dollars into creating electric models for China, the biggest market for the technology.

Auto brands in China are required to make electric vehicles account for at least 10 percent of their sales starting next year or buy credits from competitors that exceed their quotas. Later, they face pressure to raise those sales in order to satisfy fuel efficiency requirements that increase annually.

Sales of pure-electric passenger vehicles in China rose 82 percent last year to 468,000, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That was more than double the US level of just under 200,000.

Other automakers including General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co have announced similar plans with Chinese partners to produce dozens of electric models. Great Wall, headquartered in Baoding, southwest of Beijing, sells over one million SUVs a year.

“With our joint approach, we can quickly scale up production and increase efficiency,” said Klaus Frolich, a BMW board member, in a statement.

MINI’s first battery electric model is due to be produced at its main British factory in Oxford in 2019, BMW said.

China is BMW’s biggest market. The Munich-based automaker said about 560,000 BMW brand vehicles were delivered to Chinese customers in 2017, more than its next two markets — the United States and Germany — combined.

China was MINI’s fourthlargest market in 2017, with 35,000 vehicles delivered, the company said.