
Chinese automaker Chery Automobile began work on a new plant capable of making 60,000 pure electric vehicles a year at its headquarters in Wuhu, Anhui.
With an area of 225446㎡ and a total investment of 1.56 billion yuan (about $240 million), the project with an annual output of 60,000 aluminum-bodied electric vehicles will be constructed in two phases.
The first phase of construction is set to be complete September this year with an initial annual output of 10,000 all-electric vehicles. The first model of this production line will be a small SUV. The second phase of construction will be finished by the end of next year with an annual output of 60,000 units will be built up in late 2017.
Chery aims to boost its annual sale of plug-in electric vehicles to 200,000 units by 2020. The figure in 2015 was 14,000 units, an increase of 66 percent year on year.
Chery’s first PHEV–Arrizo 7 is scheduled to be launched in April 2016. The fuel consumption per 100 km of this model is only 2.2 L; and the mini electric SUV models manufactured in the plant with an annual output of 60,000 units are expected to be launched in the second half of 2016.