According to a notice on Friday on the website of the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic
and industrial planner, Wanxiang has the green light to build a
factory with capacity to produce 50,000 electric cars a year.
The move means the former Fisker Automotive, which was founded
in part with a U.S. government loan and ceased production of its
$100,000 plug-in electric hybrid sports cars in 2012 after a
series of technical glitches and cost overruns, continues to
survive under Chinese ownership after Wanxiang gave it a second
life.
Wanxiang later changed Fisker’s name to Karma Automotive.
Wanxiang, a Hangzhou-based company which in 2012 also acquired
U.S. lithium-ion battery maker A123, became the sixth company to
be allowed to produce new-energy vehicles in China.
More companies are currently being encouraged to enter the
automotive industry in China but only if they are willing to
produce so-called new-energy cars, mostly all-electric battery
cars and heavily electrified plug-in hybrids.
China has been making a push for electrically-propelled cars by
offering incentives to buyers, forcing global automakers to
share their technology, and opening its market to tech firms and
others to produce electric vehicles.
Beijing wants such vehicles to serve the mass market, and hopes
the technology will help its auto industry close a competitive
gap with global rivals which have a century's head-start in
traditional combustion engines.
Aside from Wanxiang, NDRC has approved five companies to produce
new-energy vehicles, including Ch-Auto's Qiantu Motor, and
Changjiang Auto. More companies such as WM Motor, Future
Mobility, Singulato Motors are seeking approval.
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu and Catherine Cadell; Editing by
Mark Potter)
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