Construction has started on China’s largest production base for vehicle batteries, a US$600m investment in the Xi’an Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone led by Samsung of South Korea.
Backers of the zone in the capital of Shaanxi province aim to reach sales of US$1bn by 2020. Work will be completed in phases over five years.
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Samsung’s partners in the project are Anhui Ring New Group and the Xi’an Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. Operations will start in October next year when the facility will produce batteries 40,000 electric vehicles a year.
Anhui New Ring is the top Chinese maker of auto parts including piston rings and cylinder liners.
Sangjin Park, president and CEO of Samsung SDI, said that China will be the world’s largest electric car market. He told the China Daily: “Taking into account the supporting infrastructure and industrial synergies, we decided to build the battery production base in the Xi’an Hi-tech Development Zone, next to the Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant, which went into operation in May.”
China is promoting the development of the EV industry as it became the world’s largest auto market in 2009 and faces increasing air pollution due to an increasing number of vehicles.
Under the New Energy Automotive Industry Development Plan, the government aims for China to become the world’s largest EV market with 5m pure EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by the end of 2020.
