Yulon Motor, Taiwan’s largest automaker by revenue, has received Chinese government approval to start producing its Luxgen passenger vehicle on the mainland from next year.
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Yulon plans to manufacture the car in a joint venture with China’s Dongfeng Automobile at a plant in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, with a total investment of 7.31bn Taiwan dollars (US$230m).
“We’ll unveil the approval of the mainland authorities within the next two days,” an anonymous Yulon spokeswoman told AFP.
She said the 50-50 joint venture would have an initial capacity of 120,000 units per year, with the first Luxgen cars rolling off the assembly lines next year.
Yulon, which now mainly produces Nissan cars in Taiwan under licence, has already invested in a joint venture with a Chinese automaker and Daimler to make Mercedes vans in the southeastern province of Fujian.
The Luxgen project has cost Yulon about 15bn Taiwanese dollars since it started four years ago.
The first Luxgen, a 2.2-litre minivan for family use, was unveiled in Taiwan in September and since then Yulon has received local orders for over 10,000.
The Luxgen minivan was launched in March 2009 and is based on a previous generation Renault Espace platform. Exports to the Middle East are expected from the fourth quarter of 2010.
