Ministry of Commerce approves JAC Volkswagen's NEV program

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On December 21, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., Ltd. (JAC) announced that the program with Volkswagen to jointly produce pure electric passenger vehicles has been approved by Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM).

Since the dramatic rise started from 2015 in China's new energy vehicle (NEV) market, many automakers have gradually shifted their focuses to the area of NEV. So far, after plentiful painstaking efforts have been devoted into NEV market, Chinese auto enterprises have already won some benefits from it. In this situation, especially under the pressure of strict emission regulations and the dual-credit-policy for NEV, if foreign auto enterprises want to seize China's market, cooperating with Chinese NEV brands is a feasible method.

On September 6, 2016, JAC and Volkswagen signed Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Venture in Wolfsburg of Germany. Only a year later, JAC Volkswagen, the joint venture of JAC and Volkswagen, got MOFCOM's approval of the program to jointly produce pure electric passenger vehicles. This is such a big step for JAC Volkswagen to get closer to commercialization.

As Europe's largest auto maker, Volkswagen has realized that strategic transformation has long-term significance to industry development. According to its blueprint in NEV field, by the end of 2019, Volkswagen plans to offer around 400,000 NEVs to Chinese consumers. Until 2025, it prepares to supply about 1,500,000 NEVs for China's market.

As a pioneer in China's NEV field, JAC displayed its layout in NEV area as early as 2005. According to the statistics of 2017 exposed by JAC, its NEV sales in November reached 5,660 units, up 363.55% year on year, which created a new record of monthly sales. Besides, from January to November, JAC sold 26,402 new energy passenger vehicles, rising 66.35% from a year earlier.