Business
China's electric vehicle market is about to get a lot bigger.
Reuters reports:
National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), which bought the assets of bankrupt Saab Automobile, announced a 78-billion-yuan ($12 billion) deal on Thursday to supply 150,000 electric cars to Chinese leasing firm Panda New Energy. The agreement marks a big breakthrough for Nevs, which bought Saab's assets in 2012 and exited corporate reorganization procedures in April. "This is a strategic collaboration for Nevs not only in terms of the numbers of vehicles, but it is also an important step to implement our vision and new business plan," Nevs Vice Chairman Stefan Tilk said in a statement. Nevs said it will provide Panda with 150,000 9-3 sedan electric vehicles by the end of 2020 and 100,000 other electric vehicle products and services from companies associated with Nevs and its owners. Mikael Ostlund, a spokesman for Nevs, said the company planned to hire "hundreds of staff".
AFP writes:
Panda, which is based in Shenzhen in southern China, cooperates with chauffeured car service platforms in China, and aims to become one of the biggest electric vehicle leasing companies in the world. Meanwhile, Nevs restructured its debt and found new shareholders earlier this year. It is owned by China's National Modern Energy Holdings, Tianjin Binhai Hi-tech industrial Development Area (THT), and the Beijing State Research Information Technology Co. Ltd. (SRIT). China's electric car market is still small, with just 87,530 electric or hybrid cars sold in the first nine months of 2015, according to the industry association CAAM. That represented less than one percent of all car sales in the country, but was three times the amount sold the previous year. Thursday's deal "is in line with the (Chinese) government's plans" to develop a green car park, in a country where more than 20 million new cars are registered each year and which suffers from severe air pollution, Frederic Cho, the deputy chairman of the Sweden-China Trade Council, told TT.
A.P. notes:
Nevs spokesman Mikael Ostlund said the body of the electric vehicles would be built in Trollhattan, while the final assembly would be made in Nevs' factory in China. He could not say immediately how many jobs would be created jobs in the former industrial city, which is struggling with a high unemployment rate.
