BEIJING -- China's Great Wall Motor on Wednesday said that its joint venture in China with BMW faced regulatory uncertainties as both companies pledged to proceed with their plans in the world's No. 1 market.
The stock market filing was made in response to media reports that the alliance was in trouble.
German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on August 4 that the tie-up could fail, citing sources familiar with the matter.
In February 2018, BMW said it had signed a letter of intent with Great Wall to produce electric Minis in China.
Great Wall said in Wednesday's statement: "At present, the project is proceeding as planned, and the two parties are communicating on the details of the cooperation and preparing for the project to seek approval from the relevant authorities."
There are uncertainties regarding whether the joint venture will be able to obtain the required regulation approvals, it said.
BMW said the joint venture was going very well and significant progress was being made in all business areas.
The venture aims to build a plant in Zhangjiagang with the capacity to build 160,000 gasoline vehicles for export and another 160,000 so-called New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), documents on the city's website show. The JV will also include a research center and car parts manufacturing facilities.
A separate local government document shows the total investment of the project is forecast at 20.2 billion yuan ($2.87 billion).
Automakers and suppliers are scrambling to meet tough new Chinese quotas for less polluting cars, know as NEVs in China. Those rules call for electric and rechargeable hybrid vehicles to account for a fifth of total sales by 2025.
Great Wall, which is China's top SUV and pickup maker, currently builds cars for Ora, an affordable battery-electric vehicle brand in Baoding, the city where it is headquartered.
