BMW starts output at new $2.2B China plant to accelerate EV push

SHANGHAI -- BMW said that production has formally begun at a new plant in China with an investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.24 billion) as the automaker accelerates electric vehicle output.

The Lydia plant, BMW's third car assembly facility in China, located in the northeastern city of Shenyang, Liaoning province, will increase BMW's annual output in the world's biggest auto market to 830,000 vehicles from 700,000 in 2021, the company said in a statement.

The plant is designed to be capable of producing full-electric cars only according to market demand on its flexible manufacturing lines, BMW said.

The first model in production at the Lydia plant is the i3, a full-electric sports sedan, BMW said, increasing the range of its EV models for Chinese customers to 13 next year.

Tesla and Chinese automakers such as BYD dominate the booming EV market in China, with sales more than doubling from a year ago.

Meanwhile kings of the internal combustion engine age such as General Motors and Volkswagen Group are falling behind.

Nearly a quarter of the cars sold in China in the first five months of this year were powered by batteries, according to data from China Association of Automotive Manufactures.

BMW’s China sales fell 9.2 percent to 208,507 in the first quarter, according to a company filing.