After several site visits, Xpeng Motors has decided to locate its 100,000-unit-per-year vehicle and powertrain project in Wuhan, central China, at the General Aviation and Satellite Industrial Park in the local economic development zone, official media cnr.cn reported Thursday.

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin within the year, the report said.

On April 8, Xpeng signed an agreement with the city of Wuhan to build a new plant there. The new production base is planned to cover more than 733,000 square meters and include production and powertrain plants as well as research and development facilities.

Currently, Xpeng already has a Zhaoqing plant, which has a master plan of 3,000 mu, with a phase I plan of 900 mu and an expected production capacity of 100,000 to 150,000 units.

Xpeng's main model, the P7, is produced in the Zhaoqing plant. The Xpeng G3 is produced by Haima Motors.

After 30 years of development, the Wuhan Economic Development Zone has accumulated a rich car-making capability and formed a good auto R&D and manufacturing ecology, cnr.cn quoted local officials as saying.

Faced with the development trend of electrification, intelligence and networked automobiles, the zone has taken new energy and intelligent vehicles as an important development direction to create an innovation platform.

"We chose to invest in the Car Valley because of the business environment, the foundation of the intelligent electric vehicle industry, and the strong car-making heritage and transportation advantages accumulated in Wuhan Economic Development Zone over a long period of time." Xpeng Chairman He Xiaopeng has previously said.

Xpeng was founded in 2015 and is dedicated to driving the change of smart electric vehicles through data.

The company sold 27,000 units last year, lower than Nio's 44,000 units and Li Auto's 33,000 units.

Xpeng deliveries in March totaled 5,102 units, up 130 percent from February. A total of 2,855 units of the Xpeng P7 were delivered and 2,247 units of the G3 were delivered.

Xpeng delivered 13,340 units in the first quarter, traditionally a slow sales season, not only surpassing last year's fourth quarter, but also becoming the company's highest delivery quarter.

Xpeng is targeting 100,000 units for 2021, implying a 270 percent increase over last year, according to a March 31 report by LatePost.

Xpeng president Brian Gu said on the earnings call that it will double its store expansion to about 300 stores this year, covering 110 Chinese cities, and triple its supercharging stations to 500, covering 200 Chinese cities.

For comparison, Nio had 226 stores last year, covering 121 Chinese cities, and SAIC-GM has more than 1,600 stores.