Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chinese automaker GAC Group announced on October 31 that it has agreed GAC Honda to invest RMB2.99 billion in building a new NEV (new energy vehicle) plant with an annual capacity of 120,000 units, according to local media.

The auto group also empowered GAC Honda to refit an assembly staging area into a NEV assembly workshop with an investment of RMB276 million. The program will bring another capacity of 50,000 NEVs annually.

A total capacity of 170,000 NEVs will be added for GAC Honda on an annual basis after the yet-to-be-built and refitted NEV assembly lines are completed. The investment totalling around RMB3.27 billion will be purely raised by the Sino-Japanese joint venture itself.

According to Zheng Heng, executive vice general manager of GAC Honda, the automaker will introduce several EV and PHEV models by the end of this year. Earlier reports said that GAC Honda's first PHEV model to be named “Shidai” (in Chinese) is expected to come into market in 2018.

Dongfeng Honda, Honda's another joint venture in China, will see its third plant start operation in 2019, according to Zheng Chunkai, the automaker's executive vice general manager. The CR-V vehicles are about to be put into production at the Wuhan-based plant and then HEVs, PHEVs and BEVs will join the product lineup afterwards.