Shanghai (ZXZC)- Audi FAW New Enery Vehicle Co., Ltd., a joint venture between FAW Group and Audi, plans to break ground on its NEV plant in Changchun city, Jilin province in April 2022 and the construction is set to be completed in December in 2024, according to a notice posted on the website of Jilin Province Development and Reform Commission.

The latest update indicates that the FAW-Audi NEV project has been officially greenlighted by local authorities.

The notice shows that the yet-to-be-built NEV base will cover an area of 2.46 million square meters and involve a total investment of 20.93 billion yuan ($3.295 billion) . Upon completion of the building work, the plant will focus on producing the three all-electric models, namely, the B+ segment SUV e-tron, the B+ segment SAV e-tron, and the C-segment Lim LWB (long-wheelbase) e-tron. The annual production capacity of the plant is set to be 150,000 vehicles.

Audi signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with China's state-owned FAW Group in October 2020 to jointly produce premium NEVs in China through a joint venture, namely, Audi FAW New Enery Vehicle Co.,Ltd.

The joint venture was incorporated in March 2021, according to the corporate database Tianyancha. FAW Group owns 40% of the joint venture, while Volkswagen and Audi own 60%.

Audi has also teamed up with SAIC Motor to produce premium NEVs. The first model under the SAIC-Audi project, the A7L, was put into volume production at SAIC Volkswagen's Anting plant in Sept. 2021.