Despite the slowdown in the market for cars on the mainland, Shanghai is moving into higher gear, beginning construction on an automotive research campus yesterday.
The city hopes to entice global car designers such as Pininfarina to help develop China's domestic marques.
The research and development campus, located at Shanghai International Automobile City (Auto City), an industrial park backed by the municipality's government, aims to attract 150 companies when it is completed in about 20 months.
The research campus, with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan (HK$1.8 billion), represents China's first major effort to develop distinctive models of its own in the world's largest car market, still dominated by foreign makes.
'The slowdown in auto sales has reminded Chinese carmakers of the need to strengthen research for their own brands,' said Rong Wenwei, chief executive of Auto City, which is investing in and will operate the research campus.
'By attracting global car-design firms, auto assemblers and car-part manufacturers to research and develop their products here, we believe it will greatly help the city and the mainland's car industry.'