Dongfeng, Chery lead Chinese carmakers in eying Europe factories amid brutal price war at home
- Dongfeng is mulling setting up a plant in Italy, while Chery will build its first European plant in Barcelona’s Zona Franca industrial zone
- Trend shows Chinese EV makers ‘are playing a leading role in the transition of the global automotive industry,’ says analyst in Shanghai
Chinese carmakers are eyeing production sites in Europe to assemble the next generation of electric vehicles (EVs) as a foil against the EU’s protectionist tariffs as a brutal price war at home drives more producers offshore in search of fresh markets.
Dongfeng, headquartered in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, is in talks with the Italian government to establish a factory with an annual capacity of more than 100,000 units, according to Bloomberg, which cited Xie Qian, head of the company’s European operations.
State-owned Chery, based in East China’s Anhui province, has reached an agreement with its Spanish partner to build its Omoda branded vehicles, two months after it started selling the cars in the country.
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According to a statement from Spain’s Ministry of Industry and Tourism on Tuesday, the deal is expected to be signed on Wednesday in Madrid. Ebro-EV said it would own the majority of the venture.