Great Wall Motors and BMW JV Gets Green Light From Chinese Foreign Investment Authority

On December 16, Great Wall Motors issued an announcement saying that the company’s joint venture with BMW has obtained the “People’s Republic of China Foreign Investment Enterprise Approval Certificate”, one of the essential certifications required for the completion of the company’s industrial and commercial registration procedure.

BMW and Great Wall signed an agreement to produce electric vehicles under the MINI brand in China in July 2018. The automakers established a joint venture company, Spotlight Automotive Limited, with registered capital of 1.7 billion yuan with each party holding 50% of the shares. Partners also agreed to invest over 5.1 billion yuan in the project that involves building a 3,000 employee plant with a capacity of up to 160,000 vehicles per year.

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As of November this year, the Spotlight Automotive Limited plant project has been approved by the Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission. The construction site was chosen in Zhangjiagang, a city in Jiangsu province. The construction is expected to begin in 2020 and finish in 2022.

“This German-Chinese relationship underscores our commitment to China and the future of premium compact electrified vehicles. This joint venture will enable us to produce a larger number of MINI-brand-fully electric vehicles at attractive conditions for the world market. This is also an important strategic step for the MINI brand. The joint venture with Great Wall underlines the enormous importance of the Chinese market for us,” said Dr. Nicolas Peter, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, during the press conference following the inauguration of Spotlight Automotive.

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