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					</table><p>The <a href="https://www.volkswagenag.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Volkswagen Group</a> is investing roughly €1 billion (~$1.09 billion) to establish a development, innovation, and procurement center for intelligent electric vehicles in Hefei, a city in southern China, as part of its strategy to expand its development capabilities.</p>
<p>The center, named &#8216;100%TechCo,&#8217; will combine research and development teams for vehicles and components, thereby integrating advanced local technologies into product development at an early stage and leveraging synergies in the development process.</p>
<p>The objective is to bring Volkswagen vehicles more closely in line with Chinese customers’ preferences and reduce the time to market.</p>
<p>The new center is projected to reduce the development times for new products and technologies by approximately 30%.</p>
<p>According to Ralf Brandstätter, a Group Board Member for China, the formation of 100%TechCo is a significant component of the company&#8217;s &#8216;in China, for China’ strategy.</p>
<p>This will also enhance the effectiveness of collaboration with its joint venture partners and lead to greater profitability.</p>
<p>In addition to combining research and development for vehicles and components in China, 100%TechCo will merge procurement into a unified unit for its R&amp;D activities.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the new company intends to more closely integrate the development projects of all the Volkswagen Group&#8217;s joint ventures in China.</p>
<p>The newly established unit, 100%TechCo, is expected to become operational at the beginning of 2024, with over 2,000 employees from procurement and R&amp;D.</p>
<p>Marcus Hafkemeyer, who will serve as the CEO of the new company, said the new company represents a new chapter in Volkswagen&#8217;s collaboration with its joint venture partners in Changchun, Shanghai, and Hefei, as well as with the group&#8217;s brands.</p>
<p>The company is expected to play a significant role in the development of a future Volkswagen brand model scheduled to launch in 2024.</p>
<p>In October 2022, Umicore<u>,</u> a Belgium-based circular materials technology company, and Volkswagen Group’s battery unit PowerCo <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/umicore-volkswagens-powerco-e3-billion-deal-battery-materials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a joint venture with a plan to invest about €3 billion ($3.3 billion) to establish a large-scale supply chain for sustainable batteries.</p>
<p>Earlier in the year, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra and the Volkswagen Group <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/daily-news-wrap-up-ntpc-commissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a term sheet on supplying modular electric drive matrix (MEB) electric components for Mahindra’s new, purpose-built electric platform INGLO.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee.</a><br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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Volkswagen to Invest $1 Billion in Intelligent Electric Vehicle Center in China


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					</table><p>Electric vehicle maker <a href="https://www.tesla.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla</a> said it will build a new gigafactory in Shanghai, exclusively focused on producing the firm&#8217;s energy storage product Megapack. The company announced the move publicly on Twitter.</p>
<p>Xinhua, the official state-run press agency of the People&#8217;s Republic of China, reported that the company’s new facility will commence construction in the third quarter of this year and begin manufacturing in the second quarter of next year.</p>
<p>The agency said Tesla disclosed the construction schedule at the signing ceremony for the project.</p>
<p>The plant will start by producing 10,000 units of Megapack annually, an equivalent of roughly 40 GWh of energy storage. These products will be available worldwide.</p>
<p>Tesla&#8217;s Megapack is a powerful battery that delivers energy storage and support, which aids in grid stabilization and prevents power failures.</p>
<p>The manufacturing facility will be situated in the Lin-gang Special Area within China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.</p>
<p>Citing an official from the Lin-gang Special Area Administration, Xinhua reported that Tesla&#8217;s new factory is expected to create an industrial cluster valued at over 100 billion yuan (~$14.5 billion).</p>
<p>Zhuang Mudi, the deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government, said the project will aid in advancing the development of the new energy-storage sector and promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of Shanghai.</p>
<p>In January 2019, Tesla initiated construction on its Shanghai gigafactory, taking advantage of a new policy that permits foreign car manufacturers to establish fully owned subsidiaries in China.</p>
<p>The Gigafactory in Shanghai is Tesla&#8217;s first facility of its kind, established outside the United States.</p>
<p>In 2022, the plant manufactured 710,000 vehicles, which marks a 48 percent rise from 2021. It has transformed into Tesla&#8217;s primary vehicle export center, with electric cars performing well in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and other parts of the world.</p>
<p>Tesla&#8217;s Vice President, Tao Lin, said that due to the favorable business environment in Shanghai and the Lin-gang Special Area, the Shanghai Gigafactory has a localization rate of over 95% in the industrial chain.</p>
<p>China has said that it was committed to share the advantages of an ultra-large consumer market with the world and to promote universal development.</p>
<p>Since 2019, Tesla has been increasing its investment in the Lin-gang Special Area, expanding the production capacity of its Shanghai gigafactory, and constructing more facilities, including a supercharger manufacturing factory.</p>
<p>A recent report by Wood Mackenzie <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/tesla-misses-rooftop-solar-installation-target" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Tesla Solar Roof achieved 2% of its weekly rooftop solar systems installation target last year due to increasing competition.</p>
<p>The company’s fourth-quarter profit was up 19% year-over-year, with solar and storage business revenues <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/tesla-q4-profit-up-19-yoy-solar-storage-revenues-rise" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at $1.31 billion.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee.</a><br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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Tesla to Build a New Battery Manufacturing Facility in Shanghai

<p>China has installed 48.2 GW of solar capacity in 2020, a 60% year-over-year increase compared to 30.11 GW in 2019, according to the latest data from the National Energy Administration (<a href="http://www.nea.gov.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NEA</a>). The solar installations in 2020 were the second-largest ever, only behind the 52.8 GW installed in 2017.</p>
<p>From January to September 2020, the country <a href="https://mercomindia.com/china-solar-capacity-first-nine-months/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">added</a> 18.7 GW of solar capacity, a 17% increase compared to 16 GW installed during the same period in 2019. In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020, the country installed 29.5 GW of new solar capacity, of which 23.3 GW were installed in December 2020. The rooftop solar installations in China stood at 10.1 GW in 2020.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-23984 aligncenter" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/China.png" alt="China solar capacity" width="444" height="285" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/China.png 444w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/China-300x193.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 444px) 100vw, 444px" /></p>
<p>China&#8217;s cumulative installed capacity reached 252.5 GW at the end of 2020 and exceeded its official 13<sup>th</sup> five-year-plan target of 105 GW by 140%.</p>
<p>State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), China&#8217;s largest power utility, led the way with 10.28 GW of new solar installations in 2020. With this addition, SPIC currently has 29.61 GW of operational solar capacity.</p>
<p>China also installed 71.67 GW of wind capacity in 2020. The country&#8217;s cumulative wind capacity stood at 281.72 GW at the end of 2020. Currently, it has over 530 GW of installed solar plus wind capacity, amounting to about 24% of its total power generation capacity of 2200 GW.</p>
<p>The combined capacity addition of solar and wind stood at 119.9 GW in 2020, which can push NEA to announce the target of 120 GW of solar and wind capacity installations in 2021.</p>
<p>According to the Asia Europe Clean Energy Advisory (<a href="http://www.aecea.com.de/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AECEA</a>), national power utilities and state-owned enterprises&#8217; bullishness resulted in such a high number of installations. The high growth of new solar and wind installations was driven by corresponding regulations such as renewable portfolio standard compliance requirements and China&#8217;s aim to achieve its carbon emission peak by around 2030.</p>
<p>AECEA said that half of China&#8217;s 31 provinces already detailed their 14<sup>th</sup> five-year-plans to continue to support the enhancement of renewables capacity. Several provinces aim to install 120 GW of solar capacity in the next five years. In contrast, some of these plans do not have clear-cut installation targets.</p>
<p>Last week, the Shanghai Municipality announced that it would release its carbon emission action plan to reach its carbon emissions peak by 2025, five years ahead of the national target.</p>
<p>In September 2020, the world&#8217;s largest and growing energy market, China, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/china-pledge-to-become-carbon-neutral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> its ambition to transform into a carbon-neutral economy by 2060.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/harsh-shukla/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Harsh Shukla</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><p><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Harsh-Shukla-293x300-1-new.jpg" width="99" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/harsh-shukla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong style="color: #00b451">Harsh Shukla</strong> </a>is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/harsh-shukla/">More articles from Harsh Shukla.</a></p>
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China Adds 48.2 GW of Solar Capacity in 2020, its Second Best Year on Record

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