After a lot of waiting, Volkswagen has finally started the trial production for its electric vehicles. The production has started at SAIC Motor Corp Ltd’s 2.5 billion EV plant in Shanghai. The latest development is in the race to sell more and more EVs in China. The CEO and chairman of the management board, Herbert Diess, said: “The move goes in line with the Volkswagen’s e-mobility initiative”.

Tesla Inc, on the other hand, has also started trial production for EVs at its factory in China. Being one of the leading EV makers in the USA, Tesla Inc aims to produce 500,000 cars/year after construction completes. Undoubtedly, China is the world’s largest new energy vehicle market with high EV selling. This is the reason both startups and established automakers couldn’t stop them from exploring China as a sales hub. In 2018 alone, China’s energy vehicle market sales jumped from 61.7% to 1.3 million.

Volkswagen is planning to ready two new Chinese EV factories by the end of 2020. The initiation is taking place to compete with the global EV manufacturers in the upcoming years. Volkswagen’s ID series EVs will be the first models to roll out followed by VW’s premium Audi AG models.

Herbert Diess also said that Volkswagen is planning to expand its production line so that it can produce around 22 million electric vehicles by the end of 2028. Earlier in July, Diess told half of Volkswagen’s annual sale in China will be electric vehicles by the end of 2035.