Ford Enters EV Joint Venture With China’s Zotye Auto

Ford has announced that it will set up a joint venture with China’s Anhui Zotye Auto to produce affordable electric vehicles for the Chinese market. In addition to producing EVs, the joint venture also covers creating service infrastructure and the marketing of electrified vehicles.

Peter Fleet, Ford group vice president and president for the Asia Pacific region, says that this will be “an exciting next step” for Ford in China since EVs will be a big part of the Chinese market. The automaker expects the alternative energy vehicle market in China to grow to six million units by 2025 with four million of them being electric vehicles.

Zotye Auto was one of the first Chinese automakers to produce an all-electric vehicle for its home market. According to Automotive News, Zotye has sold over 16,000 all-electric vehicles through July of this year, a growth of 56 percent year-over-year. The agreement with Zotye will be a 50-50 joint venture and will be Ford’s third in China after Changan Ford and Jiangling Motor Corp. for passenger and commercial vehicles, respectively. The EVs will be produced by a brand owned by the joint venture, and more details will be announced at a later date. Jin ZheYong, chairman and president, Anhui Zotye Automobile Co., Ltd, said that the joint venture will enable both companies to leverage each other’s strengths and described the partnership as a win-win situation for both companies to grow in China’s quickly growing EV market.

In 2015, Ford committed $4.5 billion to the development of electrified vehicles including a small all-electric crossover that will be sold in global markets including Asia and North America. Ford will also produce hybrid variants of the F-150 pickup and the Mustang sports car as part of its electrification initiative.

Source: Ford, Automotive News (Subscription tequired)

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