Wanxiang Given OK For Karma Revero Production In China
Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.
The Chinese firm behind the new, reworked version of the Fisker Automotive Karma (which is known as the Karma Revero), Wanxiang Group, has been granted approval by regulators in China to begin producing electric vehicles there, according to recent reports.
To explain that background a bit further for those not aware of the situation: Fisker Automotive went bankrupt, the Chinese auto parts supplier Wanxiang Group acquired the firm’s assets around 3 years ago, and it’s now working to release a modified version of the earlier Fisker Automotive offering. (Henrik Fisker has himself moved on, with other plans and a new company.)
Reuters provides more on the regulatory approval:
“According to a notice on Friday on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic and industrial planner, Wanxiang has the green light to build a factory with capacity to produce 50,000 electric cars a year. …
“Wanxiang, a Hangzhou-based company which in 2012 also acquired US lithium-ion battery maker A123, became the 6th company to be allowed to produce new-energy vehicles in China. More companies are currently being encouraged to enter the automotive industry in China but only if they are willing to produce so-called new-energy cars, mostly all-electric battery cars and heavily electrified plug-in hybrids.”
The reasons for this EV push by the Chinese government should be easy enough to guess. After all, the country has substantial air pollution problems. Another reason, though, that’s perhaps less obvious, is that as the electric vehicle and self-driving sectors are relatively new ones, it will be easier for the country to capture market share there than to compete against a century of accumulated experience in the internal combustion engine (ICE) segments. And, of course, the electric vehicle and autonomous driving tech sectors are expected to blow up over the coming years, so better to get in on the ground floor.
Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy
