Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has been reported to be planning the purchase of Borgward along with its production facility in Beijing, China, according to a report by a Chinese financial association agency.
Its electric vehicle arm, Xiaomi EV Inc plans to gain vehicle production capacity as quickly as possible through a dual-factory model. This will firstly be through acquisitions – such as that of Borgward – as well as to build subsequent facilities to ensure future production capacity.
The report quoted sources as saying that relevant parties in Xiaomi EV are working with industry authorities to expedite Xiaomi’s acquisition of Borgward, and to utilise the latter’s annual production capacity of 180,000 units for the manufacture of the Xiaomi EV, and these plans are set to be put in motion this month assuming there are no unexpected setbacks, it said.
The current Borgward manufacturing plant is located in Miyun Park, Beijing, amongst a cluster of industrial and high-tech facilities in the area. The Chinese financial association reported that the Borgward plant has been idle for more than a year, and had previously been operating on Industry 4.0 German manufacturing practices.
The aforementioned 180,000-unit annual manufacturing capacity is a first-phase figure, according to the report, and the facility can accommodate double that volume at 360,000 units annually at the second phase, it said.
The full manufacturing process is covered here, from stamping, bodywork, painting to final assembly, as well as inspection, logistics and information technology, the report added, and the facility has the capability to produce both internal combustion as well as electric vehicles.
Chairman of Xiaomi Group, Lei Jun has previously been reported to have visited several domestic auto manufacturing locations, though plans were not finalised at the time. In the five months since Xiaomi announced its EV manufacturing plans, it has built a team of almost 300 personnel from more than 20,000 applicants. According to sources sighted by CarNewsChina, Xiaomi plans to debut its EV in 2024.
In March this year, Xiaomi was reported to have been in collaboration with Great Wall, with its first EV slated for debut in 2023. Great Wall had not previously offered manufacturing service to other companies, instead it had plans for its own EV sub-brand, but at that point offered engineering consultancy to hasten development.
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the borgward name has to go. it means nothing nowadays.
Yes, Christian Borgward exited Beijing Borgward Automobile and Borgward Automotive China in January and March of 2019 respectively…, or disrespectively.
Tukar nama to ‘orgward’ (awkward)?
And then replace the name with what? With Xiaomi, which never build a car before but vacuum cleaning robots?
in indonesia their’s chinese uk carsmakers call the MG the respond on MG is good enough i hope borgward soon will come to indonesia market so become chinese German carsmakers