Electric vehicle plant to rise in Nanjing

Local automaker Zonda Group and Qingshan Energy Research Institute are jointly investing about 2 billion yuan (US$292.83 million) in building an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility at Nanjing (Jiangsu province). The first phase of the project will get an investment of 600 million yuan (US$87.85 million), aimed at developing pure-electric double-decker buses for the city’s public transportation network. Zonda Group said that the new facility will generate about 1,500 jobs and subsequently earn annual sales revenue of 4 billion yuan (US$585.66 million) when it becomes completely operational. (October 29, 2009)