AN electric vehicle (EV) factory planned by Chinese automaking group Geely will produce cars under the premium Polestar marque, Reuters quoted sources with direct knowledge of the matter as saying yesterday.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. plans to build a plant with annual manufacturing capacity of 30,000 premium EVs in the southwestern city of Chongqing, run by a wholly owned, newly registered company, showed documents on its website.

The plan comes as foreign automakers including BMW AG and Tesla Inc. expand EV production in the world’s biggest auto market, sourcing major EV components such as batteries locally and often exporting the end product.

Hangzhou-based Geely is China’s most internationally known automaker. It owns Volvo Cars and Lotus, almost half of Proton and 9.7 percent of Daimler AG. Its Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. is planning a Shanghai float.

Through wholly owned company Polestar, it builds low-volume Polestar 1 hybrid performance cars in the southwestern city of Chengdu and Polestar 2 volume sedans in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province.

It also plans to begin production of the Precept sedan, displayed at this year’s Beijing auto show.

Polestar aims to eventually offer bigger, more sporty vehicles at its showrooms, which currently span nine countries and whose number it plans to raise to 45 from 23 by year-end.

Polestar chief executive Thomas Ingenlath said the firm is scouting markets in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Geely is also building a factory in China to make sport-utility vehicles under the Lotus marque, previous media reports said.

Meanwhile, ECARX, a tech company backed by Geely, said yesterday it has raised 1.3 billion yuan (US$194.51 million) in a funding round that included Baidu and U.S. firm Susquehanna International Group.

Hangzhou-based ECARX focuses on technology used in car chips, high-definition maps and smart vehicles. The funding will be used for autonomous driving technologies and map development, it said in a WeChat post.(SD-Agencies)