Germany’s Daimler AG plans to invest 5 billion yuan ($755 million) in China for factory capacity to manufacture electric cars and the batteries that power them, part of an effort to help its Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands comply with the country’s green car production and sales quotas.
China has set strict quotas for electric and plug-in hybrid cars that come into effect from 2019. It has an ambitious target of 2 million NEV sales by 2020 and has signalled longer-term it will phase out the sale of conventional petrol-engine cars.