HANOI, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Vietnamese carmaker Kim Long Motor said on Tuesday it was working with China’s BYD to invest $130 million to develop a factory in central Vietnam to produce batteries for commercial electric vehicles.
Under the agreement, King Long Motors will finance the construction of the facility, while BYD will provide comprehensive technical and process support, the company said in a statement.
Kim Long Motor said in a statement that the plant will cover an area of 4.4 hectares and have an annual production capacity of 3 gigawatt hours.
The company said it expected to begin operations soon, but did not give an exact timeline.
In the second phase, the plant will be expanded to 10 hectares and production capacity will be doubled to 6 GWh per year. The expansion will also introduce battery production for electric passenger cars.
The plant will produce batteries for commercial vehicles, including buses, trucks and minibuses.
Vietnam’s electric vehicle market is expanding rapidly, led by domestic automaker VinFast, which dominates the field.
VinFast has recently entered the commercial vehicle sector with the launch of the EC Van, an electric van designed to support sustainable urban freight transport.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by David Stanway)
