SHANGHAI — SAIC Motor is engaged on the positioning choice to construct a plant in Europe to supply electrical automobiles, the corporate mentioned on Tuesday, because it presses forward with it growth within the area.

The Chinese language accomplice of Volkswagen and Normal Motors, which didn’t give additional particulars on the plant plans, mentioned it had offered 530,000 items abroad within the first quarter, a rise of 40 % from a yr earlier.

Practically 70 % of these gross sales got here from the MG model in Europe, which greater than doubled to 115,000 items within the first half, SAIC mentioned.

The state-owned Chinese language automaker estimated its abroad gross sales may exceed 1.2 million items in 2023. It plans to launch greater than 10 new fashions underneath the MG model within the subsequent 18 months globally.

Automakers together with Tesla, BMW and BYD are ramping up efforts to export China-made automobiles to different markets as auto demand weakened at house, benefiting from the decrease manufacturing and provide chain prices in China.

SAIC was the largest exporter amongst all Chinese language automakers within the first 5 months, based on information from China Passenger Automotive Affiliation. Britain, Mexico, Australia and India had been amongst its largest abroad markets, the info confirmed.

MG offered 74,943 automobiles in Europe within the first 5 months, up from 32,182 the yr earlier than, based on Dataforce. The ZS small electrical crossover was its bestseller within the area with 25,853 items offered by Might.