Magna to produce China’s GAC electric vehicles in Europe

By Nora Eckert

DETROIT (Reuters) -China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group (​GAC) will build its electric ‌AION V model at a Magna facility in Austria, ‌the two companies said on Thursday, a strategy that should help GAC avoid the EU’s tariffs on China-made EVs.

The GAC vehicle ⁠will be produced ‌at Magna’s facility in Graz, Austria, which can make ‍gasoline-powered, hybrid and electric vehicles on shared lines.

Last year, the EU introduced provisional tariffs of ​up to 37.6% on China-‌made EVs, describing their imports as a potential flood of unfairly subsidized EVs.

“Europe is a vital market in GAC’s global development,” said Wei Haigang, president of ⁠GAC International.

Roland Prettner, ​president of the Magna Steyr ​contract manufacturing business, said its expertise will allow automakers like GAC to ‍localize production ⁠efficiently.

The GAC deal comes after Magna said in September it would build battery-powered ⁠models for XPeng at the same Graz facility.

(‌Reporting by Nora Eckert in Detroit; ‌Editing by Sonali Paul)