BEIJING – Volkswagen AG announced on Wednesday that it would test autonomous vehicles in China’s eastern city of Hefei, the first in the world’s largest auto market.
China has become a hot spot for trying out self-driving vehicles. Toyota-backed Pony.ai, Baidu Inc, Nissan-backed WeRide, and Didi Chuxing are testing autonomous cars in various cities as automakers and tech companies invest billions in the technology.
Volkswagen, the largest foreign automaker in China, will start the test in Hefei from September with the electric sports utility vehicle E-Tron from Audi, according to a statement. The test will be open to the public from next year.
In May, Volkswagen announced it would invest 1 billion euros ($ 1.18 billion) to acquire a 50 percent stake in the state-owned parent company of Chinese electric vehicle company JAC. Volkswagen will also take full management control of its existing electric vehicle joint venture with JAC in Hefei by increasing its stake from 50% to 75%.
Volkswagen also has ventures with the state-owned China FAW Group Corp Ltd and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd.
The German auto company sold 1.59 million vehicles in China in the first half of 2020, a 17% decrease from 1.92 million vehicles in the same period last year. For the whole of 2019, Volkswagen sold around 4.23 million vehicles in the country.
In June, Volkswagen completed its $ 2.6 billion investment in Pittsburgh-based self-driving startup Argo AI, in which Ford Motor Co. has a stake.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)
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