BERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen and Chinese partner SAIC will close their joint plant in the Chinese city of Nanjing, German daily Handelsblatt reported on Friday, as the German carmaker loses market share in the world’s largest car market.
Production has already been halted, and the closure will take place gradually in the second half of the year, the report said, citing several people familiar with the process.
“We can confirm that SVW Nanjing Plant has ended production,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said in a statement, adding “many SAIC VOLKSWAGEN sites are currently being converted or have already been converted for electric vehicle production”.
Reuters reported in September that the German carmaker was planning to stop production at its Nanjing plant, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The carmaker would gradually shift production of its Passat family cars from the Nanjing plant to a nearby factory in the same eastern province of Jiangsu, the person said at the time.
Volkswagen, long the top-selling automaker in China, is suffering from a decline in its market share in the country and is working with SAIC and other partners such as Xpeng to bring new models on the market that it hopes will be more competitive.
(Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Friederike Heine)
