BAIC Opens Tech Center in Silicon Valley

Beijing Automobile Industry Holding Corp. has opened a technical center in Freemont, Calif., to develop electric vehicles.

BAIC says the facility, which employs about 20 people, will enable it to develop as many as six new EV models per year. Work at the center is likely to include Atieva Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based EV maker, whose largest shareholder is BAIC. The two companies plan to unveil a prototype EV in April at the Beijing auto show.

BAIC recently has entered into other technology partnerships with CECOMP (an Italian maker of vehicle prototypes), German industrial giant Siemens and South Korean wireless provider SK Group.

BAIC, which currently sells about 1,000 EVs per month, aims to hike annual output to 200,000 units by 2020, including 60,000 for foreign markets.