Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group announced on Friday the first phase of its plant, that manufactures auto parts for new energy vehicles in Anqing, Anhui province, has officially come into operation.

As one of the largest single investments for Midea, the factory plans to produce 1 million electric compressors, 1.2 million electric power steering motors and 200,000 drive motors each year after scaling up its production capacity in late February.

Fu Yongjun, vice-president at Midea and president of Midea Industrial Technology business group, said investing in NEVs has become a strategic direction for Midea and the company hopes to drive the technological innovation of China's NEV industry.

The operation of the manufacturing base owned by Welling Auto Parts will further improve the production capacity and delivery stability of NEVs' core components, as well as make greater efforts to meet the surging demand for NEVs.

Midea stepped into the NEV auto parts sector in 2018, establishing NEV parts companies in Guangdong and Anhui provinces. Five varieties of products from three existing product lines, namely the power steering motors, NEV electric compressors and drive motors, have completed testing and gone into mass production.

From January to November 2022, China's NEV sales exceeded 6.06 million units, doubling from the same period level in 2021, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The association expected that NEV sales in China this year will likely hit 9 million, a year-on-year increase of 35 percent.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn