In the first half of this year, Qingdao's Jimo district in Shandong province delivered a strong performance in the automotive sector.

Three major vehicle manufacturers produced a total of 210,000 vehicles, generating 39.26 billion yuan ($5.82 billion) in output value, up 6.5 percent year-on-year.

Notably, new energy vehicle (NEV) output in Jimo reached 42,000 units with an output value of 8.32 billion yuan, soaring 63 percent year-on-year and accounting for 21 percent of Jimo's total vehicle output value.

FAW Jiefang (Qingdao) produced 14,000 NEVs, up 68 percent, with the new micro-truck project now in production. The company is capable of producing 100,000 units annually across both conventional and new energy platforms.

Chery's Qingdao base produced 28,000 NEVs with a value of 4.88 billion yuan in H1, up 59.7 percent from last year. The Chery base now produces a vehicle every 1.5 minutes, with more than half of its output and revenue coming from NEVs.

FAW-Volkswagen's East China base in Jimo is also accelerating its transformation. A new A-segment SUV project with a 400 million yuan production line investment is scheduled to launch by the end of this year, adding additional annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles.

The HEV battery pack project of FAW-Volkswagen's East China base has also begun production, with an annual capacity of 120,000 units and an average annual output value of about 1 billion yuan. These "Made in Qingdao" battery packs will be exported to Volkswagen Group plants in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Brazil.

With NEVs accounting for 21 percent of the total vehicle output value in Jimo district, the shift to new energy is giving the district's automotive industry value a major boost. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/for chinadaily.com.cn]