Audi to launch new electric vehicle venture with China's FAW

BEIJING (Reuters) - German premium automaker Audi AG <NSUG.DE> said on Tuesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with China's state-owned FAW Group to launch a venture to make premium electric vehicles (EVs).

Audi has a long partnership with FAW, which is based in the city of Changchun in the northeast of China, the world's biggest car market. The German firm also plans to make vehicles with Shanghai-based automaker SAIC Motor <600104.SS>.

Audi said it would produce models based on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), a base developed with Porsche. It said the new venture would start manufacturing several models in China from 2024.

Audi aims to have electrified vehicles make up a third of Chinese sales by 2025. It sold 512,081 vehicles in China in the first nine months of 2020 and about 690,000 vehicles last year.

Audi and Porsche's representatives in China said there was no plan for Porsche production at the new venture.

EV makers such as home-grown Nio Inc <NIO.N> and Xpeng Inc <XPEV.N> as well as foreign firms like U.S. leader Tesla Inc <TSLA.O> are expanding manufacturing capacity in China where the government promotes greener vehicles to reduce air pollution.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Louise Heavens and Edmund Blair)