VW’s decision to sell the plant comes after years of investor pressure on the carmaker to abandon presence in Xinjiang

Plug-in hybrids priced from 79,800 yuan ($11,014) have made up the bulk of BYD's sales in the past three years

Interest in local Chinese partnerships comes at a time when foreign carmakers are quickly losing share in the world’s biggest car market

The German automaker is also planning to roll out two new models as part of its tie-up with Chinese firm Xpeng

Chinese EV sales totalled 1.03 million in the first quarter of the year but it was the slowest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2023

VW has said it is reviewing “the future direction of business" in Xinjiang, where a test track was constructed for the German carmaker, allegedly using forced labour

The deal is win for Xpeng, one of the smaller players in China's EV sector, that is less than a decade old

The Shenzhen outfit's hybrids and fully electric vehicles outsold Volkswagen-branded cars in the first three months of the year in China

The world’s auto executives will be in Shanghai this week for the city’s auto show with Chinese car firms now enjoying unprecedented dominance

Sixteen automakers including overseas giants such as Tesla and VW recorded monthly deliveries of more 10,000 in China last month

He said that without the Chinese market - which accounted for 3.3 million VW sales last year, including its electric ID.4 model - inflation would explode

Global carmakers are falling behind Chinese electric car companies in the world's biggest car market, with no foreign brands among the top 10 carmakers in the China EV segment this year, except for Tesla in third place.