China

The Volkswagen ID.3 electric hatchback will be built in China, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. As first reported the Automotive News Europe, SAIC Volkswagen – the brand’s joint-venture with SAIC Motors – received approval this week from local regulators to begin production at its Anting plant in Shanghai. The ID.3 is currently assembled exclusively in Volkswagen’s native Germany, at the brand’s Zwickau and Dresden plants.

EXCLUSIVE New details of the upcoming BYD electric hatchback – which importer Nexport claims will be sold in Australia for “well under $35,000” when order books open later this year – have been revealed exclusively to CarAdvice. The Chinese-built five-door – which was unveiled as the EA1 in China last week, but will be sold locally under a different nameplate – has a range of approximately 500km, according to Nexport founder Luke Todd.

UPDATE, 20 April 2021: The Beetle-inspired Ora electric car was revealed in full last night at the Shanghai motor show. The newest images – courtesy of Autocar – confirm the vehicle’s four-seat layout, reveal a flower-studded interior, and show off a two-tone green and white colour scheme for the first time. It appears the car also boasts dual screens, in the form of a circular digital cluster behind the steering wheel and a centre console-mounted infotainment interface.

The Tesla Model 3 has been outsold in China by a $5700 electric micro car, known as the Hongguang Mini EV. In January this year 25,778 examples of the Hongguang Mini EV were reported as sold in China, compared to 13,843 examples of the Tesla Model 3 in the same month. The compact, four-seat, three-door hatchback – which is a collaboration between Chinese manufacturer SAIC and US giant General Motors – weighs 665kg. For reference, that's about half the mass of a Toyota Corolla hatch.

MG will launch its all-electric sports coupe in late 2021, according to a new report from the December 9, 2020 issue of Autocar magazine. What's more, the report specifically states the model will be offered in right-hand-drive markets including Australia. The MG brand – which was synonymous with small and affordable sports cars throughout much of the 20th century – is yet to build a performance-oriented product under current Chinese SAIC Motor ownership.