The first model in production at the Lydia plant is the i3, a full-electric sports sedan, BMW said, increasing the range of its EV models for Chinese customers to 13 next year.
Tesla and Chinese automakers such as BYD dominate China’s booming EV market, with sales more than doubling from a year ago.
Meanwhile kings of the internal combustion engine age such as General Motors and Volkswagen Group are falling behind.
Nearly a quarter of the cars sold in China in the first five months of this year were battery powered, according to data from China Association of Automotive Manufactures.
BMW’s China sales fell 9.2 percent to 208,507 in the first quarter, according to a company filing.