China’s Great Wall says will invest $1.8 billion in Brazil over next decade

(This Jan 28 story corrects investment figure to $1.8 bln, from $1.9 bln in headline)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Great Wall Motor said on Friday it will invest 11.5 billion yuan ($1.81 billion) over the next decade to build electric vehicles in Brazil where its has taken over a factory from Daimler AG.

Baoding-based Great Wall, China’s top pickup truck maker, said it planned to launch 10 new electrified products within three years in Brazil, four of which will be pure electric vehicles and six hybrid. It added that it would introduce the first product in the fourth quarter of this year, it added.

The vehicles will be built from its new factory in the city of Iracemapolis in Sao Paulo state, which it officially took over on Thursday.

Great Wall said it would put the plant into operation in the second half of next year, and that it expected it to produce 100,000 units a year and create 2,000 local jobs.

Daimler sold the former Mercedes Benz factory to Great Wall for an undisclosed sum last August in a deal that marked the Chinese automaker’s arrival in Latin America’s largest economy.

Global sales are key for Great Wall, which sold 1.28 million vehicles last year and aims to deliver four million cars a year in 2025.

($1 = 6.3629 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; editing by Jason Neely)