China’s Yadea releases 100,000th made-in-Vietnam e-motorbike, announces new factory

China-invested Vietnam Yadea Electric Motorcycle Company Limited has delivered to the Vietnamese market its 100,000th made-in-Vietnam electric two-wheeler and announced a $100 million investment in a new plant.

The firm, which boasts the best selling e-motorbike brand in the world, made the announcement at a ceremony held Thursday as it delivered the 100,000th unit from its factory in the Quang Chau Industrial Park, Bac Giang province in northern Vietnam.

Established in 2019, the factory, one of seven production bases of Yadea in the world, has an annual capacity of 500,000 units. The production plan for this year is 200,000 units.

Yadea said that it would spend $100 million to build a 23.2-hectare factory at the Tan Hung Industrial Park in the same province. The new plant would be five times bigger than its existing one.

Construction of the new factory with an annual capacity of two million units is set to begin in the last quarter of this year. The factory is scheduled to start operations in 2025, employing 3,000 people. It is also expected to feature a research and development facility and precise robots and automation for some tasks.

Yadea’s expansion in Vietnam happens in the context of the country having committed to a net-zero carbon emissions target in 2050 and set a goal of having all road traffic become electric-powered.

In the first seven months of this year, Bac Giang's index of industrial production (IIP) grew 15.6% year-on-year, according to provincial data. This vastly outperformed the country's average of negative 0.7% in the period, according to General Statistics Office data.

The northern province attracted 47 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects worth $1.2 billion in the year to July 17, up 4.5-times year-on-year in terms of capital.