Chery, Japan's Yaskawa in electric vehicle JV

Chinese automaker Chery and Japanese electronics manufacturer Yaskawa have formed a new joint venture as the former is seeking to develop more key parts for new energy vehicles.

The 300-million-yuan (about 46 million U.S. dollars) joint venture, based in Wuhu in east China's Anhui Province will see Chery and Yaskawa contribute 45 and 40 percent of the investment, Chery said on Monday. The remaining 15 percent comes from state-owned Wuhu Construction Investment Co.

The joint venture will focus on designing new energy vehicle parts including motors, controllers and drive systems, and it will aim to produce 50,000 sets of these parts each year from September 2017. It is eyeing a full production capacity of 100,000 sets eventually.

Chery has previously announced a target of tripling its new energy vehicle production capacity from the current 40,000 by 2017. Endi