JAC Group’s Yiwei, a new EV brand in China backed by Volkswagen, debuted the first sodium-ion battery-powered electric car. The new JAC Yiwei EV rolled off the assembly line Wednesday.
Yiwei is a new EV maker under the JAC Group. It was established earlier this year. Volkswagen owns 50% of JAC’s parent company, the other 50% is state-owned.
Volkswagen invested 1 billion euros for a 50% stake in JAC Group in 2021. The German automaker also took full control of management of its existing EV joint venture with a 75% stake.
The new EV features sodium-ion cylindrical cells from HiNa Battery. The Beijing-based tech company is affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It will use JAC’s UE module tech, a honey-comb battery structure. JAC’s UE is similar to BYD’s Blade battery, which is used in Toyota, Kia, and…