Volkswagen will keep expanding Chinese operations and start selling battery-powered cars in the biggest auto market as the country rewards electric-vehicle buyers to tackle air pollution, Reuters reported. VW said on Saturday it will add capacity in its top market, the destination of over a third of its 2.4 million first-quarter group deliveries, as economic stimulus measures and demand in China's interior regions fuel sales. VW group deliveries may increase to over 3.5 million cars this year, a record, from 3.27 million in 2013, Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn said at a company event. The German group, one of the first global automakers to establish production facilities in China during the 1980s, will push its environmental credentials as China moves to upgrade the economy and shift the focus away from heavy industry. The government announced in February a 10 billion yuan ($1.61 billion) fund to help change the way it produces and consumes energy. It aims to promote green and low-carbon technology to cut fossil fuel use and control coal consumption. "Here in China, as elsewhere, people's expectations of mobility and the automobile are changing faster and faster," the VW CEO said. Europe's biggest carmaker, which also sells the high-performance Lamborghini and Bentley brands in China, is a late starter in terms of making environmentally-friendly cars there. -- SPA 19:24 LOCAL TIME 16:24 GMT تغريد
