National Electric Vehicles Sweden AB (NEVS), the owner of Saab Automobiles, has signed an agreement with the Chinese city of Qingdao to make and sell Electric Vehicles (EV).

The company expects to manufacture electric cars for the Chinese market following the huge investments in the segment by the authorities.

As a part of the deal, the company plans to invest about $307m for Qingdao, through the Qingdao Qingbo Investment company, in which the NEVS will get 22% of the shares.

The company is scheduling the launch of its first electric car by early 2014, and planning to re-launch the Saab 9-3 model with the same engine.

Plans are also underway to import cars from Sweden to Qingdao port and set up a factory in Qingdao after it has reached full production capacity at the previous Saab plant in Sweden.