(Yicai Global) June 20 -- Fisker is expected to open its first delivery center in China in Shanghai this year, according to a senior executive of the US electric vehicle startup.

The Shanghai center will deliver sport utility vehicle Fisker Ocean, Fisker’s first mass-produced EV, from the first quarter of next year, Daniel Foa, a member of the California-based company’s China board, told Yicai Global.

It is early to comment on what type of sales model Fisker will adopt in China, Foa added, noting that the firm implements the direct sales model in the US and Europe.

Fisker chose to enter China because the market share and growth rate of electric cars in the Chinese market are very high, Foa said during the company’s shareholders meeting on June 6. Moreover, the premium and affordable luxury segment is growing faster than general segments, Foa noted, adding that “Fisker fits right in that segment.”

Moreover, Chinese customers’ high acceptance of high-quality traditional international auto brands and the fact that government policies and customers are swiftly changing their focus to electrification offer opportunities for global EV brands like Fisker to enter China to compete with traditional fuel vehicles, Foa pointed out.

Nearly 27 million cars were sold in China last year, accounting for about one-third of the global total, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. New energy vehicle sales reached 6.9 million units, equal to about 61 percent of the global total.

Earlier this month, Fisker’s founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Henrik Fisker and the company’s C-suites visited China and met with Shanghai Lingang Economic Development Group, the developer of Shanghai Lingang’s industrial park, to discuss future collaborations in the automotive supply chain, logistics, warehousing, and future production development.

Fisker plans to build an EV manufacturing base in China in the future. “I believe we can get production up and running in China as early as next year, potentially adding capacity of 75,000 Fisker Oceans annually,” Fisker said during the shareholders meeting.

Lucid Motors, another US EV maker, is also preparing to enter the Chinese EV market. But China’s NEV market is entirely different from when Tesla entered. Multiple Chinese EV startups have been fiercely competing to seize market shares and room for growth, and traditional Chinese carmakers included the EV business in their strategies or development directions.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione