FUZHOU - Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor on Saturday started production at its new vehicle assembly plant in East China's Fujian province.

MG eHS, a new energy vehicle model of MG Motor now owned by the Shanghai-based carmaker, rolled off the production line at the manufacturing base in the city of Ningde.

MG eHS is the first model for the smart Ningde factory and will later enter the European market, according to the SAIC.

The base mainly produces the ROEWE and MG passenger cars. Its first-phase facility, with an investment of 5 billion yuan ($702 million), has an annual production capacity of 300,000 cars.

The factory, which also has a planned same-capacity second phase, is expected to generate an output value of nearly 100 billion yuan after the whole facility begins operation in the future.

Up to now, the first batch of 30 suppliers have been put into operation, creating nearly 10,000 jobs in Ningde, said Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC.

The base will help promote the development of the whole industrial chain of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and help Fujian become an important NEV production base in East China's coastal area, said Huang Maoxing, dean of Fujian Normal University's Economics School.