Germany's BMW has broken ground for a new factory to produce battery-powered Mini cars in China, as it kicked off a joint venture with Chinese partner Great Wall Motors.

Both partners are together investing 650 million euros (715 million U.S. dollars) in the plant, which is due for completion in 2022.

Some 160,000 cars a year are set to roll off the assembly line at the planned factory in the city of Zhangjiagang, eastern China's Jiangsu Province, which will eventually employ 3,000 people.

The new joint venture, called Spotlight Automotive, is the latest of several partnerships between Chinese and international automakers focusing on electric vehicle production in response to the rapid growth in China's new energy vehicles market.

BMW board member Nicolas Peter said the project underscored "the enormous importance of the Chinese market for us".

Read more: China's electric vehicle market set to rebound in 2020

Earlier this month, Great Wall gained domestic regulatory approval for the new plant.

Great Wall is China's top sport utility vehicle and pick-up truck maker. It also builds Ora, an affordable battery electric vehicle brand in Baoding, the city where it is based.

Alongside BMW's all-electric Mini, the Chinese company will also build some of its own brand models at the plant.

Worldwide, BMW has set itself the goal of having more than one million fully-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids on the roads by the end of 2021.

BMW is following the footsteps of larger peer Volkswagen, which is readying two Chinese factories to build electric cars next year, and which will have a combined production capacity of 600,000 vehicles.

Tesla is aiming for more than 500,000 cars a year by building a new factory in Shanghai.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)