WUHAN — Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd (GAC Group) on Monday started construction work on a factory in Central China's Hubei province.

The assembly plant in the city of Yichang is designed to have an annual production capacity of 200,000 units, said the GAC Group.

GAC has joint ventures with overseas carmakers including Toyota, Honda and Fiat Chrysler, but the factory will produce GAC vehicles.

Covering an area of 93 hectares and with an investment of 3.5 billion yuan ($540 million), the plant is scheduled to start operations in June 2019.

The local government will work with GAC on an auto parts industrial park. In the next three to five years, the two sides will build a modern motor vehicle manufacturing base with planned annual output of 100 billion yuan.