California battery-electric vehicle manufacturer ZAP and its subsidiary Jonway Auto have signed a volume purchase EV contract with Guangzhou WuYang Motors Group, an EV motorcycle group in Southern China.

Jonway and Guangzhou WuYang designed a new EV passenger car that will be ready for production later this year. The new model is, in part, due to the large amount of direct orders for the Urbee and the Sparkee, according to the companies.

The two EVs received more than 25,000 orders by more than 30 dealers, spread out throughout Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei, Xian, Jinan, Shandong and Nantong, according to the companies. The production on the Urbee and Sparkee started in June.

The new models will be manufactured and produced at Jonway Auto’s factory in Zhejiang and shipped to WuYang’s dealerships. The contract calls for no less than 6,000 EVs to be produced over the next 12 months. 

Jonway said it hopes to sell the Urbee EV to Chinese city municipal fleets. The Urbee EV can ride in the bicycle lanes, and drive at a peak speed of 70kph, with a range of over 200km between charges.

Jonway has aligned its company’s priorities to utilize a comprehensive multi-billion dollar EV stimulus program put out by the Chinese government in July, according to Broadway World.

The program includes EV rebates, elimination of sales tax and license fees, electric charging infrastructure installation mandates as well as electric power pricing incentives to stimulate EV market adoption up until 2020. The Chinese central government created the program targeting markets with high fuel consumption and pollution problems.