Ohmio signs US$20m deal with Chinese city Heshan

Ohmio / HMI Technologies has signed a US$20million investment agreement with the Heshan Industrial City Management Committee to establish an Ohmio manufacturing plant for autonomous vehicles and an Artificial Intelligence Transport Research Centre in Heshan.

Chairman and founder of HMI Technologies and Ohmio Mohammed Hikmet, and the Deputy Director of the Heshan Industrial City Administration Committee Wu Xiaoqing signed the investment agreement

Ohmio Executive Chairman Mohammed Hikmet described the milestone as “another vote of confidence in Ohmio,” following the signing of an MOU in South Korea earlier in the year.

 “It’s another step in our vision to build Ohmio as a global autonomous vehicle manufacturer.”

Ohmio Chief Executive Dean Zabrieszach said the investment will enable Ohmio to “not only meet its mass production requirements inside and outside of China, but also add a huge boost to our existing research activities in establishing an autonomous platform solution as part of an entire ecosystem.”

“While the R&D centre in New Zealand will continue to be the main one, we look forward to the Heshan centre starting as soon as possible, under the supervision of our key technology and artificial intelligence leaders in the company.”

The agreement has a start date of July 1 and Mr Zabrieszach said they are looking forward to getting underway as soon as possible.

 Ohmio acknowledged the support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development in securing the agreement.