New Delhi, Feb 9 (TIWN) China's largest SUV manufacturer Great Wall Motors is gung-ho on its India prospects, where it will invest an estimated $1 billion in a phased manner for manufacturing of not just cars but also lithium-ion batteries in the future.

Accordingly, the company plans to take over General Motor''s Talegaon plant and refurbish it as per requirements to manufacture large vehicles such as SUVs.

The company plans to manufacture EVs too at this plant. It also plans to invest in battery manufacturing in India, along with further investments in Research and Development.

Currently, the company has 14 global manufacturing facilities.

"We plan to launch our SUVs at the earliest in 2021. We will get the Talegaon plant in the second half of 2020. The plant would require some changes as only small cars are being produced there presently," Kaushik Ganguly, Director, Strategy and Planning at the Indian Subsidiary of Great Wall Motors told IANS.

"We are already manufacturing most of the critical and high precision components in China, including EV batteries and e-Drivetrains. This can be produced in India too, depending on the market situation."