ZHENGZHOU -- Shanghai-based auto manufacturer SAIC Motor Corp on Wednesday started building a cloud computing and big data center in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan province.

With an investment of 2 billion yuan ($284.6 million), the center covers a floor area of more than 1 million square meters and will be SAIC Motor's third and largest database in China when construction is completed.

The 20,000 servers in the center are expected to provide support for product R&D and intelligent manufacturing, after-sales service, internal control and management, as well as cloud computing and services.

SAIC Motor's production base in Zhengzhou went into operation in 2017 with an annual output of 300,000 passenger vehicles. The second phase of expansion has been completed so far, which will help the automaker double its capacity.

According to the cooperation deal with Zhengzhou, SAIC Motor plans to raise its annual production in the city to 2 million vehicles.