BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD plans to hire 20,000 employees in Zhengzhou in the first quarter, in areas including R&D and manufacturing, government-run Henan Daily reported on Thursday.

There are around 60,000 workers at BYD's production base in the capital city of central China's Henan province. The Zhengzhou facility will ramp up production capacity this year according to the report.

Some 545,000 vehicles rolled off the Zhengzhou assembly last year, up 169.8%.