The EV unit of property giant China Evergrande said on Wednesday that it had started trial production of electric vehicles and showed photos and videos of SUVs on a winter road test, in what is the latest Chinese firm aspiring to become the new Tesla.
Evergrande said in 2019 that it wanted to become the world's top EV maker within three to five years, according to Bloomberg.
Evergrande's planned manufacturing sites at Guangzhou and Shanghai have launched trial production of EVs, the company said in a statement carried by Bloomberg. The Chinese firm also looks to begin mass manufacturing of its own batteries in the second half of this year.
China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, the unit of the property giant Evergrande, raised last month as much as US$3.35 billion from six private investors to fund its ambition to become a major EV player. The financing will help China Evergrande to achieve its strategic goal to become "the world's largest and most powerful new energy vehicle group," the Hong Kong-listed company said in a filing, as carried by South China Morning Post.
Evergrande, controlled by one of China's richest people Hui Ka-yan, looks to have a vehicle manufacturing capacity of between 500,000 and 1 million vehicles within three to five years, according to the company website quoted by South China Morning Post.
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To compare, Tesla delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles globally in 2020, while the total production of Tesla models last year was 509,737 vehicles, according to the U.S. electric vehicle maker's Q4 production and vehicle update.
China's Evergrande, however, has yet to sell an electric vehicle, although shares of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group jumped to a record high after the latest funding was announced at the end of January.
Evergrande's vehicles, when produced, are set to join an increasingly competitive EV market in China, where Tesla, Nio, and Warren Buffett-backed BYD have established a solid presence.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More