Chinese tech firm LeEco plans 12 billion yuan investment in electric car factory
Chinese technology conglomerate LeEco will invest 12 billion yuan into building an electric car factory in eastern China, with an estimated annual output of 400,000 electric cars by 2018.
The factory will manufacture LeEco’s autonomous electric vehicle, the LeSee, which was first unveiled in April. The concept car can achieve a top speed of 209km/h and comes with autonomous driving, LeEco said at the time.
With the development of the internet and technology, the traditional car industry which has been around for over a century is now at a turning point
The factory, which will be built in Zhejiang province’s Deqing county, is part of LeEco’s 20 billion yuan Eco Experience Park project which will include an entertainment park. Visitors will be able to experience LeEco vehicles and its other content offerings, such as sports content platform LeSports and its music streaming service Le Music at the venue.
The park project will be developed with the Zhejiang provincial government, according to LeEco. Completion dates for the project and factory were not revealed.
“With the development of the internet and technology, the traditional car industry which has been around for over a century is now at a turning point,” LeEco chief executive Jia Yueting said. “We hope that our strategic cooperation will be a model for the next era of joint ventures for internet ecosystem businesses and governments.”
The company, which has backed US electric vehicle start-up Faraday Future, also plans to manufacture cars at Faraday Future’s factory that is being built near Las Vegas.