Several Chinese Internet giants and financial investment organizations, including Tencent and Hillhouse Capital, have invested in the new energy car maker NextEV.
NextEV's spokesperson revealed that their investors have hired Martin Leach, former executive of Ford, to build the company into a global automobile manufacturer. They also hired experts from Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, and other major automobile manufacturers.
NextEV's investors include several Chinese technology companies with no car industry background. However, they hope to develop new electric cars and their efforts have already gained support from the Chinese government. The Chinese government recently amended related regulations, allowing non-automobile enterprises to invest in the electric car industry.
Other investors include the founder of Yiche.com Li Bin, founder of Autohome.com.cn Li Xiang, and founder of JD.com Liu Qiangdong.
So far, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Letv have announced or expressed intentions to invest in the electric car industry.
NextEV's spokesperson said that the company's first product will be an electric sports car and its performance is expected to exceed all internal combustion engine sports cars in the world. NextEV also plans to launch a racing car in 2016; and after that the company will launch a series of high-performance products.
