Atieva Is Shaping Up To Be Another Tesla Rival

Tesla’s business model is a recipe for success, and Atieva USA Inc is the latest start-up company that wants to challenge the American car manufacturer in the all-electric segment.

“Down the road” from Tesla Motor Inc’s headquarters, another brand-new automotive company is attempting to break into the electric business, aiming to offer a family of vehicles designed and built in the United States.

Backed by Chinese investors, Atieva plans to introduce a premium electric sedan in 2018, and a pair of luxury crossovers in 2020-2021. According to Reuters, the company won’t be rivaling just Tesla, but also three China-based startups that are using Silicon Valley Technologies; two of them founded by the same Chinese internet billionaire backing Atieva (Jia Yueting, who controls giant tech company LeEco).

The brainchild of former executives from Tesla and Oracle, Atieva was founded in 2007 and is now testing its drivetrain, composed of high-output electric motors, a lithium-ion battery pack, inverters and controllers, using a Mercedes-Benz Vito commercial van as a mule.

The company’s Chief Technology Officer Peter Rawlinson, the man who helped develop the Model S while at Tesla, said Atieva’s “secret sauce” is tying the hardware together, making it deliver a combined output of 900hp to the 5,000-pound four-wheel-drive van he has named “Edna.”

Sufficient grunt to make the Vito sprint from 0 to 60mph (96km/h) in just 3.1 seconds; very close to Atieva’s 2.7 seconds target for its 2018 sedan.

Developed under the code name Project Cosmos, the future vehicle reportedly looks like a futuristic descendant of the Audi A7. It uses ultra-thin headlamps, with thousands of insect-inspired micro lenses.

Atieva has raised several hundred million dollars from investors including the Japanese trading giant Mitsui & Co Ltd, and Venrock – a Silicon Valley venture capital firm connected with the Rockefeller family that once funded Intel and Apple.

Currently, the company is also looking for a site to build its U.S. manufacturing plant, with director Brian Barron saying the search has narrowed to two possible locations.