Wanxiang Group, the Chinese owners of Karma Automotive, became the sixth company in the nation to receive permission from China’s officials to produce electric cars.
The National Development and Reform Commission gave the thumbs up today to Wanxiang Group to invest in the manufacturing facilities that plan to produce an annual capacity of 50,000 extended-range electric vehicles, Bloomberg reports.
China’s special scheme aims to encourage companies outside of the car manufacturing to develop new-energy cars.
Wanxiang Group bought the bankrupt Fisker Automotive and provided financial backing to restart the company as Karma. Last September the reborn company cleared the environmental impact review, opening the way for the investment of 2.5 billion yuan ($360 million) in a plant near Hangzhou which is destined to produce cars on the Karma platform.
Out of the annual 50,000-unit production run, 39,000 are reserved for a new two-door model called the Atlantic, which has a top speed of 134mph (216km/h) and can get to 62mph (0-100km/h) in 6.5 seconds, according to Wanxiang’s application for the environmental impact review.
China is giving production licenses to newcomers to the auto industry as part of their push for more innovation and less emissions, with billionaires like Jack Ma, Terry Gou, Li Ka-shing and Jia Yueting being among the investors who’ve spent at least $2 billion into the development and production of greener cars.
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