Remember that elegant sedan concept that Pininfarina unveiled a couple of weeks ago in Geneva? Well it turns out it’s heading for production.
The sedan in question is the H600, styled by the famed Italian design house for the Hong Kong-based Hybrid Kinetic Group. The company was founded by Yung Benjamin Yeung – the same man behind Chinese automaker Brilliance – who is now taking aim square at Tesla and its Model S.
Underneath its stunning design, the H600 boasts a hybrid powertrain that – like Jaguar’s aborted C-X75 concept – incorporates a microturbine engine, in this case acting as a range-extender. The powertrain is said to produce upwards of 800 horsepower, which struck us as rather ambitious at the time of its unveiling, but we’ll be interested to see how it pans out.
Previous plans (under the name HK Motors) for a plant in Alabama fell through, but HK has regrouped, and aims to launch the H600 in the United States and China by the end of this decade.
“A lot of Chinese companies overpromise and underdeliver. We’re going to be the opposite,” spokesman Carter Yeung told Automotive News. “We’re always going to make mistakes. It’s how you recover from those that defines how this company will be run in the future.”
Following initial trial production at Pininfarina’s facilty in Italy, production is now slated to take place in China. HK reportedly plans to build over 200,000 of them within 5-10 years, and has other plans in store as well. Look for two more models to be revealed at the Shanghai Auto Show next month.
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