China’s Evergrande Wants To Be World’s Largest Electric Vehicle Group

Chinese real estate developer Evergrande is moving into the world of electric vehicles and believes it will soon become the world’s largest electric vehicle group.

China Evergrande Group is led by an ambitious chairman named Hui Ka Yan. Speaking at a conference held by the company in Tianjin on Saturday, the chairman said that Evergrande is in a position to expand into the world of electric vehicles having established itself as the nation’s second-largest property developer, Bloomberg reports.

“Evergrande has positioned across the electric-vehicle industry chain and is now armed with advanced technology. Evergrande will strive to become the world’s biggest, and the strongest, electric vehicle group within three to five years,” Hui said.

To say those are ambitious goals would be an understatement, and while Evergrande will be new to building electric vehicles, it has been exploring the market for several years. The company is the majority investor in Swedish hypercar manufacturer Koenigsegg, has invested heavily in National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) and last year, purchased a 45 per cent stake in Faraday Future as part of a $2 billion deal.

In a statement, Evergrande says it will use electric car production technology from both Koenigsegg and NEVS as well as drive systems from Dutch company e-Traction.

Not everyone is convinced that the company has what it takes to establish itself as a serious player in the world of electric vehicles.

“Aiming to produce at such speed is like imagination,” managing director of LMC Automotive Shanghai John Zeng said. “I haven’t seen very strong technology or products from the firms they’ve bought.”

While building electric vehicles will be no easy task for Evergrande, the company does have a lot of money behind it, as Hui is China’s third richest person and is worth almost $40 billion.