A Chinese billionaire is aiming to bring the competition to Tesla, as he plans that tomorrow’s cars will be self-driving, all-electric, connected with high-speed Internet and communications networks, and (here’s the clincher) absolutely free-of-charge.
Jia Yueting is the Chinese Billionaire Who is Trying to Compete With Tesla
This is, at the very least, the vision for Jia Yueting in which he plans on taking the electric car competition to the new heights (which might even rival big names in the industry, such as Tesla). The Chinese billionaire stated the following at the Beijing headquarters of his Le Holdings Co, or LeEco: “Tesla’s a great company and has taken the global car industry to the EV era. But we’re not just building a car. We consider the car a smart mobile device on four wheels, essentially no different to a cellphone or tablet. We hope to surpass Tesla and lead the industry leapfrogging to a new age.”
It has been known that there is a surge of electric vehicle startups that are now beginning to appear after China’s government opened up the automobile industry to deep-pocketed technology firms in an attempt to drive a switch to a cleaner alternative, which is the power of electricity, as an eventual alternative towards gasoline cars. However, the idea is not brought whole-heartedly accepted as there are skeptics who wonder as to how start-ups, such as LeEco, will be able to deliver their visions of grandeur.
As a sign of their serious intent, the 43-year-old Jia has just recently unveiled the LeSEE electric concept supercar, which would rival the Tesla Model S. It would be a “smart, connected, and self-driving” car which will be displayed at this week’s Beijing auto show. Jia told the following to Reuters: “People questioned our idea, a small IT company building a car to compete with the BMWs and Teslas of the world, and laughed at us. It wasn’t easy, but here we are.”
Jia’s company hopes to start producing the Tesla rival vehicle, the LeSEE, in a few year’s time and they plan to build it at a plant which is being built near Las Vegas by United States strategic partner Faraday Future. Jia invested in their US strategic partner and the cars that will be created will be sold in the United States and in China. Moving ahead, LeEco’s plans in producing electric cars in their home turf as well, but this time it could probably be with a partnership with BAIC Motor.