California is quickly becoming a hub for electric car development, with many of the new firms backed by Chinese interests. The latest is Silicon Valley-based Atieva which is reportedly backed by stated-owned Chinese auto giant BAIC.
Autocar reports that BAIC's electric car offshoot Beijing Electric Vehicle Company plans to work with Atieva to develop a new range of electric cars, the first of which will be previewed in concept form at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show next April. Pictured above is potential teaser for the new car taken from Atieva's website.
The only official information from Atieva is that the company is "designing and creating a breakthrough electric car." The company also says that it sees itself as a car company, though not a traditional one.
Atieva was actually founded as far back as 2007, by Bernard Tse and Sam Weng. Tse is a former Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] exec and Weng is the founder of communications firm Astoria Networks. They are said to be working closely with several established firms including German industrial giant Siemens, Korean battery firm SK Group and Italian production specialist CECOMP.
Along with Atieva, there's also Faraday Future, which is located near Los Angeles and plans to unveil an electric car concept at next month's 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. The company has also confirmed that it plans to start production of an electric car at a new $1 billion plant in north Las Vegas. One of the key people behind Faraday is Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting who runs a technology company by the name of Letv.
Then there's Karma, which was formed out of the remains of bankrupt automaker Fisker by Chinese supplier giant Wanxiang. Karma has confirmed that it will restart production of the Fisker Karma extended-range electric sedan at a new plant in California's Moreno Valley in the near future.
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Source: New Chinese-Backed Californian Startup Atieva Plans Electric Car
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