New | Tycoon exiled over Bo Xilai feud attempts comeback with new-energy vehicles for China
Hybrid Kinetic Group, controlled by Yang Rong, is aiming to build assemblies on the mainland with capacity to produce up to 300,000 new-energy vehicles within three years.
Yang Rong, the automotive tycoon who went on a self-imposed exile in the United States after losing a 2002 feud with Bo Xilai, is making a comeback to the industry that made him China’s third-wealthiest businessman almost two decades ago.
This time, he is ditching the boxy minivans that gave his Brilliance Auto Group an early lead in China’s commercial vehicles market, hitching a ride instead on the government’s drive to produce new-energy vehicles. A total of 31,120 fully electric cars and hybrids were sold in China in March, 35.6 per cent jump from a year ago.
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Hybrid Kinetic, which reported a first-half loss of HK$136.8 million on turnover of HK$13.8 million, has spent the past eight years working on a plan to build new-energy vehicles in China.
The company is aiming to build car assemblies in three to five locations across the country, with an initial production capacity of 300,000 units within three years, eventually expanding the capacity to 1 million units.
“Three years are more than enough for us to complete the preparatory work for the production,” said Hybrid Kinetic’s chief executive Jason Xu Jianguo, during the Shanghai Auto Show this week. “Our vehicles will be affordable to those average wage-earners in China. We don’t necessarily compete against those electric carmakers.”
For now, Hybrid Kinetic’s plan is high on possibilities but low on details. Xu would not elaborate on the pricing of his vehicles, or the locations of his company’s assemblies.
