China’s national hi-tech enterprise, LEO Group, released an announcement on Monday that it injected RMB 350 million (USD 54 million) in new capital into the EV maker Beijing Chehejia Information Technology Company for an 11.74% stake in the company. Seven other investors also contributed RMB 430 million in financing to the company.
Li Xiang, CEO of Chehejia, confirmed this round of financing on Tuesday. He said the company completed Series A financing to the tune of RMB 2.5 billion in just ten months since being founded. At present, the company is valued at RMB three billion.
The new investment will be used to implement a full ecosystem plan for the electric vehicle industry including business expansion, R&D and a production facility.
Founded in 2015 in Beijing, Chehejia aims to sell electric vehicles online and offline and provide related services including car maintenance, repairs and insurance.
The company plans to make products including smart EVs and electric SUVs to satisfy the needs of most potential car buyers. It will build a factory with the capacity for 300,000 units per year and a matched battery factory with a new battery management system.
Chehejia claimed that their EVs will be made of aluminum with detachable batteries and will thus be able to run longer distances without charging spots.
Li is a star entrepreneur in China’s online automotive sector. He built a listed company, Autohome.com.cn, which provides information about cars, and co-founded an EV company NextEV, which plans to produce Tesla-style EVs in 2016 by using USD 500 million. Chehejia is his other attempt in building a vehicle startup.
LEO Group is a national hi-tech enterprise, which plays an important role in many critical fields in China such as civil water supply, agricultural irrigation, industrial water treatment, heating ventilation engineering, power station construction, petrochemical engineering, etc.
(Top photo from chehejia.com.)