China Evergrande Group's recently established new-energy-vehicle manufacturer has unveiled six new electric-car models that will sport its Hengchi brand name. The vehicles went on display Monday.
Evergrande Health Industry Group, a subsidiary China's largest property developer by sales, is yet to make a profit. But it said it remained on track to mass-produce its new electric vehicles. Evergrande Health Industry will start building the vehicles early next year.
The new models, the Hengchi 1 through Hengchi 6, include sedans, crossovers and sport utility vehicles. The company didn't provide details about availability, performance, features or pricing.
Evergrande Health said in a statement it could become the world's No. 1 new-energy-vehicle maker within the next three to five years. It said wanted to become the most competitive and largest EV company within that period.
Evergrande Health said in March it should be mass producing its new vehicles by 2021. The company's chief financial officer Pan Darong said then the company would first produce and sell six electric models to be followed by 13 others - all sold with the Hengchi brand.
China Evergrande, headed by Chinese billionaire Hui Ka-yan, earlier said it planned to invest up to 15 billion yuan this year and another 10 billion yuan in 2021 to develop Evergrande Health's next-generation models.
However, critics said Evergrande Health's prospects remain uncertain because of industry competition and the existence of more established brands. The company has remained largely on track with its previously announced plans but there are concerns about its mounting losses. Last year, the company reported a loss of 4.4 billion yuan compared with a reported loss of 1.4 billion yuan in 2018.
In March Evergrande Health said it would soon become China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group. The company said the name better reflected its increasing concentration on vehicles compared with its former core business of care homes and hospitals.
