‘China’s Elon Musk’ just raised $120m to disrupt the auto industry

There’s a lot of money in China’s capital markets, but US$120 million for a series A round? Even in China, that’s pretty good.

And that’s exactly the sum that Chinese startup CHJ Automotive has just raised from a group of investors led by LEO and including Source Code Capital, and Plum Ventures, a government investment fund.

CHJ Automotive – Chehejia in Chinese, which translates as “Car and Home” – which just reached its first birthday last month, is a Beijing-based electric vehicle startup that will design, research, manufacture, sell, and offer services featuring a few models of electric vehicle: a small car for inner city trips, and a larger electric SUV for longer crosstown journeys.

But it’s much more than just a car sales company: Chehejia will also offer rental services and Uber-like on demand ride hailing.

The new round of funding will be used on R&D and the construction of a manufacturing plant.

CHJ Automotive’s upcoming vehicles.

If you think that all sounds grand but a bit nebulous, you’re not alone. CHJ Automotive’s website is full of promises to do things like “satisfy the needs of 90 percent of consumers” and “not rely on electric charging stations.” Just how those things will be accomplished isn’t yet clear.

But that doesn’t mean you should write the company off, because its founding team has some pretty legit credentials. At the helm is founder and CEO Li Xiang, who is perhaps most famous for having founded Autohome, a car information and services platform that Li built into a NYSE-listed behemoth. He’s been called “China’s Elon Musk,” and while it seems a bit early to be calling him that, it’s clear he is similarly forward-thinking and ambitious.

Co-founders Kevin Shen and Ma Donghui have experience in hardware (Lenovo, Motorola) and cars/manufacturing (IAT, Sany), respectively.

This team will have its work cut out for it in an industry that is becoming increasingly crowded as automakers around the world realize that electric vehicles are the future, and that China is the most important market for EVs.

CHJ Automotive will be up against domestic auto firms like BYD, tech firms like LeEco, plus foreign automakers of all sorts, including Musk’s Tesla.

And, of course, if the company is going to get involved in ride-hailing and car rentals as well, it will also have to face down competitors including Uber and Didi in those areas.