The thing I’m most excited about in 2016: electric cars from China

Car makers are very slow when it comes to electric cars. VW makes literally one solitary electric model, as does Mercedes. The Toyota Prius? That’s a hybrid. There’s extraordinarily little choice out there if you want an all-electric car – and there’s even less if you want an affordable one that’s well below the sizeable price tag of the Tesla Model S. (Update: removed a reference to BMW, which does have one pure EV – the i3.)

That could all change in 2016 thanks to China’s new wave of nerdy automakers. They’re globally-oriented startups that are looking to leap into the void left by dinosaur juice-obsessed companies.

An added bonus for 2016 – the Tesla Model 3 is set to debut in March. It’s going to be year of disruptive EV goodness.

Some even speculated that it was a front for Apple’s rumored car.

In terms of technology in 2016, these newcomers are what I’m looking forward to the most. With plenty of funding and an emphasis on tech, it looks like these startups won’t repeat the same mistake of China’s grey army of slipshod, uninspiring, bargain basement car brands.

Faraday Future

A mysterious Californian company called Faraday Future has been teasing details of what it’s working on all year. “FF launches in 2017. 100 percent electric, zero-emission, fully-connected and personalized in ways you’ve never even considered possible,” said the blurb that appeared on its site over the summer. It was hiring top auto industry talent, including people with experience at Tesla, SpaceX, and individuals who worked on the BMW i project and the Chevrolet Volt. But still nobody knew what was really going on. Some even speculated that it was a front for Apple’s rumored car.

Meanwhile over in China, tech billionaire Jia Yueting revealed at the end of last year that his streaming video company Letv was working on an electric car; then he revealed a few concept sketches over the summer. He’s China’s ninth richest tech boss with a personal fortune of about US$6 billion.

But it was only earlier this month that all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle came together and it transpired that the Letv car and Faraday Future are one and the same.

As Chinese entrepreneurs seek more technology outside of China, the definition of what constitutes a Chinese company is shifting. That’ll be a help rather than a hindrance when Faraday and other new automakers eventually launch in China, where middle and upper-income consumers largely prefer foreign cars for their perceived superior quality – as well as due to badge snobbery.

NextEV

Youxia