Shanghai, October 14 (Gasgoo.com) A startup car company run in the U.S. by a Chinese businessman recently unveiled four prototype vehicles that it hopes to build at a proposed multibillion-dollar plant in northwestern Mississippi, the Associated Press reported.
GreenTech Automotive Inc. planned to break ground on a $6.5 billion plant on 1,500 acres in Tunica County, south of Memphis, Tenn. The company's owner, Xiaolin "Charles" Wang, said the plant would eventually employ 4,500 people and produce up to 250,000 fuel-efficient cars a year.
The company hopes to build affordable cars matching lower emissions and fuel-consumption standards that President Barack Obama's administration wants automakers to meet by 2016.
The unveiled prototypes were built in China. They include a midsize four-door hybrid to get 50 mpg, a zero-emissions electric car, a high-efficiency gasoline car to get 65 mpg and a hybrid sports coupe to get 45 mpg and to go from 0-60 mph in less than 5.9 seconds.
Plans for the GreenTech project were first revealed in June, when a messy lawsuit between Wang and his former partner, Yung "Benjamin" Yeung, became public. The plan before Yeung and Wang split was to raise money through a visa program by investing in the United States.
Yeung has said he's now planning to build a plant in south Alabama to produce up to 1 million vehicles a year by 2018. Yeung recently announced a goal of raising nearly $7.9 billion from private investors.
Also known as Yang Rong, Yeung was celebrated in China for leading Brilliance China Automotive Ltd. to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1992. He later fled China after being accused of economic crimes.
