BMW Brilliance's exec to join Yang Rong's green car project

Shanghai, August 6 (Gasgoo.com) Brilliance BMW's Senior Vice President Peter Schippl will join a green car project, initiated by Yang Rong, owner of Hong Kong's Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corporation (HKMC), through a joint venture to be built by JAC and HKMC's wholly-owned subsidiary in the Chinese city of Tianjin, media reported Friday.

The Tianjin-based HKMC Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd., signed a letter of intent on August 3, 2010 with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd. (JAC) on establishment of a new joint venture with a total investment of at least 2 billion yuan ($295 million).

An earlier report from China Automotive Review said Yang Rong expected to annually make three million vehicles in the U.S. and another three million in China with no less than $20 billion.

Moreover, it said Yang Rong's Hybrid Kinetic Automobile Co., Ltd. plans to set up three assembly plants in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, build a production based in China with a capacity of three million engines and one million cars a year and launch the first model in both the U.S. and China in 2012.

It looks like this former Chinese automobile tycoon has finally started his ambitious plan. JAC and Hybrid Kinetic's Tianjin company will each hold 50% stake in the new joint venture that the Chinese media said is likely to be located in Hefei city, eastern China's Anhui province.

The two sides are now waiting for the Chinese government's approval to sign a formal agreement. Peter Schippl has left BMW Brilliance in July. He will hold an important position in the JAC-Hybrid Kinetic JV that is said may outstrip the country's electric carmaker BYD Auto, by using Yong Rong's new energy vehicle technology.