Tesla Competitor From China LeEco Raised $1 Billion For Its EV

image source: paultan.org

Here we have yet another company that is preparing to compete with Tesla Motors in the electric car market. Chinese company LeEco built a plant in which they invested $1.8 billion and soon after that they have raised $1.08 billion for the development of its LeSee electric vehicle.

According to reports, when fully built, this facility will be capable of producing 400,000 cars per year. When you see these figures, you need to wonder if the Tesla will be getting one serious competitor and will the Chinese based car maker come with a Tesla killer.

All the way in April one of the concept cars was introduced, LeSee, and even we are pretty sure that many things on this concept will be ditched for production version we can’t deny that we really liked what we saw. We know that the production version will draw inspiration from this one so we tend to agree that it will look quite interesting.

Many of the features we are getting from Tesla cars will also be introduced by LeEco, and that is nothing strange since they tend to bring the latest tech available on the market. While the car is still far from production, and we do not have any release date we can only speculate about the final product.

Performance and range figures are still hidden, but reports suggest that top speed might be limited to 130 mph which is in line with what Model S and other Tesla cars offer. One of the main goals for LeEco with its LeSee EV is to create a fleet vehicle. You will be able to summon your car with a smartphone app after which it will pick you up or inform you when it will be available.

The hype about autonomous vehicles is not stopping, and even we could hear news about problems and possible deaths due to autopilot usage, LeEco is preparing this option for its car. Steering wheel will be retractable, folding into the dashboard as it is shown on cool animation. As soon as the vehicle approaches seats will be adjusted, which might be a cool feature but we are not sure about its usefulness.

via GIPHY

Similar to Tesla we are getting large touchscreen display integrated into the dashboard. It has different orientation and size is unknown but what we could see is that it will offer some impressive options. Navigation is certainly one of those, and one of the images provided shows pretty nice options for it. Furthermore, passengers in the back seat will get two displays mounted in headrests of front seats so the entertainment for kids will be on a pretty high level.