Wealthy Chinese investors including Internet company Tencent and investor group Hillhouse are behind an audacious plan to build a new premium electric car company called NextEV.
Martin Leach, a consultant who once led Ford's European operations, is reportedly recruiting staff for the new operation, which will be based in California and the US.
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Reports say that the investors have already recruited a number of experienced engineers from OEMs including Volkswagen, BMW and Tesla.
"The first model launched by NextEV will be an electric supercar," NextEV spokeswoman Jili Liu told Reuters.
Reuters reported that the sportscar is expected to debut in 2016 and will be designed to produce more than 1,000 horsepower and accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers an hour (62 miles per hour) within 3 seconds.
A range of high-performance family cars will follow, the report added.
The electric car space is attracting interest from outside the traditional and established automotive producers, exemplified by the arrival of Tesla's models to the market. At the same time, companies such as Apple and Google are also signalling greater interest in the automotive sector led by advances in autonomous vehicle technologies as well as electrification.
The Chinese government is also backing incentives for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and wants to see long-term growth for New Energy Vehicles in China.
