Chinese venture ready to take on Tesla

China tech giant Tencent is aiming to launch an electric self-driving car before 2020 by backing electric vehicle startup firm, Future Mobility, and entering a crowded field dominated by US-based Tesla.

Future Mobility is one of several Chinese startups in the electric vehicles industry, and is backed by heavyweight investors, including internet giant Tencent Holdings, electronics manufacturer Foxconn and car dealership group China Harmony New Energy Auto Holding.

In March this year, Future Mobility poached its leadership team from BMW’s electric vehicle line, and in May, at least two executives from Tesla Motors came on board as well.

Although the venture sought to produce premium cars like Tesla, it would attempt a different strategy from the US company that began with relatively limited production and focuses on a single model at a time, says Future Mobility chief, Carsten Breitfeld.

“Right from the beginning we define the platform, right from the beginning we define the production process to be mass production, and right from the beginning we think of more than one model, a family of models, defined from this platform,” Breitfeld says, defining mass production as 250,000 to 400,000 cars annually.