Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Company Limited has acquired Tesla-founded startup car company Atieva. With the acquisition, BAIC will be "redefining" what a car can be by manufacturing iconic vehicles from bottom to top.
Tesla-founded Atieva is one of the new startup car companies behind the curtains of the electric vehicle industry with shadows of intrigue and mystery. One of the other car companies behind the shadows is Faraday Future that first made noise by stating that it will unveil its first concept car at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show to be held on Jan. 5 at Las Vegas, Nevada. Faraday Future is supported by Jia Yueting, a Chinese billionaire and owner of a successful version of Netflix in China known as LeTV.
Presently, the BAIC Group states that its electric car company division has acquired Atieva. The division based in San Francisco states that it will be redefining what a car can be and can do by manufacturing new and iconic vehicles that will make their mark on the automotive industry. In addition, BAIC states that it is a car company and not a design house and that it is not a manufacturer that builds traditional vehicles.
Atieva is founded by former Tesla Vice President Bernard Tse and Astoria Sales and Marketing Vice President Sam Weng in 2007. The company originally focuses on software and development for monitoring battery cells and systems for battery management. Aside from BAIC, Atieva has also worked in partnerships with German multinational conglomerate company Siemens AG and Korean conglomerate SK Holdings, which is a company known for producing battery cells.
On the other hand, BAIC sells a five-door all-electric car in China dubbed as the E150 EV. The car has a 23.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery with a range of 87 miles, similar to Nissan LEAF. With its acquisition of Atieva, observers in the auto industry expects the Chinese concept car to have a bigger battery and possibly exceed the 300 mile range.
