LeEco’s self-driven cars set to get a $1.8 billion factory


LeEco LeSEE

Chinese technology and internet company LeEco (formerly known as Letv), said on Wednesday that they’re going to produce 400,000 electric cars, based on the LeSEE taxi concept. The project will have an initial investment of 12 billion Yuan ($1.8 billion) to build an electric car plant in eastern China, specifically in the Diqing county, near the city of Hangzhou.

The facility will be part of a larger project called “Eco Experience Park”, that will include an entertainment park, car charging stations and offices, which will cost the company 20 billion Yuan ($3 billion).

LeEco also announced a partnership with Aston Martin and will help them in the production of the RapidE concept car. The vehicle from the historic British manufacturer is expected to go on sale in 2018.

Gizchina News of the week


That’s not all, LeEco has also formed an alliance with Faraday Future and LeEco’s founder Jia Yueting has invested in their plant which is being built in Las Vegas. This cooperation will help both companies as they will save up money and resources on R&D by sharing their know-how and facilities.

While this is great news for the automotive industry, we have to mention that LeEco’s long-term vision is to offer cars free of charge and then make money through services, in the same way the company currently makes money through some of its smartphones and televisions. So you won’t be able to own one yourself (assuming you can afford it).

LeEco will not be the only company to get in the electric vehicles business, indeed Chinese government’s incentives to promote switching over to clean energy as a replacement for petroleum to fuel vehicles, created a rush into this industry from many non-automakers and start-ups. An overall positive move both for the economy and the environment.

What are your thoughts?

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

Previous Uhans A101 - tribute to Nokia or a Samsung Galaxy S7 parody?
Next Nexbox A1 is an octa-core TV box with 4K support

16 Comments

  1. realjjj
    August 11, 2016

    Jia Yueting has also invested in Atieva and they have a ride sharing project , LeShare.

  2. Muhammad Yasir
    August 11, 2016

    I WANT A LEECO CAR !

  3. Sansa
    August 11, 2016

    Selft-driven so passengers can zombie out watching their streamming. We are becoming zombies.

    • Stef
      August 13, 2016

      We’re not, automation is mostly a good thing. It allows you to do things you actually like. Of course most people are going to use it unwisely, but so what? Driving with your hand is equally useless as long as there is an alternative, more dangerous too.

      I see automation as a good because while most people won’t change because of it, some few would actually have more time / less frustration to do creative/useful stuff.

      Back when everyone was doing manual labour very few things were being invented, the same kind of art existed for 200000 years (!) … Automation let people to self-actualize. Most don’t … but that’s their problem, not automation’s.

      Driving actually make people zombies, btw, I hope you’ve never found yourself into a closely packed traffic day in , day out.

      • Sansa
        August 15, 2016

        You don’t get it. In this case, they want the viewer to be free to watch their streaming and therefore more $ale$. Because chinese people spend much time in traffic they can’t zombie out on front of a device streaming letv stuff. With this, they will. Yes, automation can be good, no doubt. Here, it’s for the bad purpose. They want the eyes on their streaming stuff, not on the road.

        Too much automation is bad. Some people rely so much on a GPS, their sense of orientation actually diminishes.

        • Stef
          August 16, 2016

          If people viewing their movies also means less traffic accident what’s your gripe with it exactly? I don’t get it. Auto cars are far safer than human driven cars for the simple reason that sensors react a lot faster.

          People also forgot how to hunt boar, how to build wooden sheds, how to grunt properly, etc … In fact that’s the greatest thing of technology as a whole. If it was not for people to forget useless stuff (that is being automated anyhow) specialization would be impossible, we would still live in the caves.

          People forgetting using maps, is *exactly* what automation should do. Why would they need to know to read arcane symbols on a piece of dead wood and on a magnetic compass? It makes no sense now that GPS has been invented. People+GPS navigate better these days…

  4. realjjj
    August 11, 2016

    Jia Yueting has also invested in Atieva and they have a ride sharing project , LeShare.

  5. Guest
    August 11, 2016

    I WANT A LEECO CAR !

  6. Sansa
    August 11, 2016

    Selft-driven so passengers can zombie out watching their streamming. We are becoming zombies.

    • Stef
      August 13, 2016

      We’re not, automation is mostly a good thing. It allows you to do things you actually like. Of course most people are going to use it unwisely, but so what? Driving with your hand is equally useless as long as there is an alternative, more dangerous too.

      I see automation as a good because while most people won’t change because of it, some few would actually have more time / less frustration to do creative/useful stuff.

      Back when everyone was doing manual labour very few things were being invented, the same kind of art existed for 200000 years (!) … Automation let people to self-actualize. Most don’t … but that’s their problem, not automation’s.

      Driving actually make people zombies, btw, I hope you’ve never found yourself into a closely packed traffic day in , day out.

    • Sansa
      August 16, 2016

      You don’t get it. In this case, they want the viewer to be free to watch their streaming and therefore more $ale$. Because chinese people spend much time in traffic they can’t zombie out on front of a device streaming letv stuff. With this, they will. Yes, automation can be good, no doubt. Here, it’s for the bad purpose. They want the eyes on their streaming stuff, not on the road.

      Too much automation is bad. Some people rely so much on a GPS, their sense of orientation actually diminishes.

    • Stef
      August 16, 2016

      If people viewing their movies also means less traffic accident what’s your gripe with it exactly? I don’t get it. Auto cars are far safer than human driven cars for the simple reason that sensors react a lot faster.

      People also forgot how to hunt boar, how to build wooden sheds, how to grunt properly, etc … In fact that’s the greatest thing of technology as a whole. If it was not for people to forget useless stuff (that is being automated anyhow) specialization would be impossible, we would still live in the caves.

      People forgetting using maps, is *exactly* what automation should do. Why would they need to know to read arcane symbols on a piece of dead wood and on a magnetic compass? It makes no sense now that GPS has been invented. People+GPS navigate better these days…

  7. Dick Justice
    August 12, 2016

    I will just wait a year more, for US version, for a half of price.. with massive bloatware in software…

  8. Dick Justice
    August 12, 2016

    I will just wait a year more, for US version, for a half of price.. with massive bloatware in software…

  9. Natsumi
    August 13, 2016

    They’re nuts XDDD

  10. Natsumi
    August 13, 2016

    They’re nuts XDDD