Hybrid Kinetic Motors Inks $500m Deal With Italdesign Giugiaro

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

There’s a lot happening in the world of cars these days, but few stories are as compelling as the emergence of two rival US-based firms created by two former bosses of the Chinese automaker Brilliance. At face value, both Hybrid Kinetic Motors and Greentech Auto are little more than visa scams: neither attempts to hide the fact that their fundraising plans involve a US Visa program (EB-5) which allows citizenship to foreign nationals who invest a half-million bucks in an American business. For additional scam warning points, both firms purport to use mythical hybrid engines and plan factories with annual capacities of a million units. But as easy as it is to simply write these firms as Chinese visa hucksters grifting the good folks of such towns as Tunica, Mississippi and Bay Minette, Alabama, they keep showing up in the news with stories that predecessors like ZAP would have given their stock-price-boosting-press releases for. To wit: the latest news that Alabama hopeful Hybrid Kinetic Motors has signed a half-billion dollar deal with Italdesign-Giugiaro, the largest order in the famed design house’s 42-year history.

Automotive News [sub] reports that the deal involves the design and engineering of no fewer than eight Hybrid Kinetic models for the American market. HK CEO Benjamin Yeung reportedly chose Italdesign because he’d already worked with the firm; as CEO of Brilliance Leung had hired Ital to design the Zhonghua sedan, then the most modern Chinese-made car on the market. FEV Motorentechnick GmbH of Aachen, Germany may or may not be developing the hybrid kinetic drivetrain.

Further confusing the situation, Yeung (formerly known as Yang Rong) HK Motors and its parent company Far East Golden Resources Group have announced a $1.5b investment in magnesium-aluminum alloy drivetrain production capacity in Shenyang, China. Ironically, this marks Yeung’s return to Liaoning province, which he has sued for allegedly ousting him and taking over Brilliance (lawsuit in PDF format here). Weirder still, Alabama Live reports that an HK spokesman claims

HK Motors will allow the [Shenyang] development zone to manufacture 200,000 or more vehicles and keep the profits, according to the document… “This is critical for us to bring down unit cost given that we expect to spend over $1 billion to develop our engine, powertrain and hybrid system, and vehicle series,” [the spokesman] said.

The Chinese operation will supply engine castings and component modules for the Bay Minette plant, which would do “engine machining and powertrain and hybrid system assembly as well as vehicle assembly,” he said.

Yeung is reportedly working on raising $1.5b, as HK moves towards a reported 2013 production start at the $4.3b Bay Minette plant (which HK says will produce a million units per year by 2018). Baldwin County has provided $70,000 for site surveying for the new plant, and Alabama will likely donate a considerable sum to the project. Without proven demand for the kind of capacity HK is talking about, let alone proof of the technology the firm is talking about should give Alabama officials pause, to put it lightly. Paying half a billion bucks to a reputable European design house is a tempting signal, but not enough to overcome our fundamental suspicion of the whole convoluted, ambitious endeavor. We’ll be watching this story with considerable interest.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Indi500fan Indi500fan on Jan 19, 2010

    Here in Indiana the pols keep having orgasms over "Carbon Motors" an outfit that claims it will build zillions of diesel powered carbon composite chassis police cars in an old Visteon plant. I'm not holding my breath on that one either.

  • Oversightguy Oversightguy on Sep 16, 2011

    HK Motors executives are running a visa scam through the federal EB-5 visa program. Dirty US dollars from China are being invested in US businesses and in turn for each $500K a chinese person of questionable background... and most of them are questionable, i.e. Chairman Yeung...qualifies for a greencard with the intent of becoming a citizen. They will bring their mafioso ways into the US. One has to wonder how much of these monies find there way into the pockets of our cooperative politicians.

  • ToolGuy "Honey, someone is trying to cross the moat again"
  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
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