The Race to Produce China's Tesla
- Internet startups and Silicon Valley funds pile into China
- Most electric car startups "have no idea what they're facing"
William Li.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
William Li isn’t your typical, boundlessly optimistic Chinese tech entrepreneur. Yes, the founder of startup NextEV Inc. has big plans to disrupt China’s electric car market, the financial backing of venture capital powerhouses Sequoia Capital and Hillhouse Capital and considers Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk an inspiration.
That said, he rates his chance of succeeding in China’s fast-moving car market at a whopping 5 percent. He also thinks most of the new business models for electric cars being bandied about by tech companies will end up in the junk yard.