Evergrande EV Arm to Start Pre-sale for Hengchi 5

Liu Yongzhuo, executive director of the new energy vehicle unit of the world's most indebted property developer China Evergrande Group (3333.HK), said at a meeting on March 27 that the group’s car-making arm will start accepting orders for its electric car, the Hengchi 5 sport utility vehicle, according to CLS.com, a business news portal.

Liu , the right-hand man of Evergrande’s billionaire chairman Hui Ka Yan,  made this claim at an online global parts suppliers meeting. He that the company has already got approval from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to start sales earlier this month. Somehow the company’s social media did not specify when the firm will start taking orders.

Evergrande chairman Hui Ka Yan said at an internal meeting held on March 22 that the company’s NEV unit will start mass production of Hengchi 5 by June 22.

Evergrande has been eager to tap China's red-hot EV market to turn things around for this heavily-indebted developer, which at one point teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

The first batch of customer experience and sales centers, namely, showrooms, will open in 15 tier-one and tier-two cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin in coming months to kick off pre-sale, says Liu of Evergrande.