Evergrande, a Chinese firm believed to be the biggest real estate company in the world and backers of electric vehicle startups like Faraday Future and NEVS, announced a massive $23 billion investment in the production 1 million electric cars and 500 GWh of batteries per year.

The company is known for having its hands in many different businesses in China and overseas.

With a valuation at more than $100 billion and revenues of over $40 billion, Evergrande is now looking to expand into electric vehicles.

They have been making moves in the space for years with a large stake in Faraday Future for $2 billion and another $2 billion to take control of NEVS, SAAB’s all-electric successor.

After acquiring large stakes in those electric vehicle companies, Evergrande claims to have “acquired key technologies in the sector” and now plans to launch its own production of electric vehicles in China in a big way.

The company announced a massive investment worth 160 billion yuan ($23 billion USD) into three factories in Guangzhou (via Global Times China):

“Evergrande aims to invest 160 billion yuan in Guangzhou’s Nansha district to set up three major bases for new energy vehicles, according to a statement the Nansha local government sent to the Global Times Wednesday. One of the bases will have the capacity to manufacture 1 million vehicles annually. The other two bases will be able to produce as much as 500 GWh of batteries annually and electric motors and electronic control systems to equip the 1 million electric cars, the statement said.”

According to the release in Chinese media, the company plans to use technology from its recent acquisition and investments, like in battery company Shanghai Cenat New Energy, supercar maker Koenigsegg, and NEVS.

There’s no clear timeline on when they expect to start production.

Electrek’s Take

Those numbers are hard to comprehend.

While several automakers around the world are producing cars at a rate higher than 1 million cars per year, there’s nothing close to that in the EV world.

Also, 500 GWh of batteries from a single factory is insanity.

For comparison, Tesla announced plans for Gigafactory 1 to eventually produce 105 GWh of battery cells and 150 GWh of battery packs, but the company and its partner Panasonic have still difficulties achieving 35 GWh six years into the project.

If this is all real, it would result in an incredible boost to electric vehicles, but I am consciously skeptical.

While there’s no doubt that Evergrande has a lot of money, their first foray into EVs was with Faraday Future and that came with a lot of issues.

We will track this investment in the coming months to see how it comes along.

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