Hanergy is cooperating with three overseas and two domestic partners on the vehicles, board chairman Li Hejun told a press conference. Hanergy announced in late January that it had acquired Alta Devices, an American competitor, with charging stations for Tesla in Beijing and Shanghai.

The new models will have a range of 80 to 100 km once fully charged, he said.

"There are currently only 400,000 electric cars in the world but the market is expected to hit 10 million by 2020," said Lin.