Letv's first driverless electric car LeSEE debuts in Beijing on Wednesday. (Photo/Courtesy of Letv)
Streaming video company Le Holdings (Beijing) Co, known as Letv, on Wednesday debuted its long-awaited first driverless electric car in a move to expand its product lineup.
Letv, which already has a presence in the smart TV, smartphone and drone sectors, has high hopes for its first car.
The car, which was designed by the company and dubbed LeSEE, can be connected to the Internet and serve as another platform to stream the company's online video and music content, Chairman Jia Yueting told a press conference held in Beijing on Wednesday.
As part of Letv's "powerful ecosystem," Jia said LeSEE will bring a disruptive revolution to the auto industry and take on other players.
Internet-enabled driverless cars have become crucial turf for traditional automakers as well as Internet companies in China and abroad.
For instance, The Telegraph newspaper in the UK reported on Tuesday that US-based technology giant Apple Inc is developing an electric car in a research lab in Berlin.
Letv ambitions in the auto industry were on display at the conference, with executives saying it has applied for 833 patents with respect to electric cars.
However, some industry experts took a dim view of the car's prospects among consumers.
"Lacking distinctive features and mature sales channels, LeSEE may find it hard to get a warm reception, especially at a moment when only a minority of Chinese consumers are willing to embrace electric cars," Feng Shiming, a senior industry analyst with Shanghai-based Menutor Consulting, told the Global Times Wednesday.
Partly due to government incentives to encourage the use of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), 42,131 pure electric cars were sold in the first quarter of 2016, up 140 percent year-on-year, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
But that was just a fraction of the overall sales of 6.5 million vehicles in China during the quarter.
Since 2010, China's central and local governments have reportedly offered subsidies for NEVs. But those incentives are likely to be phased out, which Feng said may further dampen consumer interest.
The Ministry of Finance announced in May 2015 that such subsidies will fall by 20 percent between 2017 and 2018 from the 2016 levels, and by 40 percent between 2019 and 2020.
The subsidies, which were first given to nurture the NEV market, led some enterprises to become overly reliant on them and prone to focus on policy while designing cars, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying on January 23.
Letv's car will be assembled by a plant of Faraday Future (FF) in the U.S., under a deal signed between Letv and the Silicon Valley start-up in January, an insider close to the company told the Global Times Wednesday.
FF, which is backed by Jia, has been touted in some media reports as a rival to Tesla Motors Inc.
"That sounds impressive. But high labor costs in the U.S. will drive up the cost of production. High-end consumers won't think the cars are worth the money when they can find the well-established Tesla on the market," said Feng.
The LeSEE car will be on display at the Beijing Auto Show, which starts on Monday. The company didn't say when the model will be ready to hit the road.
Jia did not reveal the price for the car.
