Electric sports car Qiantu K50 to be made in USA
The Chinese carmaker Qiantu Motor has found a partner in the Californian electric vehicle manufacturer Mullen Technologies. They are to homologate, assemble and market the Qiantu K50 electric sports car, a sleek two seater with carbon elements, in North America.
We do not expect you to have heard much from any of the two companies. Last Qiantu has made it onto our radar was in 2016, when they received one of the very few electric car production licenses in China.
So, Qiantu is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese CH-Auto group and two years ago was planning for pilot production of the K50 electric car.
Fast forward to 2018 and Mullen enters the picture. The young EV maker has been working to bring the Mullen 700e, a successor to the electric limousine by Coda, that went bankrupt in 2013, to market.
Now it looks as if both Mullen and Qiantu are joining forces to finally launch an electric vehicle. The K50 from Qiantu is set to make it to the USA by 2020, with reservations via Mullen to open next year.
Both parties promise that the 296 kW electric sports car will be surprisingly affordable, possibly also through saving import tariffs as the K50 will be assembled in the States. Moreover, they are to combine import of ready-to-assemble components from China with key components from the USA.
Sales will be sorted by Mullen Technologies, that also owns Mullen Auto Sales, a series of automobile dealerships. In addition, they have CarHub, a digital platform for buying, selling and owning a car so that the partnership will rely largely on their distribution.
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