Aston Martin's Chinese partner LeEco announces first car factory

LeEco, the ambitious Chinese electric vehicle start-up company, funded by LeTV founder Jia Yueting, has announced plans for a new $3 billion factory.

The greenfield site, which the China Daily newspaper reports is yet to gain official Governmental planning permission, is to be located in Huzhou – a city with a population of 2.6 million in the southern Chinese province of Zhejiang.

The new factory is planned to build LeEco’s recently unveiled LeSee, a Tesla Model S-rivaling saloon revealed in concept car guise at the Beijing motor show last April, at an annual capacity of up to 200,000 cars.

LeEco had held talks with a number of existing Chinese car makers, including Beijing Auto and Guangzhou Auto, over possible joint venture assembly operations for the LeSee.

However, it has now decided to establish its own production facilities in the first stage of a plan that is expected to spawn further electric powered LeEco models in the future. 

Aston Martin first paired up with the little-known Chinese electric supercar maker to produce the RapidE, the electric version of its four-door Rapide model.