Green Car Entrepreneur Says He's Got a Hybrid-Car Plant Deal For Mississippi
By John O'Dell October 6, 2009Press Conference Follows Ex-Partner's Announcement of Similar Plan for Alabama
The other shoe drops.
A week after his former associate announced plans for a multi-billion-dollar hybrid car plant in Alabama, entrepreneur Xiaolin "Charles" Wang says his GreenTech Automotive will build a billion-dollar hybrid car plant in neighboring Mississippi.
Wang (right) and Yung Yeung, who operates Hybrid Kinetic Motors, split up last year in an acrimonious fight over allegations by Yeung - also known as Yang Rong and Benjamin Yeung - that Wang was trying to steal his company and investors.
As partners - although Yeung alleged in a federal suit last year that Wang was only an employee -the two had previously pitched a $6.5 billion hybrid car plant for Mississippi.
In settling the suit, the two agreed to go their separate ways, Yeung keeping the Hybrid Kenitcs name and Wang operating as GreenTech. Wang also agreed to pay Yeung $1.5 million.
It now appears that each as also kept the same basic operating plan and are engaged in a bit of one-upmanship.
Of interest in Wang's case is that he actually showed several prototype cars - built in China - at a press conference held in a gambling casino in Tunica. Miss., this morning.
Wang, who held his press conference in Birmingham, Ala., on Sept. 28, only had an artist's rendering of the plant site - reportedly the same rendering he'd used in pitching the pre-split Mississippi plan.
Wang said his plant would be able to produce 250,000 cars a year; Yeung said his would be able to build 300,000 at peak.
Either one would be building more hybrid cars each year than the combined annual U.S. hybrid sales of Toyota and Lexus - if either actually gets built, that is.
Wang and Yueng also are both using a fund-raising technique that involves telling potential investors in China that they could qualify for a special U.S. visa program, called EB-5, that grants a residency permit to investors who put up at least $500,000 for a project in an economically depressed region of the country.
Mississippi state officials have declined to discuss whether they're promised Wang tax breaks, infrastructure improvements or other state assistance for his proposed hybrid plant.
But a reporter for the Tunica newspaper told Green Car Advisor that the state's economic development director told him state officials were waiting to see how GreenTech's financial backing comes together - an indication that the announcement has been made well before an actual development deal has been struck.
We'd suggest that nobody pop open the champagne just yet.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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