GreenTech may buy four or five projects

UNITED STATES - GreenTech Automotive, led by a kingmaker of the U.S. Democratic Party, said it aims to build itself into a $5 billion green technology powerhouse riding a wave of growing demand for environmentally friendly products.

Privately-owned GreenTech planned to raise billions of dollars from a range of investors, including potential U.S. immigrants hoping to take advantage of government incentives, and private equity funds and individuals, Chairman Terrence McAuliffe told Reuters in an interview.

GreenTech had developed one electric and three hybrid vehicles in the United States, and would need about $1 billion to commercialize the technology, he said, adding that the company was also looking to buy four to five green technology companies once its auto project was up and running.

"I always think very big," said McAuliffe, a prominent Democratic fundraiser and chairman of Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign. "I hope within a few years we will be a $5 billion company. That would be my goal," he said.

McAuliffe was in Hong Kong for the acquisition by Greentech of local company EuAuto Technology Ltd, a maker of a 2.65 meter-long two-seater electric vehicle called "mycar," which can travel 70-100 km on a charge. He declined to give a price tag for the deal.

GreenTech, founded by Chief Executive Charles Wang, plans to invest $1 billion initially to make 150,000 green cars in the United States by 2012 and another $1 billion in the second phase to lift production to 250,000 a year.

Carmakers, including global players Toyota and General Motors to Chinese newcomers such as BYD, have all rolled out or plan to roll out hybrids or electric vehicles to reduce emissions.

Wang's former business partner Yang Yong, a Chinese automobile tycoon who fled the country after being accused of economic crimes, aims to make 3 million clean-technology vehicles a year by 2017 under the U.S. immigrant investors scheme.

However, the number of electric cars would be limited to only 2 to 5 percent of the U.S. market a decade from now because of high costs and limited performance, a study by Deloitte Consulting said.

GreenTech's auto plan at full production will create 4,500 new jobs in the United States and production of "mycar," would create another 300 jobs, McAuliffe said.

"I myself can sell a hundred mycars overnight, I am pretty good at this," McAuliffe said. He added that mycars would sell for between $13,000 and $15,000 in the United States.

Mycar, launched by Hong Kong Polytechnic University and EuAuto Technology Ltd in Hong Kong last October, will expand GreenTech's product line.

At home, GreenTech is waiting for U.S. Transportation Department approval to expand its green car project from Mississippi to Virginia and Tennessee, but has not decided where it will build its first car plant.

"I am looking at all options now and to be honest, with more people competing for it, I want to see who puts the best offer on the table," McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe, who is also chairman of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, took the helm of GreenTech Automotive last year. He unsuccessfully ran in the 2009 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nomination. "The voters of Virginia decided that I would be better in the green energy than the governors."