Chinese Tech Firms Charge Into Electric Cars

In a four-story Bauhaus-style building west of Shanghai, nearly 500 engineers are working to put what they hope will be China's answer to a Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA -0.00 % electric car on the road. Their company, NextEV, currently doesn't have anything to sell. It plans to unveil its first electric car in 2017. "Our goal is to build a high-end, high-performance electric car for half the price of a Tesla car," said Li Bin, co-founder and chairman of NextEV. Counting Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY -0.05 % as an investor, NextEV is part of an increasingly crowded industry as the world's biggest auto market welcomes a wave of new entrants--China's deep-pocketed Internet giants.