Silk S9 hypercar hits roadblock in Italy

SILK Sports Car Company, formerly Silk-FAW, has reportedly told the regional government of Emilian-Romagna that it plans to pull out of an agreement to produce its plug-in S9 hypercar within the Italian region.

According to articles published by Automotive News, Il Sole 24 Ore and Reuters this week, SSSC had planned to build the 1040kW sports model as part of a joint venture between China and Italy, but cancelled its pledge to commit €4.5 million ($A7.2m) to the project citing a lack of funding it attributed in part to the war in Ukraine.

“(The project) lacked funding because of the war (in Ukraine) … we will have more news within a couple of weeks,” Silk Sports Car CFO Giovanni Lamorte told Il Sole 24 Ore.

Reuters reports that sources close to the matter said Italian prosecutors were investigating the project, with tax police (Guarda di Finanza) having visited the firm’s procurement agency Invitalia last week to obtain documents on an application by Silk-FAW for €38 million ($A60.6m) in public funding to build its Italian plant.

At the time of application, Silk-FAW Automotive Group Italy was controlled by an Irish financial holding of US investor Jonathan Krane. According to Mr Krane, the company was a joint-venture between his own company, Silk EV, and Chinese manufacturer, FAW.

In May 2021, Silk-FAW announced it would develop and produce electric and hybrid hypercars in China and Italy under the Hongqi brand. The Italian plant was to be built in Reggio Emilia, near to the facilities of Ducati, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

The company hired high-profile executives from companies including BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Volkswagen, and in 2021 showed a concept model of its S9 plug-in hypercar at the Milan Design Week. Many of the executives hired have since resigned from the project.

Powered by a turbocharged V8 petrol engine and twin electric motors delivering a combined output of 1040kW, the S9 was claimed to be capable of 0-100km/h time in 1.9 seconds and a top speed of 400km/h.

Silk-FAW said at the time it would invest an initial €1 billion ($A1.6b) to develop the S9 and smaller S7 range, and potentially an SUV model at a later stage.

It also pledged to build its production base and research and development centre in Reggio Emilia, with models including the S3 and S5 to be made in China.

Production of the S9 was expected to start at the beginning of 2023 but, to date neither the factory nor a single vehicle have materialised.