CHENGDU, Dec. 21 (NBD) -- Chongqing Sokon (601127, SH) announced Tuesday to raise 3.96 billion yuan (about 596.8 million US dollars) to invest in projects of electric passenger vehicles and electric & intelligent vehicles.

Sokon is not the only one intending to take slice from the EV manufacturing cake.

NBD reporter noticed, besides Sokon, manufacturing enterprises including Gree and Hanergy, internet enterprises including Tencent, LeTV, NextEV, Chehejia and telecom enterprises like ZTE flooded into the EV manufacturing industry.

Guo Kai, the partner of Martec, told the NBD reporter that the reason for the increasing number of new players lies in the easier technical entry to EV manufacturing industry compared with fuel vehicles.

In Guo's opinion, future automobile manufacturers will compete not only in manufacturing technology, but also in electronic technology and rental service. Future vehicles can be equipped with a uniform and modularized power system but an individual and networked configuration like a smart phone. In this regard, enterprises like ZTE will have edges in terms of electronic and intelligent technologies over traditional manufacturers.

Guo believes, although not all these new players are going to succeed, yet traditional automobile manufacturers themselves are facing difficulties in their transformation. Salary for automobile professionals will definitely be pushed increasingly higher and some (traditional) manufacturers will fail.

However, a former executive of a traditional automobile enterprise expressed a different idea. In his opinion, despite the easier entry to EV manufacturing industry, yet such crossover enterprises are unlikely to master the profound mechanical technology and experience which are accumulated in a century. After all, building a fine vehicle is not as easy as assembling a phone.