Silk-FAW, the Chinese and Italian partnership developing high-performance cars for China's Hongqi brand, has hired its second former Ferrari executive in less than two months.

The latest to join the team is veteran Ferrari engineer Roberto Fedeli, who has been tapped to develop self-driving, electrification and connectivity technologies, Automotive News (subscription required) reported on Tuesday.

His appointment follows that of Amedeo Felisa only last month. Felisa served as CEO of Ferrari between 2008 and 2016, and has been hired by Silk-FAW as a special adviser.

Fedeli spent 26 years of his career at the Prancing Horse, during which time he led development of some of the world’s best performance cars including the LaFerrari, F12 Berlinetta and 458 Italia. He left in 2014 to join BMW and in 2016 was hired by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now part of Stellantis).

Roberto Fedeli

Roberto Fedeli

Silk-FAW has been tasked with developing a range of high-performance, high-luxury electric cars and hybrids for Hongqi, a historic Chinese luxury car brand owned by FAW Group. Cars developed by Silk-FAW will be sold under a new S series sub-brand at Hongqi.

The first of these models is the S9 hybrid hypercar (shown main) unveiled at Auto Shanghai 2021 in April. The S9 is due to start production in 2023 at Silk-FAW's facility in Reggio Emilia, Italy, located a short drive from Ferrari's headquarters.

According to Automotive News, Silk-FAW plans to invest $1.2 billion over the next three years and already has plans for S3, S5 and S7 models. Some of the new models will be built in China.

The latest news comes just a day after Ferrari named Benedetto Vigna, a senior executive at a leading semiconductor chip manufacturer, as its new CEO.