* Exiled Chinese tycoon Yang Rong to return to car business

* To announce late this month car production in U.S.

* To create thousands of jobs in Alabama (Adds remarks from industry consultant)

By George Chen and David Bailey

HONG KONG/DETROIT, July 9 (Reuters) - Yang Rong, a Chinese automobile tycoon who fled the country after being accused of economic crimes, is preparing to launch an ambitious plan to make clean-tech cars in the United States, said a source.

The former chairman of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd (1114.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), ranked by Forbes as China's third-richest man in 2001, will announce a plan later this month to set up a company in the southern U.S. state of Alabama, said the source with direct knowledge of the plan.

Yang could not be immediately reached for comment.

Support for the plan had come from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, one of the world's most visible environmental activists and now a partner at U.S. venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said the source, declining to be more specific.

A spokeswoman for Gore said he was not immediately available to comment.