Li Yinan
Text | Pencil road, the author | Lin Sen, Editor | Wu Jinna
Following Xiaomi, OPPO, and Foxconn, another "mysterious big guy" announced that he had entered the car-making army.
According to media reports, the new energy vehicle brand "Niu Innovative Energy Technology (NIUTRON)" will be officially released on December 15. The founder of its brand is Li Yinan, who was also the founder of The Maverick Electric Vehicle.
Li Yinan's past experience has always made him questionable. The word "genius" always appears in the evaluation of Li Yinan. He became a vice president of Huawei at the age of 27. It was once rumored in the industry that Li Yinan was Huawei's future successor. Later, Li Yinan and Huawei turned against each other and successively served as Baidu CTO and partner of GSR Venture Capital.
In 2015, Li Yinan founded Maverick Electric Vehicle, which was later listed in 2018. However, in 2015, Li Yinan was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "suspected insider trading". Since then, the venture capital circle has rarely heard Li Yinan's name.
In fact, Li Yinan has been passing on the car for 3 years before and after, and he is also prepared this time. It is reported that Liu Chuankai, vice president of Maverick Design, has joined the team. At present, there are nearly 1,000 people in the R&D team of Niu Innovative Energy. In addition, Niu Chuangxin Energy has acquired Jiangsu Jintan Mahayana Automobile Technology Industrial Park, and outside the factory area, the logo of "NIUTRON" is also very conspicuous.
Li Yinan's car construction does not surprise the industry, because now is the best era for new energy vehicles. According to the data of the Association, the retail sales of new energy vehicles from January to November were 2.514 million units, an increase of 178.3% year-on-year. At the same time, the short situation of chips that lasted for more than half a year has also passed. In addition, the industry's technology is mature enough; the supply chain is perfect enough; the consumer mind has been fully educated; and the market is friendly enough for new brands.
However, there are also many problems in front of Li Yinan. Money, talent, and an already crowded track. For Li Yinan, the release of a new brand is just the beginning, and there is still a long way to go in the future.
01 Another new force for car-making
Domestic electric vehicle entrepreneurship has entered a new force.
According to media reports, the new energy vehicle brand "Niu Innovative Energy Technology (NIUTRON)" will be officially released on December 15.
The reason why this new brand has attracted attention is because its relationship with "Maverick Electric" is not the same. Not only are the names of the two companies very close, but even the founders are the same person.
Some people speculate that the establishment of NIUTRON means that Maverick Electric has entered the field of new energy vehicles, "from two wheels to four wheels". However, from the perspective of the shareholding structure of Niu Innovative Energy, there is no figure of Niu Electric Technology, the company to which Niu Electric belongs.
According to the enterprise investigation data, the largest shareholder of Niu Chuangxin Energy is Li Yinan, with a shareholding ratio of 59.4%, and the legal representative is Yang Jingyi. In the shareholder information of Niudian Technology, Li Yinan's shareholding ratio dropped from 68.42% to 5%. From the largest shareholder to the second.
△ Image source: Qi Cha Cha
In the eyes of the outside world, this is the new entrepreneurial direction that Li Yinan found after he resigned as ceo of Maverick Electric in 2018.
Compared with the emergence of this new electric vehicle brand, people pay more attention to Li Yinan behind the brand.
Li Yinan is best known for his legendary and controversial experience, in addition to the title of former CEO of Maverick Electric.
The word "genius" always appears in the evaluation of Li Yinan. At the age of 15, he was admitted to the junior class of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and since then, he has worked at Huawei. Just half a month after joining Huawei, Li Yinan became the chief engineer and two years later was promoted to president of the Central Research Department. At the age of 27, Li Yinan was promoted to vice president of Huawei. With the help of Li Yinan, Huawei's annual revenue increased from 400 million to 20 billion. It was once rumored in the industry that Li Yinan was Huawei's future successor.
But in 2000, Li Yinan unexpectedly left Huawei and started a business. Since then, Li Yinan and Huawei have gone against the grain, and have even been rumored to be opposed. Since then, Li Yinan has served as the CTO of Baidu, the CEO of China Mobile, and the partner of GSR Ventures.
In 2015, Li Yinan started his business again and founded Niudian Technology. However, in June of that year, Li Yinan was suddenly taken away by the police. He was eventually sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "suspected insider trading." Even in 2018, when Maverick Electric went public, Li Yinan, as the founder, did not attend.
After stepping down as CEO of Maverick Electric, Li Yinan did not appear many times. In addition, when establishing Maverick Electric, Li Yinan once said that this was his last venture. People thought he was going to fall silent.
But recently, because of the emergence of new brands, Li Yinan's name has once again appeared frequently in the headlines of the media. Everyone wants to know what kind of surprises li Yinan, a restless genius, will bring to the outside world this time.
02 Come prepared
In fact, Li Yinan's car-making plan was mentioned as early as 2018.
According to media reports, after 3 years of preparation, Niu Innovative Energy R & D team has nearly 1,000 people, all from mainstream auto companies. However, the type of car built by Li Yinan is still a mystery.
In March this year, a rendering of a Maverick electric car was circulated on the Internet, called NIU 4FUN. The picture shows that this is a small four-seat electric vehicle, small in size, quite similar in size to Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, and the price is less than 100,000.
This affordable product was also once considered to be related to Li Yinan's new car-making plan. However, relevant sources revealed that Niu Innovative Energy actually wants to do high-end electric vehicles. It is reported that Niu Innovative Energy has two directions for car manufacturing, one is a range extended electric vehicle, the other is a pure electric vehicle, and the positioning is a medium and large SUV. In addition, its production cars will feature smart cockpits and advanced smart driver assistance features. Some insiders believe that its choice of extended range electric vehicles is more likely.
However, as far as the types of electric vehicles currently available on the market are concerned, there are not many range extended electric vehicles. Mainly because the range extender electric vehicle technology is complex, the manufacturing difficulty is high, and the environmental protection is questionable (the range extended electric vehicle can generate electricity from fuel and then drive the motor). However, the advantages of extended range electric vehicles with a longer range range are also very attractive in the situation that many electric vehicle owners now complain about the difficulty of charging.
Another view is that Li Yinan's move is to make a difference. In any case, he chose a relatively difficult path. However, Li Yinan seems to have made sufficient preparations for this.
It is reported that Niu Innovative Energy has landed in Changzhou. Outside the factory, the "NIUTRON" logo is also very conspicuous. Previously, there were rumors that Xiaoniu Electric would acquire BAIC BJEV's Changzhou plant, but this news has been officially denied. However, according to relevant sources, Niu Chuangxin Energy has acquired Jiangsu Jintan Mahayana Automobile Technology Industrial Park, which is where the NIUTRON office location is located above.
△ Image source: Cheshi Monogatari
Interestingly, this industrial park is only more than 40 kilometers away from the Changzhou production base of Ideal Automobile, and only more than 30 kilometers away from BAIC BJEV Changzhou plant and Xiaoniu Electric Vehicle Changzhou base. However, the person in charge of Niu Chuangxin Energy told the media that its company and Niu Electric are not directly related.
Li Yinan's car-making team this time is also extremely strong. It is reported that Liu Chuankai, vice president of Xiaoniu Design, has joined the team, Fang Qing, who was the head of cost analysis at Xiaopeng Automobile, has also joined, and Wang Yafei, editor-in-chief of Blue Whale Financial Automobile Channel, has served as the company's public relations director. According to people familiar with the matter, NIUTRON's new car has entered the trial production stage, and will not release mass production car information for the time being.
03 The best car-making era
Li Yinan eventually entered the industry, mostly because New energy vehicles in China and even the world are in the best era.
Wholesale and retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in November were 429,000 units and 378,000 units, up 131.7% and 122.3% year-on-year, respectively, according to the Association. From January to November, 2.514 million new energy vehicles were retailed, up 178.3% year-on-year.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to November, the cumulative output of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 3 million, with sales of nearly 3 million, and it is expected that the annual production and sales will exceed 3.4 million. At the same time, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China have ranked first in the world for 6 consecutive years.
Supporting facilities for new energy vehicles have also increased significantly. According to the data, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in the country from January to November was 2.253 million units, an increase of 50.4% year-on-year. In the eyes of industry insiders, China's new energy vehicle market has entered a stage of explosive growth.
For the future of the industry, it is almost always optimistic forecasts. He Xiaopeng had predicted that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles would reach 50% in 2025. Li wants to predict that global new energy passenger car sales will account for 60% in 2030. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the market share of new energy vehicles will exceed 20% in 2022, and the market share is expected to exceed 30% by the end of next year.
Along with the prosperity of the industry, there are also various new car brands, which can be seen from the sales ranking.
Although in the list, "Wei Xiaoli" and other new car-making forces occupy few seats, their sales are also very impressive. From January to November, the cumulative sales of Xiaopeng, Ideal and NIO were 82,155 vehicles, 76,404 vehicles and 80,940 vehicles, respectively. At the same time, its market capitalization is also the most powerful proof. As of the close of trading on December 10, EST, NIO's market capitalization was US$54.509 billion; Xiaopeng Motors' value in the US stock market and Hong Kong stock market was US$40.110 billion and HK$308.422 billion, respectively; Ideal Automobile's us stock market value in the US stock market and Hong Kong stock market was US$33.527 billion and HK$253.257 billion, respectively.
At the same time, the short situation of chips that lasted for more than half a year has also passed. In the report of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, it was mentioned that "the darkest hour of automotive chip supply in the third quarter has passed, and the original expected improvement in chip supply has prompted production to rise to the level of November last year, but the actual increase is 14% month-on-month." Industry insiders believe that the tight supply chain situation of chips has been alleviated, and there will even be problems of chip overcapacity in the future.
Overall, it is indeed a great era for new energy vehicle brands. The technology is mature enough, the supply chain is perfect, and the consumer mind is fully educated. At the same time, the market is friendly enough for new brands to be able to eat.
Perhaps for Li Yinan and NIUTRON, what is most needed now is money and talent.
Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, once mentioned that it is impossible to play without 20 billion funds to build a car. Previously, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal all raised billions of dollars. Looking back at some of the fallen car brands, most of them are because the capital chain is broken. It is revealed that NIUTRON currently spends money invested by the founder team. However, some media said that Niu Chuangxin Energy has completed the angel round of financing and has launched a series A financing. With Li Yinan's background and his investment circle resources, the financing of Niu Innovative Energy may not be too difficult.
In terms of talents, Niu Chuangxin Energy has released a large number of recruitment information in various recruitment desks, and in its official WeChat public account, there are also dozens of positions in recruitment.
In addition to money and talent, Niuchuang is also facing the siege from many new car-making forces, and the track has become more and more crowded. In addition to the "Wei Xiaoli" of the first echelon, there are second-tier legions such as Zero Run and Nezha, as well as Xiaomi, which is now eyeing the tiger.
For Li Yinan, NIUTRON is an opportunity to prove himself again. If successful, the past may fade under the aura of success. However, this is destined to be a protracted battle. This "appearance" two days later was just the beginning.
Resources:
"Li Yinan started another stove to bet on making a car Can he replicate the success of Maverick Electric?" , China Business Daily
"The Three Logics of Li Yinan's Car: Deriving from the Calf, Taking over the Mahayana, and Copying the Ideal", The Story of the Car Market