The car brand founded by Li Yinan, a former Huawei executive and founder of Xiaoniu Electric, has finally emerged.
On December 15, Niu Chuangxin Energy Technology Co., Ltd. released the English brand "NIUTRON" and the Chinese brand "Self-Traveling Home", and announced that the first product, Self-Traveling NV, will be listed and pre-ordered in the first half of 2022, and the delivery will start in September of the same year.
For the brand name, the official explanation, NIUTRON symbolizes the spirit of exploring the world, the brand core advocates exploration, refinement, pleasure, Chinese named "self-traveling home", hoping to provide users with a free driving, comfortable travel experience.
It is worth noting that Niu Chuangxin Energy has nothing to do with Maverick Electric in terms of ownership structure, and the two brands are also completely independent. Li Yinan said that "NIUTRON" is deformed from "Neutron", which means neutron, the smallest uncharged basis particle in the universe, representing the exploration and dream of the mysteries of the universe; and the logo of "NIU" is used because the Maverick Electric itself is also a brand that makes him proud, and the Maverick two-wheeled electric vehicle with the "NIU" logo has been sold to many parts of the world.
According to Li Yinan, the Niu Innovative Energy Car Manufacturing Project was prepared in November 2018, and currently has nearly 1,000 core R&D personnel, the brand headquarters is located in Beijing, and a R&D center has been set up in Shanghai.
In terms of funds, Youjia Auto has received a total of $500 million in Series A financing, and has received investment from IDG Capital, COATUE and other institutions. Li Yinan said in an interview with the media that since its inception, the Youjia family has not been short of money for a day.
In terms of brand positioning, Li Yinan said, "It must be high-end." However, for the target group of the first product, the senior management team of Ziyoujia Automobile has not yet given a clear definition, but it is clear that "it will not benchmark a certain model of the existing brand in the market" to meet the market demand.
In the product technology route, self-touring cars use pure electric BEV (Battery Electric vehicle) and extended-range electric VEHICLE (Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) in parallel, and have developed Gemini twin platforms. Based on the platform, the first product self-touring NV is positioned in the medium and large high-end SUV, focusing on urban travel, providing users with two powertrains to choose from, and is expected to be listed in the first half of 2022 and accept reservations.
In terms of factories, Ziyoujia Automobile acquired the Mahayana Automobile Factory in Changzhou and obtained production qualifications. At present, the plant is still in the process of pre-mass production transformation and commissioning, covering an area of 770,000 square meters, with an overall design capacity of 180,000 vehicles per year, and will be trial production in March 2022.
It is reported that since youjia NV has carried out three rounds of engineering trial production, R & D test mileage of more than one million kilometers, the first round of winter and summer tests has been completed, is currently undergoing the second round of winter testing. With the completion of the transformation of the manufacturing base, The NV is expected to be produced in small batches in March 2022 and will be delivered to the first users in September.