Li Yinan, a former executive of Huawei and founder of Maverick Electric, "officially announced" that he had built a car.
On December 15, Niu Chuangxin Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Niu Chuangxin Energy"), founded by Li Yinan, released the English brand "NIUTRON", which Chinese named "Ziyoujia". Niu Chuangxin Energy also announced that its first model is positioned as a medium- and large-scale urban off-road "self-touring NV", which is scheduled to be produced in small batches in March next year, and is tentatively scheduled to be officially launched in September next year.
Compared with the bitterness of many founders of new car-making forces for "burning money", 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.
So, is there any "big guy" behind Li Yinan who supports his car building?
Li Yinan's re-entrepreneurship
According to public information, Niu Chuangxin Energy was established on December 3, 2020, as a re-creation company of Li Yinan.
In addition to being the founder of Maverick Electric, Li Yinan is also a former Executive of Huawei. It is reported that Li Yinan has a very rich experience, he was admitted to the junior class of Huazhong University of Science and Technology at the age of 15, and was appointed as the executive vice president by Ren Zhengfei at the age of 26, ranking second in Huawei, and even considered Ren Zhengfei's successor at the time; but later he ran away to start his own business, and then experienced a return to Huawei and joined Baidu.
Li Yinan's most successful entrepreneurial experience was the establishment of Maverick Electric in 2015, but he was soon imprisoned for insider trading at his peak. In 2018, Maverick Electric was successfully listed in the United States.
Since then, Li Yinan has not been idle, but has continued a new venture, that is, niu innovation energy.
It is reported that although the company was founded just one year ago, its new energy vehicle brand research and development design planning has been four years old. Li Yinan revealed that the NIUTRON project was launched as early as November 2018, and its first product is the self-touring NV.
Niu Chuangxin Energy is currently focusing on the field of intelligent high-end new energy vehicles, headquartered in Beijing, with an R&D center in Shanghai and a R&D and intelligent manufacturing base in Changzhou. Its core R & D team is from mainstream first-line automobile companies at home and abroad, with a number of nearly 1,000 people and an average working experience of more than 10 years.
It is reported that the self-touring NV is positioned in the medium and large high-end SUV, with a total of two directions of extended range and pure electricity, and is equipped with the Gemini twin platform, providing users with two powertrains to choose from. The car is currently undergoing a second round of winter testing and is expected to be available and available for pre-order in the first half of 2022.
Although the time to market is roughly determined, it is clear that the current new car production base is not ready to "take office". Li Yinan said that at present, its Changzhou production base is undergoing pre-mass production transformation and calibration, and it is expected to be put into use in March 2022. It is reported that this base covers an area of 770,000 square meters, and its overall design capacity after operation can reach 180,000 vehicles / year, which is similar to the production capacity of some factories in the head of new energy vehicles " Wei Xiaoli " .
With the completion of the transformation of the manufacturing base, the new car is expected to be produced in small batches in March 2022 and delivered to the first users in September.
IDG is the big guy behind it?
At the same time as the high-profile announcement of re-entrepreneurship, Youjia Automobile announced the completion of a round of financing of 500 million US dollars, and obtained investment from IDG, COATUE and other world-renowned institutions.
Li Yinan also said in an interview with the media that since its inception, the Youjia family has not been short of money for a day.
According to public information, in December 2020, when Jiangsu Niu Chuangxin Energy completed its registration, its registered capital was 50 million US dollars. When the company moved to Jintan, Changzhou in 2021, its registered capital increased to $400 million.
According to media reports, Li Yinan once said, "We have nothing to do with Calf Electric, nor do we have any experience to learn from (from Calvey Electric)." But it is undeniable that behind Niu Innovative Energy and Niu Electric stands the same investment institution - IDG Capital.
According to public information, IDG Capital is the first foreign investment fund to enter the Chinese market and has become a leader in China's venture capital industry. At present, it has invested in more than 600 companies in China, of which more than 150 companies have been publicly listed or acquired, including Tencent, Xiaomi, Bilibili and so on. IDG Capital also became the A-round investor of Maverick Electric in 2015.
Previously, IDG has also placed bets on the new energy travel track many times. It invested in NIO in 2016; in 2017, it entered xiaopeng in the A+ round, becoming its largest financial investor, and continued to raise bets in the B and C rounds. Xiaopeng and Weilai also lived up to expectations, and have become the head force of new energy vehicles, and have also achieved remarkable results in sales.
In November this year, Xiaopeng achieved a single monthly delivery of more than 10,000 yuan for three consecutive months, becoming the only new energy vehicle brand in "Wei Xiaoli" with a record of 15,613 units, an increase of 270% year-on-year. Nio also set a record monthly delivery, delivering a total of 10,878 new vehicles in November, an increase of 105.6% year-on-year.
"Compared with how many electric vehicles are sold, we pay more attention to whether these cars are future-oriented and whether they are walking in the intelligent track." Yu Xinhua, a partner at IDG Capital, put forward his judgment on the new energy vehicle industry in an interview with the media.
Reporter: Xiao Yisi Intern: Gao Xiuxiu
Edit: Wang Ke
Cover image: Xiao Yisi
Editor-in-Charge: BiDandan
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