After Baidu, Foxconn, and Xiaomi, there is a "big guy" who announced his entry into the automotive industry. On December 15, Niu Chuangxin Energy released its new car brand "NIUTRON" and announced its Chinese name as "Self-Traveling Home". According to the official description, NIUTRON symbolizes the spirit of exploring the world, the brand core advocates exploration, refinement and pleasure, Chinese named "self-traveling home", hoping to provide users with a free driving and easy travel experience.
According to the plan, the self-touring product layout adopts pure electric and extended range parallel, and the Gemini twin platform has been developed. The first product launched on the platform, the Youjia NV, is positioned as a mid-to-large high-end SUV, and is expected to be available and accept reservations in the first half of 2022. In terms of brand positioning, Li Yinan said that "it must be high-end". However, for the target group of the first product, the senior management team of Ziyoujia 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.
Ideal ONE (first from left), Niuchuang trial car (second from left)
According to comprehensive media reports, Niu Innovative Energy Technology (NIUTRON) car manufacturing project was established in November 2018, the brand headquarters is located in Beijing, set up a research and development center in Shanghai, and the R & D and intelligent manufacturing base is located in Changzhou, the company's core R & D team is close to 1,000 people, all from mainstream first-line automobile companies at home and abroad. In December 2020, Jiangsu Niu Innovation Energy Technology Co., Ltd. completed the registration with a registered capital of 50 million US dollars, and the company is a wholly-owned foreign-funded enterprise of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. In August this year, niu chuangxin energy address was changed to Jintan District, Changzhou City, while the registered capital increased from 50 million US dollars to 400 million US dollars.
The reason for the change in the address of NiuXin Energy is related to the production qualification. At the beginning of this year, it was reported that The Maverick Electric Vehicle would realize cross-border car manufacturing through the acquisition of BAIC BJEV Changzhou plant, which was quickly officially denied. However, according to people familiar with the matter, Li Yinan and BAIC BJEV did negotiate the acquisition, but the acquisition was not negotiated, and finally chose the Mahayana Automobile Factory, which is 30 kilometers away from BAIC BJEV's Changzhou plant.
Niu Innovation Energy Changzhou production base and recruitment information
According to the data, Mahayana Automobile was established on December 1, 2014, formerly known as Jiangsu Jintan Changdanghu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., and renamed Mahayana Automobile Co., Ltd. in 2018. Unlike other new car companies, Mahayana Has production qualifications for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and new energy vehicles, and has two major production bases in Jintan, Jiangsu and Fuzhou, Jiangxi.
It is worth mentioning that Mahayana Automobile also has a certain relationship with Zotye Automobile. Wu Xiao, the founder of Mahayana Automobile, is the son of Wu Jianzhong, the former chairman of Zotye Automobile, and when Wu Jianzhong was still the chairman of Zotye Automobile, he won the project of Zotye Damai to produce Damai models at jintan base. After Zotye was listed on the A-share market in 2017, the Jintan base was spun off to be used as the Changzhou production base of Mahayana Automobile, and Wu Xiao took advantage of the situation to establish Mahayana Automobile. In September 2018, Mahayana Held a brand launch in Beijing, marking its official entry into the automotive industry.
However, only a year after its establishment, Mahayana could not hold on. Since October 2019, Mahayana Motors has been exposed to arrears in paying employees. According to Mahayana employees, the Changzhou Jintan Base of Mahayana Automobile has been in arrears for many months, of which only part of the salary was paid in 2019, and the full amount of the 2020 salary has not been paid so far, involving more than 1500 employees.
According to the media "Automobile Commune", at present, Mahayana Automobile has been taken over by the bankruptcy liquidation team of Fuzhou High-tech Zone, and the relevant asset liquidation procedures are being handled, while the two major production bases of Mahayana Automobile have also changed hands, the Fuzhou factory has been taken over by BYD, and the Changzhou factory has been taken over by Niu Chuangxin Energy.
According to the auction announcement released by the Jintan District People's Court, in June this year, Jiangsu Zhongzhiyang Investment Management Co., Ltd. took over the Mahayana Science and Technology Industrial Park in Jintan, Changzhou, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangsu Jintan Guofa International Investment and Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Office of the Public Asset Management Committee of Changzhou Jintan District, for 1.551 billion yuan through auction. In other words, Jintan District took over the Mahayana Science and Technology Industrial Park at that time.
It is worth noting that the attribution of the most critical production qualifications is not mentioned in the auction announcement. A number of people familiar with the matter also confirmed that Niuchuang Automobile is currently using the Mahayana Science and Technology Industrial Park in the form of leasing from Jintan District.
Niu Innovation Energy Changzhou production base main gate
Today, the gate of the Changzhou factory of Mahayana Motor has been hung with the logo of "NIUTRON", and several workers are cleaning the exterior glass of the office building behind the main entrance. It is worth mentioning that this industrial park is only more than 40 kilometers away from the Changzhou base of ideal automobile. It is understood that Li Yinan and the founder of Ideal Auto Li Xiang have a very good personal relationship, and the two people will soon meet on the new track, because the first model of Niu Chuangxin Energy is a medium and large range extender SUV, which is consistent with the ideal ONE.
Ox-made cars are nothing new. On January 11, Baidu and Geely Holdings joined forces to officially announce the establishment of a smart car company, and Baidu will also officially enter the automotive industry as a vehicle manufacturer. Subsequently, Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established on March 2. On March 30, Lei Jun officially announced Xiaomi's entry into smart electric vehicles, declaring that "this is the last major entrepreneurial project in my life, and I am willing to bet on all my reputation." According to the plan, the first model of Xiaomi Automobile will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024. On October 18, Foxconn released three electric vehicles, including the electric bus Model T, SUV Model C, and business luxury driving Model E. Earlier, Foxconn founder and former chairman Terry Gou said in an internal meeting, "Apple cars are just four-wheeled iPhones, since we can build iPhones, why can't we build electric vehicles?" In addition to the above, including Evergrande, Alibaba, Ningde Times, 360 and so on are involved in car building.
When electrification and intelligence become the future development trend of automobiles, more and more enterprises enter the market to build cars, and traditional car companies are also accelerating the layout of this market. Just yesterday, Toyota Akio, who has shelled electric vehicles on many occasions, held a Toyota electric vehicle strategy conference, Toyota Akio announced that he will invest 35 billion US dollars in electric vehicle research by 2030, and will launch 30 electric vehicles before that, and the Lexus brand will also be fully transformed into a pure electric brand. Toyota motor is planned to invest 8 trillion yen ($35 billion) in research and development costs on new energy vehicles including electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles, half of which will be used for pure electric research. By 2030, Toyota will sell 75% of new energy vehicles and strive to sell 3.5 million units a year.
In the past year, cross-border car-making companies are not, and it is not surprising that Li Yinan, who is known as "genius" by the outside world, turned into the electric vehicle industry after several twists and turns, but the car is a strange industry for Li Yinan, and there are many problems in front of him, such as capital, technology, talents, etc., which are the most lacking in Li Yinan.
Today, Niu Chuangxin Energy also announced the completion of a Series A financing round, led by IDG Capital and Coatue Management. Earlier, Li Bin had said, "There is no 20 billion do not build a car." In this regard, Li Yinan said: "Automobile manufacturing is undoubtedly an industry with a high capital threshold. Others have also asked me why I didn't make cars before, but now I think about making cars. In 2014, I judged that I would not be able to raise more than $3 billion to do this thing, and now I should most likely be able to raise this money to do this thing. ”