After Baidu, Foxconn, and Xiaomi, there is a "big guy" who announced his entry into the automotive industry. On December 15, Niu Chuangxin Energy, founded by Li Yinan, 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.
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. As early as the beginning of this year, there was news that The Maverick Electric Vehicle would cross-border car construction through the acquisition of BAIC BJEV Changzhou factory, which was quickly officially denied. However, according to people familiar with the matter, Li Yinan and BAIC BJEV did negotiate the acquisition, although the acquisition was not negotiated, but finally chose the Mahayana Automobile Plant, which is 30 kilometers away from BAIC BJEV's Changzhou plant.
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.
Since October 2019, there have been reports of Passenger Cars' arrears of employees' salaries. 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. In addition, after the epidemic, there were about 500 employees in the first batch of employees in the Jintan Base of Mahayana Automobile, all of whom had not yet arranged clear work tasks, and the rest of the employees did not notify the resumption of work for the time being.
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. However, Niu Chuangxin Energy is currently using the Mahayana Science and Technology Industrial Park on a leased basis, and some Niu Chuangxin Energy employees have already entered the industrial park.
The map also shows the industrial park of "Mahayana", which now has the logo of "NIUTRON", and several workers are cleaning the glass of the façade 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 car 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.
Based on the above, Li Yinan's car is actually not surprising. However, there are also many problems in front of Li Yinan, such as funds, technology, talents and so on. Earlier, Weilai Li Bin had said that there was no 20 billion yuan not to build a car. Today, Niu Chuangxin Energy has also just completed its Series A financing round, with IDG Capital and Coatue Management leading a $500 million investment.
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