In 2018, the domestic passenger car market experienced negative growth for the first time, which caused many car companies that were not so large at that time to suffer a more serious blow, and the market class segmentation was also more serious, and the gap between the first and second camps became more and more obvious. With the advent of the epidemic in 2020, it can be said that the last straw of this part of the car companies has been directly cut off, and bankruptcy and restructuring have been announced, and Lifan Automobile is also one of them, due to the losses accumulated over the years, Lifan Automobile is heavily indebted and gradually insolvent, and can only declare bankruptcy. Huge losses saved? Geely announced the establishment of a joint venture with Lifan, is this wave of operation stable?
Although The bankruptcy of Lifan is unfortunate, it is a lucky one compared to Zotye Automobile and Mustang Automobile in the same situation, because it is valued and acquired by the domestic independent brand "Big Brother" Geely.
In October last year, Lifan Automobile announced a restructuring plan, and one of the buyers was Geely, and the speed of the work efficiency made people feel that Geely Automobile had "premeditated". However, it is definitely a good thing for Lifan's suppliers, and the cost that was originally thought to be floated can be taken back.
As we all know, Geely is the car company that likes to play acquisitions among its own brands, and it has many internationally renowned brands such as Volvo, Smart, lotus and so on. It is also this "buy, buy and buy" strategy that has allowed Geely's technical level in recent years to rise by leaps and bounds, and also derived the high-end brand Lynk & Co and CMA architecture.
Through the acquisition of overseas car companies to increase their own car-making technology, but Lifan Automobile can be said to be a blank in this regard, what is Geely Automobile looking at? The answer is the resources of Lifan Automobile, in addition to production qualifications, Lifan Automobile's Mandarin Duck Factory covers an area of more than 740 acres, and the value of this land is also not cheap.
Of course, the acquisition is only the beginning, and the next step of cooperation is the focus. Although Geely Automobile started relatively early on the road of new energy, the effect was not too good. The sales volume of the previously released Jihe New Energy sub-brand has been sluggish, while other peers have made significant progress in the new energy sector, which has also made Geely Automobile face a lot of pressure. At the same time, the national policy is implementing the construction of new energy vehicle replacement power stations, which is undoubtedly an opportunity to help expand the brand's new energy business.
In January this year, Lifan Technology officially met with volkswagen, and released the first power-changing model, the new car named 80V, and 4 months later, the electric vehicle was mass-produced, and signed contracts with a number of travel companies at the press conference, agreeing to purchase new cars. I have to say that with Geely as a backer in the back, the situation of Lifan Automobile is turning from yin to sunny, and the company's business is being continued. In the future, Lifan Technology will also bring a variety of interchangeable models for the online ride-hailing and official car markets.
Not only that, the cooperation between Lifan Technology and Geely's cooperative automobile is continuing to deepen. Recently, Lifan Technology issued an announcement that it would jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture with Geely Automobile, with a target registered capital of 600 million yuan, and Lifan Technology and Geely Automobile each invested 300 million yuan, each holding 50% of the equity.
The company's main business scope is vehicle design, research and development, sales, but also includes import and export business, as well as technology development and third-party technical support.
summary
Lifan Automobile, as an earlier batch of domestic car companies, did earn the first pot of gold in the past few years, but Lifan did not invest this income in the research and development of new products, but maintained the status quo, which made it fail to catch up with the period of rapid development of China's passenger car market, and now it can only declare bankruptcy, but now it is geely taking over the transformation of new energy vehicle travel companies.