On January 12, in front of a 4S store, an electric car spontaneously combusted and exploded while charging, and ignited the vehicle next to it. In the online video, the BYD door head logo is clearly visible. Online rumors circulated that "BYD (002594. SZ) vehicle on fire ignited the Tesla next door (TSLA.US)" message.
Subsequently, Tesla responded to the Red Star Capital Bureau: according to the scene situation, it was initially understood that other vehicles had a fire, which ignited a Tesla Model Y next to it. The fire department has extinguished the fire, and the fire liability is determined by the fire department.
The "BYD Network Reporting Center" WeChat public account posted on the 12th that a Weibo user "your friend Xiao Zeng" released a message on the platform, saying, "A Tesla owner who has just picked up the car for a month said that his car was parked there to charge well, and byBYD suddenly burned down next to it, burning his car out", causing everyone's attention and discussion.
BYD told Red Star Capital Bureau that after verification, this is false information and the vehicle that caught fire is not a BYD brand. BYD said that in view of the relevant information, it has collected evidence in accordance with the law and reserves the right to pursue the responsibility of the relevant infringers.
BYD debunks the rumors
Red Star Capital Bureau noted that on January 13, the Weibo page of "Your Friend Xiao Zeng" could no longer find the above content.
The vehicle that caught fire is not BYD, so who is it? Some relevant parties told the Red Star Capital Bureau that the Longtan Industrial Park engaged in Fadi was informed that the charging spontaneous combustion was a Lifan electric vehicle, which affected a Tesla and a small truck next to it.
For this reason, the Red Star Capital Bureau verified with Lifan officials, and Lifan Technology (601777. SH) secretary office replied that "no relevant information has been received and is not aware of this." And Lifan auto customer service has been unanswered.
Judging from the online videos and photos, the appearance of the fire vehicle is very similar to the Lifan 650EV, which is widely used as a ride-hailing car.
In 2018, the Lifan 650EV, which was listed for just over two months, had a spontaneous combustion accident, when Lifan officially determined that the cause of the vehicle battery fire was: the battery leaked slightly due to the heavy rain for several days, and the battery was short-circuited, causing the battery to catch fire.
On July 1, 2020, Lifan Motors recalled 3,651 Lifan 650EV vehicles due to the risk of fire in the battery pack.
Lifan Technology has been reborn a year after Geely took over.
In 2016, due to the insurance fraud scandal, Lifan's new energy vehicle sales plummeted by more than 60%. Moreover, after experiencing the "spontaneous combustion" problem and safety thunderstorms, Lifan's sales continued to decline, with sales of only 13,200 vehicles left in 2019 and 282 vehicles in the first half of 2020.
According to the data, at the end of June 2020, the asset-liability ratio of Lifan Technology reached 98.87%, and in terms of short-term solvency, it had monetary funds of 390 million yuan, but short-term borrowings were as high as 7.554 billion yuan, and non-current liabilities due within one year reached 701 million yuan.
In August 2020, Lifan Group filed for bankruptcy reorganization. In 2021, Geely took over Lifan, restarted the automotive business, and introduced Geely Technology Group's first new power replacement model, the Maple Leaf 80V.
On the evening of January 4, Lifan Technology released a production and sales express report announcement showing that the company's vehicle sales in 2021 reached 3862 vehicles, an increase of 60.18% year-on-year.
Red Star News reporter Wu Danruo
Edited by Yang Cheng
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