Advancing into the trillion power exchange track: Geely and Lifan invested 600 million yuan to establish a joint venture company

21st Century Business Herald reporter Du Qiaomei reported that one year after the introduction of restructuring investors, the completion of restructuring and the restart of the automobile business, Lifan Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. (601777. SH, hereinafter referred to as "Lifan Technology") accelerates the "running" in the field of new energy business.

On January 25, Lifan Technology issued an announcement that Lifan Technology held the seventh meeting of the fifth board of directors and the sixth meeting of the fifth board of supervisors on December 13, 2021, deliberated and passed the "Proposal on Joint Investment and Establishment of Joint Ventures and Related Party Transactions with Related Parties", and agreed that the Company and Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Automobile") should establish a joint venture company in the directly administered area of Liangjiang New District, Chongqing.

According to the announcement information, Geely Automobile designated its wholly-owned subsidiary Ningbo Geely Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. as the investment entity and Lifan Technology to set up a joint venture company - Chongqing Ruilan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 600 million yuan and the equity ratio of both shareholders is 50:50.

It is reported that the new joint venture company Ruilan Automobile has completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures on January 24, 2022, has independent production qualifications, and the development focus will focus on the landing of power exchange products and power exchange services.

According to the plan, Ruilan Automobile will quickly lay out the power exchange market, develop new products based on the self-developed power exchange platform, and at the same time work together in the field of B-end online ride-hailing travel and the power exchange needs of C-end individual users, and launch a variety of power form models to solve the travel pain points of different users.

Based on the GBRC (Global Battery Rapid Change) power exchange platform, Ruilan Automobile will also plan to cover cars, SUVs, MPVs, and even logistics vehicles and light trucks, fully meeting the needs of different markets such as online ride-hailing, private cars, taxis, and logistics vehicles. It will also take Chongqing as the brand "base camp" and promote the replacement power station to key cities across the country. By 2025, Ruilan Automobile plans to operate 5,000 intelligent substations worldwide.

It is understood that as early as May 2021, Lifan Technology's first power-changing pure electric B-class MPV model has been mass-produced off the production line. Lifan Technology revealed that in the future, two power-swapping models 60S and 80X will be launched, of which the 60S will be a replacement car facing the taxi market, and the 80X is a large-scale replacement SUV, mainly for official car customers.

For the Lifan power exchange model, Geely Technology Group put into operation in the first batch of intelligent substations in the Chongqing Expressway Service Area in jingguan, Ewhashan, Weilong, Luohuang and Dalu. According to the previous plan of Geely Technology Group, the power exchange model will take the lead in landing in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, expanding to 100 substations in 2021; in 2023, it is planned to complete more than 200 substations.

According to the "Lifan Share Restructuring Plan", the restructuring investor plans to build Lifan Holdings into a leading enterprise in the field of intelligent network replacement new energy electric vehicles in China, and become the only listing platform for Geely Technology Group's power exchange model manufacturing business.

The establishment of Ruilan Automobile can be seen as a further cooperation between Geely Automobile and Lifan Technology to enter the trillion-dollar power exchange track.

It is worth noting that since the development of new energy vehicles, endurance and energy replenishment have always been problems that plague electric vehicle users. On the basis of the acceleration of the construction of traditional charging piles, power exchange has become a new track.

In terms of policy, in October 2021, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Launching the Pilot Work on the Application of The New Energy Vehicle Replacement Mode", and a total of 11 cities included in the scope of the pilot are expected to promote more than 100,000 power exchange vehicles and more than 1,000 power stations.

With the support and encouragement of the power exchange model by the relevant national departments and policies, the main engine factory and battery manufacturers have accelerated the popularization of power exchange products. A few days ago, CATL launched the power exchange brand EVOGO, calling on the main engine factory to participate in promoting the development of the new energy automobile industry.