Let's take stock of what major events have occurred in the automotive circle on October 7, 2023.
Auto Incident One: Chris Brownridge as CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
Recently, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars' official website information shows that BMW Group appointed Chris Brownridge, CEO of BMW UK, as CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and will officially take over the new position on December 1, 2023. Torsten Müller-Ötvös will step down as CEO on November 30, 2023 and officially retire.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös has been with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for 14 years, making him the longest-serving CEO of Rolls-Royce after Claude Johnson.
Chris Brownridge has been with the BMW Group for almost 30 years. Prior to his current CEO role, Chris has been a member of the Board of Directors of BMW UK since 2011 and has held various roles including Sales Director of BMW UK, Marketing Director of BMW UK and Regional Director of MINI UK and Ireland.
Auto incident two: BYD Li Ke responds to European countervailing duty investigation into Chinese trams
Recently, the European Union officially launched a countervailing duty investigation process against imported electric vehicles produced in China. It is reported that the investigation will be completed within a maximum of 13 months, and the EU may impose a temporary "countervailing duty" on China within 9 months. Li Ke, executive vice president of BYD, recently said that although the European Union has launched a countervailing duty investigation into Chinese electric vehicles, BYD will continue to promote the company's strong growth in Europe.
"We are a public company and need to manage in a transparent and open way to share information," Li said. Therefore, we are not worried about any ongoing investigations in Europe. "We really have no intention of being bigger than Tesla, and we want Tesla to be very successful, because the more successful they are, the more they can help people understand electrification." ”
Auto Incident Three: Used car e-commerce Shift Technologies Inc. will file for bankruptcy
Recently, Shift Technologies Inc., an e-commerce company in San Francisco that sells used cars, announced that the company will file for bankruptcy and will empty its (used car) inventory. Two physical stores in California will be closed and websites will cease to exist. Previously, the company "backdoor listing" in 2020 through a merger with blank check company Insurance Acquisition Corp., the latest in this wave of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) closures/failed SPAC mergers in the United States.
Automotive Event 4: Zhixing Automotive Technology submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Recently, Zhixing Automotive Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the joint sponsors are Citi, Huatai International and CCB International.
Founded in 2016, Zhixing Technology focuses on autonomous driving domain controllers (mission-critical components of Level 2 to Level 5 autonomous driving). According to Frost & Sullivan, in terms of autonomous domain controller sales revenue in 2022, Zhixing Technology is the second largest third-party autonomous driving domain controller provider in China, with a market share of 26.2%; In terms of sales revenue of autonomous domain controllers in 2022 (including domain controllers developed by OEMs), Zhixing Technology is the fourth largest overall autonomous domain controller provider in China, with a market share of 8.6%.
According to data from CaiLian News Venture Capital, the latest financing of Zhixing Technology was in the C3 round of financing in July 2022, with a financing amount of 247.5 million yuan, and after the completion of this financing, Zhixing Technology was valued at 3.3 billion yuan.
It is disclosed that before the IPO, Zhixing Technology was supported by many institutions, including Li Auto, Mingshi Capital, Guozhong Capital, CCB International, BOC Yuecai, Mixed Reform Fund, Huaqiang Venture Capital, iFLYTEK Venture Capital, HL Klemove, Qianrong Holdings, China Merchants Qihang, etc. Among them, the mixed reform fund held 9% of the shares of Zhixing Technology, which was the largest institutional investor before the IPO; Junior High School Venture Capital followed with 7.6%; HL Mando Gorp (204320.KR) is third, with a 7.5% stake through Hallacre Ruidon Suzhou.
Car event five: Jia Yueting will become the owner of FF 91
A few days ago, Faraday Future officially announced that it will hold a weekly "Delivery Co-creation Day" event in October, when FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance will be delivered to Mr. Jia Yueting, founder and chief product and user ecology officer. In addition, FF will introduce a top music superstar who will be the next FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance owner and developer co-creator.
It is reported that Mr. Jia Yueting's delivery co-creation activities will be divided into three stages. On the day of the delivery of the co-creation event, Mr. Jia Yueting will introduce the complete R&D and production process of FF 91 2.0 through a video, and outline the company's next stage of developer co-creation strategic planning. Within one month after the delivery of the product, Mr. Jia Yueting will organize the company's senior management to participate in the product co-creation meeting, provide feedback based on his product experience, and continuously improve the user experience. One month after delivery, he will continue to provide product feedback through daily driving and use, while also providing reference advice for the development of FF's next-generation products.
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