was discontinued for two years, Zotye Auto made a comeback.
On October 18, Zotye Automobile Co., Ltd. (000980, ST Zotye) announced that since the company completed its reorganization at the end of 2021, it has been committed to the resumption of automobiles and complete vehicles. At present, the relevant preparations before resumption of production have been basically completed. The company plans to launch the first batch of T300 models to resume production at Yongkang Base on October 20, 2022 and hold a offline ceremony.
This is the first time that Zotye Auto has been removed from the entire vehicle since its bankruptcy and reorganization. In addition, Zotye's previously announced plan to expand capacity by 6 billion yuan was also approved by the shareholders' meeting. On October 18 and 19, ST Zotye hit the daily limit continuously.
It is reported that the Zotye T300 2019 manual and automatic versions before the suspension were officially priced at RMB 45,900 and RMB 55,900 respectively. Since Zotye Auto positioned itself as "a good car that the people can afford" in its recent announcement, many industry insiders speculated that the starting price of the new car will still be around 50,000 yuan after the resumption of production.
Pengpai News reporter verified with Zotye Auto's investor relations department as an investor, and the other party said that the T300 model is only confirmed to be offline soon, and the pricing and sales channels after that have not been determined.
has started the R&D of the whole vehicle, and R&D investment increased by 656.12% in the first half of this year
In the first half of this year, Zotye Auto began to promote the resumption of work and production.
In July this year, in the 359th batch of new car application catalog released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology website, Zhejiang Zotye Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. applied for Zotye brand multi-purpose passenger car with product model ZTA6450. On July 18, an investor asked on the investor relations platform, "The 359th batch of "H Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Product Announcement " Zotye responded that the model was the T300 model.
The 359th batch of new car application catalog announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s website
In August this year, Zotye announced that it had reached a cooperation with the Bishan District Government of Chongqing City, and will invest in the intelligent connected new energy vehicle R&D and production base project in Bishan , and transform and build a production base for new energy vehicles with an annual output of 100,000 new energy vehicle.
On October 19, Zotye Auto stated through an investor question and answer platform that the production line renovation of Chongqing and Yongkang bases has been basically completed, and the Chongqing base has recruited more than 500 workers. At the same time, Zotye also stated that there is no risk of loss of nine production bases. According to Zotye's previous announcement, Zotye's nine production bases nationwide are distributed in Yongkang , Hangzhou, Changsha, Daye , Chongqing, Jinhua , Linyi , Xiangyang and Guigang.
T300 is not the only model that has been "resurrected" among Zotye's original models. On October 13, Zotye mentioned in response to investors that "T300 is one of the models that the company resumes production." On October 19, in response to investors, "The T300 and U2 are currently planned to produce two models." The U2 model is the first new car after Zotye's restructuring.
According to Zotye Auto's latest financial report data, in the first half of 2022, its revenue was 298 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 22.5%; the net loss was 277 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 63.15%; the company's total assets were 7.747 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.32%; the company's sales revenue was 288 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.91%.
Zotye Auto said that during the suspension of production of the automobile complete vehicle business, its main revenue came from the automobile spare parts and security door businesses. The transportation equipment manufacturing industry and the furniture manufacturing industry contributed 128 million yuan and 170 million yuan respectively, down more than 20% from the same period last year.
It is worth noting that in the first half of 2022, Zotye Auto's R&D investment was 35.0641 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 656.12%. Zotye said that the increase in R&D investment was due to the company's launch of vehicle R&D projects in the first half of the year.
once sold 300,000 vehicles per year and has been suspended for two years
As the "king of copycats" among independent brand car companies, Zotye Auto's revival has attracted many people's attention.
Relying on counterfeit luxury cars, Zotye Auto has many best-selling models. For example, the Zotye SR9, which was launched in October 2016, looks similar to the Porsche Macan model, but the price is only 109,000 to 162,000 yuan. In 2016, Zotye's sales reached 330,000 vehicles, an increase of up to 50% year-on-year.
However, this is also the peak of Zotye Auto's sales. Due to the lack of innovation, sales have continued to decline in the following years. In 2019, Zotye Auto's sales fell sharply to 21,000 vehicles, and then fell into an operating crisis.
On September 1, 2020, Zotye issued an announcement stating that the company's controlling shareholder Tienniu Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " Tienniu Group ") has been accepted by the court.
From June 2020 to June 2021, Zotye Automobile and its eight subsidiaries were successively accepted into bankruptcy by the court. In the first half of 2020, Zotye Auto only produced 574 cars and sold 1,417 cars. All the bases under the company were basically suspended and semi-stopped. In 2021, Zotye Auto's complete vehicle production will be completely stopped.
On June 9, 2021, the Jinhua Intermediate People's Court ruled to accept the reorganization application for Zotye Automobile Co., Ltd. Until September 30, 2021, Jiangsu Shenzhen Commercial Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Jiangsu Shenzhen Commercial") was identified as a restructuring investor. With the help of 2 billion restructuring investment funds, Zotye Auto was "resurrected".
financial report shows that by the end of 2021, Zotye Auto completed the reorganization work and made every effort to resume work and production in the first half of 2022.
However, Zotye Group is still facing the uncertainty brought by its shareholder Tieniu Group. According to the semi-annual report, Tieniu Group holds 786 million shares of Zotye shares, accounting for 15.51%. The shares held by Tieniu Group will be auctioned and disposed of in accordance with the law. In addition, Tieniu Group still owes Zotye 13.95 billion yuan in performance compensation, and whether this huge compensation can be obtained also needs to be questioned.
As of the close of the 19th, ST Zotye rose 5% to 4.83 yuan per share, with a market value of nearly 24.5 billion yuan.
