Produced by | Frontier of Entrepreneurship

Art Editor | Xing Jing

Reviewed by | Song Wen

On May 28, Oyi Automobile officially submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As a startup in the intelligent heavy truck sector founded in 2022, it took just four years from inception to apply for listing, shaped by the demands of the era.

Amid the accelerating transformation of new energy commercial vehicles, the heavy truck sector is undergoing unprecedented restructuring opportunities. Particularly over the past two-plus years, Oyi Automobile has achieved exponential growth in deliveries, reaching 1,176 new energy intelligent heavy trucks delivered in 2025, becoming the fastest new energy heavy truck player to surpass 1,000 annual sales.

However, at this critical juncture as the star enterprise prepares to list in Hong Kong, its highly capital-dependent expansion model, potential risks of asset-light operations, and the real-world challenges of commercializing L4 autonomous heavy trucks have become focal points for the market to assess its long-term value.

Prospectus data shows net losses of RMB 114 million, RMB 241 million, and RMB 281 million for 2023 to 2025 (hereinafter referred to as the 'reporting period'), totaling RMB 636 million in cumulative losses over three years.

Behind the financial losses, Oyi Automobile's rapid expansion heavily relies on external financing. Multiple top-tier industrial and international capital players have collectively entered the fray, demonstrating strong confidence in its technological roadmap and scenario implementation capabilities.

However, Oyi Automobile's adherence to an asset-light contract manufacturing model exposes it to challenges in supply chain control and scalable manufacturing. Nearly 100 dealers were rapidly rolled out within a year, yet their true channel expansion and end-market absorption capabilities remain unverified.

More critically, while the company is anchored in the long-term vision of L4 autonomous heavy trucks, its current revenue still heavily depends on new energy heavy truck sales, with high-level autonomous driving solutions still in early testing stages.

Amid intensifying competition in the heavy truck sector, whether Oyi Automobile can truly deliver a new model for autonomous heavy trucks through its strategy of 'vehicles, brains, data, and commercial forms' remains the biggest question mark hanging over the capital markets.

1.Rushing to Secure Ammunition

Oyi Automobile's rapid breakthrough in the new energy intelligent heavy truck sector owes much to the complementary 'algorithm + R&D + operations' iron triangle constructed by its founding team.

Company founder and CEO Huang Zehua, a post-90s entrepreneur with a master's degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a computer science background from Beihang University, co-founded TuSimple as an engineering partner and witnessed the global debut and listing of the first autonomous truck fleet.

As a typical post-90s tech prodigy, Huang is a rare serial entrepreneur in the industry who combines academic credentials, autonomous driving combat experience, and commercial strategic thinking.

His entrepreneurial journey with TuSimple, in particular, made him deeply aware that autonomous heavy trucks are not merely a software battle but also a test of industrial chain and manufacturing foundations through his algorithmic experience.

Therefore, beyond his personal responsibility for R&D and productization of autonomous driving systems, Oyi Automobile's other two co-founders further avoided the pitfalls of being a pure algorithm company.

Co-founder Zhang Hongsong, former General Manager of Sany Heavy Truck and Vice President of Beijing Foton Daimler, oversaw R&D and procurement. With over 30 years of commercial vehicle industry experience, he led the development of core components such as the company's electric drive axles and thermal management systems.

The other co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Zhang Wei excels in market strategy operations. Under his push, Oyi Automobile expanded its dealer network from zero to 98 within two years.

This highly complementary team has built the foundational basis for Oyi Automobile's development within the industry while also opening up critical talent pipelines for industrial financing.

(Image / Oyi Automobile official website)

The pace of commercialization has been astonishing. Data shows the company delivered just 2 new vehicles in 2023, increasing to 272 in 2024, and surging to 1,176 in 2025. As of April 30, 2026, Oyi Automobile had delivered 778 new energy intelligent heavy trucks year-to-date, with 1,002 orders in hand.

The increase in deliveries has driven rapid revenue growth. Oyi Automobile's revenue skyrocketed from RMB 1.163 million in 2023 to RMB 124 million in 2024 and then to RMB 522 million in 2025, marking approximately a 448-fold increase over two years.

However, as a startup, the pressure of losses is also mounting. During the reporting period, Oyi Automobile incurred net losses of RMB 114 million, RMB 241 million, and RMB 281 million, totaling RMB 636 million in cumulative losses over three years.

The immense R&D demands of intelligent driving and the expansion needs during the startup phase have made Oyi Automobile highly dependent on external capital.

Prior to the listing application, Oyi Automobile raised nearly US$400 million in intensive financing over three months, attracting a host of star companies and industrial capital, including Contemporary Amperex Technology's Puquan Capital, Zijin Mining, Yankuang Capital under Shandong Energy Group, Sanhua Holding Group, Dark Horse Capital, and Chaoxi Capital.

From a strategic standpoint, Contemporary Amperex Technology's involvement secures battery and energy network support, while Zijin Mining represents a deep binding as a business scenario partner.

(Image / Shutterstock, based on VRF protocol)

However, at this critical juncture before listing, the injection of industrial capital not only provides 'ammunition' for Oyi Automobile during its crucial commercial expansion phase but also represents a key move by chain enterprises to lock in heavy truck application scenarios and secure their positions in the sector.

2.The Double-Edged Sword of Asset-Light Operations

As a CEO with a technical background, Huang Zehua has an almost demanding pursuit of technical specifications. The strategy and development of Oyi Automobile reflect his personality.

In the early days of new energy heavy trucks, the industry widely adopted a 'fuel-to-electric' conversion model, simply replacing fuel-powered vehicle (fuel vehicle, kept original for possible specific term) chassis with batteries and electric motors. While cost-effective and quick to implement, this approach suffered from inherent flaws like poor space utilization and high energy consumption.

Huang resolutely avoided this shortcut, opting instead to reconstruct the entire vehicle architecture from the ground up. He insisted on 'vertical integration + forward development,' treating heavy trucks as entirely new intelligent robots. This approach enabled Oyi Automobile to achieve an extremely high rate of in-house component development, fundamentally enhancing the vehicle's energy efficiency and performance ceiling.

Indeed, after experiencing the commercialization pains of TuSimple as a 'pure algorithm company,' he deeply reflected and established the iron law that 'discussing autonomous driving without considering the complete vehicle is a dead end.' He relentlessly pursued the capital-intensive and arduous task of 'vehicle manufacturing,' deeply binding autonomous driving algorithms with new energy hardware.

According to 'Frontier of Entrepreneurship,' Oyi Automobile independently developed the 'Jushi' four-in-one electric drive axle and 'Jinghe' intelligent electronic control system for key heavy truck components like electric drive axles. These innovations achieved vehicle-level intelligent torque control and seamless shifting in the commercial vehicle sector, enhancing vehicle handling.

(Image / Oyi Automobile official website)

Its in-house ZSD autonomous driving system employs an 'end-to-end multimodal large language model,' reducing system complexity by approximately 95% compared to traditional architectures. This cutting-edge technological approach has, to some extent, allowed Oyi Automobile to differentiate itself from traditional competitors in terms of product performance and intelligence.

However, it's worth noting that while Huang has invested significant energy in developing key vehicle components, vehicle production still relies on a contract manufacturing model.

Of course, during the startup phase, this model reduces heavy asset investments like factory construction, allowing funds to be concentrated on technological R&D. It represents a strategic trade-off amid time, qualification, and funding constraints.

But those familiar with the industrial chain understand a fundamental issue with separating R&D from production: control. For high-value production tools like commercial vehicles, relying entirely on external parties for core component procurement and assembly directly drives up costs. In today's fiercely competitive sales environment, profit margins are far from guaranteed.

Meanwhile, capacity fluctuations or quality deviations at contract manufacturers directly impact product deliveries.

Oyi Automobile's vehicles are contract manufactured by partners like United Heavy Truck and Hubei Tri-Ring, neither of which are prominent names in the heavy truck sector.

Indeed, given the current competitive landscape, Oyi Automobile has limited partner options. Against the backdrop of structural reshuffling in China's heavy truck industry and violent fluctuations (severe fluctuations, kept original for precision) in traditional automakers' production capacities, any interruption or termination of contract manufacturing cooperation could deal a significant blow to the company's business and operating performance.

Furthermore, rapid expansion also challenges supply chain management capabilities. Failure to effectively coordinate multiple resources may lead to production disruptions.

According to the prospectus, all 98 of the company's current dealers were recruited within the past two years. While the sales network has expanded rapidly, the new dealers' product familiarity and market development capabilities require time to verify, and the actual effectiveness of the sales system remains to be seen.

3.The Future Narrative of L4 Autonomous Heavy Trucks

The most fundamental contradiction currently facing Oyi Automobile and the entire autonomous heavy truck sector lies in the stark disconnect between industrial narrative and vehicle sales reality.

In its external communications, Oyi Automobile consistently promotes the grand vision of 'ushering in a new era of global road transport robots,' positioning L4 autonomous heavy truck solutions as the core pillar of its high valuation.

However, in actual operations, while over 1,000 units were sold in 2025, only 15 were heavy trucks equipped with autonomous driving solutions; among the 778 vehicles delivered in the first four months of 2026, just 41 featured such solutions.

This means over 97% of the company's revenue still depends on traditional new energy heavy truck sales, with the 'promise' of autonomous driving remaining difficult to materialize in the short term.

Traditionally, heavy truck enterprises are valued based on price-to-earnings ratios, with a focus on current profitability. In contrast, Oyi Automobile's current valuation logic follows the framework of AI autonomous driving companies, emphasizing future commercialization potential and data barriers.

This explains why, despite autonomous heavy truck solutions currently accounting for only a tiny proportion, industrial capital and early-stage venture capital remain willing to invest. As long as its end-to-end large models and in-house hardware moats remain intact, capital is willing to grant a premium valuation.

However, 'selling vehicles' is merely the means; the ultimate goal is 'autonomy.'

The heavy truck sector is already highly crowded today, and capital markets are showing diminishing tolerance for this 'burn money for the future' model given Oyi Automobile's current losses.

If Oyi Automobile cannot demonstrate, within one to two years post-listing, that its L4 autonomous heavy truck solutions can achieve scalable replication or improve gross margins through measures like building its own factories, it will face the difficult prospect of its valuation logic reverting to that of traditional manufacturing.

In this crowded sector, Oyi Automobile must prove itself not just through grand visions of 'transport robots' but by delivering a 'killer' implementation scenario in the short term. Currently, they are attempting to achieve this by leveraging industrial capital (such as Zijin Mining) to enable unmanned operations in closed scenarios.

If Oyi Automobile can demonstrate to the market a real, stable, and positively cash-flowing L4 heavy truck operation route, its current 'high valuation' will be validated. Conversely, if implementation remains elusive, the market will reassess its true value as merely an 'assembly plant.'

Oyi Automobile is walking on an extremely steep tightrope. Its vision is ambitious, but its financial reports are starkly realistic.

The capital markets are ultimately highly pragmatic. When the tide recedes, Oyi Automobile must use real unmanned operation data and healthy gross margins to prove it is not merely an 'AI company selling heavy trucks' but a true creator of 'next-generation transport robots' capable of reshaping the logistics and transportation landscape.

*Note: The featured image and unsigned images in the article are sourced from Oyi Automobile's official WeChat public account.