The top five new forces in China's new car-making industry are about to gather in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, jointly writing the story of "five sons passing the imperial examinations."

On June 26, Nezha Automobile's parent company, Hopon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking the upcoming phased finale of China's vigorous new car-making movement.

Nezha is currently the only new car-making force with strength but has yet to enter the capital market.

New energy vehicles are one of China's most brutal yet inspiring industrial stories of the past decade. From once trading markets for technology to a myriad of shining independent brands, China's automobile industry has completed a difficult yet brilliant evolution. The new forces that have gone from 0 to 1 to complete car-making are undoubtedly one of the most eye-catching, yet once highly questioned groups.

Today, the former outsiders have all grown into little giants, and the initial doubts about the motivations and methods of internet cross-border car-making have gradually begun to recede. However, among the many new car-making forces:

Nezha Automobile is a rather special existence.

Nezha's founder, Fang Yunzhou, is the only leader in the new car-making forces with years of immersion in the automobile industry and a technical background. Nezha's main executives also come from traditional automakers. Compared with other new car-making forces, Nezha Automobile, which is considered a new force, also has a stronger shadow of traditional automakers.

Fang Yunzhou represents the breakthrough of traditional Chinese auto industry veterans facing the new energy revolution. A few years ago, facing the massive new energy revolution, many automotive veterans jumped into the torrent, with Nezha's Fang Yunzhou, WM Motor's Shen Hui, and HiPhi's Ding Lei as representative figures.

Today, with the dim departures of WM Motor and HiPhi, turning around to look around, Fang Yunzhou has become the last player on the path of traditional automakers pursuing innovation. In the cruelest new car-making elimination round in the past, he not only led a group of automotive veterans to keep Nezha Automobile alive but also became an extremely special existence.

【01】

Although Nezha is habitually classified as a new car-making force, its helmsman, Fang Yunzhou, has been intimately connected with China's new energy automobile industry since the era of traditional automakers.

In 2000, Wan Gang, who had worked at Audi for many years, submitted a proposal to the State Council suggesting the development of new energy vehicles to achieve leapfrog development in the domestic automobile industry. Wan Gang's proposal was affirmed by the central government, and the basic research breakthroughs and industry-university-research projects for the three core technologies of electric vehicles were quickly launched.

Subsequently, Wan Gang was invited back to China, first serving as Dean of the School of Automotive Studies at Tongji University, and in 2007, he was appointed Minister of Science and Technology, becoming a pivotal figure in China's new energy automobile industry. Of course, that's later.

A year after Wan Gang submitted his proposal to the State Council, in 2001, the Ministry of Science and Technology launched the "863 Program" major science and technology special project for electric vehicles, with a cumulative investment of 880 million yuan. At the end of that year, Chery's newly established new energy vehicle research and development project successfully entered the national "863" program. The important driving force behind Chery's achievement was Fang Yunzhou.

Fang Yunzhou was born in 1975 and graduated from the Department of Automotive Engineering at Hefei University of Technology, known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of the automotive industry, in 1998. At that time, Yin Tongyue had just given up his thriving work at FAW to return home and start a business, registering a company with the 300,000 yuan given by the city. This company was later the renowned Chery.

Inspired by the Chery Fengyun prototype car and Yin Tongyue's entrepreneurial enthusiasm, Fang Yunzhou developed an infinite yearning for the development of the national automobile industry and joined Chery, which had only been established for a year. Initially, he was mainly engaged in research and development of engine accessory systems, and in 2001, he transferred to Chery's "Clean Energy Automobile Special Group".

In the first year after Fang Yunzhou transferred to Chery's new energy project team, a lead-acid battery factory in Hefei hoped that Chery would make a lead-acid battery car. This task fell on the new energy project team where Fang Yunzhou worked.

At that time, the national "863" program for new energy vehicles had not yet officially started, and it was still two years before Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning jointly founded "Tesla Motors" and BYD acquired Qinchuan Automobile Factory. This advanced attempt failed as expected, ending with "seven or eight people pushing the car back" after running more than 20 kilometers.

However, the failure of the project brought new inspiration to Fang Yunzhou. "Isn't it better if we combine battery drive with engine drive and use hybrid power?" After staying up late for more than ten nights, Fang Yunzhou came up with a feasibility research report on hybrid vehicles. Due to his scrawled handwriting, he had to entrust his wife to transcribe it again.

At that time, the news that the national "863" program was about to start had already begun to spread within the industry, and Chery promptly made a decision to immediately initiate the process of applying for a new energy vehicle research and development project.

In March 2003, the first new energy vehicle independently developed by Chery's new energy startup team was officially launched. As a result, Fang Yunzhou gained a series of experiences in Chery, from initially being responsible for hybrid vehicles to alternative fuel vehicles and then to electric cars and other clean energy vehicle frontier technologies, and later served as the Deputy General Manager of Chery New Energy Technology Company, becoming one of the "4-person team" members of Chery's new energy project.

From 2012 to 2014, Chery New Energy had achieved profitability, reaching millions to tens of millions of yuan annually, becoming the first profitable new energy company in China.

After 16 years at Chery, in 2014, Fang Yunzhou left Chery New Energy and went north to pursue a post-doctoral degree at Tsinghua University, studying under Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor of the School of Vehicle and Transportation at Tsinghua University, and elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017.

E-Power, the core hydrogen energy enterprise incubated by Ouyang Minggao, has successfully landed on both the STAR Market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. His students include Nezha Automobile founder Fang Yunzhou, Zhili Internet of Things founder Li Liguo, Lianyu Technology CEO Qin Yudi, and Shengke Energy CEO Chu Zhengyu.

In 2014, when Fang Yunzhou went north to pursue his post-doctoral degree at Tsinghua University, Tesla delivered its first batch of Model S in mainland China, and Musk traveled to China to personally hand over the keys to the first batch of owners, including Lei Jun, Li Xiang, and Cao Guowei. In the same year, Tesla announced the opening of all its technical patents, igniting the spark for China's new car-making movement.

A massive new car-making movement kicked off in China. In addition to internet entrepreneurs such as Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, and Jia Yueting, who showed great enthusiasm, in October of the same year, automotive veteran Fang Yunzhou joined forces with Tsinghua University-backed institutions and enterprises such as Billion Autogas and Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, as well as former Chery colleagues, to jointly establish Hopon New Energy in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, which later became Nezha Automobile.

▲Tongxiang Factory

However, although Fang Yunzhou has nearly 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and is one of the first participants and witnesses of China's new energy automobile industry, investment institutions at that time did not favor companies with traditional automaker backgrounds to make smart electric vehicles. This doomed Fang Yunzhou to lead Nezha on a more difficult path than his peers with internet backgrounds.

【02】

On March 28, 2024, at Xiaomi's car launch event held at the Etrong International Convention and Exhibition Center in Beijing, Lei Jun brought a "small Lei-style shock" to the automotive industry. The charisma he demonstrated and Xiaomi's brand power, amidst the screams of fans, made the automotive industry elites humble themselves and mix with the people on Douyin.

In fact, when it comes to making new energy vehicles, both capital and the public have always given more preference to the internet faction.

The class representatives of internet cross-border car-making are mainly Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, Li Xiang, etc. Among them, Li Bin is known as the "travel guru" based on his classic cases such as Yiche, Dida Travel, and Mobike; while He Xiaopeng and Li Xiang have long achieved financial freedom through UC and Autohome, respectively.

These internet-born car-making rookies were born with a golden key. On the capital side, these people who have fought and won tough battles in the mobile internet era only need to open their mouths to make BAT, who are well-versed in proxy wars, and VCs who believe that "investing in projects is investing in people" unable to move. At the brand marketing level, fan economy, cost-effectiveness, blockbuster thinking... Xiaomi has set a precedent, and NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto have learned quickly.

Compared to the highly popular internet car-making faction, Hopon Automobile, led by traditional automotive veteran Fang Yunzhou, was not particularly impressive among the more than 100 new car-making forces at that time.

When NIO and XPeng started with small targets of tens of billions of yuan, Hopon Automobile did not receive funding from star VCs, and its early major shareholders came from the Tongxiang Municipal Government, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiaxing.

It was not until the end of 2017 that Zhihe Mobility Technology Co., Ltd. invested 1.25 billion yuan in Zhejiang Hopon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. and completed the change of controlling shareholder, and the total investment scale of Hopon just exceeded 2 billion yuan.

Throughout 2018, Nezha met with more than 200 investment institutions but did not receive new financing. In Li Bin's declaration that "without 20 billion yuan, don't make cars," Nezha's capital scale fell somewhat short.

Lacking a golden key, Nezha had to spend its money wisely, and Fang Yunzhou, a car-making veteran with a technical background, had his own judgment.

From the beginning of his entrepreneurship, Fang Yunzhou believed that the new energy vehicle industry still had a 30-year golden track. From 2035 to 2040, after the energy internet, the industry will develop into smart transportation, truly realizing high-level intelligent driving.

From the very beginning, Nezha Automobile chose the difficult but correct path, adhering to technological self-reliance and rapidly turning technological breakthroughs into commercial products: technological self-research is a long-term strategy for Nezha Automobile.

Even in 2019, as the new car-making forces began to face the delivery test and ushered in the darkest moment together, with NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto all on the brink of ICU, Nezha Automobile also once fell into operational difficulties, but Nezha Automobile did not shrink its R&D line. Dai Dali, CTO of Nezha Automobile, once said, "Nezha Automobile does not engage in technology futures or empty PPT technology. We strive to turn paper blueprints into actual technology and products."

In 2020, Tesla achieved annual profitability on the other side of the ocean, and China's new car-makers emerged from ICU, crossing the line of life and death. Nezha Automobile also took advantage of the situation to complete follow-up financing and gained the favor of major factories. Later, with differentiated competition and the steady improvement of new energy vehicle penetration, Nezha's sales volume rose rapidly.

Nezha has always been uncompromising in technology investment. According to statistics, Nezha has invested a total of 12 billion yuan in research and development, with R&D accounting for 30% of revenue. Among them, the investment in key intelligent R&D has reached 3 billion yuan.

In 2023, Nezha Automobile launched the Haozhi technology brand 2.0, led by five "off-the-shelf" technologies. These technological achievements provide continuous and powerful support and impetus for Nezha S, Nezha GT, Nezha U, Nezha AYA, and all future models. At the same time, Nezha Automobile also established the parts company Haozhi Technology Smart Factory to achieve self-research and self-manufacturing of core parts, allowing technological breakthroughs to quickly become commercial products.

In this industry with extremely fast technological iteration, over more than a decade, Nezha has not only kept up but also once topped sales, relying on its adherence to technology and technological inclusiveness, making high-quality smart electric vehicles accessible.

【03】

In 1999, Wan Gang led a delegation of Chinese automotive industry Ph.D. engineers studying in Germany to return to China for an inspection. Seeing China's automotive industry's dependence on foreign countries, he was greatly alarmed, leading to the scene mentioned earlier of submitting a proposal to the State Council.

In the era of fuel vehicles, China adopted a joint venture approach, taking the route of trading markets for technology, and China's automotive industry achieved initial development. However, for a considerable period, local brands occupied the low-end market, while the mid-to-high-end market was still dominated by foreign brands.

China's automotive industry seemed to be in an awkward situation: foreign automakers earned a fortune in China, while local brands remained stagnant.

At the beginning of the millennium, the global energy crisis and its impact on the world economy made Wan Gang and China's automotive industry see a glimmer of hope: switching from fuel vehicles to new energy to achieve leapfrog development.

After more than 20 years of development, China's new energy vehicles have fought a beautiful turnaround battle.

At the core technology level, China has achieved independence in the three key components of new energy vehicles and ranks in the first tier. In terms of brands, it has cultivated a large number of brands such as BYD, NIO, Li Auto, XPeng, Nezha, Zeekr, and Leapmotor.

More importantly, Chinese automakers, which once could only settle for the domestic market, have also started to venture overseas and compete in the international market. Among them, Nezha stands out as the best.

As a new car-making force established for only ten years, Nezha Automobile has formed the "Nezha Automobile Going Overseas Model" of "more brewing, long development, burial, and seeking win-win cooperation," becoming a typical case of China's new energy going overseas.

From January to May this year, Nezha Automobile exported 16,458 new energy vehicles, ranking fifth in the number of new energy vehicle exports among automakers and first among new car-making forces. By the end of May, Nezha Automobile had exported a cumulative total of 35,000 vehicles. In the future, Nezha Automobile will build an international headquarters in Hong Kong, which will be linked with the global headquarters in Shanghai.

Facing the complex and ever-changing international situation, the road for new energy vehicles to "go overseas" is full of various "reefs." Fang Yunzhou has led Nezha to find its own experience and named it "Nezha Making Waves."

Fang Yunzhuo believes: first, without domestic stability, there can be no international strength; second, deepening localization, adapting to local conditions, and achieving multi-party win-win outcomes; third, establishing a "systematic path." By "stirring the seas," we can help the world understand China, and appreciate the values and ideals of Chinese culture, thereby contributing to the global presence of "Made in China."

In addition to being the Founder and Chairman of Nezha Auto, Fang Yunzhuo is also a Deputy to the National People's Congress.

As a technical expert, he has led and participated in numerous major international, national, and provincial research and development projects, including over ten "863" projects. As a Deputy to the National People's Congress, he has continuously advocated for the new energy industry. In his article "Seizing New Opportunities in New Energy Vehicle Development" published in the People's Daily, he begins by stating: "For leading companies in the new energy vehicle industry, it is imperative to overcome weak links and enhance the fundamental capabilities of the industry."

As Wan Gang submitted his proposals to the State Council for 24 years and has been involved in the new auto industry for 10 years, Fang Yunzhuo's response to the capital market and to China's new energy vehicle endeavor, through Nezha Auto, also represents the responsibilities of a veteran in the automotive industry.