Founder of NIUTRON, a New Electric Car Brand

Author: Xie Ruxin

If there is a new electric car brand, and its founder became a vice president of Huawei at the age of 27, then the CTO of Baidu later, but was eventually jailed at the age of 45, do you think this brand is reliable?

The legendary life of Li Yinan, the founder of NIUTRON, is beyond words.

Li Yinan was admitted to the Youth Class of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (now Huazhong University of Science and Technology) at the age of 15, and after graduating from postgraduate studies, he joined Huawei and was promoted to vice president of Huawei at the young age of 27. Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s CEO, highly valued this technical genius, and even had ideas of grooming Li as his successor. Therefore, when Li Yinan decided to leave Huawei to start his own business, Ren felt very sorry.

Years later, Li Yinan successively served as CTO of Baidu, CEO of China Mobile’s 12580 Company, etc. Baidu Chairman Robin Li also has a very high evaluation of him: there are no more than three people in the world who can serve as Baidu CTO, Li Yinan is one of them.

In 2015, Li Yinan founded NIUTRON Technology. The product of NIUTRON Technology is now a well-known small electric car called “Xiaoniu”. In 2016, Li Yinan was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for insider trading of stocks – some insiders have said that there are many hidden secrets behind this incident, and this article does not delve into them.

In 2018, NIUTRON Technology listed on the US stock market, with a current market value of more than one billion US dollars. Although Li Yinan no longer runs NIUTRON Technology, he still holds a large number of shares. This means he has the confidence and capital to make a comeback. At the end of December 2021, NIUTRON unveiled its English brand “NIUTRON” and Chinese brand “Ziyoujia” after Xiaoniu went public, marking Li’s second entrepreneurial adventure.

In the current era where many phony new brands have been eliminated and “Nio, XPeng, and Li Auto” have emerged as Big Three, is it too late for NIUTRON to join the competition? Regarding this, founder Li Yinan frankly said: “We just want to explore and see if this path works.” It can be seen that he’s not fully confident, but very candid, without any boasting.

Regardless of whether they can succeed, they must at least produce real and practical products. Depending on PowerPoint presentations alone is unacceptable in 2022. As a newcomer, Li Yinan is well aware of this, so the first product needs to be produced quickly and delivered soon.

Currently, Niu Innovations has raised a capital investment of $500 million and has a team of one thousand people. Their R&D and production factory is located in Changzhou, with two office locations in Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing is responsible for the development of autonomous driving and intelligent cabin, while Shanghai is responsible for vehicle design. Changzhou is considered a feng shui treasure land for Li Yinan; the factories for Niu Electric Bike and Li Auto are both located in Changzhou. Li Xiang, Li Yinan’s good friend, was the one who introduced Li Yinan to the electric bike industry, and is responsible for Li’s Auto brand.

In addition, there are only a few domestic automobile manufacturers with production qualifications; Niu Innovations needs to leverage a mature factory to obtain a license. The predecessor of Niu Innovations’ JinTan base in Changzhou was DaCheng Automotive Industrial Park, which has an annual production capacity of 180,000 vehicles. It is reported that Niu Innovations has reused some of the equipment from DaCheng Automotive and made some modifications as needed, which can be put into use in March this year.

According to the plan, the first model of the Ziyoujia（早期的名称，Now in April 2022, it was renamed to ‘Streamfox’）NV will be available for reservation in the first half of this year and officially launch in September.

The Streamfox NV’s front-end styling is quite unique, especially in the environment where new power brands tend to favour long and slender headlights. Its bright and distinct big eyes are more prominent.

In fact, a touch of nostalgia can be seen from its front face. The round light strip abstracts the effect of the old off-road vehicles’ large circular lights. This design technique is perfectly consistent with Streamfox’s NV’s city and off-road fusion style. However, this design technique is not new; Ford’s Bronco has already applied it to perfection.

Its side profile lines are not complex, and the overall proportion is dignified. The upward waist line adds a touch of agility, and the design of the floating roof. It is worth mentioning that its C-pillar is embedded with dynamic charging indicator lights to display the battery’s current status, but it seems to be of little significance.

The tail design of the car is relatively simple, with the continuous taillights echoing the front. The wiper is hidden inside the roof spoiler and is similar to Cadillac’s.

According to official data, the length, width, and height of Zheyu Home NV are 4915/1950/1750 mm, with a wheelbase of 2900 mm. It is a 5-seat layout and is positioned as a mid-to-large-sized SUV. In terms of power, it will adopt two technology solutions, range-extended and pure electric, with standard four-wheel drive system. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h within 5.9 seconds per 100 km (it is currently unknown whether the technology is range-extended or pure electric).

The parallel solutions of range-extended and pure electric sound more robust. If customers do not accept pure electric, they have range-extended as a bottom insurance. Range-extended was once regarded as a transitional technology before the popularization of pure electric. As one of the promoters of range-extended, Ideal ONE’s shipment volume can reach more than 10,000 units, indicating that this technology still has a considerable audience.

It is reported that Zheyu Home NV has undergone three rounds of engineering trial production, with a development testing mileage of more than one million kilometers. The first round of winter and summer tests has been completed, and the second round of winter tests is currently in progress. In addition, Zheyu Home is also developing other models to meet the needs of different users.

Although the price of Zheyu Home NV was not introduced at the press conference, according to staff, its price is expected to exceed RMB 300,000. This price means that it will compete head-to-head with Tesla and WM Motor, both of whom have already established a stable user base and reputation. The resistance faced by Zheyu Home is very high.

So, facing these challenges, does Zheyu Home have any tricks up its sleeve? The answer is no. This is not my statement, but Li Yinan’s straightforward response to the question from the reporter. Indeed, from the current known news, the first model of Zheyu Home has not shown impressive parameters or applied cutting-edge technologies. As a new brand, its service is also yet to be established.

With only a short amount of time left, Zheyu Home needs to come up with a plan to sell its first car.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.