On May 5th, NETA Automobile appointed Chen Cilong as Vice President and Chief Brand Officer.
Chen Cilong has worked for well-known global companies such as Procter & Gamble China and Alibaba, and has accumulated rich experience in customer and channel management, brand and content ecology system construction, and strong cross-domain migration capabilities. Before joining NETA Automobile, Chen Cilong served as the General Manager of the Tmall International Marketing Department, responsible for the brand building and content ecology system construction for Tmall International. It is worth mentioning that, as an 80’s generation, Chen Cilong was once the youngest business unit general manager in the history of Procter & Gamble China and Tmall International.
After joining NETA, Chen Cilong will be fully responsible for the branding and operation, public relations and communication, and product planning of NETA Automobile, reporting to NETA Automobile co-founder and CEO Zhang Yong.
In 2021, NETA delivered nearly 70,000 vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 362%. From January to April 2022, NETA Automobile delivered a total of 38,965 vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 240%, of which sales in April reached 8,813 units.
Entering 2022, NETA has made many moves:
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Launching the “Enter the City + Go to Sea” strategy, the first model based on the Shanhai platform, the NETA S, will officially go on sale;
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On February 21st, the parent company of NETA Automobile’s brand, United New Energy, completed the third round of its D-round series financing, totaling more than RMB 2 billion yuan, with key investment institutions including China CNR Corporation’s CNR Fund and Shenzhen’s State-owned Assets-backed investment firm Shenzhen Capital Group. After completing the D-round series financing, the valuation of NETA Automobile exceeded RMB 25 billion yuan;
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NETA has currently initiated pre-IPO financing round with a target valuation of approximately RMB 45 billion yuan (around USD 700 million), and plans to launch an IPO in Hong Kong later this year.
NETA S Information Summary
The Eureka 03 concept car unveiled by NETA at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show is the prototype for the NETA S. The following is a summary of the currently known information about this car:
– Four-screen interactive design: 13.3-inch instrument screen, 17.6-inch vertical central control screen, 12.3-inch co-pilot entertainment screen, and AR-HUD head-up display;
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21-speaker sound field system;
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1.9㎡ panoramic insulating and color-changing skylight;
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In terms of power, the peak power of the four-wheel drive version with front and rear dual motors is 340 kW, the peak torque is 600 Nm, and the zero-to-100 km/h acceleration time is 3.9 seconds. Thanks to the pure electric architecture, the NETA S has a front-to-rear weight distribution of 50:50, and the vehicle’s center of gravity is only 450 mm, which is even lower than the JIMI L7 (490 mm) and NIO ET5 (482.6 mm), which are focused on handling. The basic mechanical qualities of handling are quite good. The official claimed moose test score of 80 km/h is a very high level;
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In terms of endurance, the pure electric model with a claimed minimum of 12 kWh electricity consumption per 100 km can achieve a NEDC comprehensive endurance of 710 km. What is special is that the NETA S also has an extended range version with a range of 1,100 km. However, there is currently no information released about the battery capacity and range extender;
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Another interesting point is that the NETA S will be equipped with the new generation of Hozon EPT 4.0 constant temperature heat management system. This system uses the Huawei heat pump nine-way valve, which may be benchmarking Tesla’s valve inlet and outlet valve, and has 16 combinations of working modes, which can ensure the vehicle’s power output. Compared with previous models, the endurance ability in extremely cold weather has been improved by 20%;
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It is currently confirmed that the NETA S will be equipped with 2 laser radars, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, 13 cameras with a maximum of 8 million pixels, and the Huawei MDC 610 computing platform with a maximum of 200 TOPS computing power;
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In terms of functions, it is equipped with NCP city navigation assistance function (depending on the precision map coverage), NNP high-speed navigation assistance function (standard in 2022 Q3 delivery), and finally the parking scenario of a closed place.
The NETA S is a car model that I am quite looking forward to. First of all, the appearance really impresses me, and the known performance parameters are also quite strong. It can also choose between “hybrid + pure electric”. Under NETA’s insistence on a popular route, the price of this car should be quite surprising.
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.