50 Billion Yuan Raised in A Round Financing for Voyah
By Wu Yihan
Edited by Wu Xianzhi
On November 17, Voyah Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., completed nearly 5 billion yuan in A round financing, increasing Voyah’s valuation to nearly 30 billion yuan. This is the largest first round of financing to date in the field of new energy vehicles in China.
According to Qichacha, 11 companies participated in the A round financing of Voyah, led by central enterprises and large state-owned financial institutions. State-owned capital, local state-owned enterprises, industry and private capital followed up, including Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd.
Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. contributed 0.9 billion yuan with a 3.04% stake. The total financing of this round was 4.55 billion yuan, and they held a 15.41% stake. After this round of financing, Dongfeng Group holds 78.88%, A-round investors hold 12.37%, and Voyah employees and platform hold 8.75%.
Voyah’s Nearly Impossible Delivery Target
In October, Voyah delivered only 2,553 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 154%. Among them, Voyah FREE delivered a total of 1,225 vehicles, and Voyah Dreamer delivered 1,328 vehicles. Since delivery started in August 2021, a total of 22,963 vehicles have been delivered. From January to October this year, a total of 16,172 vehicles were delivered.
At the beginning of the year, Voyah’s annual delivery target was 46,000 vehicles. However, in the first half of the year, Voyah’s cumulative delivery was less than 10,000, with only 6,878 vehicles delivered, accounting for 14.95% of the annual plan. Later, Voyah appropriately lowered its target, and the annual delivery target was reduced to 31,000 vehicles, and the cumulative delivery from January to October only achieved 52% of the goal. However, to achieve the adjusted annual delivery target, Voyah still needs to complete delivery tasks of about 15,000 vehicles in the next two months.From the perspective of delivery, LanTu had the highest delivery volume in December 2021, with less than 4,000 vehicles delivered. It is a nearly impossible goal for LanTu to achieve an average monthly delivery of more than 7,000 in the next two months.
Previously, LanTu announced that it will debut its third sedan, “Zhuiguang” (LanTu’s first flagship smart electric vehicle), in December 2021. The launch of the new car may improve and boost LanTu’s delivery pace.
LanTu’s High-end Development: benchmarking ABB
Although LanTu’s current performance in the automotive industry is not satisfactory, its positioning is high.
During the Science and Technology Day event, LanTu officially launched a new software and hardware architecture, ESSA+SOA (ESSA Native Intelligent Electric Architecture + Centralized SOA Electronic and Electrical Architecture Intelligent Electric “Bionic Body”). This is an upgrade to the ESSA architecture by LanTu. The intelligent electric “bionic body” architecture will be installed on LanTu’s third sedan, “Zhuiguang”.
As the introduction states, ESSA architecture is a pure platform based on battery motor control system that is compatible with hybrid and hydrogen fuel technologies. SOA architecture is an intelligent architecture that uses centralized hardware and can centralize 14 ECUs into one, providing a diversified intelligent networked business concept.
It is worth noting that LanTu’s original intelligent electric drive architecture, ESSA, is a dual-electric drive architecture that has complete independent intellectual property rights.
In terms of scalability, the architecture supports the development of 2,800mm-3,200mm wheelbase vehicles, including sedan, SUV, MPV, and other models. ESSA architecture is highly modular and can achieve a maximum of 85% generalizable configuration.“`
Vice President Liu Zhanshu of Voyah Automotive Sales and Service Co., Ltd. expressed at the 2022 Chengdu Auto Show that Voyah cannot become the “WmAuto” because the competition between Voyah and the new forces of car-making industry is entirely in different levels. Voyah’s positioning is a high-end new energy brand of the “national team”, and Voyah’s competitors are ABB (Audi, BMW, and Mercedes) after full electrification.
However, in practical terms, Voyah’s sales volume is far lower than that of WmAuto, and it has far more competitors than just these few. For example, the domestic brand BYD recently announced that its high-end new energy brand called “Younker” will officially release its first model in the first quarter of 2023, and it will also launch branded models with professionalism and personalization in the future. Relatively speaking, Younker’s advantage is that BYD has already paved the way for its smooth entry into the market.
Regarding Voyah, in the short term, its sales volume or market recognition is still not enough; in the long term, its advantage lies in relying on giants with sufficient funds and technology to make up for the shortcomings and support the future development. But in order to catch up with ABB, or even WmAuto, Voyah still needs to prove itself with actions.
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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.