Chinese EV Upstart Enovate Motors Nabs over CNY 5 Bn

Automotive Author: Qasim Khan Editor: Luke Sheehan Oct 14, 2020 12:40 PM (GMT+8)

With evident growth and development of the EV industry, startups are receiving billions of dollars in financing to compete with Tesla, NIO, Xpeng, etc. 

Enovate ME7. Image credit: Enovate

The firm raised its Series A round worth over CNY 2 billion in April 2019, backed by Shanghai Electric. Fast forward over a year and the company has raised over CNY 5 billion in a brand new round. According to Chinese media channel 36kr, the investors include a local government industry fund and a large state-owned bank. The funds are said to be used for follow-up research and development of new models, intelligent manufacturing, sales channels and service system construction, brand marketing and promotion.

Simultaneously, according to the same source, Enovate Motors has started preparations for the IPO and plans to go public in 2021. A few days ago, Zhang Hailiang, CEO of the EV-maker, said that "the current funds are no problem to support the listing."

The management is optimistic about the independent research and development strength of Enovate Motors in electric power, intelligent driving and intelligent network connection, people familiar with the matter told 36kr. "We have made great efforts in software, one is human-computer interaction in the smart cockpit, and the other is vehicle control. These two parts are the core. You must do it yourself," emphasized Zhang.

After obtaining new financing, the company will accelerate the construction of offline sales and service networks. The firm is expected to complete the target of opening 30 stores in 20 cities by the end of 2020. By 2025 it plans to cover all first-tier and second-tier cities with some third-tier towns, pushing the number of showrooms above 200. 

It is also worth mentioning that Enovate Motors will cooperate with leading charging service providers such as State Grid and the IPO seeking 'Star Charge' to build a charging service system including fast-charging stations, exclusive charging piles for outlets, and public charging. The service system will cover communities, commercial hotspots and highways. 

Enovate Motors plans to put two new models on sale by 2021. The firm has set a sales target of 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles for 2021. It has adopted a sales channel strategy of selecting a single partner in each city to achieve this goal.