Zotye Automobile, which has been rumored, has had four consecutive limit-up boards from July 31 to August 5, and then staged a "Heaven and Earth Board" on August 6. Jiangnan Automobile and Light Orange Era have jointly created a breakthrough pure electric intelligent small car called Jiangnan U2, and held a listing conference in February 2023. Jiangnan U2 is still optimizing and transforming its product quality, production line, and other aspects.
On August 6, Cailianshe (a Chinese press agency) reported that Zotye Automobile, which has been rumored, has had four consecutive limit-up boards from July 31 to August 5, and then staged a "Heaven and Earth Board" with a limit-down. The continuous smoke bombs released to the capital market have made Zotye Automobile's prospects even more confusing.
On August 5, Zotye Automobile stated on an interactive platform that the company has self-driving technology reserves. Its subsidiary, Jiangnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Light Orange Era (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Green Orange Era") have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Both parties will give full play to their respective strengths and carry out "multi-dimensional" strategic cooperation in new energy vehicle product development, intelligent interconnection, self-driving, intelligent manufacturing, domestic and foreign sales and services.
"The cooperation between the two parties has been going on for some time, and the recent agreement has further deepened the cooperation," said the person in charge of the Zotye Automobile Investor Relations Department to a Cailianshe reporter.
On June 24th of this year, Zotye Automobile disclosed on its public account that it had reached a cooperation agreement with Light Orange Era. According to Zotye Automobile, its subsidiary Jiangnan Automobile chose to cooperate deeply with Light Orange Era based on the latter's full chain design research and development and operation capabilities in intelligent cabin, intelligent driving, software ecology, and user operation, among others.
According to the cooperation content, the two parties will work together to create a breakthrough pure electric intelligent small car called Jiangnan U2. The model is based on the J-Smart 1.0 pure electric platform, equipped with J-Pilot 1.0 intelligent driving assistance system, cross-terminal intelligent interconnection, multi-application ecology, intelligent custom PAD interface, full-duplex voice interaction, vehicle and PAD separation mode, and many other intelligent configurations and intelligent interconnection technologies. In the future, Jiangnan Automobile will also gradually launch U3, U5, U6 and other "digital intelligence" new energy models to form a complete product matrix.
On October 7, 2023, Zotye Automobile stated on the interactive platform for investors that the company and Light Orange Era have a technical development (commissioned) cooperative relationship.
As a partner of Zotye Automobile, Light Orange Era appeared at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show with the identity of a complete vehicle enterprise. At that time, Light Orange Era stated that its first new car, Light Orange Era VC, is expected to be listed and delivered in July 2022, and the car will be manufactured by BAIC Ruixiang (formerly BAIC Yinxiang).
However, due to qualification issues, Light Orange Era's car-making plan fell through. Its CEO Mou revealed that the company is considering transforming into a soft and hard solution service provider for the smart travel ecology, aiming to provide support for partners rather than directly entering the field of car making. There were also rumors at that time that Light Orange Era had been acquired by Jiangsu Shinshang Holding, a controlling shareholder of Zotye Automobile. However, after checking the relevant business registration, the journalist did not find Jiangsu Shinshang Holding in its shareholders.
Subsequently, although the dream of Light Orange Era's car-making was continued on Jiangnan U2, and a listing conference was held in February 2023, a year and a half has passed and the new car has not yet really landed in the market. "Jiangnan U2 has not yet been put into production due to various reasons," said the person in charge of the Zotye Automobile Investor Relations Department.
"Jiangnan U2 is still optimizing and transforming its product quality, production line, and other aspects. After the relevant work is completed, the company will continue production," Zotye Automobile also stated in the 2023 annual report.
In October 2021, Jiangsu Shinshang took over Zotye with a 2 billion yuan restructuring investment. Although the restructuring was completed, the production of the company's main business of whole vehicles still continues to be suspended and has not improved until now. Due to its frequent ups and downs in the secondary market, Zotye's stock price has attracted the attention of regulators. At the same time, in July of this year, Vice President of Zotye Automobile Xiang Chao and representatives of Baoneng Automobile Group appeared at the Greenwood International Trade Center in Russia at the same time, and the rumors of "Baoneng's acquisition of Zotye Automobile" resurfaced.
Although Zotye Automobile has repeatedly emphasized that "there is no relationship between the company and Baoneng Automobile Group," its stock price has risen from 1.41 yuan per share to a maximum of 2.22 yuan per share since July, with an increase of more than 57% in just over a month.