Geely and Lifan joint venture company named Ruilan "Maple Leaf" car may withdraw from the market

In the tuyere of the power exchange mode, Geely Automobile and Lifan Technology have taken a substantial step forward in the business of changing electricity.

On January 24th, Geely announced that the joint venture with Lifan Technology with a ratio of 50:50 shares has completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures, named "Chongqing Ruilan Automotive Technology Co., Ltd.". The new company will be engaged in the research, development, sales and operation of cars (including, but not limited to, changing streetcars).

"Maple Leaf will retire from the stage of history." According to Qiangfan insiders, the new joint venture is similar to Proton's model. Geely's export of products, technology, management and the development of new models will create a new brand of entry-level electric cars and power changes.

What the person calls the "Maple Leaf" car is a new power exchange brand produced by Geely after it joined Lifan last year. According to the plan, Geely will lead the research and development of electric replacement models in the new joint venture, while Lifan will be responsible for the layout and production of recharging facilities. By 2025, Geely will launch five pure electric products that can be exchanged electricity one after another.

Maple Leaf is about to become history.

"We will launch a new brand and a model in February." On January 24, Maple Leaf told reporters that its future products will aim at the two major markets of online car-hailing and private cars. "this is the market goal of launching a new power exchange brand, and it will cut into the C-end track next year."

Five days ago, Maple Leaf released information about Maple Leaf 60S. It is reported that the energy replenishment mode of Maple Leaf 60S includes 30min DC fast charging mode and 60-second power change mode. The power battery of this model is supplied by Guoxuan Hi-Tech, the NEDC has a range of 415km, and the replacement structure is supplied by a joint venture between Geely and Lifan.

In fact, Geely has already made some moves before the establishment of the joint venture between Geely and Lifan. In November last year, Lifan passenger car issued a tender announcement for the final assembly and logistics-related materials relocation project. According to the requirements of the NX21 relocation project, part of the materials need to be relocated from the final assembly and logistics-related materials located at No. 588, Daolingshan West Street, Luoyang Street, Luoqiao District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, while the equipment installation and commissioning address is No. 16 Tongyuan Road, Caijiagang Town, Beibei District, Chongqing.

Taizhou is one of Geely's many production bases, and NX21 is the internal code name of Geely's Vision X3.

"this is to invigorate the assets of the Lifan factory." The above Lifan technology insiders told reporters that the factory was in a state of "semi-shutdown" and needed to solve the employment of workers. And creating entry-level electric products can help Geely complete its diversified layout in terms of new energy. "the new brand model will focus on the 50, 000-80, 000 yuan market, which and the current polar krypton and geometry constitute a new brand sequence in the Geely electrified era."

In May last year, Lifan Technology announced the resumption of the automobile business, and its first new power-changing model, the 80V, has completed mass production in Chongqing. At that time, Lifan Technology revealed that the company would also launch two power-changing models, the 60s and 80X, in 2021. Among them, the 60s will be a power-changing car facing the taxi market, while the 80X will be a large-scale power-exchange SUV, mainly aimed at official car customers.

New brand sales target of 200000 vehicles

In December 2021, Geely Automobile and Lifan Technology jointly announced that they would each contribute 300 million yuan to set up a joint venture company. In terms of products, the power exchange models based on the GBRC (Global Battery Rapid Change) platform can adapt to the wide wheelbase range of 2700-3100mm, covering cars, SUV, MPV and even logistics vehicles, light trucks and many other categories; in terms of power exchange, it is planned to build more than 5000 exchange stations by 2025, covering more than 100 cities to meet the replacement needs of 1 million vehicles.

In addition, the two sides will also coordinate travel companies, power exchange service companies, match models, and work together to build the ecology of the power exchange network. The goal is to continue to develop and upgrade its vehicles to meet market demand and create more value for listed companies.

"the establishment of a joint venture company can continue to promote the upward development of Geely brands and form a complete coverage of different levels of the mainstream market through the combination and layout of various brands." At that time, Geely said in an announcement that the ultimate goal of the joint venture was to jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of the Lifan technology automobile industry by developing, selling and operating cars, including, but not limited to, changing streetcars.

Behind the diversified layout is Geely's urgent desire for the growth of new energy sales. According to the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy, Geely Automobile Group will sell 900000 new energy vehicles by 2025, accounting for 30 per cent of the total. Among them, in addition to Geometry brand proportion will be as high as 30 per cent, Geely will launch a new replacement travel brand, will also contribute 200000 of sales.

"under the background of the rapid growth of the number of new energy vehicles, the power exchange mode with high energy efficiency is also 'hot'." In the view of industry experts, the separation of vehicle and electricity through the power exchange mode can make the purchase cost of electric vehicles lower than that of fuel vehicles of the same level, and solve the problem of expensive car purchase. The power replacement mode can use a small battery pack, and the cost of battery rental fee plus electricity charge is 1 shock 3 to 1 shock 4 of the same class of fuel vehicles, which can effectively reduce the use cost. "popularizing the power exchange mode can alleviate the battery life anxiety of electric vehicles." the applicability of vehicles has also been correspondingly improved, which can stimulate the growth of electric vehicle sales, which is a good thing for automobile enterprises such as Geely. "