Evergrande’s EV unit unveils plan to build 1,600 dealerships across China, even as it reports widening full-year loss for 2020

Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, the car making arm of mainland property developer China Evergrande Group, unveiled a plan to build 1,600 dealerships across the country during an earnings call on Thursday.

The company reported that its net loss for the full year of 2020 had widened to 7.7 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) from 4.9 billion yuan a year earlier, amid heavy investment in the development of new car models. It, however, said its revenue had surged by 175 per cent to 15.5 billion yuan.

“Building a vast sales network is important, because it will lay a solid foundation for us to grab a big market share,” Shawn Siu, the unit’s chairman, said during a teleconference with the press. He added that Evergrande New Energy Vehicle would also open 36 flagship showrooms, but did not give a time frame for either target.

The company is aiming to produce a million electric vehicles (EVs) in 2025 and wants to become the world’s largest EV maker. For next year, it has set a goal of 100,000 units and wants to produce five million vehicles in 2035.

It unveiled six Hengchi-branded EV models in August and launched another three last month. It is currently designing 14 EV models under the Hengchi brand, which cover major passenger vehicle segments, including sedans, sport-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles, and said these would be priced between 600,000 yuan and 800,000 yuan. However, none of the nine models unveiled so far have reached the assembly stage yet, with the company saying they would hit the market either in the second half of this year, or the first half of 2022.

“As a new player in the car making industry, Evergrande will face difficulties in luring customers in early days,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. “Moreover, competition this year will be heated, with dozens of new models expected to hit the market.”