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On March 6, Lifan Science and Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lifan Technology") issued a notice that the board of directors approved the "motion on the application for bankruptcy liquidation of Henan Lifan New Energy Electric vehicle Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary". It is agreed that Henan Lifan should apply to the court for bankruptcy liquidation.

According to the data, Henan Lifan New Energy Electric vehicle Co., Ltd. was established on August 26, 2014. the legal representative Yang Panhong, with a registered capital of 150 million yuan, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lifan Technology. According to Lifan Technology, Henan Lifan has no real business since 2020. As of September 30, 2022, Henan Lifan had unaudited net assets of-153.6 million yuan, total liabilities of 189.14 million yuan, seriously insolvent and no longer capable of sustainable operation. In view of the above situation, in order to optimize the business structure, focus on the main business, enhance the company's profitability, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of Henan Lifan shareholders and creditors, Henan Lifan intends to apply to the court for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds that it is insolvent and unable to repay its debts.

Lifan Technology said that after Henan Lifan's bankruptcy liquidation application is accepted by the court and appointed bankruptcy administration, the company will lose control over it and it will no longer be included in the scope of the company's consolidated statements. Considering that the company has impaired the assets and claims of Henan Lifan, if Henan Lifan is not included in the scope of the consolidated statement, it is expected to increase the company's profit by 45 million yuan. However, Lifan Technology also said that Henan Lifan applied to the court for bankruptcy liquidation, and there was uncertainty about whether the court accepted it or not and the final decision after acceptance. The final impact of this bankruptcy liquidation on the company is subject to the results of bankruptcy liquidation and the annual audit report of accountants.

Lifan technology is not "Lifan"! Like Geely, Lifan, which was founded in 1992, started with a motorcycle and then gradually switched to the car track, but compared with Geely, Lifan's life is obviously very difficult.

Like Geely, Lifan, which was founded in 1992, started as a motorcycle and has gradually stepped into the car track since then. But compared with Geely, Lifan is obviously a "miserable" person.

In the 1990s, the motorcycle market was very exuberant. Chongqing Hongda, the predecessor of Lifan, quickly seized the market by virtue of 100mL electric engine and 110mL vertical engine, and became a leading enterprise in the field of motorcycle engine, and was once known as "the king of Chinese motorcycles". In 2000, Chongqing Hongda vehicle parts Research Institute changed its name to Lifan. Founder Yin Mingshan made the Forbes China Rich list by virtue of the capital accumulation brought by the motorcycle business. In 2003, Lifan, which was in its heyday, suffered a huge impact from the "motorcycle ban" policy, so it had no choice but to start to get involved in the automobile field. After acquiring 80% of the shares in Chongqing Special purpose vehicle Factory, it changed its name to Chongqing Lifan Automobile Co., Ltd. After three years of preparation, the first model, Lifan 520, was launched in 2006.

After the launch of the Lifan 520, due to its uncharacteristic shape, the interior is too similar to the Citroen Elysee, and the power performance is not outstanding, so that the car did not get much sales, with 39709 units sold for the whole of 2007. After that, Lifan successively launched modified models of Lifan 520, updating the interior and performance, as well as new models such as Lifan 620, but these models did not open the market for Lifan.

With the failure of these models, Yin Mingshan also began to shift his car-building thinking from self-research to imitation. In 2009, Lifan launched the Lifan 320, which is so similar to the BMW MINI from the inside to the outside that it is called the "Chinese BMW mini" after its launch. Although this has been criticized by the industry, it does not affect the hot sales of this model.

After tasting the sweetness of imitating cars, Lifan goes farther and farther along this road. In 2013, Lifan 530 and Lifan 630 were released. According to Lifan, the two models belong to the Lifan 520 and Lifan 620 respectively, but the appearance of the two models is controversial, the former is similar to FAW Toyota Wechi, the latter is similar to FAW Toyota Corolla. However, unlike the Lifan 320, these two models do not sell well after their launch, with monthly sales of about 1,000 vehicles.

Later, Lifan launched the SUV model Lifan X80 and the MPV model Lifan Xuanlang, the former almost exactly similar to GAC Toyota Hanlanda, and the latter also imitating Ford S-MAX. In such plagiarism and imitation, Lifan has indeed accumulated a huge product system, although these models have been many complaints, but still prop up the overall sales of Lifan. From 2013 to 2018, Lifan basically maintained sales of more than 100000 vehicles, according to the Federation of passengers.

However, imitation is imitation after all, due to the lack of core technology, Lifan products began to be complained by a large number of consumers, including steering wheel jitter, brake failure and abnormal body noise and other problems. In 2019, Lifan sold 22536 fuel passenger cars, a year-on-year drop of 75.52 per cent. What's more, due to the impact of the epidemic and its own business crisis, sales of Lifan fuel passenger cars were only 1348 in 2020, a sharp drop of 94.02% compared with the same period last year.

The decline in sales has also caused Lifan to fall into heavy losses. In July 2020, Lifan issued an announcement that many subsidiaries were applied to the court for judicial reorganization by creditors because they were unable to pay off their maturing debts, and the company would be at risk of bankruptcy due to the failure of restructuring. At this point, Lifan embarked on the road of bankruptcy reorganization. The following month, the court ruled to accept the bankruptcy restructuring of Lifan, while the company's shares were delisted risk warning, the stock abbreviation was changed to "* ST Lifan".

In fact, the fate of Lifan and Zhongtai have many similarities, but compared with Zhongtai, Lifan is a bit more lucky. In December 2020, Lifan announced that the restructuring was successful, and the controlling shareholder was changed from Lifan Holdings to Chongqing Manjianghong Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Manjianghong Fund"). Through the Manjianghong fund, Geely has become Lifan's largest shareholder, with a stake of 29.99%.

In December 2021, Geely announced that the company intends to jointly invest with Lifan Technology to establish a joint venture company, the target company registered capital of 600 million yuan, Geely Holdings and Lifan Technology each contributed 300 million yuan, holding 50%. In January 2022, the joint venture company jointly invested by Geely Automobile and Lifan Technology has completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures and obtained the business license issued by the Market Supervision Bureau of Liangjiang New area in Chongqing, China. it is named Chongqing Ruilan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. ("Ruilan Automobile").

For the ride-hailing market, Ruilan creates two power-changing models, Maple Leaf 80V and Maple Leaf 60S, but it is precisely because it focuses on the ride-hailing market that the two models are doomed not to have too much volume. In May 2022, Ruilan launched the Ruilan X3, which is actually a replacement of Geely Vision X3. In December 2022, Ruilan 9 officially went on sale with a price range of 10.99-129900 yuan. This is the first real new model of Ruilan Automobile.

With the help of Geely, Lifan Technology sold 56816 vehicles in 2022, an increase of 1371.15% over the same period last year. Of course, today's Lifan technology is no longer the former Lifan, but a Geely "sub-car company" with the name Lifan, that's all.

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