AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/19 Report--

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group, announced at the headquarters of Jixing Automobile in Shanghai on June 19 that its high-end electric car brand Jixing has officially signed a contract with Star Meizu Group (hereinafter referred to as "Star Meizu") to form a joint venture.

According to reports, the joint venture is jointly owned by Star Motor and Star Meizu, with a shareholding ratio of 49% and 51% respectively, but the two sides did not disclose the amount of investment. The company will be the only authorized sales and service entity in China, and the company plans to transfer about 130 business people originally based in China to the joint venture.

In fact, as early as May this year, there was news in the market that Star Motors and Star Meizu would cooperate at the capital level in the form of a joint venture to promote the integration of resources in the automobile and mobile phone ecology. In response to the news, the person in charge of Ji Xing Motors at that time responded: "No comment on this matter", while Star Meizu did not respond. With the announcement of this news, it means that the news has been officially hammered.

Referring to the division of labor in the joint venture, Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Star Meizu Group, said that the joint venture will combine the design and performance capabilities of Star Meizu with Starry Meizu's expertise in software and consumer electronics hardware development, and develop a Polestar OS system based on Star Meizu Flyme Auto to provide an intelligent operating system for Star Motor products for the Chinese market. Including in-car applications, streaming media services, smart car software.

In addition, Shen Ziyu said bluntly in an interview with the media: "Polar is no longer an electric car company, but a technology company with multiple smart terminals, including cars, mobile phones, etc., the joint venture will build Polestar OS products, exclusive service star models in China, and build a global intelligent travel technology ecology around Polestar OS. The joint venture company will be responsible for vehicle design and development, software development, marketing and other work to form a closed loop. "

Polestar, a joint venture brand between Volvo and Geely, has become an independent high-end electric car brand jointly launched by Geely and Volvo, while adding a new new energy vehicle brand to Geely's new energy product range. In June 2022, Polar Star sounded the opening bell on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in the United States and was officially listed. Polar China is wholly owned by Polar Motors, and its main business includes factory manufacturing, R & D and marketing.

As for Xinji Meizu, which was founded in March this year, it is a blend of Starry Age and Meizu Technology, founded by Li Shufu. In September 2021, Li Shufu built a mobile phone project, which led to the birth of the Star era of the mobile phone company. In July 2022, Meizu Technology was acquired by Li Shufu's company, Starry Times, which gained separate control over Meizu Technology. On March 8, 2023, after the fusion of Star Age and Meizu Technology, the Star Meizu Group was officially founded, followed by the launch of a new generation of flagship mobile phone Meizu 20 series, unbounded ecosystem Flyme 10 and the first generation of Flyme Auto car-carrying human-computer interaction software. Li Shufu said at the time that the smart car and smartphone industries will no longer go their own ways in the future.

During the recent Shanghai Auto Show, Polar Star announced that it would fully build a new sedan SUV-- Polar 4 based on Flyme Auto Core, which is based on the vast architecture of SEA and is on the same platform as Polar Krypton. Except for body design and chassis training, it is built by the Chinese team. According to the plan, the car is expected to be delivered within this year at the earliest.

As a luxury electric car brand jointly built by Geely and Volvo, Polar 1 and 2 are currently on sale, mainly competing with Tesla, but its sales performance in China is not optimistic. According to the data, 2048 Star cars were sold in China in 2021, accounting for only 7% of global sales, while only 1717 new car traffic insurance were sold in 2022. For comparison, rival Tesla sold 441697 vehicles in 2022, a big gap between the two. It should be noted that in the six years since its establishment, Ji Xing has replaced five CEO in China, but it has still failed to reverse its decline in the Chinese market and is far less than Tesla in brand volume.

Revenue in the first quarter of this year was $546 million, up 20.74% from a year earlier, according to financial data, while its mother's net profit lost $8.977 million, down 96.73% from a loss of $274.5 million in the same period last year.

With regard to the joint venture between Star Motor and Star Meizu, the industry believes that deep integration between the two sides may be a good thing for each other. As a mobile phone manufacturer to enter the automobile industry, Star Meizu needs to be more deeply bound to car brands, and for Star Motor, although it still has a lot of room for development in the Chinese market, the domestic smart electric vehicle market is developing rapidly and the competition is particularly fierce. The cooperation between the two sides may enhance the intelligent ability of Star Automobile, so as to reverse its declining sales in the Chinese market.

At the press conference, Li Shufu said that Jixing's pursuit of performance should be reflected in the user experience. Xinji Meizu's intelligent technology can completely help Jixing transform into a smart terminal technology company, while Shen Ziyu also said that there are only three to four mobile phone manufacturers that can do a good job of car software in China, and said bluntly: "car manufacturers without mobile phone software capabilities will gradually fall behind."

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