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On April 18, Zhidou Rainbow, a brand new mini electric car under the Zhidou brand, was officially launched. The new car has launched a total of five models, with a price range of 319-43900 yuan and a subsidy of 279-39900 yuan.

Zhidou Rainbow is the first model launched after the capital restructuring and brand rejuvenation of Zhidou Automobile. It is positioned as a pure electric minicar, with a layout of three doors and four seats, and a motor with a maximum power of 20 kilowatts and 30 kilowatts. Provide pure electric range of 125km, 201km, 205km version.

In terms of appearance, the new car adopts the square box design commonly used in entry-level minicars, and the overall vision is round and lovely. In terms of subdivision, the front face of the new car is designed with a closed grille with a headlight group, and the interior of the headlamp group is decorated with a "Y" shape lamp group, with a large trapezoidal air intake below to improve vehicle recognition. On the side of the body, the new car uses horizontal lines to bring a sense of extension to the vision. The new car provides a popular two-color body to increase the car's sense of fashion. In the rear part, the shape of the new car is square, the design style of the taillight echoes with the headlights, and the rear part is marked with the words "Zhidou" and "rainbow" to show the identity of the vehicle.

In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new car are 3224/1515/1630mm, and the wheelbase is 2100mm, which is one circle larger than the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV. As a comparison, the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV has a length, width and height of 2920/1493/1621mm and a wheelbase of 1940mm, under which the new car is obviously larger than the Hongguang MINIEV.

Interior part, the new car is mainly simple style, the car uses a large number of circular design elements, with double-spoke steering wheel and floating instrument and central control, the overall sense of science and technology is good. In terms of power, the new car will have 125, 201km and 205km under CLTC operating conditions, with a maximum motor power of 20 kilowatts and 30 kilowatts. The battery uses Guoxuan Hi-Tech and Honeycomb Energy Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.

Data show that Zhidou Automobile is an electric vehicle brand founded by New Dayang Mechanical and Electrical Group, focusing on miniature electric vehicles. Lanzhou Zhidou, founded in July 2006, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zhidou Electric vehicle Co., Ltd. In 2012, Lanzhou Zhidou's first electric car was launched, but due to lack of production qualification, it cooperated with Zhongtai Automobile and borrowed the production qualification to produce the first passenger car, but it came to nothing for various reasons.

In January 2015, Ninghai Zhidou Electric vehicle Co., Ltd. (later renamed "Zhidou Electric vehicle Co., Ltd.") was established as a joint venture by Xin Dayang Mechanical and Electrical Group, Geely holding Group, Ninghai Silverstone Investment Fund and GSR Ventures Fund. Relying on Geely holding, Zhidou Automobile has obtained production qualification, with sales of 25000, 24000 and 43000 vehicles respectively from 2015 to 2017.

In March 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the Lanzhou Zhidou pure electric passenger vehicle project with an annual production capacity of 40,000 vehicles; in October of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that Zhidou Automobile had entered the list of new vehicle manufacturing enterprises; at the end of 2017, Lanzhou Zhidou's products entered the recommended catalogue of new energy vehicles and obtained the production qualification of new energy vehicles. Unfortunately, the good times will not last long. As the state adjusts the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles, pure electric vehicles with mileage less than 250km will not be subsidized. Pure electric subsidies for driving range of 250-400km will be reduced from a maximum of 45000 yuan to 18000 yuan, and pure electric vehicles with driving range above 400km will be reduced from 50, 000 yuan to 25000 yuan. Affected by the policy, Zhidou car sales fell sharply, selling only 15300 vehicles in 2018, a year-on-year drop of 63.90%.

In 2019, Zhidou Motor went into bankruptcy and restructuring because of broken capital chain, huge debts and lawsuits. In December 2023, industrial and commercial changes took place in Zhidou Automobile, and New Dayang Mechanical and Electrical Group Co., Ltd., Geely Technology Group Co., Ltd. withdrew from the shareholder industry. Ninghai Zhidou Enterprise Management Partnership (limited partnership), Ninghai Zhidou business service partnership (limited partnership), three Gorges Ruiyuan Innovation Venture Equity Investment Fund (Tianjin) partnership (limited partnership), etc. Among them, Ninghai Zhidou enterprise management partnership (limited partnership) is the largest controlling shareholder, holding 16.2%. As a result, Zhidou Automobile returned to the market, and Zhidou Rainbow is the first model after the brand rejuvenation, and the new car will compete with Hongguang MINIEV models of the same level after its launch.

It should be noted that the current mini-car market competition is particularly fierce, such as Hongguang MINIEV, BYD dolphin / seagull, Wuling colorful fruit, Nezhu V, Ola good cat, Chery QQ ice cream and so on are all hot models in the market. As a new car with the same positioning minicar, it is worth thinking about how Zhi Dou Rainbow will seize the market with the above-mentioned models.

According to the plan, the Zhidou brand will launch eight models in the next three years and 16 models in five years.

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