AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/21 Report--

Qiao Xinyu, a former executive vice president of Harvard marketing, joined Lutes, Geely's sports car brand, as head of marketing, according to media reports.

Data show that Qiao Xinyu has 20 years of experience in the automotive field. Before joining Great Wall Motor, Qiao Xinyu worked at Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. From September 2004 to January 2011, Qiao Xinyu served as the sales regional manager of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Automobile Co., Ltd., and from February 2011 to September 2018, he has served as the marketing manager, regional marketing director and senior brand manager of Volkswagen (China) sales Co., Ltd.

In September 2018, Qiao Xinyu joined Great Wall Motor and served as Wei Brand CMO, Deputy General Manager and Director of Product Planning Department. In January 2023, Qiao Xinyu was transferred to Harvard Brand as Executive Vice President of Harvard Marketing, responsible for co-ordinating Harvard brand strategy and product planning, product and brand communication, sales management, service experience, etc. At the beginning of this year, Qiao Xinyu was revealed to have left Great Wall, amid market speculation that it might be related to the organizational restructuring of the Harvard brand.

According to wholesale data, Great Wall sold a total of 559700 vehicles in the first half of 2024, up 7.79 per cent from a year earlier. Among them, the Harvard brand, as the sales pillar of Great Wall, accounts for more than half of its overall sales, with a cumulative sales of 299700 vehicles in the first half, an increase of 2.42% over the same period last year. In the first half of the year, only four models of the Harvard brand exceeded 10,000, of which the highest-selling model was the H6 with 78700, the Harvard Dog with 40200 and the Harvard Raptor PHEV with 18800.

As for Lutes, it is a brand owned by Geely Holdings, which was founded in 1948 and was once on a par with top supercar brands such as Ferrari and Porsche. In 2017, Geely Holdings signed an agreement with Malaysia's DRB-HICOM Group to acquire a 49.9 per cent stake in DRB-HICOM Group's Proton Motor and a 51 per cent stake in luxury sports car brand Lotus.

In the second year of Geely, Lutes put forward the "Vision80 Ten-year Brand Revival Plan", that is, to complete the comprehensive transformation of the brand to electric and intelligent on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Lutes brand in 2028.

In 2019, Lutes released its first pure electric supercar Evija, which sells for as much as 21.88 million yuan and is limited to 130 units worldwide. In November 2021, the Emira, the last fuel car of the Lutes brand, went on sale with an official guiding price of 858000 yuan. In October 2022, Lutes launched its first pure electric supercar, SUV Lutes ELETRE, and the new version of ELETRE currently sells for 728000 yuan to 1.028 million yuan. In January this year, the pure electric supercar EMEYA Fanhua also officially went on sale, with a price ranging from 668000 yuan to 1.18 million yuan. According to the plan, Lutes will launch two more pure electric models in the next two years.

Unlike Porsche and Ferrari, Lutes is still losing money. According to the prospectus, Lutes' net losses in 2021, 2022 and 2023 were $111 million, $725 million and $743 million, respectively, with a cumulative loss of $1.579 billion. During the reporting period, Lutes delivered a total of 6970 new cars, of which electric models accounted for 63 per cent of total deliveries.

On February 23rd, Lutes Technology Co., Ltd. ("Lotus Tech") completed the merger with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp, a special purpose M & A company, and listed on NASDAQ in the United States under the stock symbol "LOT". As of the last trading day, Lutes closed at $6.52 per share, with a total market capitalization of $4.412 billion.

For Lutes, the acquisition of Zhejiang Geely Automobile holding Group requires Qiao Xinyu, who has rich marketing experience for 20 years, to help him with market operation. At present, Qiao Xinyu's Weibo has been updated and certified as "Lutes Market Manager", and the information related to Lutes has been updated frequently since July 6.

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