AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/06 Report--

On October 5th, the official WeChat announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the company's strategic investor CYVN, announcing that it would set up an advanced technology research and development center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the two sides would jointly develop a new model for the local market. At the same time, Weilai announced that it will officially launch its business in the Middle East and North Africa, which will be operated through Weilai Middle East and North Africa through its joint venture with CYVN. The United Arab Emirates will become the first market for Weilai Middle East and North Africa companies, and delivery is scheduled to begin in the United Arab Emirates in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to public data, CYVN is a majority-owned investment institution owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and its strategic investment focuses on the smart travel industry. In fact, as early as last year, CYVN has invested 3.3 billion US dollars in Weilai twice. It is understood that in June last year, Weilai announced the signing of a share subscription agreement with CYVN Holdings, an Abu Dhabi investment agency. according to the agreement, CYVN Holdings will make a total strategic investment of about $1.1 billion to Weilai through the transfer of new and old shares; in July of the same year, Weilai announced the completion of a $738.5 million strategic equity investment from CYVN Holdings. In December of the same year, Weilai announced that it had entered into a share subscription agreement with CYVN Holdings, an investment arm of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, through its affiliated company CYVN. Under the agreement, CYVN will invest a total of $2.2 billion in cash, making it the largest shareholder in the company when the deal is completed, but Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO, still has 39 per cent of the super voting rights and is the company's largest voting shareholder.

With the arrival of Weilai to enter the Middle East and North Africa market, the global layout of Lulai will be further accelerated. At present, the whole system has entered five European markets, including six mass-produced models such as EL8, ET7, EL7, ET5, ET5T and EL6. In the future, Weilai also plans to introduce the second brand "ONVO" and an all-electric small car codenamed "Firefly" to Europe.

It is worth mentioning that although the distribution of the European market began as early as two years ago, the results achieved are not satisfactory. According to statistics, only 2404 vehicles were sold in the European market in 2023. In addition, the European Commission's tariff on imports of pure electric vehicles from China has also worsened sales in the European market. The performance of China's own-brand pure electric vehicles in the European Union has declined significantly in recent months, according to data from the Federation of passengers. From January to August this year, EU sales were 8.11 million, an increase of 2% over the same period last year, but preliminary statistics show that EU sales in August were only about 710000, a serious downturn. Subdivided into the field of pure electric vehicles, European brands such as Volkswagen, Tesla, Strandis, BMW and Geely Volvo have performed relatively well in this market segment. Chinese brands, including SAIC, BYD, Xiaopeng and Xilai, have also performed well, but the overall scale of their own brands is relatively small.

Of course, compared with the Middle East market, the Middle East market has become one of the emerging markets for carmakers looking for room for growth, especially for Chinese car brands, the Middle East market is still a blue sea. In recent years, Chinese car companies such as Changan, Xiaopeng, Great Wall, Chery and Naga have successively set out to expand the Middle East or North African markets.

On this cooperation, Li Bin said: "We are optimistic about the development prospects of smart electric vehicles in the Middle East and North Africa markets." As an important strategic investor and partner of Weilai, CYVN has rich local resources and will contribute to the sustained growth of its business in the region. The cooperation with CYVN will further advance the company's globalization and technology innovation strategy, accelerate the globalization process, and bring innovative smart electric vehicle technology and experience to users in the Middle East and North Africa. "

In addition, Li Bin posted on Weibo: "China has become the world's largest car exporter, the Middle East and North Africa market is an important strategic market for Ulai, and Chinese-branded smart electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular in the region."

As we all know, lower production cost is one of the advantages of China's electric vehicles to go out to sea. Nowadays, the export of China's own brands has become more and more advantageous, and domestic car exports have also increased rapidly in the past two years. As a result, China's new energy vehicles continue to strengthen at sea. Industry insiders said that in the follow-up, more car companies will join the ranks of going out to sea, and more domestic cars will go to the world. As to whether more cars can be sold after going out to sea, it may take some time. According to Weilai's plan, it will enter 25 countries and regions by 2025.

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