“Huawei Crown Prince” suffered a painful defeat in the electric car race: Hold on for 60 days, burned through 500 million USD but still could not produce a car, finally helped Starbucks make money.

According to Toutiao, the shortest car company in history appeared. A while ago, Niutron announced that it could not deliver the first electric car model on schedule and will refund all customers money.

The whole process from preparing to launch the new model in early October until the refund could not be recovered and the closure lasted just 60 days. Among the new car brands that have appeared recently, the “later” Niutron is not a well-known brand. But it’s the founder behind it, Ly Nhat Nam, that really attracts a lot of attention.

Accordingly, Ly Nhat Nam’s starting point made many people admire: 15 years old was admitted to Huazhong University of Science and Technology; 23 years old joined Huawei and became chief engineer after only two years; 27-year-old promoted to vice president and recognized as “successor of Nham Chinh Phi” – CEO of Huawei.

 Niutron NV is the first model Ly Nhat Nam has launched to the market. As planned, the car company would deliver in December of this year, but the plan fell through before starting. In the current situation, Ly Nhat Nam’s project is left with a mess. More than 24,000 customers who have placed a deposit on the Niutron NV will be reimbursed with a minivan and a $200 Starbucks coffee voucher.

In the defeat of Niutron, the biggest winner turned out to be Starbucks, which made $4.87 million from the failure of “Huawei Crown Prince”.

So how did Ly Nhat Nam step by step push himself into the “abyss” in the field of automobile manufacturing?

Huawei’s “rebellious son” joins the electric car race

Ly Nhat Nam was born in 1970 in Hunan, China. In his youth, he was considered a genius, wherever he went he became the center of attention. Before the age of 30, Ly Nhat Nam was also a proud “child” of Huawei, the third person in this corporation after CEO Nham Chinh Phi and Chairman Ton A Phuong.

He later resigned and founded Gangwan Network, also known as “Little Huawei”. At times, Ly Nhat Nam worked at Baidu, China Mobile and GSR Venture Capital. President and CEO of Baidu, billionaire Li Ngan Hoanh used to use flowery words to talk about this man. He thinks that in the world no more than 3 people can be the CTO of Baidu, and Ly Nhat Nam is one of them.

  In 2015, Ly Nhat Nam founded Niu Electric, which was successfully listed on NASDAQ after only three years. He also shared on social media an enthusiastic status line: “I am ready to devote myself, using the best materials and the most advanced technology to create the best electric car in China. Country”.

In the eyes of everyone, Ly Nhat Nam is a capable, resourceful person, one of the top entrepreneurs and a “heavenly” car manufacturer. In the field of new energy car production, although he is a “latecomer”, Ly Nhat Nam is not inferior. He frankly replied: “The order in which the brands appear is not the most important thing”, moreover, he “never missed a day in building a car”.

 Technology is in hand, capital is not a worrying factor. The first model launched by Ly Nhat Nam directly challenged other car manufacturers on price. Mr. Lee’s Niutron is priced at 278,800 to 318,800 yuan (equivalent to 945 million – 1.8 billion dong), this is the price at which the new big forces are competing fiercely.

Believing in his product, during the press conference in early October, boss Ly was not afraid to show his “muscles” with a series of hardware parameters of the “born” Niutron and compared with luxury cars like Range. Rover, BBS. However, something confusing happened, Ly Nhat Nam suddenly stopped the whole plan at the last minute. However, everything happens for a reason.

The 3 steps of “self-destruction” of Ly Nhat Nam made the un-formed auto empire go bankrupt

In 2013, Ly Nhat Nam was exposed to a large number of new energy projects at Kim Sa Giang Venture Capital Company, the relevant domestic policy orientation made him even more willing to act. However, Ly Nhat Nam made a mistake and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for insider trading.

By the time he went back and decided to build a car, it was too late. The industry is cruel in that it treats everyone equally, and won’t treat you lightly just because you’re the technical boss. A journey to building a car without any advantages is doomed to failure.

“Slow buffalo drink cloudy water”

At the end of 2018, when Ly Nhat Nam decided to join the new energy car “race”, the track was full of seniors with veteran experience, can Niutron enter the field at this time to earn a share?

 Admittedly being a few years behind other automakers, Ly Nhat Nam still thinks that Niutron still has a chance. He took Honda as an example and said that Honda entered the auto industry 30 years later than Toyota and Nissan, but Honda was still successful. The implication is that whether I get into the game sooner or later, my company has its own advantages.

It is clear that Ly Nhat Nam hastily set his own KPIs for auto production, but as for how to market the product and what its advantages are, he is not clear.

To join the race on car production, which is a very important matter. If you want to immerse yourself in this race, it is impossible without 5-6 million USD. Moreover, this amount is still not enough. Obviously, Niutron cannot compete with mainstream names like Huawei, Baidu and Xiaomi. Although Ly Nhat Nam always claimed that he was never short of money, the problem was inherently an insurmountable barrier. Since its inception, Niutron has only received $500 million in funding.

Another important factor that caused Ly Nhat Nam to stumble was the issue of car production that should have been solved a long time ago. Niutron’s parent company Martian Stone Technology itself has no manufacturing qualifications. According to employees, Ly Nhat Nam has rarely appeared in recent months because of his qualifications related issues with management agencies.

After deliberating, Ly Nhat Nam chose to cooperate with Dorcen who was in debt. This brand was formerly owned by the infamous Zotye automobile company, but despite its production capacity, Dorcen is heavily in debt. The factory was also suspended for more than 24 months because it did not get approval from the competent authority.

Lack of money is okay, but even the brand belongs to Dorcen. The authorship of Nitron is not in the hands of Ly Nhat Nam, which is like putting half of his life in the hands of someone else.

From beginning to end, Niutron has never enjoyed any profit, capital potential and weak qualifications greatly affect the competitiveness of products. In this situation, Newton was forced to stop.

Choose “good paint” over “good wood”

From a brand positioning perspective, the mid- to high-end SUV market is a playground for large corporations and the most competitive market segment in 2022. Tesla or BYD cars are both in the 300,000 price range. RMB (more than 1 billion dong). Niutron and Dorcen’s partnership choice is certainly accelerating the process of self-destruction.

In terms of distance, the 400 km parameter is clearly inferior to other models of the same price. From the perspective of product technology and performance, Ly Nhat Nam chose the outsourcing model to the greatest extent. The range extender is outsourced and the battery is not self-developed either, the Niutron NV is equipped with the same power system as the Lantu FREE range extender, but its performance is completely underrated. short.

Perhaps that’s why Ly Nhat Nam considered the end of Niutron very early. “What if I lose? Am I going to commit suicide? No, I’ll deal with supplier debts and employee wages. Can’t continue is inability to continue. Most I’m going to be very sad, I can only go home and cry, what else can I do? This is not the first time I have experienced company bankruptcy.” For new players like Niutron, the opportunity comes only once.

 Once it’s all over, the company announced it will return a small car and a $200 Starbucks voucher to 24,376 customers who had previously placed a deposit on the Niutron NV. Faced with Niutron’s solution, 24,376 customers were not too disappointed but also gave Ly Nhat Nam a “like” for not directly hugging money and running away like many previous bankruptcy cases.

Experts say new energy vehicles are really common, but that doesn’t mean everyone has a share. Whether or not you can gain a foothold in the car manufacturing market usually does not depend on the subjective will of each person. Even a leading businessman like Ly Nhat Nam needs “time, location, and harmony” to be successful.

Ly Nhat Nam chose to say “goodbye” properly, which also alleviated the negative public opinion to some extent. It must be said that this approach is a profitable move because it can help him build a better foundation for his next venture in the future. As long as his reputation remains, Ly Nhat Nam will have the opportunity to start from scratch.

(According to Toutiao)