The world’s most indebted property developer China Evergrande Group is going to start accepting orders for its electric car. It will be a Hengchi 5 sport utility vehicle, which will be made available for booking across 15 major cities across the country. The news is announced by Liu Yongzhuo, president of the electric vehicle (EV) arm of the company. During the online meeting attended by almost 200 global parts suppliers, the announcement was made.
Liu Yongzhuo, president of the electric vehicle arm of the world’s most indebted property developer China Evergrande Group, made the comment at an online meeting attended by nearly 200 global parts suppliers on Sunday, according to the firm’s official Wechat account. Also, the social media post didn’t say exactly when the firm will start taking orders.
Furthermore, the plan comes as the EV firm has been struggling to secure external investment. Evergrande told investors in a call last week it was trying to rope in investors to help bolster the unit’s finances – a goal it has been pursuing for months without much success. Evergrande New Energy Vehicle said in November it had been negotiating with potential buyers regarding the disposal of some assets and talking to potential investors about funding.
External investments
Evergrande chairman Hui Ka Yan said at an internal meeting last week that the EV company will start mass production on June 22, after getting approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to start sales earlier this month. The EV firm’s Wechat post said the sales centers will be located in cities including Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
The company, whose $22.7 billion worth of offshore debt is deemed to be in default, is seeking to “further enhance communications” with creditors to reach the end-July target. Evergrande said in a stock exchange filing it would not meet a March 31 deadline to file its financial results for 2021 because audit work had not been completed.
Earlier this year, a wave of defaults in China’s property sector has rattled investors and while state intervention has quelled market concern over a disorderly collapse of Evergrande, investors are still in the dark over whether they will recoup their money. So it was known that Evergrande was once China’s top-selling developer and then known to be reeling under more than $300 billion in liabilities. It defaulted on some overseas bond payments in December and has struggled to repay suppliers and creditors and complete projects and homes.
