On the evening of March 11th, BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology announced that to ensure a stable supply of power batteries and support industrial development, the company plans to establish a platform company in partnership with BAIC Investment, Beijing Hainachuan. The registered capital of the platform company is 390 million yuan (54 million USD).
The platform company will serve as the management and investment entity and jointly establish a Beijing Era New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. joint venture with CATL and Xiaomi Auto. The registered capital of the joint venture company is 1 billion yuan (138 million USD), with the platform company contributing 390 million yuan (54 million USD), accounting for 39%, CATL contributing 510 million yuan (71 million USD), accounting for 51% and Xiaomi Auto contributing 50 million yuan (6.9 million USD), accounting for 5%. After establishing the joint venture company, it will invest in constructing an intelligent battery cell manufacturing plant in Beijing.
According to the announcement, BAIC Investment and Beijing Hainachuan are related parties of BAIC BluePark, constituting a related party joint investment transaction. BAIC BluePark is in the new energy vehicle business with the popular brand Arcfox.
The proposed joint venture company’s scope of business includes developing, producing, and selling lithium-ion batteries, power batteries, and energy storage batteries, as well as providing related after-sales and technical consulting services. The platform company will contribute 39%, and BAIC BluePark will indirectly contribute 5%.
BAIC BluePark stated that this external investment is beneficial to ensuring a stable supply of the company’s power batteries, promoting the priority application of new power battery products and technologies in the company’s complete vehicle products, enhancing the market competitiveness of the company’s products, and achieving the company’s long-term sustainable development.
BAIC BluePark has made significant investments in the new energy vehicle market in recent years, but the company is currently experiencing losses. The company stated that the competition in the new energy vehicle market is becoming increasingly fierce. To continuously improve its competitiveness, the company aims to actively explore the market, sharpen its brand image, and improve operational efficiency.
It is worth mentioning that according to BAIC BluePark’s announcement in August last year, the company and Huawei will comprehensively upgrade their existing strategic cooperation. The first model will be a high-end, intelligent, pure electric sedan. The overall planned capacity of this project is 120,000 vehicles per year. According to the plan, this model is expected to be launched on the market this year.
Source: PCAuto
