At 10:30 p.m. on February 23, Wuhan Lotus Technology *** hereinafter referred to as "Lotus Technology") successfully landed on the NASDAQ exchange in the United States, with a corporate valuation of 6.8 billion US dollars (about 48.9 billion yuan). Hubei Province ushered in the first bell ringing from overseas listings this year.
Lotus Technologies launches in the U.S. Photo by Lei Jianping.
It is reported that Lotus, founded in 1948, is a world-famous ultra-luxury sports car brand (commonly known as "Lotus Sports Car"). After being acquired by Geely Holding Group in 2017, it started the road of electrification and intelligent transformation.
In 2021, Lotus Technology was established in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, building the Lotus Wuhan Smart Factory and the Lotus Technology Global Headquarters. One year later, the first Hans-made Lotus pure electric model, Eletre, rolled off the assembly line at the Wuhan Smart Factory, filling the gap in the field of ultra-high-end electric vehicles in Hubei Province, and then Lotus launched several new models.
Chegu "plus" sports car genes "run fast.
In the past, Lotus, Porsche, and Ferrari were known as the world's three major sports car manufacturers, and enjoyed a high reputation in the world. Then, the "New Four Modernizations of Automobiles", marked by electrification, networking, intelligence, and sharing, have brought earth-shaking changes to the automotive industry. In the 80s of the last century, Lotus gradually fell into business difficulties and was in a state of loss for a long time, and changed hands several times.
Please allow private enterprises to make bold attempts, and allow private entrepreneurs to dream of cars. Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Holdings"), once said.
In 2017, Li Shufu announced the acquisition of Lotus, ushering in a new direction for the company. One year later, Lotus announced its "Vision80" brand revival plan, announcing a full shift to electrification. In the former "Big Three", it was the first to step into the new energy track.
In 2021, Lotus announced a specific product plan for electrification, and at the same time announced that the brand will say goodbye to the fuel era completely.
In the same year, Li Shufu chose to establish "Lotus Technology" in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Lotus Global Smart Factory settled in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Lotus Technology Global Headquarters settled in Junshan New Town in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.
At the end of 2021, Lotus Technology completed the Pre-A round of financing, with a valuation of 15 billion yuan, becoming the fastest "unicorn" in Wuhan that year.
One year later, the Lotus global smart factory was officially completed, and Li Shufu was present to celebrate the success of the world's first pure electric supercar SUV, the Eletre, on the assembly line.
In the Lotus global smart factory, a variety of models are on display. Photo by Yangtze River ** reporter Peng Quanjin.
With this as a starting point, Lotus' global smart factory has broken through several industry firsts: with a stamping speed of 18 strokes per minute, it is one of the fastest and most efficient production lines in the world; The first press of the fully automatic press line has a pressure of up to 2,500 tons, which is currently the largest pressure level in the automotive industry; The overall automation rate of the welding workshop is more than 98% ......Since March last year, the world's first all-electric supercar has been delivered at the factory and shipped from here to the world.
What kind of chemical reaction will be produced by "car valley manufacturing" and "sports car genes"? Last summer, two Lotus models won the "double crown" of the fastest SUV and the fastest mass-produced electric vehicle in Zhejiang, the fastest mass-produced electric vehicle in Zhejiang, and the fastest four-door sedan in Zhejiang.
Times have really changed, and four-door sedans can make supercar lap times, even faster than many track-based sports cars, and people have to accept these changes and realities. The well-known driver Luo Cairo sighed in an interview with reporters.
The series "Unicorn" is lined up for listing in Hanzheng.
Lotus only inspected it once, and decided to build a global science and technology headquarters in Junshan New Town. In an interview with reporters, the relevant person in charge of Junshan New Town introduced that Junshan New Town is connected to the north of Jingkai, south to Hannan, east to Jinkou, west to Changfu, close to the Yangtze River shoreline, with obvious location advantages.
And Li Shufu claimed at the completion of the factory: "Wuhan is Geely's 'second hometown' and Lotus's 'second hometown'." ”
In his view, Wuhan, Hubei Province has a unique geographical location and a strong foundation, and a world-class trillion-dollar automobile industry cluster is being formed here, "It is Wuhan's good business environment and high-quality development market that attract Lotus projects."
In terms of chain, at the end of last year, Lotus joined hands with Changjiang Automobile Industry **Chain Company to export 113 vehicles in two batches, with a total amount of nearly 75 million yuan. In February this year, the export business of the third batch of 160 Lotus cars also started, and it is expected to be sent to the European market again next month.
In terms of industrial chain, Lotus has a number of "brother companies" located in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. The next-generation digital vehicle on its Eletre Hyper SUV model comes from the "brother enterprise" Hubei ECARX Technology (hereinafter referred to as "ECARX Technology").
It is understood that since 2017, Li Shufu has successively laid out ECARX Technology, Hubei Xinqing Technology*** hereinafter referred to as "Xinqing Technology"), Lotus Technology and Xingji Meizu Group in Wuhan, all of which have been among the ranks of "unicorns".
Nearly a year after ECARX's listing, Lotus Technology also "rang the listing bell" on February 23 this year. After the reporter's consultation, SiEngine Technology has completed the B round of financing and plans to go public around 2025, while Meizu has not replied positively to the listing plan. Li Shufu's big chess game in Han has begun to take shape.
On November 30 last year, when Li Shufu was interviewed by Yangtze River **, he talked about the layout in Han: "ECARX, Xinqing Technology, Lotus Technology, and Xingji Meizu are respectively involved in intelligent cockpits, chips, automobiles, mobile phones and other fields, all of which are the embodiment of practicing diversified layout, cross-border integration, and building a technology ecosystem under the tide of intelligent digitalization." ”
Scientific and technological innovation can give birth to new industries, new models and new kinetic energy, and is the core element of the development of new quality productive forces. The construction of a science and technology ecosystem mentioned by Li Shufu is the epitome of Wuhan's forging of "new quality productivity".
Yangtze River ** reporter Hao Tianjiao, Lei Xinrui, correspondent Sun Yayun).
Editor: Wang Rongfei].
For more exciting information, please use the application market**"Great Wuhan" client, do not be authorized**, welcome to provide news clues, and pay once adopted. 24-hour report**: 027-592222222. The copyright of this article belongs to the original author, if there is a mistake or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, you can contact us by email, and we will deal with it in a timely manner. E-mail address: kin0207@126com