Looking back on the past 2023, the electric wave of the global automotive industry continues to surge. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's new energy vehicle sales will reach 949 in 202350,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 379%, and the market share rose strongly to 316%。According to SNE Research, the total global sales of electric vehicles (excluding China) will reach 564 in 202380,000 units, with a growth rate of 317%。
As a century-old industry, the automotive industry has now come to a crossroads in re-choosing the direction of development, and electrification, intelligence and globalization are undoubtedly the key words in this new historical process.
The trend of industrial transformation is huge, and players from all walks of life are also actively embracing changes. Zhitong Finance and Economics noticed that on February 23, 2024, Lotus Technology (lot., which has a history of 75 yearsUS) officially landed on NASDAQ. After completing the new milestone of listing on the U.S. stock market, with the huge energy of international high-quality capital, the subsequent transformation of Lotus is expected to go faster and more stable.
The U.S. stock market reached a new milestone
Lotus was born in the United Kingdom in 1948, and the international genes imprinted in its bones may be one of the important reasons why it chose to be listed on the NASDAQ. Considering that the global automotive industry is at the forefront of the current stage, the rapid changes in market demand and the accelerated "reshuffle" of the whole industry chain will be the main tone for a long time in the future, it is wise for Lotus to take the initiative to participate in the capital market.
Looking back at Lotus Technology's U.S. stock listing journey, the time needs to be turned back to 2023. In January of that year, Lotus Technologies and L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp ("LCAA"), a special purpose acquisition company, announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement.
It is worth mentioning that from the official announcement to the official landing in the United States, it took only 13 months for Lotus Technology. In early February, LCAA's shareholders' meeting approved the proposed SPAC merger with Lotus Technologies. After that, the two parties completed the merger on the 22nd of the same month, and finally successfully listed on the 23rd EST.
It is understood that since the announcement of the above transaction, Lotus Technology has obtained a total of more than 8$800 million in financing commitments. It is also one of the largest financings for a SPAC-related transaction since 2023.
In addition to the speed of listing and the large scale of financing, another striking detail of Lotus Technology's listing is the fact that LCAA, the other party to the transaction, has a lot of origins. It is reported that LCAA is affiliated to L Catterton, the world's leading consumer goods private equity investment company, which was formerly known as L Catterton, an investment institution under the American private equity ** Catterton and the French luxury group LVMH, and was renamed L Catterton after the merger of the two parties in 2016. Behind L Catterton stands LVMH, the parent company of the world's leading luxury brand LV.
It is not difficult to see that there are quite a lot of overlaps between Lotus and LVMH, both in terms of high-end product positioning and anchored target customers, which may also explain why Lotus and LCAA hit it off.
We overlap very, very well with LVMH's consumer base. We are good at developing and manufacturing cars, and we also hope that cars have certain consumer and even social attributes, and their insight into consumption and user operation are very good," Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, previously said that the company has met with LV Group CEO and other brand executives before going public, and the two sides have been doing more than a year and will plan to make some co-branded products. It is expected that with the help of LCAA's long-term experience and in-depth insight into the global consumer industry, the two sides are expected to collide with more "sparks" in the future.
After successfully landing on NASDAQ, Lotus can not only connect with international capital more smoothly, but also provide sufficient "bullets" for the company's sustainable development through diversified financing channels, and provide sufficient "bullets" for its subsequent product line continuous update, technology research and development, and marketing channel expansion. At the same time, the change of identity will also inspire this brand with a long history and overseas genes to continue to write new glories, and Lotus is expected to be at the forefront of the historical process of the transformation of traditional global luxury brands to electric and intelligent. Looking ahead, investors in the secondary market are expected to trade the above positive feedback expectations.
Create a new model of luxury brand transformation
For Lotus, which was once as famous as Ferrari and Porsche, the listing is obviously just a small goal for the luxury supercar brand. As a brand with F1 champion genes, Lotus has won 7 F1 Manufacturers' Championships, 6 F1 Drivers' Championships, and 81 F1 races.
The aura of the champion is around, which is destined to be a long-term and special existence among the world's car brands. But at the same time, Lotus is not a rigid conservative, on the contrary, it also has an enterprising and proactive side to control the changes of the times.
Taking Lotus' unique and intriguing brand proposition "For the Drivers" as an example, unlike Tesla's "product-defined brand", and also different from the "user-defined brand" of new car-making forces or the "brand-enabled products" of other traditional luxury brands, Lotus has set the tone of not only inheriting its own supercar DNA, but also reflecting its determination and brand mission to keep pace with the times.
Literally, "for the drivers" means that everything is driven by the driver. In Lotus's view, million-level pure electric luxury should return to the essence of luxury, by shaping the brand value, creating the Lotus Drive ultimate driving control system and driver-to-driver full-process customer experience, deeply integrating "driving" into the brand concept, and stimulating users' deep sense of identity.
If you understand it further, "for the drivers" actually includes the Lotus brand's desire to actively adapt to the changes of the times and lead the electrification and intelligent transformation of global luxury brands. In fact, as early as 2018, Lotus was a forward-looking driver of change in the automotive industry. At that time, Mr. Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, first proposed the Lotus "Vision80" ten-year brand revival plan, that is, to complete the comprehensive transformation of the brand to electrification and intelligence on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Lotus brand in 2028. It should be pointed out that Lotus is also the first of the three major sports car brands to propose and fully electrify and intelligentize.
Since the vision80 strategy was proposed, the pace of transformation and upgrading of Lotus products has been accelerating, and the "3+3" product matrix is close to taking shape. Lotus' current portfolio of four models includes three supercar sedans, namely the Emira, the finale of the Lotus gasoline supercar, the world's fastest mass-produced electric supercar, the Evija, and the recently launched electric supercar EmeyaIn addition, Lotus has also launched an all-electric supercar SUV for life cars, the Eletre.
Taking today's U.S. stock market listing as an opportunity, Lotus's transformation may also "shift gears and speed up". At present, relying on the global headquarters of Lotus Technology in Wuhan, the global smart factory and the Lotus Technology Research Institute, Lotus fully integrates global resources such as the Frankfurt Innovation Center in Germany, the Coventry Creative Center in the UK and the Heysel Sports Car Factory in the UK to create products, and continues to make efforts on the road to building a global brand.
There is no doubt that the global R&D horizon and infrastructure will enable Lotus to launch a new product cycle. It is understood that in the next two years, Lotus will launch a new pure electric model every year, including a D-class SUV and a new electric sports car. It is foreseeable that with the gradual improvement and implementation of Lotus's "3+3" product matrix, differentiated products will lead to qualitative changes in the global market, resulting in considerable scale effects, and ultimately promoting the renewal of Lotus products.
In terms of channel network, Lotus also has a distinct global characteristic. In the past 2023, Lotus has been building an overseas marketing network non-stop, and in July of that year, Lotus opened its first flagship brand experience center in Europe in Mayfair, London, England; The following month, the company's new Lotus brand flagship experience center in Paris, France, officially opened. To date, Lotus has expanded its retail network to more than 200 stores worldwide.
In the future, Lotus will further accelerate the pace of globalization. Zhitong Finance and Economics learned that this year, Lotus will successively enter major global markets such as Malaysia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, and the number of the company's global retail network is expected to exceed 300 in the next two years.
Summary
Turning back to the industry, at the moment when the process of automobile electrification and intelligence is in full swing, the intensity of competition between car companies has not become lower because of technological breakthroughs, but has intensified, which is obviously a challenge for all players who are still on the field.
It is true that building a car is never an easy task, and it requires companies to take into account both long-term and professional thinking. For Lotus, which has a history of more than 70 years, the listing on the U.S. stock market is actually just a small step in its new journey of globalization. Thankfully, from the introduction of the Vision80 strategy to its current launch on the NASDAQ, Lotus is on the right track. Combined with the further acceleration of product launch and the continuous improvement of the global layout, investors in the secondary market can probably expect Lotus's future transformation path to go faster and more stable.