Swedish electric car manufacturer NEVS, owned by Evergrande, unveiled a “hibernation plan” Monday, announcing that 320 out of a total staff of 340 would lose their jobs.
Photo from CFP
By ZHANG Mingrui
Swedish electric car manufacturer NEVS has announced a plan to sack around 320 workers over the next six months. NEVS is wholly owned by debt-ridden property developer Evergrande.
The company unveiled a “hibernation plan” Monday saying that it would trim 320 employees in the next six months. That’s a pretty deep sleep for a business that currently employs a staff of only 340. In half a year’s time, NEVS will only have 20 staff on the books.
Nina Selander, CEO of NEVS said the decision on the mass dismissal was taken by the company, Evergrande and other investors.
NEVS was founded in April 2012. Four months later, it acquired the assets of Saab Automobile from a bankrupt estate. Evergrande reached out to NEVS in 2018, after the calamitous Faraday Future affair.
At the end of 2017, the healthcare division of Evergrande made a major investment in Faraday Future. By in July, the money — some US$800 million — had disappeared and Evergrande accused Faraday Future's founder and CEO JIA Yueting, of trying to back out of the deal. The developer’s inexplicable shenanigans with the infamous entrepreneur Jia crashed and burned, but the developer had set its sights firmly on the EV market.
In 2019, Evergrande Health, which later became the auto arm of the company, acquired a 51-percent stake in NEVS for US$930 million. A year later, Evergrande poured yet more money in to make NEVS its wholly-owned subsidiary.
NEVS was the ninth company to get a license to manufacture EVs in China. Later Evergrande used the license to produce its Hengchi 5. Even in a company like Evergrande whose recent history is a minefield of appalling fiascos, the Hengchi 5 debacle stands out. Since deliveries began in October last year, only 324 Hengchi 5 have been sold.
Apart from NEVS, Evergrande also owns Protean, an in-wheel motor technology company based in the UK; Dutch electric traction system maker e-Traction and German power assembly company Hofer.
At the time, Evergrande sunk 50 billion yuan into building the EV ecosystem, but with its EV unit collapsing and the company struggling to make ends meet, these other companies may soon find themselves deep in hibernation like NEVS.
