Re: XiaoPeng Auto
Well, Xiaopeng, Guojin, Chehejia -- a lot of them are waiting for EV project approval though Xiaopeng and Guojin are ahead in some respects. Guojin's own plant is ready, Xiaopeng has the 15+ test vehicles (in production guise), so probably it is a question of time. Xiaopeng's contract with Haima is for up to 50,000 vehicles per year, so they will do that at least till the time necessary to ramp up and stabilize their own production processes, obviously after they get the approval.
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On one hand, the thing I find puzzling about the current Chinese auto industry is that whenever there is news of a new company getting into making cars (LSEV, NEV whatever), the media always mention a "production base" that is coming up in that context. On the other hand, perusing production stats, most local manufacturers (barring some large foreign JVs) nowadays seem to be producing far below their installed capacities, sometimes only a few dozen vehicles per month. I wonder why these capacities are not better utilized by teaming up with newcomers, since that would reduce the complexity for the latter of hunting for a license (it can be done at leisure once your contract program is up) and much of the machinery (model-specific tooling aside) is already installed. Of course, sometimes a new manufacturer may like some control over its production processes, costs, and quality, so may not be comfortable with a contracting partner, but otherwise it looks like a win-win situation. Is it the lure of handsome incentives from local governments that causes new auto producers to always insist on setting up a "base"? Running a "base" involves costs too, even if it is not producing anything. Is it to draw financial investors to the table?
