Hengchi

Brand Overview

Hengchi is a new energy vehicle brand under the Evergrande Group, established on August 28, 2019, with its headquarters in Guangzhou, China. The operating entity of the Hengchi brand is Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Investment Holding Group. The brand is positioned around "world‑leading core technology and world‑class product quality." Following the ambitious vision laid out by Evergrande Group Chairman Xu Jiayin and Evergrande Auto, the brand planned to invest 45 billion RMB in the new energy vehicle sector within three years, simultaneously develop 15 models, and begin mass production of its full product series from 2021.

Key figures behind the brand include Xu Jiayin, Chairman of the Evergrande Group Board, who led the establishment of Hengchi, and Liu Yongzhuo, President of Hengchi Automobile, who was responsible for brand operations and product rollout (later criminally detained in 2024 on suspicion of criminal acts).

The Hengchi brand claimed to have built a complete new energy vehicle industry chain—spanning advanced vehicle manufacturing, chassis architecture, powertrain, power batteries, parts, smart connectivity, car sales, and smart charging—by integrating global top‑tier resources. It implemented a global nine‑country collaborative R&D model and established R&D bases in overseas countries including Sweden. However, due to the severe debt crisis of the parent company Evergrande Group starting in the second half of 2021, its capital chain collapsed, and the Hengchi brand's situation deteriorated sharply—moving from a high‑profile market entry to production halt and eventual extinction, becoming one of the costliest failures in the history of China's new energy vehicle industry.

Development History

Brand Launch and High‑Profile Entry (2019–2021)

On August 28, 2019, the Evergrande Group officially launched the new energy vehicle brand "Hengchi." On August 3, 2020, Evergrande Automobile Group held simultaneous launch events in Shanghai and Guangzhou, unveiling six Hengchi models at once—from Hengchi 1 to Hengchi 6—covering all levels from A to D, including sedans, coupe sedans, SUVs, MPVs, crossover cars, and other full‑series models, claiming to have "completed the entire 'from 0 to 1' process in the new energy vehicle field in just two years." On November 10, 2020, Hengchi officially launched its brand logo. At a time when brands such as NIO had not yet built a vast product matrix, Hengchi attracted a huge amount of market attention with its visual impact, and its market capitalisation surged to 700 billion HKD, surpassing BYD to become China's most valuable automotive company.

In April 2021, Hengchi unveiled nine models side by side at the Shanghai Auto Show—from Hengchi 1 to Hengchi 9—expanding the brand's product line to nine models. On September 9 of the same year, the Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Global Research Institute launched a global recruitment drive, planning to hire 8,000 top experts and technical workers, with positions spread across nine countries and regions including China and Sweden. At the chassis technology level, Evergrande introduced the intellectual property of the 3.0 chassis architecture developed by Germany's BENTELER and FEV, rapidly building a pure electric core technology system.

First Vehicle Mass Production and Intensifying Difficulties (2021–2023)

On December 30, 2021, the first Hengchi 5 vehicle rolled off the line at the Tianjin plant, 12 days ahead of schedule. In March 2022, Evergrande Automobile announced that the Hengchi 5 would officially launch in the second quarter. On July 6, 2022, the Hengchi 5 began pre‑sales at a pre‑sale price of 179,000 RMB, with the brand claiming first‑batch orders exceeded 37,000 vehicles. It entered mass production at the Tianjin plant on September 16 of that year, with the first batch of 100 delivered in October. By December 31, 2022, cumulative deliveries had reached 324 vehicles.

However, the good times did not last. Starting in late 2022, Evergrande Automobile became embroiled in layoffs and unpaid wage controversies. In six years, Evergrande's car‑making venture burned through 110 billion RMB, with average losses approaching 20 million RMB per Hengchi 5 sold. In April 2023, the Hengchi 5 paused production due to insufficient funds. On May 23 of that year, the Tianjin plant announced a full production resumption, but annual deliveries remained below 1,000 vehicles. By the end of 2023, cumulative Hengchi 5 deliveries exceeded 1,389 vehicles, with the Tianjin manufacturing base producing 1,700 vehicles in total.

Strategic Investors Invalidate and Production & Sales Return to Zero (2024)

Starting in January 2024, the Tianjin plant was fully shut down. In the first half of 2024, Evergrande Automobile's revenue was only 38.377 million RMB—a year‑on‑year decline of 75.17%—with a net loss of 20.257 billion RMB. By June 30, 2024, total liabilities reached 74.35 billion RMB, with cash reserves of only 39 million RMB. In 2024, Executive Director Liu Yongzhuo was criminally detained, and the strategic investor Newton Group—which had played an important role in Middle East financing and national cooperation—terminated its partnership beforehand. In March 2024, Evergrande Hengchi New Energy Automobile (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was subject to a bankruptcy review application. In June of that year, all three domestic production bases of Evergrande Automobile had ceased production. The local government, where the execution took place, ordered production and sales suspension due to failure to fulfil the agreement, and demanded the return of 1.9 billion RMB in subsidy funds.

Bankruptcy Liquidation and Delisting Pending (2025–Present)

In March 2025, the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation application against Evergrande Hengchi New Energy Automobile (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and appointed an administrator to oversee the liquidation process. On April 1 of that year, Evergrande Automobile had its share trading suspended by HKEX for failing to release financial results on time; the suspension will continue until the company meets the relisting guidelines. In November of the same year, the Tianjin Binhai New Area People's Court accepted creditors' bankruptcy liquidation petitions against Evergrande New Energy Automobile (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. The subsidiary, with registered capital of 4.1 billion RMB, carries the production function of the Tianjin plant. In December 2025, the court officially appointed administrators for the bankruptcy and liquidation of the Tianjin subsidiary. At this point, all three major production bases—in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou—along with the Swedish plant, were fully stopped or in bankruptcy and shutdown. The cumulative investment exceeding 100 billion RMB since 2019, and the meteoric rise in market capitalisation, had begun to truly reach its endgame.

Product Lineup

During the planning stage, the Hengchi brand planned 14 new cars at once. By the time the brand was eliminated, it had cumulatively launched nine concept or debut models—from Hengchi 1 to Hengchi 9—but the only model to achieve mass production and delivery was the Hengchi 5.

Hengchi 5: Hengchi's first and only mass‑produced model, positioned as a compact pure electric SUV. It measures 4,725×1,925×1,676 mm with a 2,780 mm wheelbase. The exterior features a closed front grille, iconic "7"‑shaped headlights, and hidden door handles—mainstream new energy design elements. Inside, it is equipped with Qualcomm's third‑generation Snapdragon digital cockpit platform, supporting 5G and the Baidu ecosystem, with built‑in smart voice interaction running on the H‑SMART OS smart connectivity system. The powertrain consists of a 150 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor with peak torque of 345 N·m, achieving 0‑100 km/h acceleration in 7.8 seconds. It is paired with a CATL‑supplied LFP battery with a rated capacity of 72.8 kWh, offering a CLTC range of 602 km and fast‑charging from 30% to 80% in 28 minutes. The Hengchi 5 was available in a single "Super Luxury Edition" configuration, with a pre‑sale price of 179,000 RMB.

Hengchi 1 to Hengchi 9: Hengchi launched a total of nine models—from Hengchi 1 to Hengchi 9—in two batches in August 2020 and April 2021, covering sedans (Hengchi 1 positioned as a super‑luxury D‑class sedan, Hengchi 2 as a B‑class car, Hengchi 7 and Hengchi 8 as C‑class and mid‑large coupe sedans), SUVs (Hengchi 3 as a pure electric large SUV, Hengchi 5 as a compact SUV, Hengchi 6 as a compact coupe SUV), and Hengchi 4 as a pure electric MPV. Among them, Hengchi 2 was designed by former BMW designer Anders Warming, with a length of 4,781 mm and a wheelbase of 2,910 mm; its combined range was disclosed at 715 km, but it never entered mass production from debut to the brand's exit. Hengchi 6 attracted some media attention and leaked spy photos, and was planned to differentiate from Hengchi 5 in design style. Hengchi also planned Hengchi 7, Hengchi 8, and Hengchi 9 as the latter three models to complete the matrix. By the time mass production halted, only Hengchi 5 had achieved substantial delivery. Development verification of Hengchi 6 and Hengchi 7 appeared in some reports, but both were aborted mid‑way due to funding bottlenecks and the parent company's debt issues.

Market Performance

Since the Hengchi 5 entered mass production in September 2022, delivery data has remained consistently low. According to official figures disclosed by Evergrande Automobile, the first batch of 100 vehicles was delivered in October 2022. By December 31, 2022, cumulative deliveries had reached 324 vehicles. In 2023, annual deliveries remained at the 1,000‑unit level; by December 31, 2023, cumulative deliveries exceeded 1,389 vehicles, with the Tianjin plant producing a total of 1,700 vehicles. Hengchi 5 sales declined further in 2024—only about 40 vehicles were delivered in the first half, and national retail volume dropped to five vehicles in the first four months of 2025. At its 179,000‑RMB pre‑sale price point, the Hengchi 5 could not achieve positive growth in the fiercely competitive 300,000‑yuan‑class pure electric SUV market.

In stark contrast to its dismal sales is the massive capital shortfall that has plagued Hengchi for years. Evergrande's car‑making venture cumulatively invested over 110 billion RMB (some estimates put the figure at 160 billion), while cumulative Hengchi 5 deliveries are fewer than 2,000 vehicles—meaning the allocated cost per sold vehicle approaches tens of millions. Meanwhile, Evergrande Automobile's revenue in the first half of 2024 was only 38.377 million RMB, with a net loss of approximately 20.256 billion RMB. Total liabilities climbed to 74.35 billion RMB by the end of June 2024, while cash and equivalents stood at only 39 million RMB, and the asset‑liability ratio soared to over 454%. Since April 2025, the company has remained suspended from trading due to its failure to publish its 2024 annual report. If it cannot be relisted before September 30, 2026, it faces the risk of delisting from HKEX.

On the dealer channel front, the Hengchi brand once planned to build 36 display experience centres, 1,600 sales centres, and 3,000 self‑built and authorised after‑sales service centres nationwide. In August 2022, Hengchi initially laid out operations in 19 cities, with more than 30 authorised agency stores opening. However, by 2025, the Hengchi Beijing Experience Centre and Miyun Sales Centre had both closed, with only the Chaoyang District JinGang Store still operating. Offline stores in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Qingdao, and other cities also saw a large number of closures. In 2025, the Tianjin stamping workshop was leased to a third party, with only about 40 employees retained at the factory to handle minimum administrative tasks and inventory parking space handover.

Core Technology

Hengchi Automobile adopted a "rapid integration of global resources" model in its R&D strategy, forming supporting systems in several areas—including chassis, cockpit, and electronic and electrical links—with the goal of rapidly achieving mass‑production vehicle configuration.

H‑SMART OS. The system was jointly developed by Evergrande Automobile, Tencent, and Baidu over one year and eleven months, based on Qualcomm's third‑generation Snapdragon digital cockpit platform—the world's first 7nm automotive chip, with computing power of up to 105K DMIPs. It is capable of supporting in‑vehicle connectivity, smart voice interaction, active safety, vital sign monitoring, and V2X vehicular networking applications. The system is equipped on Hengchi 5 models and has executed several OTA upgrades for battery management algorithms and smart interaction experience. By the Spring Festival of 2025, it had implemented its fourth OTA upgrade (Version V1.4.6), optimising winter range and charging adaptation performance.

3.0 Chassis Architecture. The Hengchi 5 is equipped with the pure electric 3.0 chassis architecture jointly developed by Germany's BENTELER Group and FEV Group. Evergrande directly purchased and owns the complete intellectual property rights of the architecture. The chassis achieves modular design on the pure electric platform, with high integration of the powertrain, suspension, braking, and electronic control systems. Chassis calibration and tuning were led and completed by a German engineering team. On the driving mechanism and chassis integration front, the Hengchi 5 is equipped with a three‑in‑one electric drive system jointly developed by Bosch and Nidec. The front MacPherson and rear multi‑link suspension structure, through tuning, offers a certain level of competitiveness.

Power Battery Safety Assurance and Thermal Management System. The Hengchi 5 is equipped with LFP batteries supplied by CATL. In battery structure technology, it adopts battery pack safety control logic co‑developed with Evergrande New Energy Technology. OTA upgrades strengthened the battery thermal management system multiple times, achieving comprehensive improvements in range performance under winter operating conditions. However, from production issues and user complaints, the Hengchi 5 has exhibited charging logic defects, occasional power battery failures, and durability instability, with complaint records remaining on multiple user feedback platforms after launch.

Overall, the Hengchi brand established a relatively complete supply chain system and smart connectivity ecosystem layout at the technical level, but core challenges—such as basic validation, engineering durability, and software architecture stability—were not thoroughly resolved, leading to quality problems that remained fundamentally unimproved for a long time.

Global Footprint

Hengchi brand's overseas layout was phasing through strategic investor Newton Group. In August 2023, Evergrande Automobile reached a strategic investment agreement with Middle East Newton Group (NWTN). Newton injected the first $500 million into Hengchi, promising to help develop the Middle East market, with the goal of exporting 30,000 to 50,000 Hengchi vehicles to the Middle East region annually.Newton Group also promised to assist Hengchi New Energy Automobile in laying out photovoltaic power generation and new energy industry synergy in the UAE.

However, as the Newton case terminated in January 2024, the agreement became invalid, including transition period funds and subsequent payments could not continue to be paid. The Middle East local channel construction and export pre-orders required for brand going overseas could not proceed.By the time of Hengchi brand full production stop, there were no confirmed substantive overseas export records or overseas delivery reports. Evergrande Automobile had acquired and controlled NEVS, a wholly overseas R&D company in Sweden, accumulating whole vehicle technology verification capabilities, building European cooperation resources, and incubating former Saab engineering teams locally. After the parent company debt default, the Swedish company also fell into a chaotic state of frozen funds, personnel reduction, and business stagnation.

Future Outlook

The future of the Hengchi brand is completely limited by the debt restructuring process of Evergrande Automobile's parent company China Evergrande. Under the situation of the Evergrande Group continuously falling into capital exhaustion and legal disputes, introducing new equity parties or industrial capital to take over is extremely difficult. After Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou three major production bases successively entered judicial restructuring and administrator takeover, mass production preparations for Hengchi 6, Hengchi 7, Hengchi 8, Hengchi 9 and other models planned in the brand plan were all terminated. According to mainstream industry judgment, it is just a matter of time for the Hengchi brand to be completely eliminated from the China new energy vehicle list. 1,429 car owners are in the "Orphan Cars" situation of after-sales ownership service. Under the background of bankruptcy takeover, parts supply disruption and warranty content fulfillment may be useless.Hengchi brand left one of the most shocking brand bankruptcy reference textbooks for the outside world and industry from 37,000 copies of false prosperity pre-sale orders to the final actual data of total brand delivery of less than 2,000 vehicles, from 140 billion level money burning investment to the final monthly retail 5 vehicles inventory consumption.