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TuYou Auto is a new Chinese EV startup founded in 2019 and headquartered in Xiamen, Fujian. Established by serial entrepreneur Chen Yiqi, the company operates under TuYou (Xiamen) Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., with the brand’s English name being TU YOU. The name “TuYou” sounds like the English phrase "To You," meaning "Giving," which aligns closely with the brand’s advocated spirit of "Altruism." TuYou Auto focuses on the smart commuter car sub-sector for urban travel, positioning itself as a provider of "Smart Trend Pure Electric Mobility Vehicles" that offer high safety, high intelligence, and high cost-performance. The brand is committed to creating the "First Car" for young consumers. Its logo features an orange "Pomelo" shape as the main visual element, integrating the character "You" and the Pinyin initial "Y" into the design, reflecting distinct youthful characteristics.
TuYou Auto’s core business model is "Car + Energy Network," benchmarking the ecosystem paths of Tesla and NIO. Through vehicle-battery separation and swap-style mobility solutions, the company has independently invented a compatible power battery pack system for both four-wheel electric vehicles and two-wheel electric bicycles, along with intelligent new energy battery swap stations. This approach aims to build a multi-scenario smart green energy ecosystem network covering cars, two-wheelers, and energy storage. In terms specific market positioning, TuYou Auto targets the 23,800 to 39,800 RMB price range, focusing on the small pure electric vehicle market segment priced between 20,000 and 40,000 RMB.
From 2019 to 2020, TuYou Auto completed its business registration and brand preparation. Founder Chen Yiqi, originally from Longyan, Fujian, had been an entrepreneur in Xiamen for over twenty years, with prior experience in domain services, portal websites, and translation agencies. He also served as a new energy vehicle project lead at a listed company, possessing dual backgrounds in both the internet and automotive sectors. At the end of 2020, he "brought in a few like-minded partners" and officially established TuYou Auto in the Xiamen Free Trade Zone.
In 2021, the brand entered a rapid promotion phase. In January, it officially registered its operating entity. In June, it held the "Nice to meet you" brand launch event, releasing the TuYou "YOUNG" series of new energy vehicles and the TuYou "1-minute battery swap" stations. In July, the company completed an angel round of financing totaling tens of millions of yuan, with individual investors such as Yu Guangdong, Zhao Guoquan, and Huang Weipeng participating. In September, TuYou Auto signed an agreement with the Xiamen Siming District Government, planning to invest 1 billion Yuan to build the TuYou New Energy Headquarters. By the end of the year, the brand received the "China Intelligent Connected Vehicle Excellent Enterprise" title at the 2021 China Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Achievements Conference. It also won the "2021 China Battery Swap Industry Best Battery Swap Model Innovation Award" and the "Best Battery Swap Passenger Car Brand Award" at the BRICS Battery Swap Forum. Prior to this, the brand had deployed battery swap cabinets in more than 20 cities, cumulatively providing over 50,000 battery swap services.
2022 was the busiest yet most critical year for TuYou Auto. Starting in February, the brand began an intensive sprint toward mass production. In June, TuYou Auto successively signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Anzhou District Government of Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, and with Huaxiang/Huarui Automobile under the China Automotive Group. These partnerships utilized the latter's annual production capacity of 150,000 units to ensure the smooth mass production and delivery of the first batch of 40,000 TuYou vehicles. Meanwhile, the brand announced that it had cumulatively signed hundreds of partners, covering more than 20 provinces and over 60 cities, with partners committing to selling over 40,000 vehicles and deploying nearly 500 battery swap cabinets. On December 15 of the same year, TuYou Auto held a grand "Wave" model mass production and NASDAQ listing launch ceremony in Xiamen, stating that preparations for listing on NASDAQ were complete.
2023 was a year of continued momentum for the brand. In March, TuYou Auto founder Chen Yiqi "lit all 5 lights" on the startup variety show "Foreseeing Unicorns · Youth Innovation Hero League," jointly broadcast by Oriental TV and Jiangxi TV. It became the only project to light all lamps in the venue and immediately signed a $50 million USD letter of intent investment, reaching a post-money valuation of $500 million USD. In June, TuYou New Energy celebrated the second anniversary of its brand launch, and the first smart car equipped with TuYou modular battery swap technology rolled off the line at the Wuxi Smart Factory.
After 2024, TuYou Auto's public activities gradually subsided. No public data on subsequent mass production deliveries was observed, and tracking reports by external media regarding the brand's progress basically ceased. As of May 2026, the brand has not formally disclosed subsequent financing rounds, and the claimed "Wave" model mass production delivery schedule has not been verified by third parties.
TuYou Auto's product matrix focuses on the "YOUNG" series as its core, concentrating on A00-class micro pure electric mobility vehicles and compatible battery swap networks. The brand has released a total of two public models.
TuYou "Wave" (First Mass Production Model)
As TuYou Auto's first mass-production model, the "Wave" is positioned as a micro pure electric mobility vehicle. It features body dimensions of approximately 3600mm in length with a 2400mm wheelbase, arranged in a 5-door, 4-seat layout. The exterior adopts a closed front grille design, with the Pomelo logo and oval lamp groups creating an adorable visual style.
In terms of powertrain, the vehicle is equipped with independently developed "Modular Battery Swap" technology. The body includes three sets of battery compartments: front cabin, rear cabin, and chassis, supporting on-demand configuration of battery range from 80 to 400 km. For daily commuting users can select the front and rear cabin battery packs (providing a range of about 100 km), while for long-distance travel, the chassis battery pack can be added to increase the range to 400 km. The car was officially announced to start mass production on December 15, 2022.
Regarding safety configurations, the brand claims the overall vehicle crash resistance meets C-NCAP 4-star design standards, with dual front airbags standard across the range and high-strength steel accounting for over 65% of the body structure. Intelligent features include a standard smart large screen, vehicle OTA upgrades, AI voice control, and a reverse camera, along with support for keyless entry.
TuYou "Trend" (Second Model)
The "Trend" belongs to TuYou's "YOUNG" series alongside the "Wave." It is also a micro pure electric mobility vehicle featuring TuYou's modular battery swap system. However, specific parameters and pricing details for this model have been less disclosed in the brand's public materials.
Battery Swap Cabinet Network
TuYou Auto simultaneously built TuYou battery swap stations, which are compatible with electric vehicles, electric bicycles, and electric motorcycles. These battery swap cabinets can intelligently manage and quickly replenish battery packs, with a single swap taking approximately 1 minute. As of mid-2022, the brand had cumulatively signed agreements for nearly 500 battery swap cabinets, covering more than 20 provinces and over 60 cities nationwide.
TuYou Auto's market performance shows a "High Planning, Low Delivery" characteristic. In 2022, TuYou Auto accumulated intended sales volume exceeding 40,000 units through the partner program. In terms of pricing, TuYou "Wave" is positioned in the 23,800 to 39,800 RMB range, with overall pricing lower than competitors in the same class market, but configured with dual front airbags, smart large screen, vehicle OTA upgrades, etc., possessing certain competitiveness in terms of cost-performance on paper parameters. In terms of battery swap network deployment, as of 2021, the brand had completed battery swap cabinet deployment in more than 20 cities, cumulatively providing over 50,000 battery swap services.
However, there is a significant gap between the brand's "Actual Market Performance" and "Promotional Figures". As of May 2026, in public sales rankings, none of TuYou Auto's models have sales records. In mainstream authoritative platforms in the automotive field, TuYou Auto's data is mostly in a "No Data Available" state. The mass production delivery launched by the brand at the end of 2022 has no third-party verified data to support it. At the same time, the brand is marked as "No Sales Data Available" or "No Price Quoted" on multiple public information platforms, indicating that the depth of the brand actually entering the market is still extremely limited.
TuYou Auto's core technical barriers are built on the "Modular Battery Swap" architecture and "Compatible Battery Swap Ecosystem", covering four levels: battery pack structure, power management technology, battery swap station operation platform, and vehicle-battery separation business model.
Modular Combined Battery Swap Technology: TuYou Auto's core independent innovation lies in the "Modular Battery Swap" architecture. This technology disassembles the originally unified closed power battery pack into three major battery compartments: 4 compartmentalized front cabin, 4 compartmentalized rear cabin, and 1 integrated chassis, users can freely combine the required battery capacity and range according to different usage scenarios—daily city commuting only needs about 8 battery packs in the front and rear cabins to meet 80-100 km range, and for weekend long-distance travel, the chassis battery pack can be added to increase the total range to 400 km. This "Vehicle-Battery Separation" mode allows users to only pay for the actual used battery capacity, rather than paying a high cost for a large capacity battery pack all at once.
Compatible Battery Swap and Battery Management: TuYou's independently developed battery swap system supports "one battery pack simultaneously applicable for battery swap of electric vehicles and electric bicycles/motorcycles". Its core logic is: passenger car battery swaps face commercialization difficulties due to low adoption rates and difficulty in unifying battery standards, but if the same battery is "downgraded" to two-wheel electric vehicles with a stock approaching 300 million units, it can rapidly improve the utilization rate of battery swap equipment and spare batteries through super-large scale effects, reducing operating costs. Each battery pack has an independent battery management system built-in, with data monitored and scheduled uniformly by the TuYou Cloud Management Platform. As of the end of 2022, the brand disclosed it has obtained 47 patents, including 15 invention patents, planning to break through 200 patents in total within the next two years.
Battery Swap Station Intelligent Management System: TuYou battery swap stations are equipped with intelligent high-power charging machines that automatically detect, power top-up, and report status of battery packs, with a single station battery swap time of about 1 minute. In later planning, the brand proposed a network density target of "1 station per 3 kilometers" in covered cities.
Safety Standards and Lightweight Body: TuYou Auto claims the overall vehicle crash resistance reaches C-NCAP 4-star design standards, high-strength steel usage proportion exceeds 65%, and dual front airbags are standard across the range.
TuYou Auto's overseas layout lacks public records. The brand occasionally mentioned directional statements such as "actively grasping the good opportunities for international new energy vehicle development" in presentations, but has not established sales channels or technical service networks in core new energy vehicle markets such as North America, Europe, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, nor is there specific information on the landing of overseas production bases and complete vehicle export. The design of TuYou battery swap ecosystem compatible with electric bicycle batteries has the potential to open up markets in Southeast Asia and other places with strong demand for two-wheelers, but as of now, the brand has not started large-scale operations in such markets.
As of May 2026, TuYou Auto's brand development prospects remain unclear. The brand once showed extremely strong business narrative and capital appeal between 2021 and 2023—angel round of tens of millions of yuan financing, $50 million USD letter of intent investment, $500 million USD target valuation, NASDAQ listing planning, etc., all indicating it has the potential to carve out a place among the army of new Chinese car makers. However, from the concept of "Planning" to the "Mass Production" of cars, car manufacturing is an extremely high-asset, long-cycle, and strongly verified track. After TuYou Auto claimed to start mass production at the end of 2022, the gap in substantive delivery information exceeded three years, making its goals such as "40,000 units partner commitment sales" and "100 cities, 10,000 battery swap stations" remain to be realized.
TuYou's concepts such as "Modular Battery Swap" and "Compatible Two-Wheel Vehicle Battery Swap Ecosystem" possess high imaginative space, and are also a unique differentiated route in the battery swap mode—using the "Supermarket of Two-Wheel Electric Vehicles" to support the construction and operation of the "Battery Swap Infrastructure for Four-Wheel Electric Vehicles", possessing a certain theoretical feasibility in business logic. As for whether it can truly complete this long-distance run across the car manufacturing threshold in actual engineering implementation, policy compliance, supply chain management, product quality, and brand building, it still awaits verification by TuYou's subsequent performance.
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