Neves said, "We are communicating and negotiating with the corresponding trade unions to provide support and legal advice to all our employees, and this process will be carried out in the next six months". Nina Selander, interim CEO of NEVS, said that it is very helpless for the company to enter the "hibernation plan", which means that we will be forced to reduce all costs and suffer layoffs in all areas of the company.
According to the data, the predecessor of NEVS, Saab, was born out of the national military aircraft manufacturing enterprise. After the end of World War II, Saab turned to automobile production, and the background of aviation industry made Saab have a unique technical advantage in automobile production. SAAB Company was formed by the merger of Scania Company and Swedish Aircraft Co., Ltd. The original aircraft company was abbreviated as Saab in Swedish and was later used as the logo of the company's car.
Saab is famous for its strong power and excellent safety performance, and is known as a land aircraft that "integrates people and vehicles and flies close to the ground". In the early years, Saab won more than 1000 events, including about 100 international champions.
Too much pursuit of technology and safety has led to high production costs of Saab, and the business operation has been in crisis for many times. 1990, General Motors of the United States acquired 50% shares of Saab and became the largest controlling shareholder. In 2000, General Motors acquired Saab Automobile Company in an all-round way, and launched the new Saab icon in August of that year. After GM was wholly-owned, many China enterprises tried to buy Saab, but all failed, because GM refused to export Saab's core technology to China.
20 10 general motors sold Saab to Spyker in the Netherlands for $400 million, and Saab officially changed hands. Two years later, NEVS, a global electric vehicle company headquartered in Sweden, successfully acquired Saab's core assets and intellectual property rights, and inherited all Saab's intellectual property rights and technology patents.
NEVS was founded in April 20 12, and it is a company specially established to acquire Swedish Saab automobile technology and assets. Therefore, NEVS can be said to be both the predecessor of Saab and the parent company of Saab. After five years of upgrading and industry layout, NEVS has quickly become a leader in the new energy vehicle industry, with the world's top Swedish R&D center for electric smart vehicles and a global R&D team of more than 500 people.
On October 20 17 1 month, NEVS obtained the production qualification of pure electric passenger cars through its subsidiary Guoneng New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. In the same year, NEVS launched the concept production model 9-3 pure electric car and 9-3X pure electric SUV. Two years later, in 2065438+2009, 1 month, Evergrande announced that it had acquired +0% equity of NEVS 5 1% through the acquisition of MiniMinor Limited. This is another major layout of Evergrande in the field of car-making after its shareholding in China Automobile, the world's largest automobile dealer, which caused a great sensation in the industry.
After that, MiniMinor continued to subscribe for NEVS shares until June 10, and MiniMinor owned 82.4% of NEVS shares. In June, 2020, Evergrande announced that it would spend 379.5 million US dollars to acquire 7.6% shares of NEVS/KLOC-0. After the acquisition is completed, NEVS will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of MiniMinor, and Evergrande Automobile will have a controlling stake of NEVS 100%.
2065438+In June 2009, Evergrande New Energy Automobile Group announced the mass production of its first model, Guoneng 93. According to reports, Guoneng 93 is a pure electric vehicle based on Swedish Saab Phoenix E platform and Saab technology. Before Evergrande entered the company, NEVS had completed the research and development of this car. Evergrande Automobile said that, strictly speaking, Guoneng 93 is not the first "Evergrande-made" new energy vehicle, but its mass production off-line is still a milestone, which indicates that Evergrande's domestic production line also has the capacity for mass production.
Two months later, in August of 20 19, Evergrande officially released its brand of new energy vehicles-Hengchi, and in August of 2020, it unveiled six new cars of the brand, including Hengchi 1, Hengchi 2, Hengchi 3, Hengchi 4, Hengchi 5 and Hengchi 6. Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande Group, said that it will take three to five years to become the largest and most powerful new energy automobile group in the world. As for Guoneng Automobile, it seems that it has been stillborn.
Later, China Evergrande was in debt, and NEVS began to look for a new owner. In August of 20021year, NEVS issued a notice of layoffs to about 650 employees, nearly half of whom will be dismissed. Stefan Tilk, then CEO, added: "If NEVS survives the crisis, it may recruit employees again to match Evergrande's plan to expand its business in Europe."
According to European media reports, China Evergrande is considering selling its own new energy vehicles. In this regard, Stefan Tilk, CEO of NEVS, told the outside world that the company is open to selling or other financing, and is currently looking for investors in the United States and Europe, including industrial partners and venture capital companies that are interested in the brand.
At present, China Evergrande is handling more than $300 billion in default debts. Evergrande not only failed to pay the interest on three rounds of international bonds on time, but also raised cash through a series of asset sales. However, according to the available information, the shares held by China Evergrande in NEVS have not yet been sold. The company has announced the launch of "Hibernation Plan" to cut costs and avoid bankruptcy, but after the layoffs, there will only be more than 20 employees. According to the memorandum, if NEVS has no new investors or is sold in the future, Evergrande is providing NEVS with a "new business direction", but it does not mention what the new business will include.
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