The Thai Past of an Executive from a New Energy Vehicle Company

Chen Yinbin, the former deputy general manager of Nezha Auto's Thai branch, showed strong disappointment and unwillingness at the bankruptcy of Nezha Auto.

He joined Nezha Auto on May 14, 2018, and was a veteran employee. Strictly speaking, Chen Yinbin joined "Zhejiang Hezhong New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd." at that time. One month later, Hezhong Auto launched the "Nezha Auto" brand. So during communication, he often mixed up the names "Nezha" and "Hezhong".

For this reason, Chen Yinbin showed a complex emotion towards Nezha Auto. He understood the problems of Nezha Auto, but also hoped that this brand could return to the market.

In his opinion, at least in terms of products, Nezha Auto is not of poor quality.

Looking at its development history, the story of Nezha Auto is very classic: "Making a splash - Performance growth - Sales decline - Expanding losses - Insolvency - Declaring bankruptcy", so classic that it's even a bit clichéd. And the business of Nezha Auto's Thai branch added a bit of drama to this clichéd plot.

In 2024, Nezha Auto had a serious sales decline in the Chinese market. But in Thailand, Nezha Auto had nearly 50 offline stores, ranking third in the new - energy market in terms of sales, leaving Tesla behind. It also set up three battery centers to provide battery maintenance services for customers.

When the headquarters was in crisis, Chen Yinbin and his colleagues at the Thai branch spent 8 months "putting up a last - ditch resistance". At that time, he once dreamed of stabilizing the excellent revenue performance of the Thai branch to "transfuse blood" to the headquarters to help it get through the crisis. After his hope was dashed, he was also determined to stand guard until the last moment of Nezha Auto's Thai branch.

However, this somewhat tragic wish ultimately failed to come true.

1. Leaving

When leaving Nezha Auto's office in Bangkok, Thailand, Chen Yinbin didn't take his office computer with him.

June 13, 2025, was a Friday. The weather in Bangkok was humid and sweltering, with the temperature as high as 35 degrees Celsius, and it was drizzling. It was quite fitting to leave the job in such weather.

Looking around, it was still the same as when Chen Yinbin came to Thailand 3 years ago. In the beginning, Chen Yinbin always heard good news in the office.

Nezha Auto's Thai branch was established in 2022 and was the first Chinese new - force car company to enter the Southeast Asian market, without a doubt. That year was also the year when Nezha Auto had the best sales, reaching 152,000 vehicles. At that time, Li Auto's annual sales were 133,000 vehicles, and Leapmotor's were only 111,000 vehicles.

Over the past 3 years, the Thai branch has been an important enclave in Nezha Auto's overseas market. Public data shows that in 2024, Nezha Auto sold 7,969 vehicles in Thailand, with the main models being Nezha V and Nezha X, and the price range was about 700,000 - 800,000 Thai baht per vehicle (about 140,000 - 160,000 RMB). If estimated at an average price of 150,000 RMB per vehicle, the sales revenue in the Thai market in 2024 was about 1.2 billion RMB.

1.2 billion RMB is enough for a car company to build a new integrated die - casting factory; or hire 10,000 employees with a monthly salary of 10,000 RMB to work for the company for a year. And at its largest scale, Nezha Auto had only more than 5,000 employees.

But the situation suddenly changed in October 2024.

As one of the important decision - makers of Nezha Auto's Thai branch, in the past year, Chen Yinbin shared Nezha Auto's ups and downs with the headquarters thousands of miles away in this office several times.

Bad news always came from China.

Starting in October 2024, domestic media reported rumors that Nezha Auto was in "bankruptcy", "closure", "layoffs", and "shutdown of production". By March 2025, Nezha Auto even said that it might "stop making cars" in the future and transform into a "car service provider" similar to IBM.

From time to time, the media would ask Chen Yinbin, worried that the situation of Nezha Auto's headquarters in China would affect the business of the Thai branch and his own situation.

At that time, due to the optimistic revenue situation of the Thai branch, Chen Yinbin always optimistically believed that Nezha Auto had not reached a dead end.

In April 2025, he responded to the media: "The foundation of the Thai market is very good. The claim of not making cars is a misinterpretation. We will continue to make cars."

In mid - May 2025, when the news came that a supplier proposed a bankruptcy review of Nezha Auto, Chen Yinbin's belief wavered, but he still believed that Nezha Auto would continue to operate in another mode. He said: "We are considering various possibilities. Maybe Nezha Auto will become the Transsion Mobile of the automotive industry."

Two weeks later, when asked about his work again, Chen Yinbin only left a sentence: "Still holding on. Thank you for your concern."

The view outside the window of Nezha Auto's Thai branch taken by Chen Yinbin before leaving  Source: Provided by the interviewee

Chen Yinbin once said that he would stand his last watch in Thailand, meaning that if Nezha Auto announced its closure, he was willing to be the last one to leave. But for various reasons, Chen Yinbin failed to be the last one to stay.

In fact, Chen Yinbin was one of the last departing executives who held on until the end at the Thai branch.

In the last few weeks of Nezha Auto, Chen Yinbin was almost fighting alone. At that time, Zhang Panpeng, the general manager of Nezha Auto's Indonesian company, and Zhou Jiang, the president of Nezha Auto's overseas business department, had already left. Chen Yinbin even couldn't find anyone to report to.

A few days later, Chen Yinbin decided to leave. Even though the "overseas enclave" of the Thai branch had a quite good market performance, it still couldn't save Nezha Auto.

After Chen Yinbin left, the employees of Nezha Auto's Thai branch also left one after another. A senior Chinese employee stayed at the Thai branch. Since he had no financial pressure, he chose to stay at Nezha Auto's Thai branch to handle the aftermath.

Unfortunately, even the ending didn't have a complete full - stop.

"I thought the company would have a result in June, whether it was to announce complete bankruptcy or really have new funds in place. But I never waited for that result." Chen Yinbin said.

Legally speaking, the Thai branch is still in operation, but it's more like a name in existence. When the building was about to collapse, whether it was the Thai branch, which was an important overseas enclave for the company, or employees like Chen Yinbin, who held on to the belief that they could save the company in a critical situation, their situations were like a domino in a domino - card array. Even if they were standing firmly themselves, they couldn't resist the overall collapse and couldn't stay out of it.

Without the supply of cars, parts, and personnel from the domestic headquarters, the previously well - managed Thai branch of Nezha Auto withered suddenly. It could no longer sell or deliver any vehicles. All it could do was use the spare - parts inventory to provide after - sales services for 25,000 Thai car owners.

On the day he left, Chen Yinbin decided to tell his still - employed colleagues that he would go back to China to accompany his family on the weekend. As the deputy general manager of Nezha Auto's Thai branch, Chen Yinbin instinctively didn't want the news of his departure to alarm his colleagues.

All along, at Nezha Auto's Thai branch, Chinese employees basically had a chance to go back to China once a month. Thanks to its human - oriented management style, Chen Yinbin found a good way to delay the news of his departure.

However, Chen Yinbin couldn't just leave without saying goodbye to the group of colleagues he was in closest contact with - it would inevitably cause emotional harm to everyone. So, he told the truth to the colleagues in the marketing department of the Thai branch and hoped that they would keep it a secret for him for the time being.

9 days later, when the news of his departure was already public, Chen Yinbin posted a WeChat Moments post, roughly reviewing his 2,594 days of work at Nezha Auto with 9 photos.

2. Saving

Now, when talking about the past when he first arrived in Thailand, Chen Yinbin still can't hide the high - spiritedness in his tone.

On June 2, 2024, when Chen Yinbin officially joined Nezha Auto's Thai branch, it was just before the launch of Nezha X in Thailand. Chen Yinbin began to figure out how to make this car a big hit.

The launch of Nezha X in Thailand. Chen Yinbin is the sixth from the left in the back row  Source: Provided by the interviewee

June and July are the middle of the rainy season in Thailand. And compared with the previous year, the rainfall in July 2024 increased. According to the data of the Thai Meteorological Department, at that time, the precipitation in northern and northeastern Thailand exceeded the annual average several times, and there were short - term flash floods in some areas.

Chen Yinbin's feeling was more specific. He said: "The rainy season in Thailand is very long, and the infrastructure is very poor. Many places will be waterlogged as soon as it rains."

Urban waterlogging means cars will be soaked and break down, which is not what people want to see. But Chen Yinbin and his colleagues noticed that this was an excellent opportunity for Nezha Auto to show the waterproof ability of its battery and electrical systems.

"We were thinking at that time whether we should do a live - streaming of soaking the car. Put the car in a pool until the battery was submerged and keep it there until the end of the press conference. During this period, the car's infotainment system and audio system should be on, just to let consumers see that we are very confident in our products." Chen Yinbin said.

Finally, that Nezha X stood still in a pool with a water depth of 50 centimeters for 40 hours without any problems.

This was the first marketing project Chen Yinbin carried out after joining the Thai branch, and the result made him very satisfied. Data shows that within 72 hours after the launch of Nezha X, it received more than 1,000 orders. As of October 2024, three months after the overseas launch of Nezha X, the total number of global orders had exceeded 7,000.

He was 42 years old that year. Through his own efforts, he gradually reached a management position and was about to lead the team to help a young brand gain a foothold in a strange country and achieve great success.

In 2024, Nezha Auto had nearly 50 offline stores in Thailand and sold nearly 8,000 cars throughout the year. Except for BYD and MG, Nezha Auto was the brand with the highest sales of new - energy vehicles in Thailand. That year, Tesla only sold 4,121 vehicles, and Wuling, known as the national divine car, only sold 711 vehicles.

Comparison of new - energy vehicle sales in Thailand in 2024  Source: Thai automotive news website Autolifethailand

Chen Yinbin himself also said that he was full of ambition at that time. Nezha Auto was well - positioned in Thailand, had a good reputation, and good quality. It seemed that everything was going smoothly and full of hope for him to show his talents.

It's just a pity that when Nezha Auto was booming in the Thai market, Chen Yinbin didn't realize that Nezha was actually heading for a dead end in the Chinese market.

Even though he was optimistic before, when Chen Yinbin received the message that his salary had been credited to his account in October 2024, he realized something was wrong. He only received half of his salary, while Thai employees still received their full salaries, which gave him some bad premonitions.

At the same time, news spread that Nezha Auto was implementing large - scale salary cuts and layoffs in the Chinese market. According to Securities Times, a netizen certified as a "Nezha Auto employee" on a third - party platform said at that time, "Nezha Auto can't pay its employees' salaries and owes a lot of money to suppliers", and advised everyone to "be cautious when buying Nezha cars".

The Nezha Auto factory in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, stopped production in October 2024, and the painting, welding, and assembly workshops were all shut down. At the same time, situations such as suppliers chasing debts and equity freezes were also endless.

Jazi Guangnian also wrote in the article "Exclusive: The Forgotten 400 - million - yuan Compensation and 3,000 Separation Agreements of Nezha Auto | Jazi Guangnian" that from November to the end of December 2024, Nezha Auto laid off more than 3,000 people through negotiated separations.

When the news reached Thailand, the Chinese management of the Thai branch of Nezha Auto held an emergency meeting. On the one hand, they got together to confirm the situation, and on the other hand, they discussed countermeasures.

"Thais have a strong pursuit of job stability. They are very sensitive to any sign of trouble. The purpose of our meeting was to determine a plan to comfort the employees." Chen Yinbin said.

After the meeting, his plan was straightforward: tell the employees that the Thai branch had a lot of money and wouldn't go bankrupt. When using these words to comfort the employees, Chen Yinbin was sincere because he really believed that everything would get better.

From his perspective, there was no reason to believe that everything couldn't be saved. At least the Thai branch had good performance and was fully capable of maintaining normal operations and even "transfusing blood" to the headquarters.

"We had a lot of money in the account at that time. The headquarters was constantly withdrawing money from the account. We calculated that even if we used the money in the Thai branch's account, it was enough to pay the salaries of all employees and could last for some time." Chen Yinbin recalled.

But things didn't develop as he imagined. The money withdrawn from the Thai branch's account wasn't used to pay employees' salaries. Until now, Nezha still owes a lot of compensation to many employees.

"Later, I realized that the problems the company faced were much bigger than we thought." Chen Yinbin sighed.

In March 20