The "Abandoned Project" Situation in the New Energy Sector: A Brutal Settlement Involving Car Owners, Capital, and the Industrial Chain

"Abandoned cars" are becoming an increasingly large and burdensome by - product of China's new energy vehicle industry.

Most of the manufacturers of these vehicles are once - famous new - force brands.

In early 2024, the halt of HiPhi Motors was just the prelude to this in - depth reshuffle. Entering 2025, the industry liquidation suddenly accelerated: Nezha Motors, whose annual sales once exceeded those of "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto", officially entered bankruptcy and reorganization; Hozon Auto, jointly founded by GAC and NIO, also went into de - facto bankruptcy due to business stagnation.

As a result, hundreds of thousands or even millions of sold cars, along with the promised full - life - cycle services behind them, have been stranded. A chain reaction triggered by the collapse of automakers is quietly spreading in the consumer market and the industrial chain.

01 Complete Paralysis from Hardware to Software

For car owners, the business failure of the manufacturer means the immediate nullification of a series of core rights and interests.

This nullification starts with the hardware that constitutes the vehicle's body, manifested in the most basic and fatal paralysis of after - sales maintenance.

Take WM Motor as an example. Its promise of "lifelong vehicle warranty" has been unable to be fulfilled since 2023 due to the large - scale collapse of its service network.

But this is just the beginning of the dilemma.

In 2025, as more brands like Nezha and Hozon Auto fell, the problem became even more intractable.

Car owners of several new energy vehicle companies in business distress told of the after - sales predicament of their vehicles: some couldn't wait for spare parts, and some after - sales repair shops had closed.

"It's no longer a matter of money," an employee of an independent repair station revealed. "Many body structural parts and electronic modules of new - force models are exclusively molded and protocol - encrypted. Once the automaker collapses, the spare - parts supply chain breaks instantly, and our diagnostic equipment can't write data. Without the support of the original factory, once these cars are seriously damaged, they are almost sentenced to death."

This maintenance dilemma quickly spread to the insurance industry. Many insurance companies have quietly included these "abandoned car" brands in the high - risk list.

Due to the uncontrollable cost of replacing spare parts and the inability to determine the repair plan, it is common for the insurance premium to increase significantly during renewal or even be directly rejected for insurance.

Car owners have not only lost the original factory warranty but are also losing the protection of social commercial insurance.

If the hardware paralysis damages the vehicle's body, then the shutdown of software and services is the extraction of the soul of the smart car.

In June 2025, within a few weeks after Nezha Motors filed for bankruptcy, its official App server lost connection and then completely stopped service.

Remote unlocking, starting the air - conditioner, vehicle positioning... These intelligent experiences that have long been integrated into users' habits disappeared overnight.

This reveals the essence of a smart car: what consumers buy is not only a set of hardware but also a ticket for continuous service.

When the company that issued this ticket disappears, what remains in the hands of car owners is an isolated island that cannot grow and whose functions are constantly decaying.

Its core intelligent premium is rapidly evaporating as the background server shuts down, ultimately leaving only a means of transportation with limited functions.

02 Fragile Growth Driven by Financing

Why did these new - force brands once favored by capital decline so intensively?

Reviewing these failed enterprises, a highly similar capital - driven maturation model and its inherent risks can be found.

According to public data statistics, WM Motor raised more than 35 billion yuan in total from Series A to Series D financing, Byton Motor raised about 8.4 billion yuan, and Aiways Automobile also received nearly 10 billion yuan in cumulative financing.

In the early stage of enterprise development, a large amount of these funds was invested in brand marketing, press - conference hype, and sales - channel expansion.

Byton Motor is a typical example. Its core management team came from BMW and Infiniti, with a natural aura. In the four years since its establishment, it became the focus of major international auto shows with its iconic 48 - inch in - car large screen and other designs.

But behind the hype, 8.4 billion yuan in financing was exhausted, and mass production and delivery of core products were not achieved. As reported by the media, its internal operating costs were high, which seriously did not match the actual progress in the production and manufacturing process.

The failure of Nezha Motors is a typical example of the harm caused by strategic vacillation.

It was once the most pragmatic dark horse in the new energy vehicle market, quickly seizing the market with high - cost - performance small cars and even winning the annual sales championship among new - force brands in 2022.

However, in order to get rid of the "cheap" label, Nezha Motors rushed to upgrade its brand after 2023, successively launching the coupe Nezha S and Nezha GT.

This transformation was not successful. Consumers in the high - end market had insufficient brand awareness of it, and the original mass - market users were lost due to resource dispersion and slow model updates.

When the market cooled and financing channels tightened, the sales bubble accumulated through previous financing and low - price strategies quickly burst.

The failure of Hozon Auto is an inevitable result of internal organizational strife. At its birth, Hozon Auto held two good cards: GAC's manufacturing and NIO's software.

But the complex shareholder structure became a constraint on its development instead.

Industry analysts generally believe that Hozon Auto has never been able to solve the problems of internal competition and product homogenization with its shareholder GAC Aion.

Its models highly overlapped with Aion in terms of technical platform and market positioning and were gradually forgotten by consumers in the cracks of market competition.

Whether it is strategic vacillation or internal organizational strife, when the self - "hematopoietic" ability is insufficient, the enterprise's lifeline is completely tied to external financing.

And capital is always profit - seeking and impatient.

03 After the "Fall" of Automakers

A new energy vehicle is composed of tens of thousands of parts, and behind it is connected to a large and precise supply - chain system.

When the core automaker has problems, the pressure will immediately spread upstream.

The most direct impact is the huge bad debts of accounts receivable.

According to the announcements of listed companies, Tianqi Co., Ltd. made a bad - debt provision of 28.82 million yuan in its 2022 financial report due to WM Motor's arrears of about 57.65 million yuan.

Another listed company, KeDa Intelligence, also made a credit - impairment loss provision of tens of millions of yuan due to WM Motor's arrears of payments for its intelligent - equipment business.

These public figures are just the tip of the iceberg.

Among WM Motor's many suppliers, there are also a large number of non - listed small and medium - sized enterprises. For them, a bad debt of a key payment may directly lead to their business difficulties.

This turmoil also affects the downstream dealer network.

Dealers invested a large amount of money in the early stage to establish stores that meet the brand standards and bore the costs of inventory, funds, and personnel.

After the automaker went bankrupt, the inventory cars in their hands quickly depreciated. At the same time, they also had to face the pressure of consumer rights protection and the failure of manufacturer rebates, often ending up in bankruptcy or store closure.

The deeper impact of this series of chain reactions lies in the erosion of industrial confidence.

After several new - force bankruptcy events, the risk - assessment models of supply - chain enterprises and financial institutions will inevitably change when cooperating with other non - leading new - force brands.

Suppliers may require more stringent payment terms, and the credit - granting threshold of financial institutions will also be raised.

This industry - wide risk - aversion sentiment will objectively increase the financial pressure on other mid - tier and lower - tier new - force brands and may accelerate the industry reshuffle process.

From the invalidation of promises at the consumer end, to the model dilemma at the production end, and then to the trust crisis in the industrial chain, after a round of fanatical "god - making" movements, the new energy vehicle industry is being forced to face the risks and costs behind it.

How to provide an effective solution for the aftermath of hundreds of thousands of "abandoned cars" and how to build a healthier industrial development mechanism have become unavoidable issues for the entire industry.

This article is from the WeChat public account "NEXT Trend". Author: Fang Yuan, Editor: Xiao Yu. Republished by 36Kr with permission.