Zhidar Technology, the first company in the home charging sector, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and soared 192% on its first trading day.
On October 10, almost all mainland Chinese technology stocks listed in Hong Kong ended in the red. Amid the sea of losses, the only bright spot was ZHIDA Technology, the first Chinese home charging pile company to be listed on that day.
ZHIDA Technology submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange three times and finally got listed on October 10. It soared 183.92% at the opening. As of the close, it was reported at HK$195.5, up 192.14% from the offer price of HK$66.92. Its market value reached HK$11.689 billion.
ZHIDA Technology is a relatively unique provider of home charging pile solutions for electric vehicles in China, holding the top market share in its market. It not only provides charging pile equipment but also offers services such as installation and a digital platform. It also provides digital energy management around the home charging scenario. In addition, it has "cutting - edge technology" - it has developed an automatic charging robot.
Regrettably, ZHIDA Technology is still on the way to seek profitability.
ZHIDA Technology "showed its cards" in the prospectus, stating that "we are strategically reducing prices to expand our market share and maintain our leading position."
"Once the competitive landscape stabilizes, we will focus on improving the gross profit margin." In addition, pinning hopes on the optimization of the domestic electric vehicle supply - chain competitive landscape, innovative marketing, overseas markets, and technological products, ZHIDA Technology hopes to achieve profitability.
The Leader in Home Charging
For the new energy vehicle and charging industries, ZHIDA Technology initially impressed people as a home charging service provider for Tesla.
Indeed, founded in 2010, ZHIDA Technology started with home charging pile installation services.
The story originated in Shaxian County, Sanming City, Fujian Province, the birthplace of "Shaxian Snacks".
In 1993, the top science student in the college entrance examination from Shaxian No. 1 High School was admitted to the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai. He is Huang Zhiming, the founder of ZHIDA Technology.
Huang Zhiming speaking at the listing ceremony
After graduating from the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University, Huang Zhiming worked at SAIC Volkswagen for 12 years.
In 2010, Huang Zhiming founded Shanghai ZHIDA Technology Development Co., Ltd., targeting the charging pile industry that was hardly noticed at that time.
At that time, the Chinese new energy vehicle market was basically in the demonstration and pilot operation stage. The private consumer market had not yet started, and there was no charging pile market either.
Since 2014, Tesla entered China and needed local installation service providers. Huang Zhiming seized the opportunity and became one of the first and the most important home charging service providers for Tesla.
Later, as the Chinese new energy vehicle market started and expanded, ZHIDA Technology gradually expanded its business territory. It not only provides installation services but also produces and sells home charging pile equipment. It also offers a service platform, is slightly involved in community charging, and provides an energy management solution of photovoltaic + charging around home charging.
ZHIDA Technology and its shareholder Zhongding jointly built a charging pile production factory
Its business form and customers have also been constantly changing.
Providing home charging piles and installation services for car - makers is still the main business. However, the customers have become the major players in the Chinese new energy vehicle market. BYD is not only one of its largest customers but also its shareholder.
Not only BYD, among the top ten Chinese automobile manufacturers in terms of electric vehicle sales in 2024, ZHIDA Technology provides charging piles, accessories, or services for seven of them. As Chinese new energy vehicles go global, ZHIDA Technology also provides charging piles and installation services for them overseas.
In addition, as some car - makers stop offering free charging piles and installation services, ZHIDA Technology also sells charging piles and installation services directly to consumers. On e - commerce platforms, ZHIDA Technology is one of the top three brands in charging pile sales.
In addition, ZHIDA Technology has also built some community charging projects, sold home energy management solutions, and developed automatic charging robots, etc.
ZHIDA Technology's home energy management solution
So far, ZHIDA Technology has become the leader in this niche market. Its prospectus states that since 2022, in terms of the cumulative sales volume and sales revenue of Chinese home electric vehicle charging piles, ZHIDA Technology ranks first, with a market share of about 13.6% and 10.3% respectively. In terms of the global home electric vehicle charging pile sales volume in 2024, ZHIDA Technology ranks fifth, with a market share of about 3.9%. In terms of the Chinese home electric vehicle charging pile sales volume in 2024, ZHIDA Technology ranks third, with a market share of about 6.6%.
Accumulatively, ZHIDA Technology has delivered 1.3 million electric vehicle charging piles and completed 1.3 million installation and after - sales service jobs.
From 2022 to 2024, ZHIDA Technology's revenues were 697 million yuan, 671 million yuan, and 593 million yuan respectively.
Judging from the rankings and revenues, why has ZHIDA Technology shown a downward trend?
Even the Leader Faces Difficulties
In the home charging pile market, car - makers basically rely on third - parties to provide charging equipment and installation services.
However, in this market, price competition is quite fierce, the customer recognition of product differences is low, and the competitive barriers are also low.
According to the prospectus, the average selling price of ZHIDA Technology's charging piles in 2022, 2023, 2024, and as of the first quarter of 2025, when selling electric vehicle charging piles to automobile manufacturers, the average selling prices were 711.6 yuan, 839.1 yuan, 697.9 yuan, and 721.9 yuan respectively.
This situation is compounded by ZHIDA Technology's over - dependence on its major customer, BYD.
In the prospectus, ZHIDA Technology disclosed that in 2022, 2023, 2024, and as of the first quarter of 2025, the revenue from "Customer B" accounted for about 38.3%, 32.0%, 25.0%, and 17.0% of the total revenue in the same period respectively.
In mid - 2023, with the intensification of price competition, ZHIDA Technology failed to win the bid from Customer B, resulting in the sales volume of electric vehicle charging piles sold to Customer B dropping from 85,000 units in 2023 to 2,706 units in 2024 and dropping to 0 units as of the first quarter of 2025. The revenues from Customer B were 214 million yuan, 148 million yuan, and 36.9 million yuan respectively, accounting for 32.0%, 25.0%, and 17.0% of the revenue respectively.
This largely explains the decline in ZHIDA Technology's revenue.
At the same time, although the gross profit margin is close to 20%, due to relatively high operating expenses, ZHIDA Technology's profitability is also very poor.
"We have been operating since 2010 and have been in a loss - making state." The prospectus says that ZHIDA Technology had net losses of 25.1 million yuan, 58.1 million yuan, and 235 million yuan in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively.
Where is the solution?
First of all, it has to fight. ZHIDA Technology stated in the prospectus that it is also reducing prices to expand market share and maintain its leading position. It hopes to focus on improving the gross profit margin after the competitive landscape stabilizes.
In terms of customers, ZHIDA Technology hopes to get rid of its dependence on car - makers and increase the proportion of direct - to - customer retail. Although there is also price competition in this market, the overall price is still higher than that of products sold to car - makers. In the first quarter of 2025, ZHIDA Technology retailed 40,200 charging piles, a significant increase of 4.36 times compared with the same period last year.
When searching for charging piles on Tmall, ZHIDA's products rank at the top
In 2024, ZHIDA Technology's retail business revenue reached 75.2 million yuan, accounting for 12.7% of the total revenue.
Given the relatively high retail profit margin and profitability, this part of the revenue will also improve the overall profitability.
Secondly, ZHIDA is researching and developing high - gross - profit - margin products. One of the symbols is the automatic charging robot - the gross profit margin can reach 30%.
ZHIDA Technology launched its first electric vehicle charging robot product in October 2023, and the revenue generated from it in 2024 was 4.1 million yuan. In the first quarter of 2025, ZHIDA Technology delivered 10 electric vehicle charging robots, and the revenue generated in the same period was 1.9 million yuan. The average selling price of the charging robot is about 188,200 yuan.
The automatic charging robots of Geely ZEEKR mainly come from ZHIDA.
Thirdly, ZHIDA Technology is also actively expanding its international business. Its products and services cover 22 countries. In Thailand and Brazil, two rapidly growing electric vehicle markets outside China, ZHIDA Technology is one of the first and well - recognized providers. ZHIDA Technology has also built and put into operation a factory in Thailand and is building a joint - venture factory in Saudi Arabia.
ZHIDA Technology's Thai factory has been put into operation
Since the average selling price of charging piles in overseas markets is generally higher than that in China, it will contribute higher profits.
In addition, ZHIDA Technology also hopes to effectively manage sales costs and reduce operating expenses to improve the overall profitability.
The reasons for the difficulty in making profits are due to both ZHIDA Technology's own problems and the common problems in the industry. In addition to the price war mentioned above, there is also the problem of payment terms.
ZHIDA Technology said that in 2022, 2023, 2024, and as of the first quarter of 2025, the average trade receivables turnover days were 194 days, 248 days, 231 days, and 163 days respectively.
ZHIDA Technology described the 163 days in this quarter as an "improvement".
During ZHIDA Technology's pursuit of listing, the Chinese automobile regulatory authorities were also addressing the issue of payment arrears.
After the State Council revised the "Regulations on Ensuring the Payment of Accounts to Small and Medium - Sized Enterprises", major car - makers have promised their suppliers that the payment terms will not exceed 60 days.
If the excessive price competition and long - term payment arrears in the Chinese automobile industry can be improved, it will also be a great help for ZHIDA Technology to achieve profitability.
This will also be a good thing for the new energy vehicle industry. After all, if even the leader in the home charging pile industry cannot make a profit, how can it provide positive support for the whole vehicle?
This article is from the WeChat official account "Cyber - car" (ID: Cyber - car), author: Qiu Kaijun, editor: Zhang Lianyi, published by 36Kr with authorization.