Can the "Automobile Manufacturing Dream Team" Nurture Avita?
Changan Automobile + CATL + Huawei. Avita, supported by this luxurious lineup, is making a bid for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
However, Avita, which was "born with a silver spoon in its mouth," has not yet achieved results commensurate with its status. There is still a significant gap between it and the leading players in terms of both sales volume and brand recognition.
As the competition in China's new energy vehicle market enters the second half, it will place greater emphasis on internal strength and endurance. For Avita to enter the "Million Club," it not only needs continuous strong support from the "Automobile - Making Dream Team" but also needs to secure a financing platform to obtain long - term capital support.
Born with a Silver Spoon
Behind Avita stands a top - tier "Automobile - Making Dream Team." It is a luxury new energy passenger vehicle brand jointly created by Changan Automobile, CATL, and Huawei.
The three powerhouses collaborate with "one team, one goal, and one approach," while leveraging their respective strengths.
Changan Automobile is one of the four major automobile groups in China, with a historical heritage of over 160 years and more than 40 years of automobile - making experience. It has established three major brands: Changan, Deepal, and Avita, and has made remarkable achievements in building self - owned brands. Avita undertakes the mission of Changan Automobile to break into the high - end market in the new energy era.
As the major shareholder, Changan Automobile empowers Avita in intelligent manufacturing, supply chain systems, R & D and testing systems, and channel resources;
CATL is the world's largest energy storage battery manufacturer and has absolute say in the new energy vehicle battery market. As an important shareholder, it fully supports Avita in new energy technology platforms and joint marketing;
Although Huawei does not directly hold shares in Avita, it provides the industry's top - notch intelligent vehicle solutions for Avita through the HI model.
Supported by the "Three Powerhouses," Avita adopts a light - asset operation model and has inherent operational advantages compared to other new energy vehicle peers.
As of the end of June this year, the company had 3,666 employees, of which over 57.1% were engaged in technology and R & D. In less than five years since the brand's launch, it has accumulated 1,326 patents globally, including many related to the cutting - edge fields of new energy vehicles. Its patent application efficiency leads the industry.
Avita was founded in July 2018. In August 2022, it launched its first mass - produced flagship model, the Avita 11, officially debuting in China's new energy vehicle market. In November 2023, September 2024, and April 2025, it successively launched models such as the Avita 12, 07, and 06. All models are available in both pure - electric and range - extended power options, covering the price range of 200,000 - 700,000 yuan.
Many people may not know that Avita was initially founded by Changan Automobile and NIO, with each contributing 49 million yuan. Subsequently, through equity transfers, financing, etc., NIO's stake in Avita continued to decrease. In September this year, NIO completely exited by transferring its stake in Avita for a consideration of 117 million yuan.
Lack of Blockbusters
Avita has received strong support from various capitals during its development. From March 2022 to June 2025, it successively completed strategic to Series C financing. During this period, Changan Automobile increased its capital several times. In total, it raised approximately 16.4 billion yuan from the primary market.
Based on the price of Huzhou Chuangsheng Chiming's transfer of its 0.24% stake in Avita in November this year, the company's latest valuation is approximately 26 billion yuan.
Before the IPO, Changan Automobile is Avita's largest shareholder, holding 40.99%; CATL holds 9.17%, making it the second - largest shareholder; Chongqing Anyu, with the background of Chongqing state - owned assets, is the third - largest shareholder, holding 8.81%. In addition, among Avita's shareholders, Cheng'an Private Equity, South Industries Asset Management, Bank of Communications Investment, Green Fund, etc., all have state - owned asset backgrounds.
Avita's operations are mainly led by Changan Automobile, and most of the core management team comes from Changan Automobile.
Wang Hui, the 44 - year - old chairman, is a "veteran of Changan" with 22 years of service. In September 2022, he was appointed vice - president of Changan Automobile. In September this year, he succeeded Zhu Huarong, the chairman of Changan Automobile, as the chairman and non - executive director of Avita.
Chen Zhuo, 41 years old, is responsible for the company's overall daily business management as the executive director and president. He joined Changan Automobile in 2006 and has served as the general manager of the public relations department and the spokesperson. He joined Avita in February 2023.
Nader Faghihzadeh is the executive vice - president and chief design officer of the company, responsible for Avita's product design, strategy, and brand promotion. He worked at BMW for nearly 20 years, and his last position was creative director, mainly responsible for designing the BMW iNext Vision project, luxury cars, niche market cars, and automotive interiors and exteriors. He joined Avita in March 2019.
Although Avita has a strong background and its products have a "futuristic" design, there is still a significant gap between it and the leading new - energy vehicle startups in terms of market acceptance and brand recognition.
In 2023 and 2024, its product sales were 20,000 and 61,600 respectively, and in the first half of this year, it was 56,700, a year - on - year increase of over 150%.
Since March this year, Avita's monthly sales have exceeded 10,000 for eight consecutive months, and in October, the sales volume reached a record high of 13,500. However, this figure is still not comparable to other leading new - energy vehicle startups, and it lacks blockbuster models to drive the brand and sales.
In the first 10 months of this year, Avita's cumulative sales were 104,200, only achieving 47.4% of the annual sales target of 220,000.
Judging from the vehicle sales data, currently, its main sales model is the Avita 07, and the sales of other models are generally low. In the first half of this year, the average monthly sales of the Avita 11 and 12 were approximately 758 and 1,673 respectively, both showing varying degrees of decline compared to the same period last year.
Deeply Bound to Huawei
As product sales increase, Avita's revenue has also grown rapidly.
The prospectus shows that from 2022 - 2024 and the first half of 2025, the company's operating revenues were 28 million yuan, 5.645 billion yuan, 15.195 billion yuan, and 12.208 billion yuan respectively; the net profits during the same period were - 2.015 billion yuan, - 3.693 billion yuan, - 4.018 billion yuan, and - 1.585 billion yuan respectively, with a total loss of approximately 11.3 billion yuan during the reporting period. It is expected to continue to incur losses throughout 2025.
However, from the prospectus, we can also see a trend of the company's gradually improving business conditions. In 2024, the gross profit margin turned positive to 6.3% and further increased to 10.1% in the first half of this year; the net loss rate also decreased from 65.4% in 2023 to 13.0% in the first half of this year.
To gain an edge in the market competition, Avita must deepen its cooperation with Huawei.
In October this year, after Avita invested 11.5 billion yuan to acquire a 10% stake in Shenzhen Yinwang, a subsidiary of Huawei, there is finally a capital link between the company and Huawei.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November, Avita and Huawei announced the comprehensive deepening of their strategic cooperation. The two sides will jointly promote the upgrade of the HI model to the HI PLUS model, and the scope of cooperation will be further expanded to all fields, including user insights, product definition, product development, integrated marketing, and team building.
Jin Yuzhi, the CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit, said that as the only brand with mass - produced models in Huawei's Qiankun system, Avita's product launch cycle is highly synchronized with the iteration cycle of Huawei's Qiankun ADS assisted driving system. In the future, the latest technologies, including Huawei's Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS high - speed L3 solution and the Hongmeng cockpit L3 with human - like intelligence supported by MoLA, will be mass - produced in Avita models. It is expected that by 2030, Avita and Huawei will jointly launch 17 models, covering sedans, SUVs, MPVs, and other segments.
According to the plan, by 2027, Avita Technology aims to achieve global sales of 400,000 vehicles and annual revenues of 100 billion yuan; by 2030, the target is global sales of 800,000 vehicles; and by 2035, it aims to challenge global sales of 1.5 million vehicles.
Judging from the current competitive environment and the brand's market performance, it is still very difficult for Avita to achieve these ambitious goals.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Banma Consumption” (ID: banmaxiaofei), author: Fan Jian. Republished by 36Kr with permission.