HiPhi and Zotye Launch Comeback Plans—Can They Regain Market Trust?

HiPhi and Zotye have recently sent signals of a potential comeback: HiPhi’s parent company, Human Horizons, has unveiled a restructuring plan proposing to settle debts through a combination of cash and equity while bringing in strategic investors; Zotye, meanwhile, has prepaid hundreds of millions of yuan in debt, restarted R&D hiring, and forecast a significant narrowing of its losses by 2025. Although their approaches differ—HiPhi pursuing judicial restructuring and capital reorganization, while Zotye focusing on debt settlements and asset revitalization—both face core challenges including collapsed brand trust, severe technological lag, and a lack of sustainable revenue-generating capacity. Industry analysts caution that if fresh capital is used merely to repay debts rather than invest in R&D and market rebuilding, their revival will hardly be sustainable. Given today’s fiercely competitive and rapidly evolving automotive landscape, it remains highly uncertain whether either company can carve out a viable path forward through niche markets or contract manufacturing models.