NIOA Auto's Nanning Plant Equipment Seized in Judicial Auction, State Investment Unrecoverable

On July 27, 2025, the Qingxiu District People’s Court of Nanning City publicly auctioned 467 pieces of whole-vehicle manufacturing equipment from NETA Auto’s Nanning production base on Alibaba’s Judicial Auction platform. Both the appraised value and the starting bid were set at RMB 60.3079 million. The equipment belongs to two Nanning-based project companies under Hozon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., located at the Changlong Road factory within the Lingli Industrial Park, and includes supporting facilities for vehicle manufacturing such as stamping production lines, assembly robotic arms, and whole-vehicle inspection lines. This auction stems from multiple debt enforcement cases, including a local Nanning company’s application to enforce a claim of over RMB 45.68 million arising from a sales contract dispute, and an outstanding claim of nearly RMB 1.3 billion owed to Nanning Industrial Investment Group following its successful litigation over a factory lease dispute. Consequently, the court seized and is disposing of the relevant equipment to repay these debts. In 2019, Hozon New Energy entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Nanning municipal government to establish NETA Auto’s Nanning production base. The project had a planned total investment of RMB 3.5 billion, supported by local state-owned capital through land provision, financial backing, and a special subsidy of RMB 550 million, with cumulative equity investments reaching RMB 2.4 billion. The facility, designed with an annual production capacity of 100,000 battery electric vehicles, was completed and began operations by the end of 2021. NETA Auto once led sales among Chinese EV startups, surpassing rivals like NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng at its peak. However, its sales have continuously declined since 2023, dropping to just over 100 units per month by early 2025. From 2021 to 2023, the company reported cumulative losses exceeding RMB 18.3 billion. In June 2025, Hozon New Energy initiated bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, with creditors filing claims totaling RMB 265.8 billion. All three of its major production bases—in Tongxiang, Yichun, and Nanning—have since ceased operations.