The story
In February 2013, Kandi Technology and Shanghai Maple, a subsidiary of Geely, announced the formation of a joint venture, Zhejiang Kandi Electric Vehicles Investment Co. Ltd., with equal ownership and an initial registered capital of 1 billion yuan (US$160 million). It focused on research, development, production, marketing, and sales of electric vehicles in mainland China. The agreement was officially signed on March 22, 2013.
Chairman of GeelyAuto, Li Shufu served as the joint venture's first Chairman, while Hu Xiaoming, Chairman and CEO of Kandi, was appointed General Manager.
In 2016, Geely Auto sold its stake in the joint venture to Geely Holding Group, which Li Shufu controls.
Kandi has also partnered with Geely to sell electric vehicles under the Gleagle brand. The partnership resulted in the development of the EX3 model, with Geely providing design input and Kandi handling manufacturing.
EV Car Share
In July 2012, Kandi Technology signed a cooperation agreement with the city of Hangzhou to supply 20,000 electric vehicles for the city's pilot electric vehicle leasing program.
In 2013, Kandi announced Kandi EV Car Share, a carsharing program in the city of Hangzhou. The system operated only with Kandi EV all-electric cars, which are available to customers via an automated parking system dubbed a "car vending machine". Leases include insurance, maintenance, and electric power through swapping batteries at the program garages. Kandi planned to make 100,000 cars available to Hangzhou residents over two years.
The Kandi public EV Car Share concept is based on Hangzhou's bike share, the largest in the world and the first of its kind in China according to Guinness World Records. The bike-share has since spread from Hangzhou to 19 Chinese cities including Shanghai and Beijing. According to Forbes, as of July 11, 2012, Kandi had delivered more than 40,000 electric vehicles through its car-sharing program, which was described as the largest of its kind globally at the time.
Kandi initially planned to develop a network of up to 750 garages in collaboration with Geely Auto through a 50-50 joint venture. The program was intended to expand to cities such as Shanghai, Shandong, and Hainan. However, only a few garages were completed, and the project reportedly shifted toward horizontal street parking kiosks due to urban development challenges.
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In 2019, Kandi signed a non-binding agreement to act as the electric vehicle supplier for ride-sharing platform Cao Cao Zhuan Che. In 2020, Kandi, together with Zhejiang Ruibo New Energy Vehicle Service Company Ltd. and Jiangsu Jinpeng Group Ltd., founded the ridesharing company Zhejiang Ruiheng Technology Company (aka "Ruiheng").
United States expansion
In 2019, the company announced plans to expand its business to the United States, as the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved its Model EX3 and Model K22 cars to be exported into the United States.
The company shipped 50–100 EVs to the United States in late May and early June 2019.
In July 2020, Kandi announced that it would be starting sales in Summer 2020 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Additionally, it released details on the first two cars to hit the market: the Kandi K27 and K23 models.
In July 2024, Kandi America announced that it had partnered with Lowe's to sell a limited-edition set of 32 golf carts with designs featuring NFL teams, to be sold exclusively at Lowe's stores in the U.S.
On December 2, 2024, Kandi appointed Bin Yu as the new Chief Executive Officer of SC Autosports, its wholly owned subsidiary in the United States.
Financial performance and market growth
In 2023, Kandi reported a net revenue of $123.6 million, marking its highest revenue in three years, with a net profit of $1.7 million, following a net loss of $12.9 million in 2022, despite a 28.8% increase and $117.8 million in revenue.
The company expanded its product line in North America to include electric utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) and mini golf carts.
Other developments
In November 2020, Hindenburg Research, a short-selling investment firm, released a report accusing Kandi of faking at least 55% of its sales.
On 7 December, Kandi's chairman released a response addressing Hindenburg's short seller report. Kandi responded to the report with a statement claiming that, "Kandi believes that the report contains numerous errors, misstatements of historical facts, inaccurate conclusions, and superfluous opinions."
In December 2017, Kandi acquired the battery technology company Jinhua An Kao.
In 2018, Kandi transitioned into longer-range electric vehicles with the K23 and EX3 models, claiming that its SUV crossover hybrids have more storage capacity than its other offerings.
Kandi acquired Sportsman Country LLC for $10 million in June 2018, which will facilitate the dealer relationships for Kandi's EX3 electric vehicles.
Jiangsu's Development and Reform Commission approved Kandi with one of three EV manufacturing licenses. EVs qualify for subsidies offered by China's central and local governments, on an average of $10,000 per vehicle. EVs are waived from Chinese megacities' license plate fees that apply to vehicles with internal combustion engines, on an average of $14,000 per license plate.
Kandi faced low EV sales in the first quarter of 2019 due to the delay of government subsidies and restructuring of the JV. They planned to increase production for the remaining portion of 2019, and to have a non-binding framework agreement with DiDi to deliver 300,000 EVs over the next five years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kandi Technologies, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7