How Zeekr and Neta inflated EV sales using insurance loophole
The companies arranged for cars to be insured before they were sold to buyers, the documents show, enabling them under Chinese industry car registration practices to book sales early so they could hit monthly and quarterly targets, the dealers and buyers said.
Neta booked early sales of at least 64,719 cars through the method from January 2023 to March 2024, according to copies of records it sent to dealers and seen by Reuters. That was more than half the sales of 117,000 vehicles it reported over the 15 months. Neta's effort to book sales early has not been previously reported.
Zeekr, a premium EV brand owned by Geely, used the same method to book early sales in late 2024 in the southern city of Xiamen through its main dealer there, state-owned Xiamen C&D Automobile, according to dealers, buyers and sales receipts seen by Reuters.
Analysts and investors tracking China's auto industry gauge performance and estimated inventory levels with two sets of sales data. Wholesale numbers reported by carmakers to the industry association show sales from carmakers to dealers, while retail data compiled from registration records of mandatory traffic insurance show the sales to users.
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IOL News
4 hours ago
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How a Chinese fintech founder learned to build for Kenya's reality, not its potential
Nairobi, Kenya. Long's Africa story began rather fortuitously, says the author. Image: Tedd_ M on Unsplash "Three weeks in Beijing and Shanghai," I tell April Long before the mics come on for our podcast chat. "When?" she asks. "2011," I reply. "Oh," she laughs, "different country." No kidding. I wasn't a car person then, and I'm still not now, but I couldn't help but be floored by Xiaomi's recently unveiled YU7 SUV. Long gets it, though. She's spent 12 years watching East Africa transform, but her journey from a 'no-name Chinese town' (her words, not mine) to co-founding an Africa-focused fintech called Pyxis tells quite a story about transformation. Listening to her share gave me a fresh appreciation for what it must be like building in Africa while Chinese, and what locals might tend to overlook in our own backyard. Presidents and pictures Long's Africa story began rather fortuitously. She was 23, fresh from a master's in Guangzhou - the pulsing Chinese tech hub of 19 million people, nearly three million more than Zimbabwe's population. An International Student Exchange Center (ISEC) exchange program plonked her in Tanzania for what was supposed to be a brief stint. Two weeks in, she's somehow playing tour guide for President Xi Jinping's state visit, her face sneaking into a corner of a photo seen by millions back home. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ "Zero chance that happens in China," she tells me, and her parents' utter shock was probably audible from Dar es Salaam. In Guangzhou, she was nobody special. In Tanzania, she was receiving presidents. But Long says she stayed because at 20, reading Eric Simanis's 2012 Harvard Business Review article "Reality Check at the Bottom of the Pyramid" during a previous Taiwan student exchange, she'd decided she wanted to "make money and make a difference." Most people say that. Long actually meant it enough to turn down some prestigious appointments at Ogilvy China, twice (albeit gigs with relatively uninspiring remuneration attached). Humbling times Fast forward to 2021. Long, now married to a Singaporean named George Chan and fully rooted in Kenya, co-founds Pyxis with him (with her at the helm). Named after a southern constellation visible from Nairobi but faint from Beijing, the company aimed to tackle the $286 billion Africa-China trade gap. How apropos. Their first move? A platform for Nairobi SMEs to pay Chinese factories in yuan. "I made an MVP in two, three months and thought it was going to be a game-changer," she recalls ruefully. It flopped spectacularly. They found no demand for the product despite Long spending six months embedding herself in Nairobi's wholesale markets - Gikomba, Luthuli, River Road - chasing interest that never materialised. The onboarding friction was too high, ticket sizes too small. "My cost didn't justify my LTV [customer lifetime value] at all." But after struggling to raise money to burn through the problem as was the fashion at the time, she pivoted. Hard. Following the money She reckons the market taught her something uncomfortable: "We sometimes want to build the future…but we forget we are in the present tense." When she went to wholesale markets, traders would shout, "China, China, what are you selling?" The demand wasn't for payment rails but for access to suppliers. So she tried e-commerce, even partnering with Alibaba for dropshipping. Another lesson: small-volume imports doubled or tripled costs. She realised it came down to economies of scale. As she puts it: "90% of African trade is still happening in a more traditional way." The reality stung. SMEs weren't ready for her vision of social commerce. Infrastructure, consumer habits, and economics didn't align with her Silicon Valley-inspired dreams. So Pyxis shifted to serve Chinese bulk traders shipping containers to African distributors, handling currency exchange and settlement. Long admits being unhelpfully stubborn. "I was like, no, we have to work with SMEs." Because, of course, 'impact'. But the numbers didn't lie: 10% of her time on bulk traders sustained her team, while 90% on SMEs drained cash. Mirror reflections Long's story reflects our tech scene's growing pains. We do love our fintech fairy tales. Unicorns, million-dollar raises, Silicon Valley playbooks transplanted to Lagos, Nairobi or wherever. But Long's experience cuts deeper. She flipped from chasing an aspirational middle class to grappling with price-sensitive realities. That humility: admitting she misread demand, unlearning her assumptions, pivoting when data contradicted vision. To me, that's the real crux of the story. "It has been really, really hard for me the past two years," she admits. "Every day I have to remind myself of my mission to keep myself going." Her willingness to admit missteps, unlearn assumptions, and rebuild from scratch - perhaps more so in Africa than elsewhere - separates builders from dreamers. Nevertheless, Long hasn't ditched her vision. "I still believe SMEs will dominate," she says. "Pyxis will help make that happen." Playing by today's rules while eyeing tomorrow. Note to self Impact often starts exclusively before it scales. Awkward? Sure. I would know. At 630 000+ plays and counting after over a decade, The African Tech Roundup Podcast hosting my conversation with Long isn't mass media, but it's carved out something sustainable by leaning into specificity rather than chasing radio's democratised reach or the internet's alluring promise of hyperbolic audience scale. Long's pivot to bulk traders isn't sexy, but it's real revenue funding her SME dreams and creating room to establish whether there might be VC-backable venturing worth pursuing. The 12-person team she indicates spans China, Kenya, Australia and Singapore isn't the next unicorn, and she isn't claiming it will be. But her willingness to evolve, admit failure, and rebuild from first principles is admirable. For now, Long's relying on the bulk traders, the aggregators, the messy reality of how trade actually flows to deliver interim sustainability. But, make no mistake, her eyes are trained firmly on the horizon where SMEs drive the next wave. Andile Masuku is Co-founder and Executive Producer at African Tech Roundup. Connect and engage with Andile on X (@MasukuAndile) and via LinkedIn. Image: File. Andile Masuku is Co-founder and Executive Producer at African Tech Roundup. Connect and engage with Andile on X (@MasukuAndile) and via LinkedIn. ** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL BUSINESS REPORT
TimesLIVE
a day ago
- TimesLIVE
Tesla's new sales boss comes from IT, not the showroom
A relatively little-known information technology executive is running Tesla's sales team as the electric carmaker grapples with a drop in sales, according to people familiar with the matter. Raj Jegannathan, a senior executive with a wide purview including several IT and data functions, recently took over the sales role, said the people familiar with the matter. Some inside Tesla have interpreted this to mean Jegannathan has assumed the role of Troy Jones, Tesla's top sales executive in North America until he departed earlier this month after 15 years with the company, said the people. Jegannathan, who has recently grown closer to CEO Elon Musk, has no traditional sales experience, according to two people familiar with the matter and his LinkedIn profile. Reuters could not determine if it is an interim role. Demand for Tesla's cars in Europe and North America has dropped sharply. Last quarter its quarterly sales plunged 13% to the weakest in nearly three years due to a backlash against Musk's politics, Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and increased competition from rivals offering more affordable alternatives. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla's share price, which has fallen 18% so far this year, rose 3% on Friday. Jones, the latest in a string of high-level departures, managed the fallout as Musk's political affiliation with US President Trump prompted left-leaning consumers to shun Tesla. As Tesla's sales were dropping earlier this year, Jones implored managers to work on selling and pushed back against concerns over political headwinds related to Musk, according to a person who heard the comment. Other key figures who recently left include Musk's confidant Omead Afshar, who was in charge of sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe. Jegannathan's expanded role has been interpreted as taking over Afshar's responsibilities too, some of the people said. Milan Kovac, head of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot team, announced he was leaving in June. Other recent departures include top battery executive Vineet Mehta and software chief David Lau. Last year, Tesla faced a wave of high-level departures, including chief battery engineer Drew Baglino and global public policy head Rohan Patel. Jegannathan has spent 13 years at Tesla in technology roles. He joined in 2012 as a senior staff engineer with responsibilities for internet traffic and cloud security, according to his LinkedIn page. More recently he has helped develop Tesla's data centre effort in Texas, two people familiar with the matter said. His duties have expanded rapidly. Earlier this year, he became a vice president for IT/AI infrastructure, apps and information security, according to his LinkedIn page. In recent months he has taken over Tesla's vehicle-service operations, according to a person familiar with the matter and Jegannathan's comments on X. Jegannathan was among the Tesla employees seconded to Twitter after Musk's takeover of the company in 2022, according to a person familiar with the matter and a media report.
TimesLIVE
a day ago
- TimesLIVE
How Zeekr and Neta inflated EV sales using insurance loophole
Chinese electric vehicle brands Neta and Zeekr inflated sales in recent years to hit aggressive targets, with Neta doing so for more than 60,000 cars, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with dealers and buyers. The companies arranged for cars to be insured before they were sold to buyers, the documents show, enabling them under Chinese industry car registration practices to book sales early so they could hit monthly and quarterly targets, the dealers and buyers said. Neta booked early sales of at least 64,719 cars through the method from January 2023 to March 2024, according to copies of records it sent to dealers and seen by Reuters. That was more than half the sales of 117,000 vehicles it reported over the 15 months. Neta's effort to book sales early has not been previously reported. Zeekr, a premium EV brand owned by Geely, used the same method to book early sales in late 2024 in the southern city of Xiamen through its main dealer there, state-owned Xiamen C&D Automobile, according to dealers, buyers and sales receipts seen by Reuters. Analysts and investors tracking China's auto industry gauge performance and estimated inventory levels with two sets of sales data. Wholesale numbers reported by carmakers to the industry association show sales from carmakers to dealers, while retail data compiled from registration records of mandatory traffic insurance show the sales to users.
