Every time I talk about cars with my friends, no matter whether it is independent or joint venture, there is always such a brand that we joke about. I believe everyone knows its nickname "tape measure department".

an SR9 made the national audience know the brand Zotye, and it also fulfilled many people's luxury car dreams. In addition, Audi Q3 and Volkswagen Tiguan are also imitations of Zotye. A brand that can only produce foreign products in reverse seems to be just an inconspicuous small workshop in everyone's eyes, and the recent rumors of bankruptcy seem to indicate the fact that a "small enterprise" that can only imitate is about to close down.

You can only imitate, but if people think Zotye is just a small enterprise, you are wrong. Like Nie Tengfei's "Express Empire", Zotye Group is also a typical family-owned enterprise, with 1 automobile brands and 14 production bases, far exceeding the number of joint venture brand manufacturers in your eyes!

Dadi Automobile

Behind Zotye Automobile, it is actually Tieniu Group. As early as 23, before it invested in the whole vehicle business, Tieniu Group had made small achievements in automobile supporting fields such as automobile metal stamping parts and stamping dies. At that time, it was already a supplier of automobile enterprises such as BAIC, Changhe and Jianghuai. Seeing the considerable profits of the automobile industry, the chairman of Tieniu Group chose to enter the vehicle manufacturing industry.

after several rounds of negotiations, Wu Jianzhong, who is in charge of the whole vehicle business of Tieniu Group, bought the production line of Dalu Terui, and brought the equipment with molds, as well as technical workers and management personnel back to the Group. In 25, Zotye Vehicle Factory was completed, and the first new car rolled off the assembly line on June 18th. However, this new car named Zotye 28 is the reverse product of Dalu Terui, and Tieniu Group's road to making cars began with imitation.

Zotye 28 had no way to sell it to the outside world because it was not qualified to build a car. Zotye, at a loss, found Chengdu Xindadi Automobile, and Zotye 28 was finally listed in early 26 with the name of Xindadi RX64.

Jiangnan Alto

It is unrealistic to have a brand without the qualification to build a car. In 27, Zotye found Hunan Jiangnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. with suitable qualifications. Later, Chengdu Xindadi was criticized by CCTV and ordered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to rectify within a time limit because it illegally set up a branch without authorization and applied a large number of certificates from the head office.

after acquiring 7% shares of Jiangnan Automobile, Tieniu Group resumed the production of Alto, renamed Jiangnan TT, and obtained valuable qualification for building cars. Zotye Group subsequently established two production bases in Hunan and Hubei, and established Changsha Business Department. After more than ten years, other brands of Zotye Automobile were using the product announcement and certificate of Jiangnan Automobile. However, with the complete suspension of production of Jiangnan TT at the end of 218, Zotye has abandoned the Jiangnan brand and only retained its production qualification.

Zotye Automobile

Zotye Automobile, which is marked with "Z", is the most familiar one. After several years of development, "Zotye" has become a minor celebrity in the automobile market. Although it acquired Jiangnan Automobile, Zotye decided to develop its own brand. Since 28, all Zotye models have started to use the Z-mark.

There is also a short story about Zotye's "Z" logo. Mr. Wang from Anhui is a fan of logo design. In 26, when he saw that Zotye's logo was too ugly, Mr. Wang designed several logo drawings and sent them to Zotye Automobile. In April of the following year, Zotye Automobile hoped that Mr. Wang would make an electronic version of the design drawings. When Mr. Wang sent an e-mail to Zotye Automobile, Zotye began to disappear. A year later, Zotye Automobile applied to the State Trademark Office for a graphic registered trademark, but the dispute between the two parties has not yet reached a definite result.

Zotye knows beans

Zotye has finally obtained the most valuable qualification to build a car by taking a stake in Jiangnan Automobile. With the development of domestic automobile industry, there are also many new automobile brands like Zotye that can't be sold because they can't obtain the qualification to build cars, and Zhidou is one of them.

after the motor and controller of electric vehicle became the first in the industry, Xindayang Electromechanical Group decided to enter the automobile industry. At the beginning of 212, Zhidou electric car was unveiled in Shandong. Because it has no qualification to build a car, it can only be sold as a low-speed electric car, that is, "Lao Toule" to the county seat.

With the EU certification, Zhidou sells well in Europe. However, in China, in order to solve the qualification problem, Zhidou began to negotiate with Zotye to borrow the qualification to sell in China at the end of 213, so the brand Zotye Zhidou came into being. However, due to various reasons of Zotye Company, this brand only existed for one year.

Zotye Damai

Damai is just a sales network developed by Zotye Jintan Business Department, which mainly produces three models: Damai X5, Damai X7 and sesame E3. The following sales networks of Zotye are competitive with each other, and dealers are not allowed to sell Zotye cars in other networks. In addition, Damai is different from our common Zotye 4S store in terms of decoration style. Damai 4S store uses Domy as the logo and does not have Zotye's "Z" logo.

Damai X5 and X7 were still popular when they were first launched, but the old three-piece technology and poor quality made it common for Damai to sell 1 units a month. At present, Damai X5 and X7 are both discontinued for sale, and Zotye official website has been unable to find the relevant information of the two models. As for Damai, we can regard it as an independent product series of Zotye Group.

Write it at the end:

Due to space constraints, the remaining five of Zotye's 1 brands will meet with you in the next issue. Friends who know cars can type the names of the other five brands in the comment area first. The ultimate imitation may have become the characteristic of Zotye, but the market has proved the mistake of this road.

Looking back at the development of domestic independent brands, everyone has also experienced a difficult development process. From vehicle manufacturing to independent research and development, brands such as Geely and Great Wall are not only recognized by Chinese people, but also go to the world. On the other hand, Zotye brand, despite its indomitable spirit, is always disappointed by the lack of core technology of automobiles.

This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.