Tesla's price war in the Chinese market is not making things easier for the country's small automakers, especially startups set up in recent years to produce electric vehicles.
Ivies, which was founded in 2017 and launched in Israel in 2021, has encountered escalating financial difficulties in recent months. Its business plan, which included an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, suffered a blow due to the crisis in the global capital market, and it has not yet been able to raise money as a replacement. To date, the company has raised $1.4 billion from large Chinese companies such as Tensenst and Didi Global.
In February, the company halted production due to a lack of cash to buy raw materials, has been late in paying salaries since April, and last month it vacated its Shanghai headquarters to cut costs.
U5. Iviz's first product actually left a positive impression (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
As reported in Walla, most of Ivways' sales have so far taken place outside of China, mainly in the European market and in Israel. The company invested in setting up a sales and service system in Europe, launching a car control app, but last year sold only about 10,000 cars – far below the threshold required to achieve economic balance.
Company sources say the crisis is the result of a delay in the process of transferring control of Iviz, although so far it has not been known that a buyer has been found who will inject money into it. China currently has about 75 active car manufacturers, many of which have uncertain futures, and bankruptcies have already been registered.
Since 2021, the Belilius Group, importer of Ivways, has sold about 2,000 U5 crossbars in Israel. The company was now supposed to launch another model, the more advanced U6, and the first five cars were already on the road, but in the absence of production, the move was delayed.
Since the beginning of the year, Iways has delivered 355 U5 models in Israel to customers, but now it is not accepting new orders in the absence of a production plan, and only maintains registration for potential orderers. At the same time, deliveries of customers who had already ordered were postponed. The company allows those interested in canceling the order and receiving back the NIS 1,000 they paid as advance fees.
The platform developed by Iviz. It also recently launched its own electric motor (Photo: manufacturer's website)
A company source said that Ivways Israel has a growing inventory of spare parts and its service system continues to operate as usual. The Balilius Group operates in real estate and public transportation, imports Chinese Golden Dragon buses, and serves as the local representative of the Chinese battery manufacturer CATL - which is also the battery supplier of Ivways. The group is scheduled to launch another electric manufacturer, NETTA, later this year, which is having more success in China than Ivways.
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