China EV brands Zeekr, Neta inflated car sales using insurance scheme

Neta, January 2023-March 2024-inflated sales of more than 60,000 cars between the depressions

The scheme enabled companies to reserve sales early to meet aggressive targets

China’s automobile industry traveled with a fierce competition that caused regulatory anxiety

July 19 – Chinese electric vehicle brands Neta and Zeekr have reached aggressive targets in recent years, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with dealers and buyers.

Dealers and buyers, documents, buyers before the sale of cars to insure companies, Chinese industry automobile registration applications, the sales of the documents showing that early booking, made them early booking.

Neta, according to the copies of the records sent by Reuters to the dealers, from January 2023 to March 2024 through this method at least 64,719 reserved the early sale of cars. This was more than half of the 117,000 vehicles reported for 15 months.

Zeekr, a premium home brand owned by Geely, used the same method to book an early sales reservation through the state’s Xiamen C&D car in the south of 2024, according to the dealers, buyers and sales receipts seen by Reuters.

The vehicles sold before reaching a recipient are called “Zero Mileage used cars” in the Chinese automobile industry. The application came out of the comparison competition for sales in the world’s largest automobile market, which has been cruel, caused by chronic excessive capacity.

The industry faces a understanding of the state media by calling the zero -kilometer car application of China’s cabinet to organize a “irrational” competition and calling the other central government organs that organize meetings with the biggest players of the industry to express concerns about such methods.

A broadcast operated by the Chinese car manufacturers Association on Saturday, he said he plans to shorten the application by prohibiting the re -sale of cars within six months after the sale of the Ministry of Industry.

Again on Saturday, State Media, Zeekr, the first name of a particular automobile manufacturer and embarrassing sales to inflate the sale of insured cars said.

In a pre -page story, China Securities Journal interviewed Zeekr car buyers in cities like Guangzhou and Chongqing, and said that the newspaper’s cars were insurance policies before they were sold. They said they refused to pay back, even though they felt that they were deceived.

In December, the newspaper questioned Zeekr’s unusual high sales in Shenzhen and Xiamemen cities. The sales of Xiamen rose to 2,737, more than 14 times the monthly average. Reuters could not determine how much of this skin can be reserved early.

Chinese Menkul Values Magazine also showed questions about Neta’s sales and showed abnormalities. For the first time, Reuters informs the details of how Neta inflated sales.

Zhejiang Hozon, the owner of Neta, did not respond to the requests for comments on Saturday. “Geely rejects the report put forward by the Chinese Magazine Journal of China,” Geely spokesman said. The spokesman refused to comment on Reuters findings or to give more details.

Zeekr, Reuters on Sunday in a statement in a statement, “Some recent reports referred to the vehicles, to ensure safety while exhibiting” compulsory car insurance “within the scope of the display,” he said.

“There is no retail invoice before these vehicles are given to customers and any vehicle has not been registered or licensed by registration authority.” He said.

Zeekr in a separate Chinese language published in the official Weibo account on Sunday, said the policies for these vehicles were “compulsory traffic accident insurance”.

He added that the exhibition tools are “legally and unregistered automobile products” legally, always. ”

Zeekr did not answer Reuters queries to use these cars to reserve sales.

Li Yanwei, an analyst with the Chinese Automobile Dealers Association, said he believes that he carries out such practices to decorate financial reports of companies and achieve performance goals.

“This white whitewash performance is not recommended,” he wrote on Saturday at Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Analysts and investors follow China’s automobile industry indicator performance and estimate inventory levels with two sales data. While the wholesale numbers reported to the Industrial Association by automobile manufacturers to dealers from car manufacturers, the retail data compiled from the insurance records show sales to the users.

Last month, People’s Daily, a state’s mouth, which is the mouth of the ruling Communist Party of China, published an editorial that condemns the sale of zero -used cars and lists a literature of the damages caused by the application to industries and buyers.

This month, four dealers in the rich Yangtze River Delta, the automobile manufacturers, said that the dealers were forced to falsify the sales without giving details and called to set more reasonable sales targets and incentive policies.

Neta made a sales reservation by organizing insurance policies for cars before sending to sellers according to the records shared with Reuters and a dealer for the brand.

Records include details for each vehicle and insurance policies purchased with the names of insurance agencies. According to the copies of Reuters, dealers could refer to them when they found a buyer to transfer the policy. In this way, the company made 64,719 cars early sales reservation.

“In the case of Neta, the company clearly stated to the dealers that cars were insured in advance and therefore were considered as sold.” He said.

“We had to remind the buyers to remind them that the traffic insurance was complementary and that they would end before and that they should be renewed on time.” He said.

However, three Neta buyers, who wanted to be named, learned that they did not tell Reuters long before the date of purchase of dealers, but the policies ended.

The dealer said that Neta started to do this at the end of 2022 to get home subsidies set to end that year.

Neta’s sales were listed as the eighth largest new home manufacturer in China with 152,000 vehicles in 2022. According to the data of the Chinese Automobile Manufacturers Association, sales fell to 87,948 vehicles including 23.399 exports last year and sold 1,215 cars in the first quarter of 2025.

According to the state media, the brand has been experiencing financial problems since the end of 2024, and its owner Zhejiang Hozon New Energy Automobile entered bankruptcy procedures in China last month.

Neta dealer, most of the use of zero -kilometers used from the company remained in the goal, he said. The company “only had a message: just do it, everyone does it”.

Geely Auto customized Zeekr, Zeekr and other brands for dealerships for the Xiamen C&D reservation made a sales reservation.

In December, Xiamen C&D insured and recorded vehicles under the name of two sub -partnerships, and according to four dealers and two buyers, Zeekr allowed Zeekr to count sales before the end of the year and a receipt shared with Reuters.

Zeekr dealers sold some cars to buyers in other cities such as Beijing and Chongqing in the following months.

“Zeekr said that the car would be less than 3,000 yuan than a car I will buy from the store and that I would get a charging coupon worth 10,000 yuan.” He said. The car manufacturer refused to be elected by stating retaliation concerns.

Chinese Menkul Assets magazine, most of the owners of the cars of Xiamen C&D and its affiliated organizations are insured, he said.

The data of the Chinese Automobile Dealers Association showed that 2,737 sales reserved in Xiamen were sold to companies in December and that 257 of them went to individual buyers.

However, the data published by Xiamemen’s Vehicle Management Bureau showed only 271 cars registered for plates in December, which they obtained after receiving their cars.

This article was created from an automatic news agency feeding without changing the text.