Kandi Technologies Group, Inc., trading as Kandi, is an automotive manufacturing company based in Jinhua, China. Its principal activity is the design, development, production and sale of electric vehicles, all-terrain vehicles and go-karts.
Kandi is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange with ticker KNDI.
History
In July 2012 Kandi Technologies signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the city of Hangzhou to supply 20,000 electric vehicles for the city's pilot electric vehicle leasing program.
In February 2013, Kandi and Shanghai Maple announced the establishment of a 50:50 electric vehicle joint venture, Zhejiang Kandi Electric Vehicles Investment, with an initial registered capital of 1 billion yuan (US$160 million). The joint venture is planned to focus on the research and development, production, marketing and sale of electric vehicles in the Chinese mainland. The joint venture agreement was signed on 22 March 2013. Mr. Shufu Li, Chairman of Geely Auto will be appointed to be the first Chairman of the JV Company and Mr. Xiaoming Hu, Chairman & CEO of Kandi will be appointed to be first General Manager.
The Kandi public EV CarShare concept is based on Hangzhou’s bikeshare, the largest bikeshare in the world and the first of its kind in China. The bikeshare has since spread from Hangzhou to 19 Chinese cities including Shanghai and Beijing.
Kandi’s plan is to build with both Government and “outside†support, 750 of these garages in just the City of Hangzhou over the next four years through a 50-50 joint venture with Geely Automotive, China’s largest passenger automaker, which would require some 100,000 Kandi electric vehicles to stock them. This model is slated to spread to other cities and regions like Shanghai, Shandong, and Hainan. Two garages were just completed in Hangzhou over the past two months and another 18 are currently under construction as of two weeks ago.
As of 2017, vertical garages have halted in favor of horizontal street parking type kiosks.
Company lacks direction, and cannot make retails sales without government subsidies. Total 2017 EVs sold is 300 while factories have 400K capacity.
Kandi EV
The Kandi EV is a city electric car with a range of 120Â km (75Â mi), and a top speed of 80Â km/h (50Â mph).
New models have a top range of 95 miles, while competitors are above 200 miles range.
The Kandi EV CarShare is a carsharing program in the city of Hangzhou. The system operates only with Kandi EV all-electric cars, which are available to customers in automated garages that run like vending machines. The rental price is US$3.25 per hour. Leasing is available from US$130 to US$160 per month, which includes insurance, maintenance, and the electric power through swapping batteries at the program garages. Then, Kandi recharges the batteries at its convenience. The leasing option, called "Long Lease," is available from 1 to 3 year contracts.
Kandi Technologies plans on making 100,000 cars available to the residents of Hangzhou over the two years. It’s also planning to expand into 2-3 other Chinese cities during 2014.
Sales
A total of 1,215 Kandi EVs were sold in China during the first quarter of 2014, and an additional 4,114 during the second quarter, representing a growth of 238%, and total sales of 5,329 units during first half of 2014. The Kandi EV used for the Kandi EV CarShare and also available for leasing. Kandi EV city car, had a price tag of 41,517 yaun ($6,317) in 2015. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) reported the sale of 16,376 Kandi EVs in 2015. The government has set expectations high for the growth of the electric car market. The plan is to have five million electric and hybrid vehicles on the roads in China by 2020. 2015 sales revenue relies heavily on government subsidies. Chinese government choose not to issue subsidies to Kandi in 2015.
Sold 300 EVs in 2017.
Management
Visionary CEO Hu founded Kandi and donated his numerous patents to the company.
References
External links
- Kandi Technologies official site
- The Kandi Machine -- China's Sweet Pollution Solution, Aaron Rockett, YouTube.
- Video: Kandi’s EV Vending Machine, Associated Press, February 2014.
