ZAP, an electric vehicle automotive company incorporated in California and headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, jointly with Jonway Auto, its subsidiary in Zhejiang, China, announce the receipt of 25,000 committed direct orders for its newest EV models of URBEE and SPARKEE.
The aggregate committed purchase orders of over 25,000 were placed with down payments from more than 30 new dealers in Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei, Xian, Jinan, Shandong, and Nantong. These new dealers are the long established major dealership partners of Jonway Group from Jonway Motorcycle business.
Most of the orders were placed for the full electric URBEE, which is viewed by these dealers as a well-positioned product for the metro cities of China and a new entry into the market space that addresses the mass market demands at the right price with quality. With a driving range of over 150 km per charge, it is ideally suited for daily city driving with overnight recharging.
The launch of URBEE in April at the exhibitions held in China generated tremendously positive responses from dealers that are confident of sales and ready to buy in quantities for their dealerships. Strong market interests for the URBEE continue, as more of these new dealers are qualified and being signed up with quantity purchase orders. SPARKEE, which is priced at the higher end, received more than 2,000 orders from local Chinese dealers. Production of both URBEE and SPARKEE has begun, as the Jonway Auto factory readies itself for the volume manufacturing delivery of 2,000 vehicles per month starting June 2014. Delivery of these 25,000 vehicles is scheduled over the next six months.
Auto sales in China reached 22 million in 2013, far exceeding any other markets in the world. This represents a 14% increase compared to 2012. Car ownership remains a low percentage with only 120 million vehicles on the road. With the Chinese government focused at supporting and stimulating EV adoption in China, the overall market sentiments towards full electric vehicles have evolved quickly and positively, with a willingness to purchase EVs if at the right price.
ZAP and Jonway Auto is realigning its entire business on electric and clean energy vehicles (CNG and hybrids), and are bringing on a new set of dealerships and new management experienced in this space. With these volume purchase orders of the smaller EVs in the pipeline ready for delivery this year, ZAP and Jonway Auto can now leverage the customer experience and sales network that is being established to gain competitive market edge and gain momentum in the full production of electric vehicles at its factory, with initial delivery of 2,000 per month and targeting 3,000 per month towards latter part of this year.
