Li Yi’nan, founder of Chinese electric scooter manufacturer Niu Technologies, has formed a new company to make electric vehicles.
Niutron New Energy Technology Co. disclosed plans Wednesday to introduce its first EV product, a large crossover, under the Niutron brand in China in the first half of 2022.
Pure electric and range-extended versions of the crossover will be available.
Niutron expects to start producing the crossover in March at a new EV plant in the east China city of Changzhou, which can build 180,000 vehicles annually at full capacity.
Sales are scheduled to begin in September.
Niutron was funded by Li along with international private equity firms IDG Capital and Coatue Management LLC.
Li, a former executive of Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies, incorporated Niu Technologies in Beijing in 2014.
Niu Technologies, a Nasdaq-listed company, builds e-scooters at two factories in Changzhou and sells them in China and international markets including Asia and Europe.
In 2020, Niu Technologies delivered 600,892 e-scooters globally, a 44-percent increase from a year earlier.