When the news of Gaohe Automobile's resumption of production came out, the market's attention was immediately attracted by the investor behind it - EV Electra Ltd. EV Electra's extremely complex and chaotic car-making experience made this drama of acquisition and rebirth confusing. EV Electra is a Lebanese electric vehicle company founded in 2017, but it has not officially sold a car so far. Whether it is its self-developed Quds series or a model project that it tried to acquire other established car companies, it ultimately failed to achieve mass production.
Jihad Mohammad, the founder and chairman of EV Electra, also has a very complicated background. Under his management and operation, EV Electra’s business focus seems to be more focused on the issuance of virtual currencies. And now, he has become the chairman of Xingaohe Automobile.
Gaohe Automobile itself also refused to take a position on the establishment and resumption of production of the new company. Even the so-called environmental impact assessment of the factory has almost nothing to do with this acquisition.
Therefore, the process of Gaohe's resumption of production may not be a drama of a white knight rescuing a princess in distress. Even though Gaohe knew that the financial backer had a complicated life experience, Gaohe still decided to cooperate with him. The reasons behind it may be much more complicated.
But no matter what, the Chinese market no longer needs a new Gaohe.
1. A mysterious acquisition
The acquisition of Gaohe was very sudden and even seemed a bit abnormal.
As far as the incident itself is concerned, the rhythm of information exposure can be roughly divided into three nodes: the establishment of a new company - the exposure of the agreement content - the start of the environmental impact assessment of the factory.
On May 22, Jiangsu Gaohe Automobile Co., Ltd. was established. The legal representative and chairman are Mohammed, and the registered capital is approximately US$143 million. This news is called the prelude to Gaohe’s resurrection journey.
The new company is jointly held by EV Electra and Human Horizons (Jiangsu) Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly the parent company of Gaohe Automobile), with proportions of 69.8% and 30.2% respectively. In other words, EV Electra has achieved absolute control of Xingaohe Company.
It should be noted that Xingaohe's registered capital of US$143 million is all subscribed, of which EV Electra subscribed US$100 million; Chinese Horizon (Jiangsu) Technology Co., Ltd. subscribed US$43.2665 million, and the actual payment must be completed by December 31 this year at the latest.
In other words, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to whether this investment commitment can be fulfilled. As for legal issues such as breach of contract that may arise if the payment is not made, it is not a problem at all for Gaohe and EV Electra in the Middle East.
On the second day after the establishment of the new Gaohe company, relevant reports from the Financial Associated Press pointed out that EV Electra promised to provide Gaohe with overseas purchase orders of no less than 100,000 vehicles per year or no less than US$3 billion in the next three years.
However, neither the official channels of Gaohe nor the official channels of EV Electra can obtain the specific content of this agreement, and neither party has expressed its position on the rumors of this agreement.
At this point, the incident officially fermented, and then a large number of media began to report that Yueda Kia's first factory (the factory that OEMs for Gaohe, the so-called "Gaohe Yancheng Factory") had launched an environmental impact assessment, and regarded it as a substantive move for Gaohe to resume production.
But here, there is a problem with the timeline.
According to information on the official website of the Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, on May 14, the Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone accepted the environmental impact assessment approval of Yueda Kia's first factory and made a public announcement. At this time, New Gaohe Company had not yet been established.
According to the title of the attachment to the public notice of the environmental impact assessment report, it can be seen that this report was submitted on April 21, 2025, and Jiangsu Yueda Kia Motors Co., Ltd. made the decision to upgrade the factory earlier.
The environmental impact report shows that the "Yueda Kia Factory 1 Intelligent Green Technology Upgrade Project Renovation" project has obtained the investment project registration certificate issued by the Administrative Approval Bureau of Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone on December 23, 2024 (Registration Certificate Number: Yankai Bank Shenjingbei [2024] No. 367, project registration: 2412 320971-89-02-695729).
The project has obtained an investment registration certificate in 2024. Source: Yueda Kia Factory No. 1 Intelligent Green Technology Upgrade Project Renovation Project Environmental Impact Report
At the same time, it can be seen in the report that in September 2020, Yueda Kia's first factory obtained a pollutant discharge permit, which was valid from September 28, 2020 to September 27, 2023. However, after the expiration of the pollutant discharge permit, due to problems with Gaohe Automobile's operations, the factory has been suspended.
In other words, at least in 2024, some people want to allow Gaohe to resume production from the legal and compliance level of factory production. This move has nothing to do with Gaohe’s recent capital injection from Middle Eastern capital.
As for the acquired Gaohe, it did not make any statement or voice during the entire acquired business activity. Even though Mohammed began to frequently post Gaohe-related content on social media in April this year, Gaohe officials and former executives did not disclose any information about their ongoing contacts with overseas capital.
These factors and phenomena have made it doubtful whether Gaohe can really resume production and work, or whether it is really working towards resuming work and production.
2.Who is EV Electra?
As the protagonists of this rescue drama, EV Electra and its founder Mohammed are also extremely complicated.
As a Lebanese company, EV Electra claims that it has relevant business operations in Canada, Italy, Germany, and Turkey. If Gaohe is included, EV Electra's business scope also includes China, and it can be regarded as an international new energy vehicle company.
However, as a global car company, EV Electra's car manufacturing business has not been going smoothly since its establishment.
As a new overseas car-making force, EV Electra only officially launched its first model, Quds Rise, in 2021. This speed is quite slow. If compared with domestic car companies such as Xpeng and Weilai, the latter usually achieve mass production of their first model in about three years after the company was established.
More importantly, the Quds Rise, which was originally planned to be delivered from the end of 2021 to the beginning of 2022, ultimately failed to reach mass production. This was EV Electra's only and last effort to build a car.
EV Electra, which suffered a setback in the development of its first model, quickly gave up the creation of Quds Rise and began to develop new models of the Quds series. Since 2021, EV Electra has quickly launched a series of models including Quds Capital ES, Quds Roadster, and Quds Nostrum.
EV Electra model introduction, source: EV Electra official website
However, all the new models of the Quds series are still in the prototype or even concept drawing stage, and none of them have achieved real mass production and sales.
It is worth mentioning that almost all EV Electra’s Quds series models are designed with a mosque-shaped grille, which is not conducive to its business in markets outside the Arab region. However, EV Electra’s founder Mohammed does not care at all about such an obvious design problem.
Perhaps because it is impossible to build a car on its own, or perhaps due to geopolitical considerations, EV Electra has embarked on the road to acquisition.
On November 5, 2021, EV Electra signed an investment letter of intent with Detroit Electric (Detroit Electric Group). EV Electra announced that it would invest 437 million euros (approximately US$500 million) in Detroit Electric Group to help it expand its business in Europe and Asia and launch a variety of electric and hydrogen-electric hybrid models in the next five years.
Of course, in return, Detroit Electric Group's approximately 900 technology patents in the automotive field will be included in the EV Electra partnership.
At the end of 2021, Detroit Power Group CEO Albert Lam was also very pleased with this investment, saying: "We are proud to receive a new round of investment that will drive our next phase of growth."
However, this investment and subsequent corporate cooperation did not develop as expected, and two years later, the two companies completely broke up.
On December 6, 2023, according to a report by Swedish Radio, Albert Lam stated that he did not receive the US$500 million investment promised by Mohammed, and this behavior was simply fraud. "Don't have too high expectations that he can save the company. He is not a savior." Albert Lam said in an interview with Swedish Radio.
Muhammad also expressed anger and grievance. He said that Detroit Electric Group's automotive business was an empty shell with nothing. On December 15, 2023, Muhammad posted on social media, stating that he was a victim and would not even invest $500 in this company after a background check, let alone $500 million.
But it's strange why Muhammad didn't do enough analysis of Detroit Electric Group before investing in the deal? And what kind of background checks will last two years? None of these issues have been publicly addressed.
This kind of plot is very similar to Gaohe, who is currently preparing for his rebirth with great fanfare. For the same high amount of funds or order commitments, the invested companies also have good technical strength and number of patents, but whether the promises can be fulfilled in the end is beyond the control of the invested companies.
In addition to Detroit Electric Group, Mohammed is also actively in contact with New Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS), which acquired the remaining assets of Saab Automobile Group in 2021 and has a good reputation in Europe.
In 2023, Mohamed announced that EV Electra purchased ownership of NEVS's Emily GT and PONS Robotaxi model projects. It is reported that this money was the one that was intended to be invested in Detroit Electric Group.
However, the acquisition of EV Electra has not made its model development and mass production business smooth. Some information shows that EV Electra did not properly purchase and build related factories as promised, and NEVS began to have disagreements with it regarding the Emily GT project.
On September 10, 2024, according to reports from Saab Automotive News Network, NEVS issued a statement terminating this cooperation and stated that "they do not own anything in our project."
NEVS’s response to the Emily GT project, source: Saab Automotive News Network
What is puzzling is that after Saab Group issued its statement that year, Mohammed still publicly stated on social platforms that the Emily GT would be put into production soon. He also hinted that the model might be mass-produced and delivered by the end of 2024, and called those who sent negative information "haters."
However, until today, Emily GT has not been able to achieve mass production and delivery.
But one message is clear and unambiguous, that is, EV Electra, as a car company, has failed to sell a single car in the eight years since its establishment. Compared to building cars, EV Electra is obviously more interested in the cryptocurrency business.
Currently, EV Electra has launched the ecological token EVET on its official website, 1 EVET=1 USDT, and supports cryptocurrency and bank transfer purchases. According to the white paper released by EV Electra in April 2025, it can be learned that it plans to raise US$840 million through tokens and adopt a dual-pass system, in which EVEN is in the form of NFT and promises to distribute 10% of net profits to holders.
Not only that, if investors purchase EV Electra electric vehicles through tokens, they can get a 20% discount.
It is worth noting that the Gaohe brand image has currently been used on the token marketing page of EV Electra, and the car model pictures of Gaohe Automobile only appear on this page and do not appear in the specific model introduction of EV Electra.
Taken together, it seems that EV Electra's business focus has never been on building cars. It has always been very ambitious, and the founder's statements and responses have been very tough, but so far every car-making project in its hands has been abandoned.
Middle East capital is indeed one of the richest local capitals in the world, but this does not mean that any overseas car company is a white knight. At least for now, Mohammed and the EV Electra in his hands are much more complicated and dangerous than ordinary overseas capital.
3. There is no chance for a turnaround in China.
Even if neither Gaohe nor we were deceived, can Gaohe rely on financial support from overseas capital to complete its resurrection in the domestic market?
The answer is obviously no, not only Gaohe, but also all the new power car companies that have gone bankrupt and exploded, and it is difficult to have a chance of resurrection in the Chinese market.
2025 has almost become the "first year of resurrection" for bankrupt car companies. WM Motor, Reading Motor, etc. have all reported the resumption of production and work, and some car companies have even planned model plans and sales targets after the resumption of production.
For example, in early February this year, there was news that WM Motor will resume work and production as soon as this year and will simultaneously promote brand renewal. At the same time, in the next two years, it plans to launch 1-2 new cars each year and achieve mass production and delivery, and achieve the goal of sales exceeding 600,000 vehicles in 2027.
And this time Gaohe, the intelligent green technology upgrade of Yueda Kia's first factory is expected to be completed in October 2025.
But setting goals does not mean that these bankrupt car companies can resume production and work smoothly. Before planning sales and releasing models, the first issue is to resolve debts.
According to the reorganization ruling and related data disclosure, as of August 31, 2024, the total combined book liabilities of the 52 companies in the Human Horizons family were as high as 15.781 billion yuan, and the total book assets were only 5.983 billion yuan.
During the pre-reorganization period, as of March 25, 2025, the total amount of claims declared by creditors to the interim manager is approximately 22.8 billion yuan, and the amount that has been initially reviewed and confirmed by the interim manager has exceeded 10 billion yuan.
Gaohe's debt structure is also relatively complex, including supplier arrears, user deposits, land and factory mortgages, etc. Especially for supplier arrears, although Gaohe Automobile is currently trying to solve the debt problem by reaching debt settlements with suppliers, according to industry experience, this logical chain of "introducing foreign investment-reconciling debts-resuming production and resuming work" has never been passed.
For example, Nezha Automobile, which is gradually on the verge of bankruptcy, failed to reconcile its debt with its suppliers. This is under the premise that Nezha Automobile still has good overseas sales.
Therefore, judging from the current situation, Gaohe Automobile's debt reduction performance may not reach the expected level. WM Motor and a series of other new power car companies that have experienced broken capital chains and large amounts of arrears, if they want to resume work and production, debt problems will be the most important and the least easy to solve.
Secondly, China's new energy vehicle industry is experiencing a price war that has lasted for nearly three years, and there is no sign of stopping. The most obvious symptom of this price war is that the unit prices of new energy vehicles are getting lower and lower, the configurations are getting higher and higher, and the profit margins of enterprises are getting smaller and smaller.
According to data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, the average price of new energy vehicles in China has been gradually declining in recent years, from 184,000 yuan in 2023 to 171,000 yuan in 2024. By April 2025, this number has reached 161,000 yuan.
While prices are falling, the configurations of China's new energy vehicles are also getting higher and higher. Previously, the Leapmoon B10 was equipped with lidar as standard at the 120,000 yuan level. Later, the Xpeng MONA M03 Max model was equipped with dual NVIDIA Orin-X chips as standard at the 120,000 yuan level, and an assisted driving system with a maximum computing power of 508TOPS.
For Gaohe, which has been discontinued for more than a year, such a market environment almost makes its models no longer have any advantages in software and hardware performance. Putting its high-priced X, Y, and Z models back on the market is tantamount to "suicide."
However, judging from the behavior of EV Electra, it is still unknown whether Gaohe's X, Y, and Z models can reappear in front of consumers.