Investment funds from Middle Eastern countries increasingly oriented towards investing in Chinese start-ups active in the production, research and development of zero-emission cars
Until today, the European luxury car industry has been able to count on the fascination exercised among the rich Middle Eastern economies, where wealthy investors have supported their passions for years with huge loans to the manufacturers. A support destined to be scaled down in European mobility which marches in forced stages towards electric, at least according to news from the United Arab Emirates, where Cyvn Holdings, an investment fund of the Abu Dhabi government, recently bought 7% of the shares in Shanghai-based electric vehicle start-up Nio for about $740 million. Nio is the second start-up to receive major funding from the Arab world in the last month, considering the deal signed on June 11 that brought $5.6 billion into the coffers of Human Horizon, a manufacturer of electric vehicles founded in Shanghai in 2017. They are the result of the partnership between the Chinese company founded by Ding Lei, former CEO of Shanghai General Motors, and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investments. Two important investments intended for as many realities in full expansion, but still not profitable.
production in the gulf?
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Both Nio and Human Horizons produce electric sedans and crossovers aimed primarily at the premium segment of the Chinese market. Vehicles currently produced in China, but in all likelihood soon assembled in the financing Arab countries as well. This is what happened with another Chinese zero-emission vehicle startup, Iconiq, founded by entrepreneur Allen Wu in 2016. It was acquired in April 2022 by Nwtn, a company created by Wu himself in Dubai. With the liquidity guaranteed by Sultan Investments, one of the main private real estate developers in the United Arab Emirates, Nwtn first inaugurated a new production site in the Chinese city of Jinhua, and then inaugurated a second one near Dubai, where electric vehicles are assembled with the material delivered from China. In December 2022, NWTN delivered the first batch of 20 electric cars from its Dubai plant to local customers.