In recent days, Zotye Auto released its 2024 performance report, showing that the company produced zero cars last year and sold only 14. They incurred a net loss of 1 billion yuan, nearly bringing their production to a halt. However, the company’s executives received salaries totaling nearly 2 million yuan, sparking public scrutiny.
Zotye Auto announced its annual performance report for 2024 on April 27. The report revealed that despite the whole vehicle business being considered the company’s core business, Zotye Auto’s sales volume in 2024 plummeted by 98.74% to only 14 cars. Sales revenue reached 558 million yuan, down by 23.96% compared to the previous year. The net loss attributable to shareholders of the listed company amounted to 1 billion yuan, a 6.82% decrease year-on-year, while the non-GAAP net loss was 1.469 billion yuan, a 49.28% drop.
According to a report by Changjiang Business News, Zotye Auto has been running at a loss for six consecutive years since 2019, accumulating a total net loss of 25.35 billion yuan over the course of six years. By the end of the first quarter of 2025, Zotye Auto’s asset-liability ratio had soared to 96.10%.
Despite the dismal performance, the compensation for Zotye executives increased rather than decreased. The financial report shows that in 2024, the total remuneration for the Zotye executive team of 16 people reached 9.5491 million yuan, representing a growth of over 61% compared to the same period in the previous year.
Among them, Chairman Hu Zeyu received a total pre-tax compensation of 1.9659 million yuan, while Vice President Yin Xuefeng received 1.8361 million yuan. Both executives neared the 2 million yuan mark in terms of salaries, surpassing the yearly salary of 1.676 million yuan for Xiaopeng Auto’s Chairman He Xiaopeng by a considerable margin.
Many netizens questioned, “They can’t even cover the expenses with just 14 cars sold.” “With executives receiving so much money, it’s likely that the employees below them might not even be paid properly. Is this distribution fair?” “Chairman Hu’s annual salary seems like a prelude to the shareholders cashing out. Last year, over 90% of Zotye’s top ten shareholders pledged their shares, illustrating that shareholders have been planning to cash out and run, with high executive salaries marking the final revelry.”
Public data indicates that Zotye Auto, established in 2003 and headquartered in Yongkang, Zhejiang, is a privately-owned enterprise specializing in the core business of complete vehicles and key auto parts brands including Zotye, Jiangnan, and Junma.
Dubbed as the “Counterfeit Porsche,” Zotye Auto, despite its ongoing controversies, initially gained traction by imitating well-known brand models and employing a low-price strategy. It experienced over 30% growth in sales for four consecutive years, at one point ranking among China’s top ten independent automotive companies. In 2017, with a backdoor listing, Zotye Auto reached its peak, achieving a market cap of 29 billion yuan.
However, the good times didn’t last long. Zotye Auto was plagued by scandals, quality issues, and a sharp drop in sales, with sales dropping to 230,000 vehicles in 2018 and plummeting to 21,000 in 2019.
By 2020, Zotye Auto’s complete vehicle production almost came to a standstill, leading to severe insolvency, and the parent company, Tieniu Group, initiated bankruptcy liquidation. From 2021 to 2023, Zotye Auto’s asset-liability ratios were 60.16%, 69.53%, and 79.93%, respectively. Despite the launch of the first new energy vehicle, Jiangnan U2, after restructuring in 2023, the market response was lukewarm.
By the end of 2024, Zotye Auto’s asset-liability ratio had reached 93.33%, with total assets of 3.606 billion yuan and total liabilities of 3.366 billion yuan. The financial report revealed that in 2024, Zotye Auto produced zero new cars, relying on selling 14 cars from their inventory for the entire year, with only 336 cars remaining in stock.