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Why a Germany-inspired Chinese electric-vehicle startup does not fear Volkswagen’s electric offensive – Automotive News Europe


This is a typical David-Goliath battle: A small Chinese electric-vehicle startup says it does not fear the electrification challenge coming from the Volkswagen Group, a multi-brand giant that is not only Europe’s largest automaker but also the No.1 automaker by sales in China, the world’s largest auto market.

“Traditional dealers will always push to sell internal combustion engine models because they deliver higher service and aftermarket revenues,” said Freeman Shen, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor. 

WM is short for weltmeister, which means “world champion” in German. The company was founded in 2015 and launched the EX5 compact crossover, its first model in China last September. In the first quarter, WM Motor sold a just 4,085 units of the EX5, whose price in China starts at the equivalent of 23,000 euros (about $26,000) before incentives for the standard version with a 300-km range.

As a comparison, the VW Group sold over 2.5 million units worldwide in the same period.

While WM Motor could be one of the several Chinese battery EV startups that might not live long, Shen, 49, is the perfect example of a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs with a truly international background. He holds a bachelor of science in engineering mechanics from the South China University of Technology, a master’s in structural engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.



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