Skyworth fuels carmaker's ambition with its vehicle trademark

Electric vehicles bearing the popular trademark Skyworth, which was until very recently reserved for home appliances including televisions, are hitting the road in China.

One SUV model is already available in the market, and it will be joined by another three models by 2025.

The sales goal for this year is 12,000 units, and a total of 250,000 Skyworth vehicles will be sold in 2025, said Skyworth founder Huang Hongsheng on Tuesday.

"Skyworth does not produce cars," said Huang, who is also chairman of Chinese new energy vehicle maker Skywell.

"It is Skywell that does," said Huang. Late last month, Skyworth sold its trademark for vehicles to Skywell for 28 million yuan ($4.31 million).

Huang said it is a win-win deal. Skyworth is a household name in China, so it saves time and money for Skywell to build brand awareness.

Skywell has been producing electric buses for 10 years, with combined sales reaching 50,000 units, but it remains a little known name in the passenger vehicle segment.

He said the electric vehicles, which are much more expensive than home appliances, will help boost Skyworth's reputation in return.

But the two companies' partnership is more than that. They built a joint venture back in 2019, which is dedicated to developing electric vehicle software, and Skyworth is a display supplier to Skywell as well.

Huang said Skyworth will showcase the carmaker's models at its dealerships as well, and help arrange test drives and deliveries.

The carmaker is planning its own sales network of 300 dealerships, and around 120 open in major Chinese cities this year.

Huang said Skywell has spent 10 billion yuan in vehicle research and development in the past decade, and will invest another 30 billion yuan in coming years.

He said the carmaker is planning to go public in 2022 at the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board, commonly known as the STAR market. It is scheduled to file the application this year.

"Our goal is a market valuation of 300 billion yuan," said Huang.

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