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Has NIUTRON Kicked the Bucket? 24,376 Customers in China Get Their Deposits Back

On December 28, 2021, we talked about NIUTRON for the first time. It was the brainchild of Yinan Li, a founder of NIU. On January 14, the company presented the NV, an electric SUV with its own platform called Gemini. NIUTRON was expected to start delivering the vehicle in the first half of 2022, then postponed it to December. So far, what reservation holders are getting is their deposits back.
NIUTRON will not deliver the NV anytime soon, so it offered an apology letter, a die-cast model, and deposits back to reservation holders 17 photos
Photo: NIUTRON
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NIUTRON started receiving them after October – when it officially put the three derivatives the NV would have for sale. It was enough for the company to get 24,376 reservations for the electric SUV with Ford Bronco vibes. All these folks will get their money back after the startup released an apology letter stating just that it would be unable to deliver the car “in the short term.” Honestly, the letter seems to bid farewell while also hoping that this can be avoided.

The company addresses the reservation holders and promises to “prepare an NV model for you as planned,” only not in the short term. At the same time, it offers them an RMB200 ($28,69 at the current exchange rate) Starbucks coupon for them to “share a cup of coffee” because they will not be able to do that at the NIUTRON store. The only flash store it had was in Beijing, but it was closed.

According to CNEVPost, NIUTRON would use manufacturing services from Dorcen. This Chinese car company has experienced problems, and the deal with NIUTRON seemed to have given it a bit more time to live. Considering the NV’s fate, that may not have been enough.

If that is the true explanation, Dorcen may not be able to make the NV for NIUTRON. That said, the Chinese startup will have to find a new manufacturing contractor as soon as possible, which is understandably difficult. Until NIUTRON sorts this out, it can not promise to deliver anything apart from the apology letter, the coffee coupons, and the die-cast models of the NV.

This may explain why the company said that “the wonderful journey we were expecting is coming to an end before it has even begun.” It may be talking about Dorcen or its own survival odds. Whatever the answer is, it is a good thing that NIUTRON took care of not letting its reservation holders down. That gives it credit for another try if it finds someone to build the model.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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