The history of the Zotye car brand

A young Chinese company whose history began in 2003. Then the future car manufacturer specialized in the assembly and sale of spare parts for cars. Zotye Auto as a brand producing cars was founded already in January 2005. Now the automaker regularly produces new cars. The annual number of cars sold is about 500 thousand units. The brand is also known for bringing copies of popular cars to the market, like European ones. as well as Chinese. Since 2017, a subsidiary of Traum has appeared. The location of the brand's headquarters is China, Yongkang. For 2-17 years, Zotie Holding Group is the owner of Zotie and Jiangnan Automotive Company.

Emblem

The Zotye logo is the Latin “Z”, which is made of metal. Obviously, the emblem symbolizes the first letter of the brand name.

Founder

So. as an automobile manufacturer, the company began operating on January 14, 2005. As noted above, before that, she produced and sold spare parts for cars. Having gained a positive reputation. Zotye was able to establish relationships with other car companies. The automotive market began to grow rapidly and the leaders of the brand decided to start producing their own car models.

History of the brand in models

The Zotye RX6400 SUV became the first car released under this brand. Later the name of the car was changed and the car was called Zotye Nomad (or Zotye 208). For the first Chinese cars, the main difference was the similarity with other brands. Not without imitation in this case. This model repeated the car of the Japanese brand Daihatsu. The car was equipped with a Mitsubishi Orion engine.

The second car produced by Zotye had similar features to another well-known car, the Fiat Multipla. The fact is that representatives of the Chinese brand bought the right to produce the car. In addition, another letter appeared in the name - “n”. 

Thus, the minivan was named Multiplan (or M300). 

It so happened that the cooperation with the Italian Fiat became extremely successful. This led to the release of the new Z200 machine. She represented the restyling of the Siena sedan, the release of which continued until 2014. For its creation, the equipment was bought from the Italian brand.

It is worth noting that the Zotye brand in 2009 decided to release one of the most budgetary car models. She became the city car TT. The fact is that the Zotye holding includes another Chinese brand Jiangnan Auto. In her arsenal there was only one model of the car - Jiangnan Alto. The car was similar to the Suzuki Alto. which was released in the 1990s. The engine of the car had a power of 36 horsepower and a volume of 800 cubic cm, consisting of three cylinders. This model has become the cheapest in the world. She was given the name Zotye TT.

2011 saw the release of the V10 car. The minivan was equipped with a motor 

Mitsubishi Orion 4G12. A year later, the brand released the Z300, a small sedan similar to the Toyota Allion.

By 2012, demand and sales in the Land of the Rising Sun car market had declined, leading Zotye to conclude that other car models were in demand, and the brand's management decided to change its focus on crossover production.

And so, in 2013, the company introduced its T600 crossover. He was of medium size. The car was equipped with a Mitsubishi Orion engine. The volume of the engine received 1,5-2 liters. Since 2015, the car has been sold in Ukraine, and since 2016 it has begun to conquer Russian car dealerships. In 2015, the Zotye T600 S was unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show. 

For. to produce the last two car models, production was established in Tatarstan. Equipment at factories in the Republic of Tatarstan is assembled using the SKD method and sent directly to China.

By the way, in 2012, cars under the Zotye brand began to be assembled at an enterprise called “Unison” in Minsk, the capital of the Republic of Belarus. In 2013, the Zotye Z300 car was released there, the sales of which were a failure in Russia, where the car has been delivered since 2014. There. not far from Minsk, the production of another of the representatives of the “Chinese” - T600 has been launched.

Since 2018, a restyling of the model has been released, which has received the name Coupa. 

In 2019, the Chinese market crashed. For the Zotye brand, these events were a real crash. Naturally, this was reflected in the scale of sales of manufactured products. So, over the year, only slightly more than 116 thousand units were sold, which amounted to a decrease in the percentage of sales by 49,9. It goes without saying that the company has lost a lot of finance. The country's authorities decided to provide financial support to a representative of the Chinese car industry. Within the framework of this state support, loans and subsidies were issued by three banks of the country.

it is necessary to note one more direction of the Zotye brand. The company is engaged in a modern direction and develops electric cars. This direction has been mastered since 2011. Then the brand introduced the Zotye 5008 EV electric car. Now in the arsenal of the company there are other models of electric cars. So, in 2017, the Zotye Z100 Plus electric car model appeared. which was available to buyers. the machine is equipped with a 13,5 kW battery. This battery allows you to travel up to 200 kilometers on a single charge.

The brand did not sell a single car in October 2020. Currently, the Chinese car brand does not have its own production. Information about its activities is completely absent. Official comments from representatives have been reported. The Chinese press has little interest in the fate of the company. There are practically no brand cars in car dealerships in Russia, new models are not purchased, and dealers are mainly engaged in servicing already purchased cars.