Just recently we wrote about the Chinese EV market eating itself. Now Neta, officially known as Hozon Auto’s electric car brand, who once appeared as a plucky challenger in China’s very packed EV market is no more.
In 2022, Neta delivered over 150,000 vehicles, but by 2024, barely 87,000. Then, earlier this year, everything started to unravel. A planned Series E funding round, targeting US $550–620 million, collapsed in February when production wouldn’t resume, and key investors pulled out.
With debt swelling to nearly US $1.3 billion, suppliers began suing, employees were laid off or saw salary cuts of up to 75%, and the R&D team was gutted, though Neta refuses to call it a full dismantling, they’re just in a sort of crisis.
Distribution channels cracked too, with dealers protesting at factories overpaid for vehicles that didn’t materialise. A simple court petition from a creditor triggered formal bankruptcy proceedings, and Hozon Auto officially entered bankruptcy on June 20, 2025.
Neta’s story isn’t about a fiery explosion of failure. It’s more of a slow, lingering decline, a brand that really only existed on the back of subsidies and wishful thinking, only to discover that without solid funding, healthy margins, and honest supply chains, little remains in a saturated, subsidy-driven marketplace.
To put it simply the Chinese government gave too many subsidies to too many companies and as to now only two companies have ever turned a profit.
Neta cast off the lifeboats and tried to sail into warm overseas waters, Thailand and Malaysia in particular, but ultimately, even a lifeboat needs provisions and discipline.
In the end, like many hopeful newcomers, Neta ran fast and far, but may have outpaced its batteries. The coming months will decide whether it limps on overseas, gets absorbed, or becomes a curious footnote in the EV boom.
