Zhidou Rainbow
China’s second-largest EV producer, Zhidou has now started its comeback after filing for bankruptcy back in 2019. The company’s first car, the Rainbow, is going to be released in April.
Thanks to info from the Ministry of Industry and IT, we now know a bit more about the Zhidou Rainbow. There are actually two versions of this tiny three-door, four-seater car. The one with the 20-kW electric motor has a range of 201km, which is a bit less than what was previously reported (205km). That extra 4km range is reserved for the 30-kW version.
Unsurprisingly, the two versions have slightly different battery packs – 17.18kWh for the 20kW motor version and 17.3kWh for the 30kW version.The specs say the car weighs 800kg, and the max payload is only 300kg. That’s enough for four adults, maybe even a little extra luggage. The steering wheel airbag isn’t standard on all models, and there’s some sort of event data recorder (EDR) system.
The car comes with 13- or 15-inch wheels, and the steel rims are optional. One cool feature of both front and rear lights is the Y-shaped inserts.
Although Zhidou Rainbow is bigger than similar cars like the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV or the Geely Panda Mini EV, it is still pretty tiny – 3224 x 1515 x 1630mm (length x width x height) and 2100mm wheelbase.
Zhidou’s teaser poster for the Rainbow is a mystery, because the company’s name is spelled in English as “Zhido” instead of “Zhidou”. Maybe it was just a typo, but it’s also possible that the brand is now called “Zhido” in English!
Now, the company is fully known as Nanjing Zhidou New Energy Automobile Company Limited, and Geely Automobile Group CEO Gan Jiayue is the chairman of the board. This shows how complicated Chinese business operations can be, as the MIIT list shows the company as Lanzhou Zhidou Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd.
Lanzhou, located about a thousand kilometers from Nanjing in Gansu province in the northwest, is where the company operates.
Nanjing Zhidou’s biggest stakeholder is a company called Hangzhou Enterprise Management Consulting. They own 84.2% of shares. The four biggest shareholders are: Zhejiang Geely; Zhang Jian, CEO of Aima; Bao Wenguang, founder of Zhidou; and Hangzhou Enterprise Management Co., Ltd.
