Chinese electric vehicle startup Neta Auto is Kelly the Coed 1 (1999)facing a range of problems related to financing its operations, as one supplier, Efort, on Nov. 8 filed a lawsuit with the company alleging debts from Neta of RMB 48.2 million ($6.7 million). A day earlier, Neta, called Hozon in China, had begun layoffs after finding it increasingly difficult to pay staff wages, company sources told Caixin. The company, backed by China’s biggest cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, in June filed to go public in Hong Kong, despite combined losses of RMB 17.2 billion during 2021 and 2023 and a negative gross margin of 14.9% as of last year. It delivered roughly 85,900 EVs in the first nine months of this year, down 12.1% from a year ago. [Caixin, in Chinese]
