In recent years, driven by the continuous deepening of electrification and intelligence, the NEV industry is undergoing a profound structural transformation. This transformation has fundamentally reshaped the requirements of OEMs for electronic control systems. Its core demands have focused on having solutions that are easy to integrate, can be reused across platforms, and can support a shorter vehicle development cycle. The continuous expansion of demand has boosted the electronic control market into a fast track of development. In 2020-2025, the global electronic control market will increase from 383.1 billion yuan to 469.9 billion yuan, and it is expected to further expand to 608.4 billion yuan by 2030.
Taking advantage of the rapid development of the market, electronic control solution provider Zhendrive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhendrive Technology”) has also seized opportunities and achieved leapfrog development in the past few years. Zhitong Finance noticed that recently, Zhendrive Technology once again submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Data shows that by the end of May this year, the company had obtained 59 fixed points from 15 OEMs directly or through tier-1 suppliers, and the company's solutions have been applied to 92 models, 74 of which have entered the mass production stage. Also, according to Frost & Sullivan, in terms of sales revenue, Zhendrive Technology's main solutions are in a leading position in the Chinese market.
However, while Zhendrive Technology is strengthening its market influence, it cannot be ignored that the company has never been able to escape the shadow of continuous losses. From 2023 to 2025, the company's cumulative losses exceeded 900 million yuan. For this young company, which is experiencing rapid expansion, how to transform the advantage of scale into the quality of profit will probably be the most central topic in the long-term growth story.
The profit dilemma behind explosive growth
Looking back at Zhendrive Technology's prospectus, the company's revenue curve over the past few years has been steep. In 2023-2025, Zhendrive Technology's revenue was 160 million yuan, 1,159 billion yuan, and 2 billion yuan respectively; in the first 5 months of this year, Zhendrive Technology's revenue further increased to 956 million yuan, an increase of more than 73% over the previous year.
Looking at the split revenue structure, motor controllers are Zhendrive Technology's largest revenue source. The revenue for 2023-2025 was 138 million yuan, 957 million yuan, and 1.52 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 86.5%, 82.5%, and 76% of the corresponding revenue, respectively. In the first 5 months of 2026, Zhendrive Technology's revenue from the motor controller business was 776 million yuan, accounting for 81.1% of the company's revenue. During the reporting period, the rapid expansion of the power brick business also played a key role in the continuous growth of Zhendrive Technology's revenue. In 2023-2025, the business contributed revenue of 9.661 million yuan, 179 million yuan, and 347 million yuan respectively, accounting for 6%, 15.4%, and 17.3% of the corresponding revenue, respectively. In the same period, Zhendrive Technology also received part of its revenue from power modules, R&D services, and other businesses, but the revenue scale was small.
On the other side of the explosive growth in revenue, Zhendrive Technology's profit situation was not as good as expected. In 2023-2025, Zhendrive Technology's gross profit was -13.342 million yuan, 14.743 million yuan, and 112 million yuan respectively. The corresponding gross margins were -8.3%, 1.3%, and 5.6%, respectively, and is in a continuous optimization trend. In the first 5 months of 2026, the company recorded gross profit of 86.484 million yuan, corresponding to a gross profit margin of 9%, which was further improved.
However, judging from the net profit index, in 2023-2025, Zhendrive Technology's net losses reached 237 million yuan, 335 million yuan, and 331 million yuan respectively, with a total loss of more than 900 million yuan over three years. In the first 5 months of this year, Zhendrive Technology's net loss was 128 million yuan. Although there was an improvement over the previous year, it seems that it is still a long way from breaking out of the profit dilemma.
Can a price-for-volume strategy help break through the siege?
As Zhendrive Technology launches its sprint to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the biggest concern for investors in the secondary market is undoubtedly when will the company's profit inflection point actually arrive?
Disassembling the key operating indicators of Zhendrive Technology's electronic control solutions, I'm afraid it is not easy to answer the above questions. According to the data, from 2023 to 2026, the average sales volume of Zhendrive Technology's motor controllers was 31,900 units, 30,900 units, 61,400 units, and 312,000 units respectively, showing a continuous upward trend; however, the average sales price of this product during the same period was 4,328 yuan, 3099 yuan, 2,473 yuan, and 2,484 yuan respectively. The trend of volume increase but price decline is self-evident. Coincidentally, during the same period, the company's power bricks and power modules also faced continuous downward pressure in sales prices.
According to Zhendrive Technology's explanation, the decline in the average sales price of the company's products is mainly driven by increased competition in the NEV market and product-specific changes in the company's main product line configuration and sales mix. At the industry level, continued pricing pressure has led to a drop in vehicle sales prices, and this pressure has already been transmitted to upstream suppliers. Furthermore, the increasing concentration of the industry has objectively intensified competition among suppliers. The data shows that in 2025, the total market share of the top ten domestic NEV electronic control suppliers was 70.4%, while the market share of the top five power brick suppliers was as high as 92.9%.
Although it is quite difficult to solve the profit dilemma in the short term, according to Zhendrive Technology, in the future, as the scale effect becomes apparent, the company's profit path will become more and more clear. The power brick business, whose potential was first revealed, may be an important gripper for Zhendrive Technology to achieve further development in the future. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the market penetration rate of power bricks will increase dramatically from 5.7% in 2024 to 39.7% in 2030, surpassing the overall growth of the electronic control market and releasing a large amount of incremental demand. As one of the first companies to commercialize and scale power brick solutions, Zhendrive Technology is expected to benefit deeply from this historic stage of accelerated industry penetration.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Zhendrive Technology also plans to expand its electronic control and power electronics solutions from traditional automotive applications to emerging markets with strong long-term growth potential, including eVTOL, physical intelligence, and even AIDC, based on its core competitiveness in power electronics, motor control, and system integration.
However, although Zhendrive Technology has drawn up a grand blueprint for its future, I'm afraid discerning investors will need to put a question mark on whether they are willing to pay for Zhendrive Technology's long-term narrative. If Zhendrive Technology succeeds in realizing the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's dream, the company also needs to prove the value of its long-term investment to the market with a clear profit schedule as soon as possible.