Do you still remember the HiPhi car that had a cool design but went bankrupt?
It has welcomed a white knight from the Middle East and may be coming back from the dead.
It is reported that a Middle Eastern electric vehicle company called EV Electra plans to invest US$1 billion to participate in the restructuring of HiPhi Auto and seek controlling stake.
According to Tianyancha, Jiangsu HiPhi Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established on May 22 with a registered capital of 143.2665 million US dollars. The company is jointly funded by Lebanese electric vehicle company EV Electra Ltd. and HiPhi Automobile's parent company Human Horizons, with shareholding ratios of 69.8% and 30.2% respectively.
The latest environmental impact assessment report disclosed by the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Yancheng City shows that the renovation project of Yueda Kia's first factory, which used to be a HiPhi car OEM factory, has started. It plans to produce three models, HiPhi X, Y, and Z, and is expected to be completed in October this year.
Who exactly is this Middle Eastern electric car company?
Public information shows that EV Electra was founded in 2017 and is an electric vehicle company headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to the official website, the company is the first Arab-Canadian electric car manufacturer to launch electric vehicles; the first electric car company in the Middle East and the Arab world; and has operations in Canada, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Asia.
It is worth noting that EV Electra has been expanding globally in recent years: in 2021, it acquired a majority stake in the Detroit Electric Vehicle Company, and in 2023, it announced the purchase of the NEVS Emily GT and Pons Robotaxi projects.
Currently, HiPhi’s logo and three car models have appeared on the homepage of EV Electra’s official website.
However, unexpectedly, the editor discovered that EV Electra, an electric car company, is actually conducting a public token offering on its official website.
The official website shows that EV Electra has launched its ecological token EVET, which can currently be purchased directly by connecting to a wallet, 1 EVET = 1 USDT. If you don’t know how to use cryptocurrency, it even supports bank transfer purchases.
According to its description, vehicles purchased with EV Electra tokens will receive a 20% discount and can be minted using EVET.
EV Electra NFT, this NFT is equivalent to a virtual share, which can be used to obtain company profits. Of course, the above is just a statement.
Open the white paper released in April 2025 to find out more. EV Electra adopts a dual token system.
EVET is a utility token with a total supply of 1.2 billion, 28.33% of which are privately funded, 41.6% are publicly funded, and 30% belong to the team. According to the pricing of 1EVET=1USDT, it intends to raise $840 million, which is quite ambitious. Its practical benefit is that using EVET for payment can get a 20% discount.
EVEN is an NFT in ERC-721 format with a total of 12 million. It is mainly used for profit sharing and governance. EV Electra promises to convert 10% of the net profit into USDT and distribute it to NFT holders.
In the white paper, EV Electra outlines a blueprint for the future (pie), selling 100,000 vehicles, making $1.5 billion in profits, and distributing $150 million to NFT holders.
According to its development roadmap, EV Electra plans to complete token issuance and exchange listing in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025, establish a governance framework and production schedule in Q3, complete the first USDT profit distribution in 2026, and achieve a target production of 500,000 electric vehicles between 2027 and 2030.
Why issue currency?
EV Electra founder Jihad M. Mohammad posted on his personal social media that the company originally planned to list on the Nasdaq, but changed the plan due to "Trump's crazy behavior" and turned to a "hybrid approach" to digitize part of the company's equity in the form of NFTs. These NFTs will have the right to dividends of the shares. At the same time, it plans to conduct a reverse merger (shell) listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Regarding the use of financing, Jihad bluntly stated that part of the funds will be used to help Palestine and the other part will be used to create a fund, and emphasized that they are the first company to adopt this model and have pure Arab and Muslim blood.
But both EV Electra and its founder Jihad are controversial.
In 2023, EV Electra was accused of participating in a cryptocurrency scam, defrauding investors of their funds under the guise of car manufacturing. Later, Jihad responded that the developer of the software, Swedish businessman Anthony Norman, had been detained, convicted of multiple fraud charges, fired, and investors had received refunds.
At the end of 2023, automotive media reported that EV Electra used pictures of other manufacturers' cars on its website and presented them as its own designs, including the Skywell ET5 SUV, a K-1 Attack kit car, etc., all of which were labeled with the EV Electra logo. After being exposed, these concept pictures disappeared from the EV Electra website.
Currently, the new company jointly established by HiPhi and EV Electra has a registered capital of US$100 million contributed by the new Middle Eastern boss according to the shareholding ratio, and the subscription date is December 31, 2025.
On the official website of EVElectra’s token issuance, HiPhi’s materials have been integrated into it, and it is written that “EV Electra’s acquisition of HiPhi will bring high-end electric vehicles to a whole new level.”
This series of actions has also raised many questions in the industry: a Middle Eastern electric vehicle company with a controversial history, on the one hand, promised to restructure HiPhi with US$1 billion, and on the other hand, raised US$840 million in funds through tokens. Its true intentions and financial strength are worth pondering.
What is even more worrying is that the HiPhi brand and product image have been directly used for token marketing. Has this operation been approved by Human Horizons?
From car manufacturing to token issuance, from Nasdaq listing plans to NFT virtual equity, from promising to help Palestine to claiming pure Arab ancestry, EV Electra's business model and financing strategy seem to be full of uncertainty and contradictions.
We look forward to and support the rebirth of HiPhi, but we also hope that HiPhi can carefully evaluate the qualifications and intentions of its partners, not lose its way in the fog of capital, and not let this Chinese brand become a bargaining chip for foreign companies to hype cryptocurrencies.
After all, a true “white knight” should bring capital, technology, and markets, rather than empty promises and illusory token blueprints.
