Why a Germany-inspired Chinese electric-vehicle startup does not fear Volkswagen's electric offensive

This is a typical David-Goliath battle: A small Chinese electric-vehicle startup says it does not fear the electrification challenge coming from the Volkswagen Group, a multi-brand giant that is not only Europe’s largest automaker but also the No.1 automaker by sales in China, the world’s largest auto market.

“Traditional dealers will always push to sell internal combustion engine models because they deliver higher service and aftermarket revenues,” said Freeman Shen, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor. 

WM is short for weltmeister, which means "world champion" in German. The company was founded in 2015 and launched the EX5 compact crossover, its first model in China last September. In the first quarter, WM Motor sold a just 4,085 units of the EX5, whose price in China starts at the equivalent of 23,000 euros (about $26,000) before incentives for the standard version with a 300-km range.

As a comparison, the VW Group sold over 2.5 million units worldwide in the same period.

While WM Motor could be one of the several Chinese battery EV startups that might not live long, Shen, 49, is the perfect example of a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs with a truly international background. He holds a bachelor of science in engineering mechanics from the South China University of Technology, a master’s in structural engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

On top of this, Shen is a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard Business School. He began his career in the United States at supplier Eaton Corp. He then moved to China, where he held a number of senior roles in the auto industry, including vice president of Fiat Group China and founder and first president of BorgWarner China.

Earlier in his career, Shen was a board member and group vice president of Geely Holding Group. 

While at Geely, he was responsible for the acquisition of Volvo Car Group in 2010, after which he was appointed chairman of Volvo China.

For WM Motor, Shen chose direct sales as the distribution model because he sees vehicles as the low-margin “hardware,” while it is the “software” that will create value in connectivity and mobility services.

Shen's ambition? To create for WM Motor “an ecosystem that will go beyond the product alone.”

His reference model? Tesla, obviously.

His marketing positioning? To create a range of battery-powered cars that will be fun to drive and affordable.