Zhiji's authorised-dealer shift ended with stores running off with customer car payments

Zhiji, SAIC's EV brand, started with a direct-sales model and then opened authorised dealers to push volume. By 2026 the channel was mostly dealer-run, and the dealers bore the full cost of the price war — single-car losses, inventory overhang and a 57.2% dealer inventory warning index in June.

In July 2026 stores collapsed one after another: Zhiji's Kunming 官渡用户中心 emptied overnight on July 7, its sales staff and manager unreachable, followed by a Zhuhai store posting a closure notice and a Shanghai store whose manager ran off with customers' money and was handed to police.

Customers who had paid in full found they could not get refunds or delivery, and some received cars whose certificates of conformity had been secretly pawned by the dealer, making them unregisterable. A Kunming buyer paid ¥192,700 and the store collapsed before delivery; a 280-member grievance group counted dozens in the same position.

Zhiji promised to 'backstop' customers, advance funds to redeem the certificates and cut delivery through the factory, but the response was slow — a week after the consolation text, owners said no one had called. The brand that had grown deliveries 58% in the first half was now paying for a channel it had let run on trust.