Shanghai (ZXZC)- China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Limited (Evergrande Auto), whose Chinese parent is the property conglomerate Evergrande Group, announced on Monday it expected to record a net loss for the first half of 2021 of roughly 4.8 billion yuan ($740.147 million), versus the net loss of around 2.45 billion yuan ($377.783 million) for the year-ago period.

Photo credit: Hengchi, the sole EV brand of Evergrande Auto

The company said the estimated semi-annual net loss is primarily due to the development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) business, which is still in its early investment phase and led to a growth in R&D and other relevant costs, and interest payments.

The company changed its name from Evergrande Health Industry Group Limited to China Evergrade New Energy Vehicle Group Limited on August 26, 2020.

For the year of 2020, Evergrande Auto's annual revenue surged 174.8% to 15.487 billion yuan ($2.388 billion), only 188 million yuan ($28.989 million) of which were from its NEV business. Besides, the company said its NEV segemnt incurred significant operating losses lasy year mainly flowing from the interest expenses for the shareholder loans of 2.744 billion yuan ($423.117 million), the R&D and advertising expenses of 2.28 billion yuan ($351.57 million), as well as the impariment loss on goodwill and intangibel assets of 1.04 billion yuan ($160.365 million).

Evergrande Auto revealed in March the company had already plowed 47.4 billion yuan ($7.309 billion) into NEV business, around 24.9 billion yuan ($3.84 billion) of which were poured into technology R&D, design and acquisition.