Form 10-K/A Kandi Technologies Group For: Dec 31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K/A

Amendment No. 1

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT UNDER SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ________ to ________

Commission file number 001-33997

KANDI TECHNOLOGIES GROUP, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in charter)

(86 - 579) 82239856
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Jinhua City Industrial Zone, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China 321016

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐  No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐  No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐   No ☒

The aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s second fiscal quarter, was approximately $365,214,591.

The number of shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of March 10, 2022 was 77,395,130 and 76,256,345, respectively.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE:

None.

Explanatory Note

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD -LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These include statements about our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies for the future, which we indicate by words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “expect,” intend,” “plan,” “will,” “we believe,” “our company believes,” management believes” and similar language. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those set forth in the discussion under Item 1, “Business”, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” Our actual results may differ materially from results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. We base our forward -looking statements on information currently available to us, and we assume no obligation to update them. In addition, our historical financial performance is not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future and we believe such comparisons cannot be relied upon as indicators of future performance.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.

PART I

Except as otherwise indicated in this Annual Report, references to

Kandi Technologies use U.S. dollars as reporting currency in our financial statements and in this Annual Report. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in Renminbi are translated into U.S. dollars at the rates of exchange as of the balance sheet date, equity accounts are translated at historical exchange rates, and revenues, expenses, gains and losses are translated using the average rate for the period. In other parts of this Annual Report, any Renminbi denominated amounts are accompanied by translations. We make no representation that the Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts referred to in this Annual Report could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. The PRC government restricts or prohibits the conversion of Renminbi into foreign currency and foreign currency into Renminbi for certain types of transactions.

Item 1. Business Introduction

Our Core Business

Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. (“Kandi Technologies”) is a Delaware holding company, with its common stock being traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. As a holding company with no material operations of its own, a substantial majority of the operations are conducted through our wholly-owned subsidiaries established in the People’s Republic of China, or the PRC, including Zhejiang Kandi Technologies Group, Co. Ltd. (“Zhejiang Kandi Technologies”) and U.S. wholly-owned subsidiaries SC Autosports, LLC (“SC Autosports”) and their subsidiaries.

Originally, the Company’s primary business operations consist of designing, developing, manufacturing and commercializing electric vehicle (“EV”) products and EV parts. However, in recent years, some EV enterprises in China are seizing market share at the cost of huge losses. The Company gradually realized that the EV market of China has not reached a healthy and orderly development stage. Therefore, with our financial condition, it is unwise to participate in this “loss competition” at this stage. The Company always firmly believes that only with the maturity of changing-battery-model can EV be truly popularized. Since the Company has advanced EV intelligent battery swap equipment, manufacturing capacity of EV with intelligent battery swap mode and dozens of patented technologies in battery swap, the Company will continue to improve and perfect in the field of online car hailing with battery swap mode, and will make full efforts when the EV market of China enters a healthy and orderly development stage. Now with the global trend of “fuel to electrification” of off-road vehicles becoming more and more obvious and huge market demand, in 2022, our PRC entities, including Zhejiang Kandi Technologies, Kandi Hainan and Hainan Kandi Holding will apply EV technology to off-road vehicle products and launch a variety of pure electric utility vehicles (“UTV”), Neighborhood EVs (“NEVs”), Golf carts and off-road crossover vehicles. We will fully enter the off-road vehicle market utilizing the high-end technology that accumulated by Kandi in the field of EVs over the past years, and strive to achieve a leading position in this field in China within three years.

The Company does not believe that our major business is within the targeted areas of concern by the Chinese government. However, Kandi Technologies is a holding company in Delaware and our majority of business is conducted through the Company’s subsidiaries and pre-existed VIE in the PRC and its operations there. Therefore, there is a risk that the Chinese government may in the future seek to affect operations of any company with any level of operations in the PRC, including its ability to offer securities to investors, list its securities on a U.S. or other foreign exchange, conduct its business or accept foreign investment. Additionally, we are subject to certain legal and operational risks associated with our operations in China. PRC laws and regulations governing our current business operations are uncertain, and therefore, these risks may result in a material change in the Company’s operations, significant depreciation of the value of our common stock, or a complete hindrance of our ability to offer or continue to offer our securities to investors. Due to the fact that PRC does not have treaties providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts with the United States and many other countries and regions, direct recognition and enforcement in PRC of judgments of a court in any of these non-PRC jurisdictions in relation to any matter not subject to a binding arbitration provision may be difficult, time-consuming, costly or even impossible, the investors may even need to sue again in one of the courts under PRC jurisdiction. Therefore, our investors may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing judgements or bringing original actions based on United States or foreign laws against us or our management. Changes in currency conversion policies in China and fluctuation in exchange rates may also have a material adverse effect on our business and the value of our securities. During the previous few decades, the economy of China had experienced unprecedented growth. This growth has slowed in the recent years, and if the growth of the economy continues to slow or if the economy contracts, our financial condition may be materially and adversely affected. Recently, the PRC government initiated a series of regulatory actions and statements to regulate business operations in China with little advance notice, including cracking down on illegal activities in the securities market, adopting new measures to extend the scope of cybersecurity reviews, and expanding the efforts in anti-monopoly enforcement. Since these statements and regulatory actions are new, it is highly uncertain how soon legislative or administrative regulation making bodies will respond and what existing or new laws or regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations will be modified or promulgated, if any, and the potential impact of such modified or new laws and regulations will have on our daily business operation, the ability to accept foreign investments and list on an U.S. or other foreign exchange. For a more detailed description of the risks regarding our business structure, please see “Risks Related to Doing Business in China” in pages 22-28. It is still unclear about the scope and the impact of these new regulations, however, these risks could result in a material change in the value of our securities or cause the value of our securities to significantly decline or be worthless.

Our Organizational Structure

The Company’s organizational chart as of the date of this report is as follows:

Please refer to the discussion in NOTE 1 - ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements under Item 8 of this Annual Report for a narrative of our organization structure and operating subsidiaries, including their dates of incorporation and history.

Industry Overview

Over the years, governments and the automobile manufacturing industry have reached a consensus on the importance of diversifying the automobile industry and utilizing various energy resources. China is one of the world’s largest automobile markets. China has relatively scarce fuel reserves but rich natural resources of electric power. As a result, the Chinese government has been implementing industrial policies of supporting new energy vehicles. The diversified market with the coexistence of traditional fuel vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and pure electric vehicles has been initially formed. The Company believes China is a huge prospective market for pure electric vehicles. The Company also believes that in the global automobile industry, there is great development space for the Chinese electric vehicles and their core parts industry in the future. In addition, with the global trend of “fuel to electrification” of off-road vehicles becoming more and more obvious and huge market demand, management believes this industry still has huge development space.

Competitive Landscape

In general, the EV and electric off-road vehicles business faces competition from two groups of competitors: traditional vehicle manufacturers and new market entrants.

In terms of competition with conventional fuel vehicle and off-road vehicles manufacturers, many of the conventional fuel vehicle manufacturers are much larger in terms of size, manufacturing capabilities, customer bases, financial, marketing and human resources than the electric vehicle and electric off-road vehicles manufacturers. However, the conventional fuel vehicles and off-road vehicles face many challenges, including but not limited to environmental pollution and energy scarcity, which in turn provide great opportunities for the rapid development of the EV and electric off-road vehicles industry.

Our Opportunities and Growth Strategy

Due to worsening air pollution and concerns about petroleum resource dependence, the new energy industry is developing vigorously. Given its technology innovation with integrated solutions and operation experience, Kandi has benefited from the development of EV and electric off-road vehicles industry.

The Company’s business strategy includes efforts to provide customers with high-quality products, to expand the footprint in new and existing markets, and to advance our profile and the market demand through the further innovations. The Company also provides products to end users through our distributors.

Today, cities in China face four critical challenges in the traffic environment, including pollution, traffic congestion, insufficient parking availability and growing scarcity of energy supplies, which are mainly the result of ever growing volume of gas-powered private cars. The best solution to these problems is to increase more affordable public transportation for urban residents. Subway and bus used to be the most popular public transportation options in China. They form the main artery of urban public transportation but such system is lack of capillary. In this regard, we introduced the Car-Share Program by using pure electric vehicles. Urban public transportation system can be improved with the online ride-sharing program (“Online Ride-Sharing Program”).

In order to create an ecosphere of EV changing-battery-model, on October 22, 2020, the Company entered into a strategic agreement with Zhejiang State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Company. The two parties will cooperate extensively across the whole supply chain for electric vehicle-battery exchange. This in-depth collaboration will focus on the following areas: centralized constant temperature battery charging, distribution, maintenance, battery recycling, construction and operation of power exchange networks, power exchange services to meet energy demand, grid auxiliary services, flexible control of power load exchange, as well as other value-added services for power exchange stations. The two parties will first start their collaboration in the project of “300,000 government-accredited ride-sharing vehicles within 5 years” (the “Online Ride-Sharing Project”) initiated by Kandi, and then expand into new areas of cooperation based on the progress in this collaboration. Now the Online Ride-Sharing Project is operated by Ruiheng, the investee of Zhejiang Kandi Technologies. Currently, there are two modes of car-share programs in the market. One is that a car rental service provider offers its cars at certain locations, and customers can pick up cars at these locations by themselves. The other mode is that a service provider will deliver cars to the customers pursuant to their need and request made through the service provider’s network platform. A service provider will provide pick-up service with a driver, commonly known as the online ride-sharing service program. Now online ride-sharing service program is one of the most active sharing economy models in China. The innovative business model of the five-year 300,000 units online ride-sharing service program initiated by us provides an excellent solution to EV sharing. The character of this program is that all the cars casted to the online platform use the changing battery model, which solves problems including high price of EVs, short recharging mileage, long recharging time, shortage of charging facilities, battery attenuation and potential pollution problem. Furthermore this model allows the battery to be slowly recharged at a constant temperature, which prolongs the usage life of the battery and realize green energy efficiency We believe that this upgrade to Online Ride-Sharing Program from MPT (“Micro Public Transportation”) advocated and practiced by Kandi do have the opportunity to become the benchmark of urban car-share and play a significant role in the development of EV changing-battery-model ecosphere in the future.

SC Autosports is a Dallas-based sales company with nationwide sales channels in the U.S that is primarily engaged in the wholesale of off-road vehicle products, with a small percentage of its business derived from wholesale and retail of off-road vehicle parts. It has a seasoned management team and a distribution force averaging over ten years of sales experience. Kandi Technologies acquired 100% ownership of SC Autosports on July 1, 2018.

On July 13, 2021, Kandi, through Zhejiang Kandi Technologies, entered into (i) a Share Transfer Agreement (the “Share Transfer Agreement”) with Liao Zongjiang, Liao Chunsheng, and Liao Caijin, three individual shareholders of Jiangxi Huiyi, as defined below (the “Transferors”) and (ii) a Supplementary Agreement (the “Supplementary Agreement”) with the Transferors, pursuant to which Zhejiang Kandi Technologies acquired all the equity interests of Jiangxi Huiyi for a purchase price of RMB 50 million (approximately $7.7 million) in cash by installments to the Transferors. In addition, the Transferors may receive additional restricted stock upon Jiangxi Huiyi’s achievement of certain milestones.

Our Products

General

For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, our products primarily consist of EV parts, EV products, and off-road vehicles including All-Terrain Vehicles (“ATVs”), UTVs, go-karts, and electric scooters, electric self-balancing Scooters and associated parts. Based on our market research on consumer demand trends, the Company has adjusted our production line strategically and continue to develop and manufacture new products in an effort to meet market demand and better serve our customers.

The following table shows the breakdown of our net revenues:

Sales and Distribution

Because our products are manufactured in China, there are two major sales modes of our products sold to the countries and regions other than China market: the first mode is indirect sales to Chinese import and export trading companies for sales to the countries and regions out of China, and the second is direct sales to foreign dealers to export the products manufactured in China to the countries and regions out of China. Our products sold in China are mainly through our sales department to sign sales contracts directly with customers.

Currently, K23 model is applying for manufacture license. If it goes smoothly, it is expected that the manufacture license will be granted at the end of the second quarter of 2022. After receiving the manufacture license, K23 model can be then delivered into the Chinese market. 

During 2020, SC Autosports received the required clearance from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its two electric vehicle (EV) models – the K23 and K27 – via Certificates of Conformity. However, until now, the airbags of the products have not met the technical requirements of the United States. Therefore, the launch time of the above-mentioned two products in the United States is still uncertain. Currently, the low-speed versions (NEV) of K23 and K27, which are specifically designed for the U.S. market have met the relevant requirements in the United States, and now have gradually begun to be delivered to customers. The prototypes of our UTV K32 were delivered to SC Autosports for dealers to review and provide feedback. The initial feedback was positive with some suggestions. Kandi Hainan has made improvement based on the suggestions and plan to deliver first batch of K32 in the late first quarter of 2022. Since the beginning of 2021, SC AutoSports has been signing up and delivering NEV to Kandi’s dealers. The potential buyers can reserve a NEV K23 or K27 by paying a fully unconditionally refundable $100 deposit on our website. Once SC AutoSports receives the reservation fee and request, it will pass the reservation to dealers, who will then contact the potential buyers to complete the purchase process, the completion of which is subject to which payment method the buyers may utilize and the approval of a bank if a loan is needed. Regarding the latest model off-road UTV K32, similar to NEV K23 and K27, SC AutoSports is taking reservations made through its website and plans to deliver first batch of K32 to dealers in the late first quarter of 2022. Please be advised that that SC AutoSports is using online reservations as a lead generator for our dealerships. The final sales will be completed by our dealers. The prototypes shown on our website on the website will be the final models for delivery. Currently SC Autosports sells through the authorized dealers covering more than thirty states, from western coast to eastern coast in the U.S. for its NEV and off-road vehicles. SC Autosports also sells parts and youth vehicles on its website www.partsBoss.com.

Customers

For the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the major customers of our operating subsidiaries, in the aggregate, accounted for 29% and 38% of our sales. Our operating subsidiaries are working on developing new business partners and clients for our products to reduce our dependence on existing customers and is focusing our new business development efforts on pure electric off-road vehicle business.

For the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company’s major customers, each of whom accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated revenue, were as follows:

Sources of Supply

All raw materials are purchased from suppliers. Our operating subsidiaries have developed close relationships with several key suppliers particularly in the procurement of certain key parts. While our operating subsidiaries obtain components from multiple third-party sources in some cases, the Company does not have, and do not anticipate to have, any difficulty in obtaining required materials from our suppliers. The Company believes that our operating subsidiaries have adequate supplies or sources of availability of the raw materials necessary to meet our manufacturing and supply requirements.

For the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, our operating subsidiaries’ material suppliers, each of whom accounted for more than 10% of our total purchases, were as follows:

Intellectual Property and Licenses

The Company’s success partially depends on our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. We rely on a combination of patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret protection laws in China and other jurisdictions, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our intellectual property and our brand. As of December 31, 2021, Zhejiang Kandi Technologies had a total of 73 valid patents and 2 software copyrights, including 1 invention patent, 41 utility model patents and 31 appearance design patents. As of December 31, 2021, Zhejiang Kandi Smart Battery Swap Technology Co., Ltd (“Kandi Smart Battery Swap”) had a total of 83 valid patents and 3 software copyrights, including 68 utility model patents, 12 appearance design patents and 3 invention patents. As of December 31, 2021, Kandi New Energy had a total of 6 valid patents, including 2 utility model patents and 4 appearance design patents. As of December 31, 2021, Yongkang Scrou Electric Co., Ltd. (“Yongkang Scrou”) had a total of 16 valid patents, including 6 utility model patents and 10 appearance design patents. As of December 31, 2021, Kandi Electric Vehicles (Hainan) Co., Ltd. (“Kandi Hainan”) had a total of 22 valid patents, including 21 utility model patents and 1 invention patent. As of December 31, 2021, Jiangxi Province Huiyi New Energy Co., Ltd. (“Jiangxi Huiyi”) had a total of 45 valid patents, including 7 invention patents, 28 utility model patents and 10 appearance design patents. Under Chinese patent law, the utility model patents and appearance design patents shall be valid until 10 years after the date of application. The invention patents shall be valid until 20 years after the date of application. Among the Company’s valid utility model patents, the earliest expiration date is March 2023 and the latest is August 2031. Among the Company’s valid appearance design patents, the earliest expiration date is July 2023 and the latest is May 2031. Among the Company’s valid invention patents, the earliest expiration date is November 2035 and the latest is July 2039. In addition, The Company is authorized to use the trademark “Kandi”. The Company intends to continue to file additional patent applications with respect to our technology.

Zhejiang Kandi Technologies was certified in intellectual property management systems in 2017 and is recognized as a national High and New Technology Enterprise by Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Bureau, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance, Zhejiang Provincial National Tax Bureau and Zhejiang Provincial Local Tax Bureau. The certification is renewed in December 2020. Kandi Smart Battery Swap was certified in intellectual property management systems in 2018 and is recognized as a national High and New Technology Enterprise by Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Bureau, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance, Zhejiang Provincial National Tax Bureau and Zhejiang Provincial Local Tax Bureau in November 2018. The certification is renewed in December 2021. Kandi Hainan was certified in intellectual property management systems in 2020 and is recognized as a national High and New Technology Enterprise in December 2020. Jiangxi Huiyi was certified in intellectual property management systems in 2018 and is recognized as a national High and New Technology Enterprise in August 2018. The certification is renewed in November 2021. The certification is valid for three years. The status of being a national High and New Technology Enterprise qualifies for a preferred 15% income tax rate, as opposed to a standard corporate income tax rate at 25%.

Employees

As of December 31, 2021, excluding contractors and employees with the Affiliate Company, Kandi had a total of 837 full-time employees, as compared to 638 full-time employees as of December 31, 2020, of which 485 employees are production personnel, 30 employees are sales personnel, 101 employees are research and development personnel, and 221 employees are administrative personnel. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relationships with our employees to be good. We also employ consultants on an as-needed basis.

Selected Condensed Consolidated Financial Schedule

The consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K/A reflect the results of operations, financial position and cash flows of the registrant, Delaware incorporated parent company together with those of its subsidiaries, on a consolidated basis. For accounting purpose, the tables below are condensed consolidating schedules summarizing separately the results of operations, financial position and cash flows of the parent company including non-VIE subsidiaries and Kandi New Energy, which was deemed as an VIE since the Company only owned 50% of the equity, and control Kandi New Energy through several contractual agreements prior to its conversion to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhejiang Kandi Technologies effective March 14, 2022, together with eliminating adjustments:

Consolidated Statements of Operations Information

Consolidated Balance Sheets Information

Consolidated Cash Flows Information

Cash Flows between the Company’s Pre-Existed VIE and Other Non-VIE Entities

The tables below show the cash transferred between the non-VIE subsidiaries and the VIE

Intercompany activities between non-VIE subsidiaries and VIE

The tables below present intercompany activities between non-VIE subsidiaries and VIE, balances for receivables and payables between non-VIE subsidiaries and VIE.

1) Intercompany activities between non-VIE subsidiaries and VIE

2) Receivables and payables between non-VIE subsidiaries and VIE

As of the date of this report, we have completed the conversion of Kandi New Energy to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhejiang Kandi Technologies, effective March 14, 2022. Therefore, we have 100% control and ownership of our subsidiaries. There is no limitation or restriction imposed by the regulations regarding fund transfer within companies. Our cash management policy basically is to allocate the cash resources based on the needs and projection of each subsidiary within the Company group. Although the purpose of all transfers needs to be business operation-related, there is no strict limitation on how much cash can be transferred, because the Company treats all subsidiaries as a whole group under the Company’s policy of the fund transfer. The cash transfer is requested when needed and approved by authorized persons based on the amount of cash transfer.

Environmental and Safety Regulation

Emissions

Our products are all subject to international laws and emissions related standards and regulations, including regulations and related standards established by China Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, and European and Canadian legislative bodies.

According to the management’s knowledge, the Company’s products have been designed and developed according to the environmental regulations of the target market since the research and development period, and have passed the corresponding tests before the products are put into production and sales, and obtained the compulsory product certification of the corresponding countries and regions.

If the standards and rules are modified, or interpreted differently, or the product certification certificate expires, the Company will evaluate the product and restart the corresponding product design improvement and product testing/certification procedures to continuously ensure the target market environment regulatory compliance. The Company cannot estimate the extent to which these changes, if any, will affect our operating costs in the future.

Product Safety and Regulation

Safety Regulation

The U.S. federal government and individual states have adopted, or are considering the adoption of, laws and regulations relating to the use and safety of Kandi’s products. The federal government is the primary regulator of product safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) has federal oversight over product safety issues related to ATVs and off-road vehicles. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) has federal oversight over product safety issues related to off-road vehicles and regulates the safety of electric vehicles for road vehicles.

In August 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (the “Product Safety Act”) was passed. The Product Safety Act requires all manufacturers and distributors who import into or distribute ATVs within the United States to comply with the American National Standards Institute/Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (“ANSI/SVIA”) safety standard, which previously had been voluntary. The Product Safety Act also requires the same manufacturers and distributors to have ATV action plans filed with the CPSC that are substantially similar to the voluntary action plans that were previously in effect. Both Kandi and SC Autosports currently comply with the ANSI/SVIA standard.

Kandi’s off-road vehicles are subject to federal vehicle safety standards administered by NHTSA. Kandi’s off-road vehicles are also subject to various state vehicle safety standards. Kandi believes that its off-road vehicles comply with safety standards applicable to off-road vehicles.

Kandi’s off-road vehicles are also subject to international safety standards in places where it sells its products outside the United States. Kandi believes that its off-road vehicle products comply with applicable safety standards in the United States and internationally.

SC Autosports has received the required clearance from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its two electric vehicle (EV) models, the K23 and K27 via Certificates of Conformity. We performed self-inspection comparing to the safety standards published by the United States Department of Transportation. However, until now, the airbags of the products have not met the technical requirements of the United States. Therefore, We are also in the process of modifying features, upgrading the software and technology to cater for our potential U.S. customers. Currently, the low-speed versions (NEV) of K23 and K27, which are specifically designed for the U.S. market have met the relevant requirements in the United States. 

Permission and Approvals

The following table lists all the material permission and approvals the Company and its subsidiaries hold as of December 31, 2021:

Those listed above constitute all the requisite permissions or approvals the Company and its subsidiaries required to operate business. The Company and its subsidiaries have never been denied any applications concerning any permissions or approvals. If the Company or its subsidiaries does not receive or maintain such permissions or approvals, or mistakenly conclude that such permissions or approvals are not required, our business may be adversely affected. In the scenario when the Company does get denied such permissions, the Company would either avoid such field of business, or collaborate with parties that can obtain such permissions. Currently the PRC legal system is under constant development and applicable laws, regulations, or interpretations are subject to substantial uncertainties. If relevant rules suddenly change, we will have to obtain such permissions or approvals, which may be costly, and may temporarily halt our operation of business, negatively affecting our revenues and our securities’ value.

CAC Review

As advised by our PRC Counsel, Zhejiang Lizhou (Jinhua) Law Firm, as of the date of this report, (i) the Company does not hold personal information of over one million users; (ii) the Company and its subsidiaries have not been informed by any PRC governmental authority of any requirement that it file for a cybersecurity review; and (iii) the Company and its subsidiaries have never disclosed any customer or supplier information within China (except when requested by related parties, the company and its subsidiaries tailor their customer or supplier information disclosures to the narrowest possible scope), therefore, the Company believes it is not required to pass cybersecurity review of CAC. We are also not aware that there are relevant laws or regulations in the PRC explicitly requiring us to seek approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for our overseas listing. Further, as of the date of this report, Kandi Technologies and its subsidiaries 1) did not collect any data that will or may negatively influence PRC’s national security; and 2) strictly follow the relevant PRC laws and regulations. Since these statements and regulatory actions are new, however, official guidance and related implementation rules have not been issued. It is highly uncertain what the potential impact such modified or new laws and regulations will have on the daily business operations of our subsidiaries, our ability to accept foreign investments, and our listing on a U.S. exchange. The PRC regulatory authorities may in the future promulgate laws, regulations, or implementing rules that require us, our subsidiaries to obtain regulatory approval from Chinese authorities for listing in the U.S. If we do not receive or maintain the approval, or inadvertently conclude that such approval is not required, or applicable laws, regulations, or interpretations change such that we are required to obtain approval in the future, we may be subject to an investigation by competent regulators, fines or penalties, or an order prohibiting us from conducting an offering, and these risks could result in a material adverse change in our operations and the value of our common stock, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors, or cause such securities to significantly decline in value or become worthless.

Auditors’ Regulations

As auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, our auditor is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB. However, to the extent that our auditor’s work papers become located in China, such work papers will not be subject to inspection by the PCAOB because the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. Inspections of certain other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside of China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. We are required by the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (“HFCAA”) to have an auditor that is subject to the inspection by the PCAOB. While our present auditor is located in the United States and the PCAOB is able to conduct inspections on such auditor, to the extent this status changes in the future and our auditor’s audit documentation related to their audit reports for our company becomes outside of the inspection by the PCAOB or if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely our auditor because of a position taken by an authority in a foreign jurisdiction, trading in our common stock could be prohibited under the HFCAA, and as a result our common stock could be delisted from Nasdaq.

On May 13, 2021, the PCAOB proposed a new rule for implementing the HFCAA. Among other things, the proposed rule provides a framework for the PCAOB to use when determining, under the HFCAA, whether it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms located in a foreign jurisdiction because of a position taken by one or more authorities in that jurisdiction. The proposed rule would also establish the manner of the PCAOB’s determinations; the factors the PCAOB will evaluate and the documents and information it will consider when assessing whether a determination is warranted; the form, public availability, effective date, and duration of such determinations; and the process by which the board of the PCAOB can modify or vacate its determinations. The proposed rule was adopted by the PCAOB on September 22, 2021 and approved by the SEC on November 5, 2021.

Furthermore, on June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (“AHFCAA”), which, if enacted, would amend the HFCAA and require the SEC to prohibit an issuer’s securities from trading on any U.S. stock exchanges if its auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections for two consecutive years instead of three, thus reducing the time period for triggering the prohibition on trading.

While the HFCAA is not currently applicable to the Company because the Company’s current auditors are subject to PCAOB review, if this changes in the future for any reason, the Company may be subject to the HFCAA. The implications of this regulation if the Company were to become subject to it are uncertain. Such uncertainty could cause the market price of our common stock to be materially and adversely affected, and our securities could be delisted or prohibited from being traded on Nasdaq earlier than would be required by the HFCAA. If our common stock is unable to be listed on another securities exchange by then, such a delisting would substantially impair your ability to sell or purchase the common stock when you wish to do so, and the risk and uncertainty associated with a potential delisting would have a negative impact on the price of the common stock.

Principal Executive Offices

Our principal executive office is located in the Jinhua New Energy Vehicle Town in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, PRC, 321016, and our telephone number is (86-579) 82239856.

Enforceability of civil liabilities against foreign persons

We have our principal executive office and substantially all of our operations in PRC. A majority of our directors and officers are nationals and/or residents of countries other than the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for our shareholders to effect service of process upon us or those persons inside PRC. The shareholders may have to rely on international treaties such as Hague Service Convention for service. In addition, PRC does not have treaties providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts with the United States and many other countries and regions. Therefore, direct recognition and enforcement in PRC of judgments of a court in any such non-PRC jurisdictions in relation to any matter not subject to a binding arbitration provision may be difficult, time-consuming, costly or even impossible.

Recent Development Activities

On December 28, 2021, the Company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Jiangxi Huiyi entered mass production of its lithium iron phosphate (“LFP”) battery IFR18650-2200mAh, one of the most advanced on the global market.

On January 10, 2022, the Company announced that Zhejiang Kandi Technologies signed a framework agreement with Hunan Hengrun Automobile Co., Ltd. (“Hengrun”) to jointly produce battery-swappable pure electric vehicles. According to the agreement, Kandi and Hengrun will use their respective capabilities to jointly produce battery-swappable pure electric vehicles. The specific division of labor and cooperation content will be clarified in a separate agreement. The vehicles will be sold under the “Henghe” brand name.

Under the condition that SC Autosports purchased electric golf crossover vehicles from Jiangsu Xingchi Electric Technology Co., Ltd. (“Jiangsu Xingchi”), but Jiangsu Xingchi’s existing production capacity is far from meeting the needs of the U.S. market, in order to expand production capacity as soon as possible to meet the needs of the U.S. market, on February 15, 2022, Kandi Hainan and Jiangsu Xingchi jointly invested RMB 30,000,000 (approximately $4.6 million) in Haikou, Hainan (of which Kandi Hainan owns 66.7% and Jiangsu Xingchi owns 33.3%) to establish Hainan Kandi Holding New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (“Hainan Kandi Holding”). Hainan Kandi Holding will specialize in the production of electric golf crossover vehicles and other products in Kandi Hainan’s factory.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

You should carefully consider the risks described below together with all of the other information included in this report before making an investment decision with regard to our securities. The statements contained in or incorporated into this Annual Report that are not historic facts are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risk Factor Summary

The following are some material risks, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business financial condition, operating results, or prospects.

Risks Relating to Our Business

Our future growth is dependent upon consumers’ willingness to adopt our products.

Our PRC operating entities’ growth is highly dependent upon the adoption by consumers of, and they are subject to a risk of any reduced demand for, alternative fuel vehicles in general and EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles in particular. The market for alternative fuel vehicles and pure electric off-road vehicles is relatively new and rapidly evolving, characterized by rapidly changing technologies, price competition, additional competitors, evolving government regulation and industry standards, frequent new vehicle announcements and changing consumer demands and behaviors. If the market for EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles in China does not develop as we expect or develops more slowly than we expect, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results will be harmed.

Developments in alternative technologies or improvements in the internal combustion engine may materially adversely affect the demand for our Products.

Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as advanced diesel, ethanol, fuel cells or compressed natural gas, or improvements in the fuel economy of the internal combustion engine, may materially and adversely affect our business and prospects in ways we do not currently anticipate. Any failure by us to develop new or enhanced technologies or processes, or to react to changes in existing technologies, could materially delay our development and introduction of new and enhanced EV products and Pure Electric off-road vehicles, which could result in the loss of competitiveness of our vehicles, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors.

If our PRC operating entities are unable to keep up with advances in electric vehicle and pure electric off-road vehicle technology, we may suffer a decline in our competitive position.

Our PRC operating entities may be unable to keep up with changes in EV and pure electric off-road vehicle technology, and they may suffer a resulting decline in the competitive position. Any failure to keep up with advances in EV and pure electric off-road vehicle technology would result in a decline in their competitive position which would materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. Our research and development efforts may not be sufficient to adapt to changes in EV and pure electric off-road vehicle technology. As technologies change, our PRC operating entities plan to upgrade or adapt the vehicles and introduce new models in order to continue to provide vehicles with the latest technology, in particular battery cell technology. However, our PRC operating entities’ vehicles may not compete effectively with alternative vehicles and pure electric off-road vehicles if they are not able to source and integrate the latest technology into their vehicles. For example, our PRC operating entities do not manufacture battery cells, which makes them dependent upon other suppliers of battery cell technology for our battery packs. 

Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our executive officers, and our business may be severely disrupted if we lose their services.

Our future success depends substantially on the continued services of our executive officers, especially our CEO and Chairman of the Board, Mr. Hu Xiaoming. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our executive officers. If any of our executive officers are unable or unwilling to continue in their present positions, we may not be able to replace them readily, if at all. Therefore, our business may be severely disrupted, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and retain new officers. In addition, if any of our executive officers joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose some of our customers.

Our PRC operating entities may be subject to product liability claims or recalls which could be expensive, damage our reputation or result in a diversion of management resources.

Our PRC operating entities may be subject to lawsuits resulting from injuries associated with the use of the vehicles that they sell or produce. We may incur losses relating to these claims or the defense of these claims. There is a risk that claims or liabilities will exceed our insurance coverage. In addition, we may be unable to retain adequate liability insurance in the future.

Our PRC operating entities may also be required to participate in recalls involving our vehicles, if any (including the products SC Autosports sell in the U.S.) proves to be defective, or our PRC operating entities may voluntarily initiate a recall or make payments related to such claims as a result of various industry or business practices or the need to maintain good customer relationships. Such a recall would result in a diversion of resources. While our PRC operating entities do maintain product liability insurance, we cannot assure investors that it will be sufficient to cover all product liability claims, that such claims will not exceed our insurance coverage limits or that such insurance will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Any product liability claim brought against us could have a material adverse effect on the results of our operations.

We and our PRC operating entities retain certain personal information about our customers and may be subject to various privacy and consumer protection laws.

We and our operating companies use the electronic systems of our vehicles to log information about each vehicle’s condition, performance and use in order to aid us in providing customer service, including vehicle diagnostics, repair and maintenance, as well as to help us collect data regarding our customers’ charge time, battery usage, mileage and efficiency habits and to improve our vehicles. We also collect information about our customers through our website, at our stores and facilities, and via telephone.

Our customers may object to the processing of this data, which may negatively impact our ability to provide effective customer service and develop new vehicles and products. Collection and use of our customers’ personal information in conducting our business may be subject to national and local laws and regulations in China, and such laws and regulations may restrict our processing of such personal information and hinder our ability to attract new customers or market to existing customers. We may incur significant expenses to comply with privacy, consumer protection and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards or contractual obligations. Although we take steps to protect the security of our customers’ personal information, we may be required to expend significant resources to comply with data breach requirements if third parties improperly obtain and use the personal information of our customers or we otherwise experience a data loss with respect to customers’ personal information. A major breach of our network security and systems could have serious negative consequences for our businesses and future prospects, including possible fines, penalties and damages, reduced customer demand for our vehicles, and harm to our reputation and brand.

Our PRC operating entities’ business will be adversely affected if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties.

Any failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights could result in the weakening or loss of such rights, which may allow our competitors to offer similar or identical products or use identical or confusingly similar branding, potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage, a decrease in our revenue or an attribution of potentially lower quality products to us, which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results. Our success depends, at least in part, on our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of patents, patent applications, trade secrets (including know-how), employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, copyright protection, trademarks, intellectual property licenses and other contractual rights to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our technology. We have also received from third parties patent licenses related to manufacturing our vehicles.

The protection provided by the patent laws is and will be important to our future opportunities. However, such patents and agreements and various other measures we take to protect our intellectual property from use by others may not be effective for various reasons, including the following:

Existing trademark and trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements afford only limited protections. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States, and policing the unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult.

We may need to defend ourselves against patent or trademark infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and could cause us to incur substantial costs.

Companies, organizations or individuals, including our competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell or market our vehicles or components, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive inquiries from holders of patents or trademarks regarding their proprietary rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise assert their rights and seek licenses. In addition, if we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:

In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology or other intellectual property right, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

We may also face claims that our use of technology licensed or otherwise obtained from a third party infringes the rights of others. In such cases, we may seek indemnification from our licensors/suppliers under our contracts with them. However, indemnification may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our costs and losses, depending on our use of the technology, whether we choose to retain control over conduct of the litigation, and other factors.

Our PRC operating entities’ vehicles make use of lithium-ion battery cells, which have the potential to catch fire or vent smoke and flame. This may lead to additional concerns about batteries used in automotive applications.

The battery packs in our EV products and pure electric off-road vehicles make use of lithium-ion cells. Our PRC operating entities also currently intend to make use of lithium-ion cells in battery packs on any future vehicles we may produce. On rare occasions, lithium-ion cells can rapidly release the energy they contain by venting smoke and flames in a manner that can ignite nearby materials as well as other lithium-ion cells. Extremely rare incidents of laptop computers, cell phones and EV battery packs catching fire have focused consumer attention on the safety of these cells.

These events have raised concerns about batteries used in EV products and pure electric off-road vehicles applications. To address these questions and concerns, a number of battery cell manufacturers are pursuing alternative lithium-ion battery cell chemistries to improve safety. Our PRC operating entities may have to recall their vehicles or participate in a recall of a vehicle that contains their battery packs, or redesign their battery packs, which would be time consuming and expensive. Also, negative public perceptions regarding the suitability of lithium-ion cells for automotive applications or any future incident involving lithium-ion cells such as a vehicle or other fire, even if such incident does not involve us, could seriously harm our business.

In addition, our PRC operating entities store a significant number of lithium-ion cells at our manufacturing facility. Any mishandling of battery cells may cause disruption to the operation of our facilities. While our PRC operating entities have implemented safety procedures related to the handling of the cells, there can be no assurance that a safety issue or fire related to the cells would not disrupt our operations. Such damage or injury would likely lead to adverse publicity and potentially a safety recall. Moreover, any failure of a competitor’s EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles, may cause indirect adverse publicity for us and our EV products. Such adverse publicity would negatively affect our brand and harm our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Compliance with environmental regulations can be expensive, and noncompliance with these regulations may result in adverse publicity and potentially significant monetary damages and fines.

The business operations of our PRC operating entities generate noise, waste water, gaseous byproduct and other industrial waste. Our PRC operating entities are required to comply with all national and local regulations regarding the protection of the environment. Our PRC operating entities are in compliance with current environmental protection requirements and have all necessary environmental permits to conduct our business. However, if more stringent regulations are adopted in the future, the costs of compliance with these new regulations could be substantial. Additionally, if our PRC operating entities fail to comply with present or future environmental regulations, they may be required to pay substantial fines, suspend production or cease operations. Any failure by our PRC operating entities to control the use of, or to adequately restrict the unauthorized discharge of, hazardous substances could subject us to potentially significant monetary damages and fines or suspensions to our business operations. Certain laws, ordinances and regulations could limit our ability to develop, use, or sell our products.

Our high concentration of sales to relatively few customers may result in significant impact on our liquidity, business, results of operations and financial condition.

As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, our operating subsidiaries’ major customers (above 10% of the total revenue), in the aggregate, accounted for 29% and 38%, respectively, of their sales. Due to the concentration of sales to relatively few customers, loss of one or more of these customers will have relatively high impact on their operational results.

Our business is subject to the risk of supplier concentrations.

Our operating subsidiaries depend on a limited number of suppliers for the sourcing of major components and parts and principal raw materials. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the major suppliers (above 10% of the total purchases) of our operating subsidiaries accounted for 50% and 71% of their purchases, respectively. As a result of this concentration in our supply chain, our operating subsidiaries’ business and operations would be negatively affected if any of their key suppliers were to experience significant disruption affecting the price, quality, availability or timely delivery of their products. The partial or complete loss of these suppliers, or a significant adverse change in our relationship with any of these suppliers, could result in lost revenue, added costs and distribution delays that could harm our business and customer relationships. In addition, concentration in our supply chain can exacerbate our exposure to risks associated with the termination by key suppliers of our distribution agreements or any adverse change in the terms of such agreements, which could have a negative impact on our revenues and profitability.

Our facilities or operations could be damaged or adversely affected as a result of disasters, epidemics or other unpredictable events.

The Company’s headquarters and facilities are located in several cities in China such as Jinhua, Yongkang and Haikou. If major disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, wars, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, pandemics or other events occur, or our information system or communications network breaks down or operates improperly, our headquarters and production facilities may be seriously damaged, or we may have to stop or delay production and shipment of our products. For example, our business could be adversely affected by the effects of a widespread outbreak of contagious disease, including the outbreak of COVID-19. Any outbreak of contagious diseases, and other adverse public health developments, particularly in China, could have a material and adverse effect on our business operations. These could include disruptions or restrictions on our ability to travel or to distribute our products, as well as temporary closures of our facilities or the facilities of our suppliers, manufacturers or customers. Any disruption or delay of our operation and those of our suppliers, manufacturers or customers would adversely impact our sales and operating results. In addition, a significant outbreak of contagious diseases in the human population could result in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets of China and many other countries, resulting in an economic downturn that could affect demand for our products and we may incur expenses relating to such damages, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Pandemic COVID-19 may adversely impact the transportation industry and our business.

Our PRC operating entities’ ability to manufacture and/or sell their products may be impaired by damage or disruption to our manufacturing, warehousing or distribution capabilities, or to the capabilities of their suppliers, logistics service providers or independent distributors. This damage or disruption could result from factors that are hard to predict or are beyond our control, such as natural disasters, fire, terrorism, pandemics, strikes, cybersecurity breaches, government shutdowns, disruptions in logistics, supplier capacity constraints or other events.

The spread of COVID-19 around China and other parts of the world has caused significant volatility in the markets of China, U.S., and the rest of the world. The pandemic has resulted in quarantines, travel restrictions, and the temporary closure of stores and facilities in China and elsewhere. However, the extent to which the COVID-19 impacts our PRC operating entities’ operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the duration of the outbreak, new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the actions to contain the coronavirus or minimize its harm, among others.

Failure to take adequate steps to mitigate the likelihood or potential impact of such events, or to effectively manage such events if they occur, may adversely affect our business or financial results. Disputes with significant suppliers, logistics service providers or independent distributors, including disputes regarding pricing or performance, may also adversely affect our ability to manufacture and/or sell our products, as well as our business or financial results. Our PRC operating entities are actively monitoring the recent coronavirus outbreak and its potential impact on their supply chain and operations. Due to current and potential future port closures and other restrictions resulting from the outbreak, global supply may become constrained, which may cause the negative impact on our sale of off-road vehicles to the U.S. While we do not expect that the virus will have a material adverse effect on our business or financial results at this time, we are unable to accurately predict the impact that the coronavirus will have due to various uncertainties, including the ultimate geographic spread of the virus, the severity of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, and effectiveness of the actions that may be taken by governmental authorities.

Our EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles may not perform in line with customer expectations.

Our EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles may not perform in line with customers’ expectations. For example, our vehicles may not have the durability or longevity of other vehicles in the market, and may not be as easy and convenient to repair as other vehicles in the market. Any product defects or any other failure of our vehicles to perform as expected could harm our reputation and result in adverse publicity, lost revenue, delivery delays, product recalls, product liability claims, harm to our brand and reputation, and significant warranty and other expenses, and could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.

In addition, the range of our vehicles on a single charge declines principally as a function of usage, time and charging patterns as well as other factors. For example, a customer’s use of his or her EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles as well as the frequency with which he or she charges the battery can result in additional deterioration of the battery’s ability to hold a charge.

Furthermore, our vehicles may contain defects in design and manufacture that may cause them not to perform as expected or that may require repair. While we have performed extensive internal testing on our vehicles’ software and hardware systems, we have a limited frame of reference by which to evaluate the long-term performance of our systems and vehicles. There can be no assurance that we will be able to detect and fix any defects in the vehicles prior to their sale to consumers. If any of our vehicles fail to perform as expected, we may need to delay deliveries, initiate product recalls and provide servicing or updates under warranty at our expense, which could adversely affect our brand in our target markets and could adversely affect our business, prospects and results of operations.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential shareholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our stock.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. As directed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX 404, the SEC adopted rules requiring public companies to include a report of management on our internal controls over financial reporting in their annual reports.

Although we continue to maintain and improve our internal control procedures, we cannot provide assurance that we will not fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment on an ongoing basis, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Substantial uncertainties and restrictions on the political and economic policies of the PRC government, PRC laws and regulations which can change quickly with little advance notice, and Chinese government’s tendency to intervene or influence your operations at any time, or may exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers could have a significant impact upon the business that we may be able to conduct in the PRC and accordingly on the results of our operations and financial condition; may restrict the level of legal protections to foreign investors and could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors and cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or be worthless;

Kandi Technologies’ business operations conducted through our PRC operating entities may be adversely affected by the current and future political environment in the PRC. Recently, the PRC government initiated a series of regulatory actions and statements to regulate business operations in China with little advance notice, including cracking down on illegal activities in the securities market, adopting new measures to extend the scope of cybersecurity reviews, and expanding the efforts in anti-monopoly enforcement. The Chinese government exerts substantial influence and control over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities. Our PRC operating entities’ ability to operate in China may be adversely affected by changes in Chinese laws and regulations. Under the current government leadership, the government of the PRC has been pursuing reform policies which have adversely affected China-based operating companies whose securities are listed in the United States, with significant policies changes being made from time to time without notice. There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the laws and regulations governing our business, or the enforcement and performance of our contractual arrangements. Only after 1979 did the Chinese government begin to promulgate a comprehensive system of laws that regulate economic affairs in general, deal with economic matters such as foreign investment, corporate organization and governance, commerce, taxation and trade, as well as encourage foreign investment in China. Although the influence of the law has been increasing, China has not developed a fully integrated legal system and recently enacted laws and regulations may not sufficiently cover all aspects of economic activities in China. Also, because these laws and regulations are relatively new, and because of the limited volume of published cases and their lack of force as precedents, interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations involve significant uncertainties. New laws and regulations that affect existing and proposed future businesses may also be applied retroactively. In addition, there have been constant changes and amendments of laws and regulations over the past 30 years in order to keep up with the rapidly changing society and economy in China. Because government agencies and courts provide interpretations of laws and regulations and decide contractual disputes and issues, their inexperience in adjudicating new business and new polices or regulations in certain less developed areas causes uncertainty and may affect our operating entities’ business. Consequently, we cannot predict the future direction of Chinese legislative activities with respect to either businesses with foreign investment or the effectiveness on enforcement of laws and regulations in China. The uncertainties, including new laws and regulations and changes of existing laws, as well as judicial interpretation by inexperienced officials in the agencies and courts in certain areas, may cause possible problems to foreign investors. Although the PRC government has been pursuing economic reform policies for more than two decades, the PRC government continues to exercise significant control over economic growth in the PRC through the allocation of resources, controlling payments of foreign currency, setting monetary policy and imposing policies that impact particular industries in different ways. We cannot assure you that the PRC government will continue to pursue policies favoring a market oriented economy or that existing policies will not be significantly altered, especially in the event of a change in leadership, social or political disruption, or other circumstances affecting political, economic and social life in the PRC. The Chinese government may intervene or influence our operations at any time, or may exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers, which could result in a material change in our operations and/or the value of the securities being offered. Any adverse changes in Chinese laws and regulations and the Chinese government’s significant oversight and discretion over the conduct of our business could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors and cause the value of our securities to significantly decline or be worthless.

Adverse regulatory developments in China may subject us to additional regulatory review, and additional disclosure requirements and regulatory scrutiny to be adopted by the SEC in response to risks related to recent regulatory developments in China may impose additional compliance requirements for companies like us with China-based operations, all of which could increase our compliance costs, subject us to additional disclosure requirements.

The recent regulatory developments in China, in particular with respect to restrictions on China-based companies raising capital offshore, may lead to additional regulatory review in China over our financing and capital raising activities in the United States. In addition, we may be subject to industry-wide regulations that may be adopted by the relevant PRC authorities, which may have the effect of restricting the scope of our operations in China, or causing the suspension or termination of our business operations in China entirely, all of which will materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may have to adjust, modify, or completely change our business operations in response to adverse regulatory changes or policy developments, and we cannot assure you that any remedial action adopted by us can be completed in a timely, cost-efficient, or liability-free manner or at all.

On July 30, 2021, in response to the recent regulatory developments in China and actions adopted by the PRC government, the Chairman of the SEC issued a statement asking the SEC staff to seek additional disclosures from offshore issuers associated with China-based operating companies before their registration statements will be declared effective. On August 1, 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission stated in a statement that it had taken note of the new disclosure requirements announced by the SEC regarding the listings of Chinese companies and the recent regulatory development in China, and that both countries should strengthen communications on regulating China-related issuers. We cannot guarantee that we will not be subject to tightened regulatory review and we could be exposed to government interference in China. 

Compliance with China’s new Data Security Law, Measures on Cybersecurity Review, Personal Information Protection Law (second draft for consultation), regulations and guidelines relating to the multi-level protection scheme and any other future laws and regulations may entail significant expenses and could materially affect our business. 

China has implemented or will implement rules and is considering a number of additional proposals relating to data protection. China’s new Data Security Law took effect in September 2021. The Data Security Law provides that the data processing activities must be conducted based on “data classification and hierarchical protection system” for the purpose of data protection and prohibits entities in China from transferring data stored in China to foreign law enforcement agencies or judicial authorities without prior approval by the Chinese government.

Additionally, China’s Cyber Security Law requires companies to take certain organizational, technical and administrative measures and other necessary measures to ensure the security of their networks and data stored on their networks. Specifically, the Cyber Security Law provides that China adopt a multi-level protection scheme (MLPS), under which network operators are required to perform obligations of security protection to ensure that the network is free from interference, disruption or unauthorized access, and prevent network data from being disclosed, stolen or tampered. Under the MLPS, entities operating information systems must have a thorough assessment of the risks and the conditions of their information and network systems to determine the level to which the entity’s information and network systems belong-from the lowest Level 1 to the highest Level 5 pursuant to a series of national standards on the grading and implementation of the classified protection of cyber security. The grading result will determine the set of security protection obligations that entities must comply with. Entities classified as Level 2 or above should report the grade to the relevant government authority for examination and approval.

Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China has taken action against several Chinese internet companies in connection with their initial public offerings on U.S. securities exchanges, for alleged national security risks and improper collection and use of the personal information of Chinese data subjects. According to the official announcement, the action was initiated based on the National Security Law, the Cyber Security Law and the Measures on Cybersecurity Review, which are aimed at “preventing national data security risks, maintaining national security and safeguarding public interests.” On July 10, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China published a revised draft of the Measures on Cybersecurity Review, expanding the cybersecurity review to data processing operators in possession of personal information of over 1 million users if the operators intend to list their securities in a foreign country.

It is unclear at the present time how widespread the cybersecurity review requirement and the enforcement action will be and what effect they will have on our business. China’s regulators may impose penalties for non-compliance ranging from fines or suspension of operations, and this could lead to us delisting from the U.S. stock market.

Also, recently, the National People’s Congress released the Personal Information Protection Law, which has become effective on November 1, 2021. The law creates a comprehensive set of data privacy and protection requirements that apply to the processing of personal information and expands data protection compliance obligations to cover the processing of personal information of persons by organizations and individuals in China, and the processing of personal information of persons in China outside of China if such processing is for purposes of providing products and services to, or analyzing and evaluating the behavior of, persons in China. The law also provides that critical information infrastructure operators and personal information processing entities who process personal information meeting a volume threshold to-be-set by Chinese cyberspace regulators are also required to store in China personal information generated or collected in China, and to pass a security assessment administered by Chinese cyberspace regulators for any export of such personal information. Lastly, the draft contains proposals for significant fines for serious violations of up to RMB 50 million or 5% of annual revenues from the prior year and may also be ordered to suspend any related activity by competent authorities.

Interpretation, application and enforcement of these laws, rules and regulations evolve from time to time and their scope may continually change, through new legislation, amendments to existing legislation and changes in enforcement. Compliance with the Cyber Security Law and the Data Security Law could significantly increase the cost to us of providing our service offerings, require significant changes to our operations or even prevent us from providing certain service offerings in jurisdictions in which we currently operate or in which we may operate in the future. Despite our efforts to comply with applicable laws, regulations and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection and information security, it is possible that our practices, offerings or platform could fail to meet all of the requirements imposed on us by the Cyber Security Law, the Data Security Law and/or related implementing regulations. Any failure on our part to comply with such law or regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or information security, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access, use or release of personally identifiable information or other data, or the perception or allegation that any of the foregoing types of failure or compromise has occurred, could damage our reputation, discourage new and existing counterparties from contracting with us or result in investigations, fines, suspension or other penalties by Chinese government authorities and private claims or litigation, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if our practices are not subject to legal challenge, the perception of privacy concerns, whether or not valid, may harm our reputation and brand and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, the legal uncertainty created by the Data Security Law and the recent Chinese government actions could materially adversely affect our ability, on favorable terms, to raise capital, including engaging in follow-on offerings of our securities in the U.S. market.

Recent greater oversight by the CAC over data security, particularly for companies seeking to list on a foreign exchange, could adversely impact our business and our offering.

On December 28, 2021, the CAC and other relevant PRC governmental authorities jointly promulgated the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which will take effect on February 15, 2022. The Cybersecurity Review Measures provide that net platform operators engaging in data processing activities that affect or may affect national security must be subject to cybersecurity review by the Cybersecurity Review Office of the PRC. According to the Cybersecurity Review Measures, a cybersecurity review assesses potential national security risks that may be brought about by any procurement, data processing, or overseas listing. The Cybersecurity Review Measures require that an online platform operator which possesses the personal information of at least one million users must apply for a cybersecurity review by the CAC if it intends to be listed in foreign countries.

On November 14, 2021, the CAC published the Security Administration Draft, which provides that data processing operators engaging in data processing activities that affect or may affect national security must be subject to network data security review by the relevant Cyberspace Administration of the PRC. According to the Security Administration Draft, data processing operators who possess personal data of at least one million users or collect data that affects or may affect national security must be subject to network data security review by the relevant Cyberspace Administration of the PRC. The deadline for public comments on the Security Administration Draft was December 13, 2021. 

As advised by our PRC Counsel, Zhejiang Lizhou (Jinhua) Law Firm, as of the date of this report, (i) the Company does not hold personal information of over one million users; (ii) the Company and its subsidiaries have not been informed by any PRC governmental authority of any requirement that it file for a cybersecurity review; and (iii) the Company and its subsidiaries have never disclosed any customer or supplier information within China (except when requested by related parties, the company and its subsidiaries tailor their customer or supplier information disclosures to the narrowest possible scope), therefore, the Company believes it is not required to pass cybersecurity review of CAC. We are also not aware that there are relevant laws or regulations in the PRC explicitly requiring us to seek approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for our overseas listing. Further, as of the date of this report, Kandi Technologies and its subsidiaries 1) did not collect any data that will or may negatively influence PRC’s national security; and 2) strictly follow the relevant PRC laws and regulations. There remains uncertainty, however, as to how the Cybersecurity Review Measures and the Security Administration Draft will be interpreted or implemented and whether the PRC regulatory agencies, including the CAC, may adopt new laws, regulations, rules, or detailed implementation and interpretation related to the Cybersecurity Review Measures and the Security Administration Draft. If any such new laws, regulations, rules, or implementation and interpretation come into effect, we will take all reasonable measures and actions to comply and to minimize the adverse effect of such laws on us. We cannot guarantee, however, that we will not be subject to cybersecurity review and network data security review in the future. During such reviews, we may be required to suspend our operation or experience other disruptions to our operations. Cybersecurity review and network data security review could also result in negative publicity with respect to our Company and diversion of our managerial and financial resources, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial conditions, and results of operations.

The approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”) may be required in connection with future offering under a PRC regulation adopted in August 2006, and, if required, we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain such approval.

The Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Companies by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, adopted by six PRC regulatory agencies in 2006 and amended in 2009, require an overseas special purpose vehicle formed for listing purposes through acquisitions of PRC domestic companies and controlled by PRC companies or individuals to obtain the approval of the CSRC prior to the listing and trading of such special purpose vehicle’s securities on an overseas stock exchange. In September 2006, the CSRC published a notice on its official website specifying documents and materials required to be submitted to it by a special purpose vehicle seeking CSRC approval of its overseas listings. However, substantial uncertainty remains regarding the scope and applicability of the M&A Rules to offshore special purpose vehicles. Currently, there is no consensus among leading PRC law firms regarding the scope and applicability of the CSRC approval requirement.

Based on our understanding of the Chinese laws and regulations in effect at the time of this report, we will not be required to submit an application to the CSRC for its approval of an offering in a foreseeable future and the listing and trading of our common stock on Nasdaq. However, there remains some uncertainty as to how the M&A Rules will be interpreted or implemented in the context of an overseas offering and our belief is subject to any new laws, rules and regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations in any form relating to the M&A Rules or overseas offering approval. We cannot assure you that relevant PRC governmental agencies, including the CSRC, would reach the same conclusion as we do.

Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the “Opinions on Severely Cracking Down on Illegal Securities Activities According to Law,” or the Opinions, which was made available to the public on July 6, 2021. The Opinions emphasized the need to strengthen the administration over illegal securities activities, and the need to strengthen the supervision over overseas listings by Chinese companies. Effective measures, such as promoting the construction of relevant regulatory systems will be taken to deal with the risks and incidents of China-concept overseas listed companies, and cybersecurity and data privacy protection requirements and similar matters. On July 10, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a revised draft of the Measures for Cybersecurity Review for public comments, which required that, among others, in addition to “operator of critical information infrastructure”, any “data processor” controlling personal information of no less than one million users which seeks to list in a foreign stock exchange should also be subject to cybersecurity review, and further elaborated the factors to be considered when assessing the national security risks of the relevant activities. We do not believe we are among the “operator of critical information infrastructure” or “data processor” as mentioned above. Based on the above and our understanding of the Chinese laws and regulations currently in effect as of the date of this report, we will not be required to submit an application to the CSRC or the CAC for the approval of a future offering and the listing and trading of our securities on the Nasdaq. However, the revised draft of the Measures for Cybersecurity Review is in the process of being formulated and the Opinions remain unclear on how it will be interpreted, amended and implemented by the relevant PRC governmental authorities. Thus, it is still uncertain how PRC governmental authorities will regulate overseas listing in general and whether we are required to obtain any specific regulatory approvals. Furthermore, if the CSRC or other regulatory agencies later promulgate new rules or explanations requiring that we obtain their approvals for future offering and any follow-on offering, we may be unable to obtain such approvals which could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to our investors. For instance, in the event that the CSRC approval or any regulatory approval is required for a future offering, or if the CSRC or any other PRC government authorities promulgates any new laws, rules or regulations or any interpretation or implements rules before our listing that would require us to obtain the CSRC or any other governmental approval for a future offering, we may face sanctions by the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies if we fail to seek CSRC approval for such future offering. These sanctions may include fines and penalties on our operations in the PRC, limitations on our operating privileges in the PRC, delays in or restrictions on the repatriation of the proceeds from a future offering into the PRC, restrictions on or prohibition of the payments or remittance of dividends by our PRC subsidiary, or other actions that could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, reputation and prospects, as well as the trading price of our common stock. The CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies may also take actions requiring us, or making it advisable for us, to halt a future offering before the settlement and delivery of the securities that we offer. Consequently, if you engage in market trading or other activities in anticipation of and prior to the settlement and delivery of the securities we offer, you would be doing so at the risk that the settlement and delivery may not occur. Any uncertainties or negative publicity regarding such approval requirements could have a material adverse effect on our ability to complete any follow-on offering of our securities or the market for and market price of our common stock.

It may be difficult for U.S. regulators, such as the Department of Justice, the SEC, and other authorities, to conduct investigation or collect evidence within China.

Shareholder claims or regulatory investigation that are common in the United States generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in China. For example, in China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigations initiated outside China. Although the authorities in China may establish a regulatory cooperation mechanism with the securities regulatory authorities of another country or region to implement cross-border supervision and administration, such cooperation with regulatory authorities in the Unities States—including the SEC and the Department of Justice—may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. Furthermore, according to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law, which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the PRC territory. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be promulgated, the inability for an overseas securities regulator to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within China may further increase the difficulties you face in protecting your interests.

Our auditor, Paris, Kreit & Chiu CPA LLP is headquartered in New York, and is subject to inspection by the PCAOB on a regular basis. To the extent that our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit documentation related to their audit reports for our company become located in China, the PCAOB may not be able inspect such audit documentation and, as such, you may be deprived of the benefits of such inspection and our common stock could be delisted from the stock exchange pursuant to the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.

The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the HFCAA, was enacted on December 18, 2020. The HFCAA states if the SEC determines that we have filed audit reports issued by a registered public accounting firm that has not been subject to inspection by the PCAOB for three consecutive years beginning in 2021, the SEC shall prohibit our shares from being traded on a national securities exchange or in the over-the-counter trading market in the United States.

Pursuant to the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the HFCAA, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “PCAOB”) issued a Determination Report on December 16, 2021 which found that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in parts of the PRC including: (i) Mainland China, and (ii) Hong Kong. In addition, the PCAOB’s report identified the specific registered public accounting firms which are subject to these determinations. Our auditor, Paris, Kreit & Chiu CPA LLP, is headquartered in New York and is subject to inspection by the PCAOB on a regular basis. Our auditor is not headquartered in the PRC and was not identified in this report as a firm subject to the PCAOB’s determination.

Our independent registered public accounting firm issued an audit opinion on the financial statements included in this report filed with the SEC and will issue audit reports related to us in the future. As auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, our auditor is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB. However, to the extent that our auditor’s work papers become located in China, such work papers will not be subject to inspection by the PCAOB because the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. Inspections of certain other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside of China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. We are required by the HFCAA to have an auditor that is subject to the inspection by the PCAOB. While our present auditor is located in the United States and the PCAOB is able to conduct inspections on such auditor, to the extent this status changes in the future and our auditor’s audit documentation related to their audit reports for our company becomes outside of the inspection by the PCAOB or if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely our auditor because of a position taken by an authority in a foreign jurisdiction, trading in our common stock could be prohibited under the HFCAA, and as a result our common stock could be delisted from Nasdaq.

On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the HFCAA, which became effective on May 5, 2021. We will be required to comply with these rules if the SEC identifies our auditors as having a “non-inspection” year under a process to be subsequently established by the SEC.

On May 13, 2021, the PCAOB proposed a new rule for implementing the HFCAA. Among other things, the proposed rule provides a framework for the PCAOB to use when determining, under the HFCAA, whether it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms located in a foreign jurisdiction because of a position taken by one or more authorities in that jurisdiction. The proposed rule would also establish the manner of the PCAOB’s determinations; the factors the PCAOB will evaluate and the documents and information it will consider when assessing whether a determination is warranted; the form, public availability, effective date, and duration of such determinations; and the process by which the board of the PCAOB can modify or vacate its determinations. The proposed rule was adopted by the PCAOB on September 22, 2021 and approved by the SEC on November 5, 2021.

On June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed AHFCAA which, if passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law, would reduce the number of consecutive non-inspection years required for triggering the prohibitions under the HFCAA from three years to two, under this proposal, if the auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections for two consecutive years, it will trigger the prohibition on trading, thus posing more risks on potential delisting as well as the price of Company’s common stock especially on foreign companies.

The SEC is assessing how to implement other requirements of the HFCAA, including the listing and trading prohibition requirements described above. The SEC may propose additional rules or guidance that could impact us if our auditor is not subject to the PCAOB inspection. For example, on August 6, 2020, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, issued the Report on Protecting United States Investors from Significant Risks from Chinese Companies to the then President of the United States. This report recommended the SEC implement five recommendations to address companies from jurisdictions that do not provide the PCAOB with sufficient access to fulfill its statutory mandate. Some of the concepts of these recommendations were implemented with the enactment of the HFCAA. However, some of the recommendations were more stringent than the HFCAA. For example, if a company was not subject to the PCAOB inspection, the report recommended that the transition period before a company would be delisted would end on January 1, 2022.

On December 2, 2021, the SEC issued amendments to finalize the interim final rules previously adopted in March 2021, and established procedures to identify issuers and prohibit the trading of the securities of certain registrants as required by the HFCAA.

While the HFCAA is not currently applicable to the Company because the Company’s current auditors are subject to PCAOB review, if this changes in the future for any reason, the Company may be subject to the HFCAA. The implications of this regulation if the Company were to become subject to it are uncertain. Such uncertainty could cause the market price of our common stock to be materially and adversely affected, and our securities could be delisted or prohibited from being traded on Nasdaq earlier than would be required by the HFCAA. If our common stock is unable to be listed on another securities exchange by then, such a delisting would substantially impair your ability to sell or purchase the common stock when you wish to do so, and the risk and uncertainty associated with a potential delisting would have a negative impact on the price of the common stock.

The economy of China had experienced unprecedented growth. This growth has slowed in the recent years, and if the growth of the economy continues to slow or if the economy contracts, our financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

The rapid growth of the Chinese economy had historically resulted in widespread growth opportunities for industries across China. This growth has slowed in the recent years. As a result of the global financial crisis and the inability of enterprises to gain comparable access to the same amounts of capital available in past years, there may be an adverse effect on the business climate and growth of private enterprises in China. An economic slowdown could have an adverse effect on our sales and may increase our costs. Further, if economic growth continues to slow, and if, in conjunction, inflation continues unchecked, our costs would be likely to increase, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to increase our prices to an extent that would offset the increase in our expenses.

In addition, a tightened labor markets in our geographic region may result in fewer qualified applicants for job openings in our facilities. Further, higher wages, related labor costs and other increasing cost trends may negatively impact our results.

The coronavirus outbreak has significantly slowed down China’s extraordinary, nearly half-century-long run of growth. According to an article titled “China’s Economy Shrinks, Ending a Nearly Half-Century of Growth” published on the New York Times on April 18, 2020, Chinese officials said that China’s economy shrank 6.8 percent in the first three months of 2020 compared with a year ago. The data reflects China’s drastic efforts to stamp out the coronavirus, which included shutting down most factories and offices in January and February as the outbreak sickened tens of thousands of people. Although China has managed a turnaround during the fourth quarter of 2020, we cannot predict how China’s economy will develop amid the significant uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Uncertainties with respect to the Chinese legal system could have a material adverse effect on us and may restrict the level of legal protections to foreign investors.

China’s legal system is based on statutory law. Unlike the common law system, statutory law is based primarily on written statutes. Previous court decisions may be cited as persuasive authority but do not have a binding effect. Since 1979, the Chinese government has been promulgating and amending laws and regulations regarding economic matters, such as corporate organization and governance, foreign investment, commerce, taxation and trade. However, since these laws and regulations are relatively new, and the Chinese legal system continues to rapidly evolve, the interpretation of many laws, regulations and rules is not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties, which may limit legal protections available to us.

In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and may result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management’s attention. The legal system in China cannot provide investors with the same level of protection as in the U.S. The Company is governed by laws and regulations generally applicable to local enterprises in China. Many of these laws and regulations were recently introduced and remain experimental in nature and subject to changes and refinements. Interpretation, implementation and enforcement of the existing laws and regulations can be uncertain and unpredictable and therefore may restrict the legal protections available to foreign investors.

Changes in currency conversion policies in China may have a material adverse effect on us.

Renminbi (“RMB”) is still not a freely exchangeable currency. Since 1998, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China has promulgated a series of circulars and rules in order to enhance verification of foreign exchange payments under Chinese entity’s current account items, and has imposed strict requirements on borrowing and repayments of foreign exchange debts from and to foreign creditors under the capital account items and on the creation of foreign security in favor of foreign creditors.

This may complicate foreign exchange payments to foreign creditors under the current account items and thus may affect the ability to borrow under international commercial loans, the creation of foreign security, and the borrowing of RMB under guarantees in foreign currencies. Moreover, the value of RMB may become subject to supply and demand, which could be largely impacted by international economic and political environments. Any fluctuations in the exchange rate of RMB could have an adverse effect on the operational and financial condition of the Company and its subsidiaries in China.

Restrictions on currency exchange may limit our ability to receive and use our revenue effectively.

Some of our revenue is denominated in Renminbi. As a result, restrictions on currency exchange may limit our ability to use revenue generated in Renminbi to fund any business activities we may have outside China in the future or to make dividend payments to our shareholders in U.S. dollars. Under current PRC laws and regulations, Renminbi is freely convertible for current account items, such as trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions and dividend distributions. However, Renminbi is not freely convertible for direct investment or loans or investments in securities outside China, unless such use is approved by SAFE. For example, foreign exchange transactions under our subsidiary’s capital account, including principal payments in respect of foreign currency-denominated obligations, remain subject to significant foreign exchange controls and the approval requirement of SAFE. These limitations could affect our ability to convert Renminbi into foreign currency for capital expenditures. To the extent cash and/or assets in the business is in the PRC or a PRC entity, the funds and/or assets may not be available to fund operations or for other use outside of the PRC due to interventions in or the imposition of restrictions and limitations on the ability of us or our subsidiaries by the PRC government to transfer cash and/or assets. And the Chinese government is further strengthening the control of foreign exchange, we will not be able to change the Chinese government’s decision in our own power.

Fluctuations in exchange rates could adversely affect our business and the value of our securities.

The value of our common stock will be indirectly affected by the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollars and RMB and between those currencies and other currencies in which our sales may be denominated. Because substantially all of our earnings and cash assets are denominated in RMB, fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the RMB will affect our balance sheet and our earnings per share in U.S. dollars. In addition, appreciation or depreciation in the value of the RMB relative to the U.S. dollar would affect our financial results reported in U.S. dollar terms without giving effect to any underlying change in our business or results of operations.

Investors may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing judgements or bringing original actions based on United States or foreign laws against us or our management.

We, through our PRC operating entities, conduct substantially all of our operations in China and almost all of our assets are located in China. In addition, almost all of our senior executive officers reside in China. As a result, it may not be possible to effect service of process on our senior executive officers within the United States or elsewhere outside China, including with respect to matters arising under U.S. federal securities laws or applicable state securities laws. Moreover, our Chinese counsel has advised us that China does not have treaties with the United States or many other countries providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of court orders and final judgments.

Changes to the government’s subsidy support policies and further delays in subsidy payments may have negative impacts on our operations.

On March 31, 2020, in order to promote automobile consumption, the executive meeting of the State Council decided to extend two preferential policies of new energy vehicle purchase subsidy and vehicle purchase tax exemption for another two years, which were originally due at the end 2020. However, there is no assurance that such favorable policies will be further extended when they become due in two years. Any unfavorable changes of the policies, the unavailability, reduction or elimination of government and economic incentives could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.

Risks Associated With the Export of Kandi Electric Vehicles to and sale in the United States

Our intellectual property rights may be harmed by competitors preemptively filing legitimate and illegitimate patents, which could create significant barriers for our business by preventing us from adequately protecting our intellectual property.

Multinational automobile companies usually obtain patent portfolios consisting of basic patents and peripheral patents on improvements and related technologies, thereby creating patent barriers in the industry. At the same time, certain multinational automobile companies also maliciously apply for patents, in order to obtain an unlawful competitive advantage or to directly receive invalid rights and use patents as weapons in litigation. New energy vehicles are emerging products in worldwide markets in recent years, while relevant and related patents in the industry are still in force. Kandi may be seriously adversely affected by intellectual property rights barriers through participation in the competitive international automobile market. Therefore, Kandi faces risks of patent barriers and intellectual property litigation in the future.

Failures in our U.S. business may present a risk of significant losses to our business.

Our automobile product export and overseas operations sections involve import and export currency exchange, insurance, ocean transportation, customs clearance and various other logistical procedures. A loss of trust in any part of the chain can lead to the failure of transactions, which in turn causes huge losses to our enterprise. In the future, the Company will expand its overseas market. An insufficient assessment of the capital strength and commercial credit of its partners, or any fraud in risk prevention and risk control systems may cause economic losses for the Company due to its business partners’ breach of contract or even fraud. In short, shipping Kandi electric vehicles and products to the United States may have risks in the U.S. operation, and import and export trade process.

The United States has strict environmental laws and regulations which may cause us to expend significant sums to comply with such laws and regulations.

The United States and other developed countries have strong awareness of environmental protection and product safety regulations. The penalties for violating environmental laws in such countries are extremely high. Developed countries have mature and highly saturated automobile markets. Costs associated with maintaining controls over atmospheric emissions, harmful toxic substances, and products safety are getting higher in an accelerated manner. The process for a company to obtain the applicable certifications is time-consuming, complicated and expensive. Kandi will also face the adverse impact of compliance with policy and regulatory standards in the United States. Thus, Kandi may face the risk of not being able to sustain its business in accordance with US and state environmental protection and product safety policies and regulations.

Our short-term financial performance may suffer due to our investment in expanding our presence and sales in the United States.

Chinese auto products have market competition disadvantages in terms of technology content, product structure, product quality and brand influence. It is difficult to reverse the sentiment of “low quality and low price” that has followed Chinese automobiles for a long time, resulting in weakened bargaining power for Chinese auto companies and generally low gross profit margins. Kandi is expanding into the US market and rely on overseas distributors to establish a marketing network and after-sales service guarantee system. All actions require the Company to invest a certain amount of resources. Additionally electric vehicle sales may face a slow growth period. In a certain period of time, the growth of operating income lags behind the increase in sales inputs. At the same time, the Company cannot predict the direct economic loss caused by an unsatisfactory market expansion caused by the adverse factors of market competition. Cash flows for Kandi and SC Autosports may be significantly adversely affected by large investments and small revenues in the short term. Therefore, there may be a risk that the short-term financial performance indicators will fall due to factors such as the expansion of resources in overseas markets.

Risks Associated With lack of authorized dealer and the absence of after-sales maintenance.

Our electric vehicles in China are mainly directly sold to the online car-hailing platform, not through dealers.

In U.S. market, without authorized dealers, the delivery of EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles may be delayed. Hence customers may delay, reduce or cancel the purchase orders of our EVs and pure electric off-road vehicles, and our business operations may be adversely affected. At the same time, in the absence of after-sales maintenance by the dealers, not only the cost and complexity of maintenance will be increased, it will also affect customers’ access to warranty and other after-sales service support, which may then weaken customers’ confidence in our brand, and we may even encounter potential lawsuits due to lack of support to the customers. This can affect our brand and business, and bring an adverse impact to the financial condition and operating performance of the Company.

Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Securities

Our stock price may be volatile, which may result in losses for our shareholders.

The stock markets have experienced significant price and trading volume fluctuations. Although our stock has been trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market since January 2, 2014, the trading price of our common stock may be volatile and could fluctuate significantly in response to many factors, including the following, some of which are beyond our control:

Domestic and international stock markets often experience significant price and volume fluctuations. These fluctuations, as well as general economic and political conditions unrelated to our performance, may adversely affect the price of our common stock.

Mr. Hu, our CEO, President and Chairman of our Board, is the beneficial owner of a substantial portion of our outstanding common stock, which may enable Mr. Hu to exert significant influence on corporate actions.

Excelvantage Group Limited controls approximately 16.72% of our outstanding shares of common stock as of December 31, 2021. Hu Xiaoming, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, is the sole stockholder of Excelvantage Group Limited. Together with the shares held through Excelvantage Group Limited, Mr. Hu controls 18.7% of our outstanding shares of common stock, which could have a substantial impact on matters requiring the vote of our shareholders, including the election of our directors and other corporate actions. This control could delay, defer or prevent others from initiating a potential merger, takeover or other change in control, even if these actions would benefit our other shareholders and the Company. This control could adversely affect the voting and other rights of our other shareholders and could depress the market price of our common stock.

Our ability to distribute dividends is restricted by PRC Company Law and Foreign Investment Law

According to the PRC Company Law and Foreign Investment Law, our PRC subsidiary, as a foreign-invested enterprise, or FIE, we may only pay dividends out of their accumulated profit, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition we are required to draw 10% of its after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a common reserve, which may stop drawing its after-tax profits if the aggregate balance of the common reserve has already accounted for over 50% of its registered capital. The reserve funds are not distributable as cash dividends. A PRC company is not permitted to distribute any profits until any losses from prior fiscal years have been offset. Our ability to distribute dividends may be restricted because of the above-mentioned regulations. We may even cannot distribute dividends if we are suffering loss in certain fiscal year in the future.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends to our common shareholders.

We presently do not anticipate that we will pay dividends on any of our common stock in the foreseeable future. If payment of dividends does occur at some point in the future, it would be contingent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements, and general financial condition. The payment of any common stock dividends will be within the discretion of our Board. We presently intend to retain all earnings in order to implement our business plan; accordingly, we do not anticipate the declaration of any dividends for common stock in the foreseeable future.

The limitation of monetary liability against our directors, officers and employees under Delaware Law and the existence of statutory indemnification rights of our directors, officers and employees may result in substantial expenditures by our company and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers and employees.

Our certificate of incorporation does not contain any specific provisions that limit the liability of our directors for monetary damages to the Company or shareholders; however, we are prepared to indemnify our directors and officers to the extent provided for by Delaware law. We may also have included contractual indemnification obligations in our employment agreements with our officers. The foregoing indemnification obligations could result in the Company incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against its directors and officers, which we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and resultant costs may also discourage the Company from bringing a lawsuit against directors and officers for breaches of their fiduciary duties, and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our shareholders against our directors and officers even though such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit the Company and shareholders.

We may require additional capital, and the sale of additional shares or other equity securities could result in additional dilution to our shareholders.

In the future, we may require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other future developments, including investments or acquisitions that we may decide to pursue. If our resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity securities could result in dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. We cannot assure investors that financing will be available, if at all, in amounts or on terms acceptable to us.

Our business is subject to changing regulations related to corporate governance and public disclosure that may increase both our costs and the risk of noncompliance.

Because our common stock is publicly traded, we are subject to certain rules and regulations of federal, state and financial market exchange entities charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded. These entities, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC and NASDAQ, have issued requirements and regulations and continue to develop additional regulations and requirements in response to corporate scandals and laws enacted by Congress. Our efforts to comply with these regulations have resulted in, and are likely to continue resulting in, increased general and administrative expenses and diversion of management time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities. Because new and modified laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices.

Techniques employed by manipulative short sellers in Chinese small cap stocks may drive down the market price of our common stock.

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has, supposedly, borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities back at a later date to return to the lender. The short seller hopes to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the sale of the borrowed securities and the purchase of the replacement shares, as the short seller expects to pay less in that purchase than it received in the sale. As it is therefore in the short seller’s best interests for the price of the stock to decline, many short sellers (sometimes known as “disclosed shorts”) publish, or arrange for the publication of, negative opinions or reports regarding the relevant issuer and its business prospects in order to create negative market momentum and generate profits for themselves after selling a stock short. These short attacks have, in the past, led to selling of shares in the market, on occasion in large scale and broad base.

Short seller publications are not regulated by any governmental, self-regulatory organization or other official authority in the U.S. and are not subject to the certification requirements imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Regulation AC (Regulation Analyst Certification) and, accordingly, the opinions they express may be based on distortions of actual facts or, in some cases, fabrications of facts. In light of the limited risks involved in publishing such information, and the enormous profit that can be made from running just one successful short attack, unless the short sellers become subject to significant penalties, it is more likely than not that disclosed short sellers will continue to issue such reports.

While we intend to strongly defend our public filings against any such short seller attack, often times we are constrained, either by principles of freedom of speech, applicable state law (often called “Anti-SLAPP statutes”), or issues of commercial confidentiality, in the manner in which we can proceed against the relevant short seller. You should be aware that in light of the relative freedom to operate that such persons enjoy – oftentimes blogging from outside the U.S. with little or no assets or identity requirements – should we be targeted for such an attack, our stock will likely suffer from a temporary, or possibly long term, decline in market price should the rumors created not be dismissed by market participants.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

This item is not applicable to us.

Item 2. Properties.

Kandi had the following granted land use rights as of December 31, 2021:

All land in China is owned by the government and cannot be sold or transferred by or to any individual or private entity. Instead, the government grants or allocates landholders “land use rights.” There are four methods to acquire land use rights:

In comparison with the western common law concepts, granted land use rights are similar to life estates and allocated land use rights are in some ways similar to leaseholds.

Granted land use rights are provided by the Chinese government in exchange for a grant fee and carry the rights to pledge, mortgage, lease, and transfer during the term of the grant. Land is granted for a fixed term, which is generally 70 years for residential use, 50 years for industrial use, and 40 years for commercial or other use. The term is renewable in theory. Granted land must be used for the specific purpose for which it was granted.

Allocated land use rights cannot be pledged, mortgaged, leased, or transferred. They are generally provided by the government for an indefinite period (usually to state-owned entities) and can be reclaimed by the government at any time. Allocated land use rights may be converted into granted land use rights upon the payment of a grant fee to the government.

Kandi has the following real estate properties:

Jinhua City, Zhejiang

Zhejiang Kandi Technologies owns the following facilities located in Jinhua New Energy Vehicle Town, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China. The table below lists the primary facilities and the status of each facility as of December 31, 2021:

Yongkang City, Zhejiang

Yongkang Scrou owns the following facilities located in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province, China. The table below lists the primary facilities and the status of each facility:

Haikou City, Hainan

In December 2015, the Company signed an investment contract with Haikou State High Technology Industry Development Zone to build up the EV production facility in Haikou City to an annual production of 100,000 EV products. The Hainan facility’s main project including manufacturing plant and office, main manufacturing equipment and facilities has been completed and the project completion acceptance is being processed.

Project completion acceptance means the process that related construction unit, contractor and inspection and acceptance committee carry out their inspection and appraisal for the overall project after the project is completed and qualified for trial production. The inspection and appraisal are based on design documents, construction acceptance rules and quality inspection standards approved, in accordance with related procedures and formalities. Project completion acceptance is the last step in the whole process of a project construction, and is also necessary before formal production.

Acceptance process mainly includes 1) quality acceptance of buildings organized by government construction regulators; 2) acceptance of fire safety facilities; 3) acceptance of environmental protection technology; and 4) trial production acceptance of production facilities.

As of the date of this report, pre-acceptance of the main project of quality supervision, as part of the Project Quality Acceptance of buildings, was completed in March 2022. Pre-acceptance of fire protection has been carried out in March 2022, and right now is undergoing the process. Fire protection expert has provided some suggestion for improvement, and the Company is currently working on the remediation. Environmental Protection Acceptance report, as part of the acceptance of environmental protection technology process, was completed on June 3, 2022. The report is being reviewed by the related examiners from the pre-acceptance expert team. The processing equipment and assembly lines have passed the joint debugging and testing, and related acceptance has been completed.

According to the review opinions of the pre-acceptance expert team, the Company has started to take technical improvement measures and arrange necessary funds and prepared to apply formal acceptance to related government authorities once the implementation of various technical measures has completed. Therefore, the expected completion time cannot be determined at present.

At present, the relevant department of the government verbally allows small-scale production prior to the completion of acceptance process, so Hainan factory is producing its products in the form of trial production, waiting for the final completion acceptance of the project. However, during the period of completion acceptance, if the local government regulatory authorities no longer allow us to produce, or we are required to stop production, we may be subject to a fine less than RMB 1 million, and our revenue may be adversely affected. Other than that, the Company has no any other risks associated with the Hainan factory.

Xinyu City, Jiangxi

Jiangxi Huiyi owns the following facilities located in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, China. The table below lists the primary facilities and the status of each facility:

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

From time to time, the Company is involved in legal matters arising in the ordinary course of business. Except as set forth in Note 25 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES under Item 8 Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, our management is currently not aware of any legal matters or pending litigation that would have a significant effect on the Company’s results of operation of financial statements. For the detailed discussion of our legal proceedings, please refer to Note 25 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES under Item 8 Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Other than the above described legal proceedings, the Company is not aware of any other legal matters in which any director, officer, or any owner of record or beneficial owner of more than five percent of any class of voting securities of the Company, or any affiliate of any such director, officer, affiliate of the Company, or security holder, is a party adverse to the Company or has a material adverse interest to the Company. No provision has been made in the consolidated financial statements for the above contingencies.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information

On January 2, 2014, our common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “KNDI”.

Holders of Common Stock

As of March 10, 2022, there were 28 shareholders of record of our common stock. This does not include all beneficial holders who hold shares through their brokerage accounts.

Dividends

We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock. Our policy is to retain all earnings, if any, to provide funds for the operation and expansion of our business. We do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare cash dividends will be made at the discretion of our Board, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our Board may deem relevant.

Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

On May 14, 2019, the board of directors had authorized the repurchase of up to $20 million worth of the Company’s common stock in open market transactions or in privately negotiated transactions. As previously disclosed, the Company had repurchased a total of 487,155 common shares at an average stock price of $5.09 per share under the repurchase plan. Such repurchase plan expired on December 31, 2019. On December 16, 2020, the board of directors of the Company approved to retire 487,155 shares of its common stock held in treasury, and the retirement was completed as of December 31, 2020.

On December 1, 2021, the board of directors had authorized the repurchase of up to $20 million worth of the Company’s common stock in open market transactions or in privately negotiated transactions. As of December 31, 2021, the Company had repurchased a total of 679,749 common shares at an average stock price of $3.52 per share under the repurchase plan.

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

Item 6. [Reserved]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation.

Overview

Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. (“Kandi Technologies) is a Delaware holding company, which is trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. As a holding company with no material operations of our own, we conduct a substantial majority of our operations through our wholly-owned subsidiaries established in the People’s Republic of China, or the PRC, including Zhejiang Kandi Technologies Group, Co. Ltd. (“Zhejiang Kandi Technologies”) and U.S. wholly-owned subsidiaries SC Autosports, LLC (“SC Autosports”) and their subsidiaries.

Originally, our primary business operations consist of designing, developing, manufacturing and commercializing electric vehicle (“EV”) products and EV parts. However, in recent years, some EV enterprises in China are seizing market share at the cost of huge losses. We gradually realized that the EV market of China has not reached a healthy and orderly development stage. Therefore, with our financial condition, it is unwise to participate in this “loss competition” at this stage. We always firmly believe that only with the maturity of changing-battery-model can EV be truly popularized. Since we have advanced EV intelligent battery swap equipment, manufacturing capacity of EV with intelligent battery swap mode and dozens of patented technologies in battery swap, we will continue to improve and perfect in the field of online car hailing with battery swap mode, and will make full efforts when the EV market of China enters a healthy and orderly development stage. Now with the global trend of “fuel to electrification” of off-road vehicles becoming more and more obvious and the market demand is huge, in 2022, we will apply EV technology to off-road vehicle products and launch a variety of pure electric UTV, NEV, Golf carts and off-road crossover vehicles. We will fully enter the off-road vehicle market utilizing the high-end technology that accumulated by Kandi in the field of EVs over the past years, and strive to achieve a leading position in this field in China within three years.

For the year ended December 31, 2021, we recognized total revenue of $91,486,384 as compared to $76,920,513 for the same period of 2020, an increase of $14,565,871 or 18.9%. For the year ended December 31, 2021, we recorded $16,247,862 of gross profit, an increase of 20.5% from the same period of 2020. Gross margin for the year ended December 31, 2021, was 17.8%, compared to 17.5% for the same period of 2020. We recorded a net income of $22,863,798 for the year ended December 31, 2020, compared to a net loss of $10,394,164 in the same period of 2020, an increase in income of $33,257,962 or 320.0%.

Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 around the world overall, we were still productive during the year ended December 31, 2021. Most importantly, after a lengthy process of preparation, the “300,000 government-accredited pure EV within 5 years rideshare” program - of which Kandi was a co-founder - has begun its trial. Our commitment for this project is to provide EV products with battery swap mode (through Kandi Hainan) and battery swap system (through Kandi Smart Battery Swap) according to the project progress of Zhejiang Ruiheng Technology Co., Ltd (“Ruiheng”) (the operating company). Our first step is to plan gradual delivery of 1,000 EVs to the city of Haikou in Hainan province and 2,500 EVs to the city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. Currently, 73 EVs has been delivered in Haikou and 109 EVs has been delivered in Shaoxing. The smart battery swap system developed by Kandi Smart Battery Swap is composed of eight modules: (1) Battery swap system to search and swap battery automatically. (2) Vehicle positioning system to eliminate deviations and pinpoint location of vehicles, to adjust positioning parameter setting based on the vehicle models and to provide battery swap service for a variety of vehicles. (3) Electronic control management system to achieve automatic control through the sensor information collection. (4) Battery capacity management system to pinpoint the empty and fully charged batteries. (5) User interaction system for one-click operation and automatic billing. (6) Battery charging management system to regulate the whole charging process. (7) Data push system to facilitate user to swap battery through the data pushing technology. (8) Video monitoring system to ensure the safety of the battery swap process through the real-time monitoring system. The smart battery swap system has six advantages: (1) One-click battery swap. The battery swap process is completely automatic and requires no involvement of a professional. (2) High efficiency. Battery swap is completed in 90 seconds which is even faster than refueling. (3) Automatic billing. Battery swap can calculate the cost automatically based on the difference in battery capacity between the batteries swapped. (4) Real-time monitoring, through which the administrator can identify the current state and condition of the system. (5) Charging at constant temperature, which can effectively extend battery life and reduce fire risk. It can also be used as an energy storage device to balance the “peak cut” in the urban electric grid. (6) Land saving. Battery swap facilities merely occupy an area of around 50 square meters. Now as the Chinese government is strongly promoting the battery swap mode, we have strong confidence in this product. However, if a more advanced mode appears, our products also have the potential risk of being replaced. All the EVs delivered for the program include our battery swap feature. At present, Ruiheng, a company jointly established by Zhejiang Kandi Technologies, has negotiated with more than ten third-tier cities about the cooperation of launching the program of online car hailing based on the battery swap mode, which is originally expected to gradually start launching in these cities during second half of 2021. Based on the persisting COVID-19 situation and the fact that the EV market of China has not entered a healthy and orderly development stage, the entire plan may also have the potential risk to be delayed.

On February 18, 2021, Zhejiang Kandi Technologies signed an Equity Transfer Agreement with Geely to transfer all of its remaining 22% equity interests in Fengsheng Automotive Technology Group Co., Ltd. (“Fengsheng”, formerly known as Zhejiang Kandi Electric Vehicles Co., Ltd. and defined as the “JV Company”) to Geely for a total consideration of RMB 308 million (approximately $48 million). Zhejiang Provincial Administration for Market Regulation recorded the update of the ownership of Fengsheng on March 9, 2021. On March 16, 2021, the Company received the first half of the equity transfer payment of RMB 154,000,000 (approximately $24 million). On September 10, 2021, the Company received the second half of the equity transfer payment of RMB 154,000,000 (approximately $24 million). By exiting the Fengsheng partnership, Fengsheng is no longer our affiliate company and therefore Kandi is no longer bound by the associated non-compete provisions. Kandi is now free to pursue the development in electric vehicle territory based on its own needs and the market conditions. 

Results of Operations

Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

The following table sets forth the amounts and percentage to revenue of certain items in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020: