Chongqing and Zhejiang are competing over "Zhang Xue." What are they fighting for?

Every Daily reporter | Dan Zhongkui    Every Daily editor | Liu Yanmei

Image source: Zhang Xue Motorcycle

What could be more exhilarating than winning a racing championship?

Over the past two days, Zhang Xue’s real-life version of “Flying Man” has completely ignited the capital markets. Zhang Xue Motorcycle has been receiving overwhelming orders. Hong昌 Technology, which indirectly holds shares in Zhang Xue Motorcycle, has also seen two consecutive days of “20cm” limit-up gains, which in turn has lifted the motorcycle and motorcycle parts sector.

The fight over the “Zhang Xue” IP in places such as Chongqing, Zhejiang, and Hunan is also thick with a strong scent of gunpowder. Before taking the title, Zhejiang state-owned assets joined forces with listed companies and “rushed in” with a RMB 90 million investment, which was briefly passed around as a good story; Hunan, meanwhile, loudly declared, “The Hunan story of Zhang Xue Motorcycle should not stop at the fact that Zhang Xue is from Hunan.” And in the list of component suppliers, Qingdao, Foshan, Jiangmen, and other places have also all made appearances…

As more and more stories are unearthed, the plot has started to take twists and turns—one Hunan man has been fighting his way in the Zhejiang motorcycle industry, then switched to Chongqing to start a business and succeeded in one stroke. But why, among the investors behind it, is it once again Zhejiang?

The question that needs to be clarified right now is: In the contest among regions for “Zhang Xue,” what exactly are they competing for? And how can they truly keep the “Zhang Xues” for good?

On March 30, more than a dozen media outlets gathered at the Zhang Xue Motorcycle factory in the Chongqing Liangjiang New Area to interview founder Zhang Xue. With the company lifted to the world’s summit by the “Capital of Motorcycles,” it was supposed to be a story of mutual achievement between the company and local governments—yet an “unexpected” twist quietly arrived—

“As an outsider who started a business in Chongqing, what policies, talent, and industrial-chain support has Chongqing provided?”

“To be honest—whether it’s true or false? To be honest, none at all. Not a single cent.”

This video has gone viral online and has also sparked discussions about “the scramble for Zhang Xue.”

Image source: Zhang Xue Motorcycle

In January of this year, Zhejiang Venture Capital, which has a Zhejiang state-owned assets background, had just completed leading Zhang Xue Motorcycle’s Series A financing, injecting RMB 90 million to enter the picture, with post-investment valuation of RMB 1.09 billion. Two months later, French racer-driven Zhang Xue Motorcycle 820RR-RS won the WSBK Portuguese round championship, outpacing a host of European, American, and Japanese brands.

Tianyancha data shows that in early March, Zhang Xue Motorcycle completed its Series A financing. The investors are Hangzhou ZheChuang Baige Entrepreneurship Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Jinhua ZheChuang Jinyi Intelligent Control Entrepreneurship Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), both under Zhejiang Venture Capital, holding 5.5% and 2.75% respectively.

This “sprint stake purchase” also made Zhejiang Venture Capital one of the biggest winners behind Zhang Xue Motorcycle’s championship. Prior to this, however, Zhang Xue Motorcycle had already completed an angel round in the year it was founded with Shanghai High-Xin Capital’s participation, and it currently holds 9.17%. Beyond that, no involvement from local Chongqing capital has been found.

Image source: Tianyancha

This round of layout by the Yangtze River Delta capital circle is, in itself, driven by considerations of competing for Zhang Xue Motorcycle.

Cheng Junhua, General Manager of Zhejiang Venture Capital, candidly admitted in an interview with the Zhejiang Daily: “He has his own production capacity and supply-chain management methods, but expanding capacity is inevitable next. I really want to bring him to Zhejiang, but I won’t force it. What we can do is tell the Zhejiang story well, so that he will want to come on his own.”

Nowadays, for governments across different localities, “attracting investment by investment” has long become a “standard operation” for招商引资. And the prosperity of Zhejiang’s venture capital ecosystem—especially its focus on and support for start-ups—has also given Chongqing a lesson: how should the government cultivate a good venture capital ecosystem, so that it can achieve win-win outcomes while accompanying companies as they grow.

But the parties eyeing Zhang Xue Motorcycle are far from limited to Zhejiang.

For example, Hunan media has already started to imagine: “Zhang Xue Motorcycle will definitely expand production capacity. Can the new base return to the place where the Zhang Xue dream began—Hunan?”

Jiangmen is also promoting its close connection with the championship model of Zhang Xue Motorcycle: “The helmet and exhaust pipe, as well as the engine’s ‘heart’ ceramic cylinder, all come from Jiangmen.”

Of course, Chongqing moved quickly too. On March 31, Chongqing Liangjiang New Area officially announced that “nearly 200 mu of land will be provided to build a new production base for Zhang Xue Motorcycle.” Faced with the competition from various places for Zhang Xue Motorcycle, it’s hard to say this isn’t a precise “defensive move,” leaving the company sufficient space for development.

In the scramble for “Zhang Xue,” what exactly are they competing for?

Beyond the glory of the championship, Zhang Xue Motorcycle delivers a breakthrough in track performance at a civilian price of RMB 43.8k (only 1/3 of imported competing products). It is expected to shift domestically produced large-displacement motorcycles from competing on “value for money” to competing on “technology premium,” directly challenging international brands such as Ducati, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.

Data shows that in 2025, China’s motorcycle production and sales reached 22.1093 million units and 21.9677 million units respectively, up 10.69% and 10.25% year over year. Among them, motorcycle exports were 13.3657 million units, up 21.33%; export value was USD 8.85 billion, up 26.78%.

In straightforward terms, China’s traditional domestic motorcycle market has entered a stage of stock competition. Developing high-end intelligent products and expanding overseas markets have become urgent priorities.

Image source: CCTV News

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that from 2025 to 2033, the global electric two-wheeler market will grow at a rate of 11% per year. The market size is expected to rise from 44.5 billion USD in 2024 to around 114.3 billion USD by 2033. Among them, the Asia-Pacific region is the most concentrated place for global electric two-wheeler consumption and production, accounting for 97.3% of the global market share.

Over many years, China’s motorcycle output has accounted for roughly “half of the world’s output,” but it lacks discourse power in high-end products. However, with brands such as Zhang Xue, Chunfeng, Qianjiang, Kayo, and Zongshen blooming across multiple international race circuits, it is expected to drive the global two-wheeler manufacturing centers to shift toward China and enhance the industry’s global competitiveness.

At the 2026 Brand Partner Conference not long ago, Zhang Xue revealed that in 2025, Zhang Xue Motorcycle’s total output value was RMB 750 million, R&D spending was RMB 69.58 million, and R&D-to-sales ratio was 9.33%. In the same period, it recorded a loss of RMB 22.78 million. Starting in 2026, terminal sales will double; 2026 is expected to reach 50k units, 2027 to exceed 100k units, and 2028 to target 200k units.

This highlights the enormous potential of mid-to-high-end motorcycles. It’s not hard to see why: although various regions appear to be competing for “Zhang Xue” on the surface, what it really reflects is the ambition of Chongqing, Zhejiang, Jiangmen, and other key motorcycle cities to fully push motorcycles toward “high-end,” “intelligent,” and “global”—and to build a new engine for industrial upgrading.

In fact, when Zhang Xue said in an interview that “there wasn’t even a single cent,” he also added the reasons why he chose to start the motorcycle business in Chongqing:

“Chongqing has a strong foundation in the motorcycle industry—‘the suppliers are all here.’” In the early days of starting up in Chongqing, his first stop was a place similar to “Huaqingbei.” Based on his own needs, with RMB 20k he assembled a motorcycle, and used that motorcycle to secure start-up capital. After the company grew bigger, Zhang Xue needed to make the engine himself, and also compress the precision from 5 microns to 3 microns. If you meet that requirement, you can still find suppliers to achieve it.

That is to say, when a start-up first thinks about things, it considers the industrial ecosystem first—especially how complete the industrial chain, supply chain, and supply system are. As China’s “Capital of Motorcycles,” Chongqing has more than 50 motorcycle whole-vehicle enterprises above a designated size, more than 410 component enterprises above a designated size, a local supporting rate for fuel motorcycles of over 80%, and a local supporting rate for electric motorcycles of about 60%.

This gave Chongqing the advantage of “winning half the battle first.” Now, Zhang Xue has released a bold claim: “Within the next five years, we will capture more than 50% of the share held by international big brands.” As enterprises develop, cities do too. What truly keeps the “Zhang Xues” is whether companies can be embedded into the city’s industrial ecosystem—so the city is always needed by the companies.

The real competition among Chongqing, Zhejiang, and even Jiangmen is never about who can offer better and more generous conditions; it lies in who can achieve a first-mover cornering-over advantage on the global track.

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责任编辑：刘万里 SF014