Value Chain of Electric Vehicle(EV) Startups of China －Manufacturing Capability Issue－

China became the biggest electric vehicle(EV) market in the world. So Chinese EV makers grow rapidly as major global players by using a huge domestic market and a strong government support. But Chinese EV startups are still on the concept car release step as of 2020. So this study reviews the value chain condition in the year 2017 and the year 2020 for five EV startups, NIO, Lucid Motors, Faraday Future, Karma and Byton, to check a missing part of the value chains. As a result, a missing part of the value chains turned out to be the EV manufacturing capability. The manufacturing knowhow is an intangible asset which is hard for the EV startups to copy easily because it requires a high level of quality control as much as that of ICE vehicle. In addition, the recent performance of Tesla also emphasizes the importance of manufacturing capability in the value chain of EV business. However, the current rivalry condition of China is to work as another entry barrier for the EV startups. Therefore, the EV startups will try to overcome two issues, the manufacturing capability and the severe rivalry condition through the strategic alliances with the existing vehicle makers of China. In this case, how they can keep the alliances relationships successfully and which equity structure is sustainable would be key issues.