A parcel of land owned by the electric vehicle arm of bankrupt Chinese real estate giant China Evergrande is being taken back by the government after remaining undeveloped for more than four years.

The 440,000-square-meter piece of land, located in Guangzhou’s Nansha district, was supposed to serve as the location of an electric car factory, but it has been classed as idle land since June 9, 2021.

The land will now be reclaimed by local land authorities under China’s rules on handling unused land, according to a notice posted yesterday on the website of the Guangzhou Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau.

Evergrande NEV bought the land use rights for CNY590 million (USD82.2 million) in September 2020, with plans to build an electric car and core components factory. The investment agreement at the time stipulated that the plant would cost at least CNY2.5 billion (USD348.3 million) and should be completed and operational within 30 months.

But things changed when parent firm Evergrande ran into a massive debt crisis in 2021, which paralyzed its auto manufacturing business. In addition to this undeveloped plot, Evergrande NEV owns a completed factory in Nansha district, but it has not yet received a license to operate.

In March, rumors were circulating online that carmaker GAC Group and tech giant Huawei Technologies might team up to take over Evergrande NEV’s Nansha plant. This drove Evergrande NEV’s stock price up by 75 percent on March 26, but Guangzhou-based GAC quickly denied the rumor.

Evergrande NEV’s shares [HKG:0708] have been suspended since April 1 after the Guangzhou-based firm failed to publish its annual report on time. On its last trading day, the stock was only worth HKD0.17 (USD0.02), giving the firm a market capitalization of HKD1.8 billion (USD229.3 million).

On June 30, Evergrande NEV put out a statement saying it is still facing a serious cash crunch and is actively looking for investors as well as buyers of its assets to raise funds. But so far, no luck.