2014 is known as the first year of the birth of the new power to build cars, according to public statistics, the most new cars were registered during the period of new power to build cars More than 100, at the same time, related spare parts market has also sprung up.
This year's downturn in the car market coupled with poor financing, car manufacturing fever ebbing, 2020 new power out of the competition, Byton, the new carmaker. New power automakers such as Saleen, Qiantu, Bordrin, and Youxia have been eliminated one after another.
At present, only a few new power car companies such as Nio, Xiaopeng and Ideal are recognized by the capital and market.
The fallen new power automakers in 2020
The trend of new energy vehicles replacing traditional internal combustion engine vehicles has become irreversible, and the development of new energy vehicles has become the main theme, including traditional car companies. The domestic auto market, though large enough to accommodate more than 100 new carmakers, is also difficult to achieve, in fact, in 2014 At the beginning, everyone understood that the 100-odd new carmakers must face several rounds of reshuffling and elimination.
But we didn't expect the reshuffle to come so quickly. Due to this year's force majeure, all financing channels for new carmakers were closed in a flash. The new force in the end of car manufacturing, regardless of the mass production or not mass production of car companies, are facing the real problem of capital chain, bankruptcy, perhaps 2020. The year 2012 will also be the first year of elimination for new car-making forces.
Zhang Wei, chairman of Keystone Capital, once said, "No new carmaker is worth investing in, and the number of new carmakers in China has long exceeded the number of new carmakers. Most of the 100, however, won't survive the year. Zhang Wei's statement may be biased and heavily personal, however it is not unreasonable to face the current state of the new power car industry.
Recently, according to Byton's internal emails, the Chinese business began to shut down from July 1, the time is expected to be six months .
During this period, the entire staff was on standby and only a small number of employees were kept on duty to support the company's operations, and the Shanghai office was vacated in April. The Beijing office was rented out on June 17, and the Nanjing factory was recently shut down due to unpaid bills.
After being named by CCTV, Byton's car manufacturing road is not sustainable. Looking back at Byton's nearly 10 billion dollars of financing, only a few dozens of actual engineering vehicles were left to the financiers.
Byton, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, also had a bright moment two years ago when the company's valuation was once as high as over ten billion. Including: China FAW Group, Suning Group, Ningde Times, Qidi Holdings, Harmony Auto, Junlian Capital and other companies, at the policy level. It also has the endorsement of the Nanjing Municipal Government.
Byton's financing history.
In 2017, Byton Automotive closed Pre-A and Series A rounds totaling approximately $300 million in funding
Byton Automotive closed a $500 million round of funding in June 2018
September 12, 2019, Byton Automotive Announces Near Closing of Series C Financing Round of Approximately $500 Million
A look back at Byton's funding history, the automaker that burned through tens of billions without delivering a single car to market and was once seen as the headline new How one of the powers that be is facing bankruptcy is the most confusing thing to the outside world.
Why did Byton get to this point?
(1) Distinguished from domestic new power automakers, Byton is a special brand whose core management team is mainly foreign. More than 50% of the 1,800 employees are R&D personnel, with about 500 in Silicon Valley in the US and nearly 100 employees, with the rest in China. A new company with multiple offices also makes it difficult to communicate internally, especially since the main market is in China but the R&D is abroad, which leads to vehicle Deliveries have slowed.
(2) Byton's concept car really wowed many consumers when it was unveiled, with high-end positioning, a large center screen, and high specs The powertrains are all ahead of their time, and it's difficult for a new car company to get them off the ground, but it takes a lot to get them right. of money and energy to research and development. Founder Dai Lei also has some problems with product conception, over-emphasis on high-end advancement of models, which also led to the failure of production vehicles to be delivered on the ground. One of the reasons.
(3) Starting in 2019, the policy is gradually becoming extremely unfavorable to the new powerhouses that have not yet been delivered in volume, plus Nio these car companies The growth of Byton has also reduced Byton's attention, and the few funding available in the market have been obtained by Nio, Ideal, etc., which is objective. The Byton's decline has been accelerated by the fact that it is the only car manufacturer in the world that has been in the market.
Not only Byton, but also Saleen Motors, which last year invited international film and TV star Jason Statham to endorse the car, has recently Was state-owned shareholders to court, freezing assets as much as 6.6 billion yuan; actual controller Wang Xiaolin also went to the United States to hedge, no surprise its will be Saleen Motors has been financially shut down and two factories have been shut down. With assets seized and thousands of employees out of work without pay, the only option waiting for Saleen Motors may be bankruptcy.
Unlike Byton Automotive, Saleen Automotive's situation today is inevitable, only this year the market environment has accelerated the bankruptcy process. The best way to describe Saleen cars is "the wrong product". The best way to describe the Saleen car is "out of stock", and from its inception, it has been promoting how the Saleen car is. High performance and how to build a performance monster.
In July 2019, Saleen Automotive held a 20,000-person brand event at the Bird's Nest in Beijing, bringing in Wu Yifan The whole conference cost over 100 million yuan.
However, the launch of Saleen Mai Mai also stunned many of the audience, Mai Mai is positioned as a pure electric two-seat microcar, mileage for the 305km, subsidized guide price is actually as high as $158,800-168,800, I wonder Saleen car founder What would Steve Saleen think of this "senile pleasure". Naturally, no one will buy this IQ-tax model, which has only sold 9 units since its launch.
When Saleen entered China, Wang Xiaolin probably never wanted to make a serious car in the first place, but only tried to make as many cars as possible in the heat of the moment. The much harvested leeks, the US hedge against Wang Xiaolin just to the time to end, compared to the same US hedge against Jia Yueting launched The FF91, the Maimai is a joke at best.
Also down in the race is Qiantu Motors, with its K50 supercar looks, $700,000-plus price, 4.6-second The Qiantu is also the earliest electric supercar in China. A number of new carmakers that were revealed to have broken their capital chains have been rumored to have seriously defaulted on employee wages since March this year. The news also broke about the use of employee information for loans. Today, most of the workshops at Qiantu Auto's Jiangsu plant in Suzhou are shut down and no cars are being produced. The chairman of Qiantu Auto, Lu Qun, has even been restricted from spending more, and the new carmaker, which mainly produces supercars, has been forced to spend more. The name exists in name only.
Qiantu Auto is almost the first Chinese automaker to have new energy vehicle technology, with parent company Great Wall Huaguan in the In 2007, Huaguan participated in the electrification projects of Saab Automobile, Changfeng, BAIC, etc. In 2010, when the whole industry was looking forward to new energy vehicles, Huaguan established Qiantu Electric Vehicle. In 2010, when the whole industry was taking a wait-and-see attitude towards new energy vehicles, Huaguan established Qiantu Electric Vehicle Co. Technology Department. qiantu Electric Technology Department by experimenting with the adaptation of conventional cars to pure electric vehicles and to some extent also Qiantu has accumulated the core triboelectric technology for pure electric vehicles.
The decline of Qiantu is inevitably related to the unfavorable development of its parent company. The company's shares terminated listing on the New Third Board, and issued four consecutive announcements to suspend the transfer of shares, and ultimately chose to delist. qiantu Unlike many new forces that rely on external financing, Auto relies heavily on blood transfusions from its parent company, Great Wall Huaguan, which is not developing well and is not doing well for companies with Qiantu Motors, with its high capital requirements, had no choice but to go it alone.
At the same time, Bordrin Motors also announced that it was "giving up on its car-making plans" due to business difficulties and undertook a transformation; the originator of the PPT carmaker, Qiantu, was not in a position to do so. Youxia Automotive, the factory has been rotten, completely out of the game.
Regardless of how the outside world evaluates the development of new power, at the moment, the new power of car manufacturing has started the phase of elimination. New power car companies are showing a clear polarization of development trends, the poor will only get worse, while the head of the car companies will grow stronger.
The elimination of the 2020 New Force has reached its midway point, but there will be no "intermission" in this game, with more to come in the second half. Many new carmakers have fallen by the wayside.
20 billion for cars is not just talk.
Li Bin, the founder of Nio Motors, once said: "Don't build a car without 20 billion.
That statement drew a lot of criticism at the time, and was even considered too crazy by many car companies and consumers. It's true that building a factory to production is a "money-burning contest", and 20 billion yuan may just be the entry-level capital for making cars.
The car companies that have been established for about five years include Nio, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weimar, and Zero Run. On the input is more than the output, there is no car company has the profitability of the product, are at a huge loss.
A new force with no car-making experience has to start all over again, which will inevitably require a lot of capital investment and the establishment of a new brand. Publicity investment, without a large number of shipments before the loss is inevitable, only with sufficient funds to protect the operation of the enterprise, in order to continue to survive! Otherwise, it can only be eliminated by the market, and it is definitely not an empty talk to make cars with 20 billion RMB.
At present, among the new car makers, Nio is the most famous one, and of course its loss is also the most serious, with a loss of $20 billion since its establishment. With over $20 billion, you could say that the brand is completely made of money.
The problems encountered in the road of Nio car manufacturing, to a certain extent, reflects the problems that may or will happen to the new forces in car manufacturing today.
With more and more new car companies like Byton, Youxia, Saleen and other new forces being exposed as only taking money to build but not making cars, Nio has been able to build a new brand. Out of the car, purely through the construction of the factory, do launch, the promise of a better future to the industry to get financing. In the face of this situation, in the face of huge losses and distant PPT pie returns, the capital market has begun to waver, financing also Becoming more cautious.
Don't ignore the fact that most of the new forces are still mainly funded by financing. To say that the rival's money-capture dreaming tactics have already caused them irreversible damage, capital distrust resulting in new power money shortage impact also will expand further, and as things stand now, many of the new powerhouse products may not have even begun to compete with their competitors yet It's stillborn.
It is obvious that the new car makers will not be eliminated due to the lack of financing and the whole industry will come to nothing. The end result will be that those with more than 20 billion yuan in financing will become the leading car companies and continue to grow in the market, while those with small strength and volume will be eliminated. Car companies with little financing will either disappear or struggle to make headway in this elimination game due to lack of funds.
Since burning money to make cars is inevitable, how to fill the hole through constant financing will also be one of the keys to the development of small car companies.
Only the top car makers are favored by investors.
The new energy car manufacturing fever has clearly faded, the remaining new power car enterprises financing has become very difficult, the domestic new power still alive to build cars There are probably more than 40 of them, which will probably be reduced to 10-15 according to the status quo, and the other 20 or so new carmakers will either choose to Bankruptcy or give up making cars to transform, if some weak car companies still fantasize about relying on subsidies or production of cars to make a profit, this road is obvious. It won't work.
The ability to win consumer acceptance and maintain enthusiasm is the most important thing for investors to consider when raising capital. There are no more than 5 car companies in China.
As the three major new power brands in China, Xiaopeng, Nio and Ideal occupy the absolute head position. for example, delivered 3,740 cars in June and 10,331 cars throughout the second quarter. Not surprisingly, it will be hard for other brands to catch up in terms of volume and awareness, and over time these three headline carmakers market sales size will expand further.
On the financing side, the big benefit in terms of capital investment ratio will also be the three car companies, except for Xiaopeng Auto did not get any more financing this year Nio, which received a 7 billion yuan handout from the Hefei government in April, was enough to survive the winter of the car market, and equally ideal recently rumored to have secured $550 million in Series D funding, in which Meituan will contribute $500 million, the second time Meituan and Wang Xing have Financing Ideal Motors.
A big factor in these three new power brands being able to get funding has to do with their founders, He Xiaopeng, Li Bin, Li Xiang, they are all Born in the Internet industry, all have a successful entrepreneurial experience, and other new power brand founders "empty glove white wolf" with investor capital. Unlike the car makers, they also personally do their best to fund their brands, including Li Xiang, who was among the $550 million in funding for Ideal that was revealed. The $30 million of personal funding, whether the actual controller of the automaker can follow along to hedge the risk, is also part of what investors are looking at right now. The founder of Meituan, Wang Xing, has predicted the development of new car-making power on the social network.
Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, has predicted the development of the new car-making force on social networks. The 3 survivors are Ideal, Nio and Xiaopeng. As for Weimar not being identified by Wang Xing as a head car company, it is largely based on car sales, from the announcement of January to May this year. In the sales list of new energy models, only Nio and Ideal are among the top ten brands on the list of new car-making forces.
The reason why Xiaopeng car is recognized, its vigorous development of automatic driving technology is closely related. At the level of automatic driving hardware and software, Xiaopeng except for the chip does not produce, can realize all the technology of self-production.
As an indispensable part of the smart car, automatic driving and OTA technology upgrade is also Xiaopeng's chip to get Wang Xing's recognition. One, on the other hand, Weimar has a good volume, but all aspects are rather bland, without much brightness.
The affirmation of these three new powerhouses is not to say that the future development will rest easy, when the funds burn out, how to solve the problem of corporate profitability is also It's imperative that they don't rely on financing forever.
As they stand out among the new powerhouses, they're no longer competing against the same roots of the new powerhouses. Will have to face the absolute technical advantage of Tesla and the traditional car enterprises in the transition process.
If Nio, Xiaopeng and Ideal, who lack experience in building cars, do not sacrifice quality as a prerequisite to protect market sales and share, they will be the ones who will have to face Tesla's absolute technological advantage. The Top Priority.
Summarize
Some of the new carmakers have yet to go bankrupt, but the industry's current form of development and subsidy policies are very important to them. Development has been very negative, especially since the Byton cars were named on CCTV and the Saleen car scandal broke With this many new power car companies captive money names being implemented, for the cars still alive how to address these adverse effects will be A big problem.
There is nothing wrong with the idea of overtaking automotive technology by developing new car-making forces. Byton, Youxia, and Saleen are used by car companies like these.
With the change in policy and the wake-up call from investors, the kind of financing before 2019 will easily be hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. Less and less.
Halfway through the 2020 new power elimination, the new energy carmaking fever has receded most of the way through the policy influence, and after a reshuffle of If the new order is reconstructed, the ones that will remain will be the ones that are building cars with heart and mastering core technologies. As for the new forces that have fallen, how to solve the mess left behind will also be part of the future talk.
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