BAIC and Dongfeng have successively impacted the high-end plate of new energy vehicles through arcfox and Lantu, and SAIC Motor has let Feifan Automobile fly alone after building Zhiji Automobile. SAIC Motor Group recently announced that it intends to invest in the establishment of Feifan Automobile with a registered capital of 7 billion yuan. At the same time, saicus passenger car r brand is independent, and it is market-oriented operation by Feifan Automobile. Behind SAIC's choice of double-line independence is not only the intensification of competition in the domestic new energy vehicle market, but also the hope that in the future, with the help of the capital market, SAIC Motor will promote the strategic transformation of SAIC.
7 billion yuan to start "Feifan"
It is understood that Feifan Automobile was invested and established by SAIC Motor with a registered capital of 7 billion yuan, of which SAIC Motor contributed 6.65 billion yuan, accounting for 95% of the share ratio; the employee shareholding platform subscribed to contribute 350 million yuan, accounting for 5% of the share ratio. The relevant person in charge of SAIC Motor said that the r brand will become an independent brand through extraordinary cars and carry out market-oriented operations, explore new models of data-driven and industrial co-creation, and help accelerate the development of the mid-to-high-end intelligent electric vehicle market.
Previously, the r brand belonged to SAIC Passenger Vehicles, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, which was a new high-end pure electric brand launched by SAIC Group. It is understood that after Feifan Automobile independently operates the r brand, SAIC Motor will also fully promote its development. The above-mentioned person in charge said that in the initial stage, Feifan Automobile will fully integrate the resources of SAIC Motor in the fields of research and development, manufacturing and service, and the SAIC Technical Center will provide all-round technical support and solutions, and the passenger car branch will carry out OEM production. This means that reducing manufacturing investment and costs for Feifan Automobile in the early stage can help enterprises tide over the difficulties in the early stage.
In order to achieve the transformation of electrification, SAIC Motor has continuously tested the waters. Before the establishment of the independent R brand of Feifan Automobile, SAIC Motor has begun to "incubate" the high-end electric brand - Zhiji Automobile. In November last year, SAIC Motor announced that it intends to jointly invest with Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Hengxu Capital to establish a Partnership (Limited Partnership) of Shanghai Yuanjie Intelligent Technology Equity Investment Fund, which plans to invest in Zhiji Automobile with Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. (including its designated subordinate investment entities). In December last year, Zhiji Automobile has officially completed registration. The registered capital reached 10 billion yuan.
In terms of positioning, Zhiji Automobile will be higher than the R brand. It is reported that after the independence of the r brand, it will mainly attack the high-end new energy intelligent models of 200,000-400,000 yuan, and Zhiji Automobile will mainly attack the model market of more than 400,000 yuan. This means that the two brands will fight on a two-front basis, releasing a signal that SAIC Will attack the mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle market.
In fact, SAIC's two-front operation is not unexpected. At present, under the background of increasingly fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market, it has become the choice of independent brands to attack the high-end model market. Previously, Dongfeng Motor released its new high-end electric brand - Lantu; BAIC Group released a high-end new energy vehicle brand - arcfox. The relevant person in charge of SAIC Motor believes that China's new energy vehicle market has shown explosive growth, and the smart electric vehicle market is still a blue ocean. With the acceleration of the market structure from "dumbbell type" to "spindle type", the mid-to-high-end market is a place where soldiers must compete, attracting many players such as new and old domestic car companies and Internet technology companies to participate in it.
"In the face of the trend of consumption upgrading in the domestic automobile market and the upward advancement of independent brands, SAIC Motor has launched two independent brands, which is also accurate for the new energy vehicle market to complete the testing stage." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, believes that the SAIC-GM-Wuling brand under SAIC Motor Group competes for the volume market through miniev, and at the same time, it is more necessary to break through the high-end model market to ensure the success of enterprise transformation, and Zhiji and Feifan Automobile are the key to SAIC Group's acceleration of the high-end intelligent electric vehicle track.
Target the capital markets
While impacting the high-end market, the independent operation of the brand has also loosened the constraints of SAIC. In this regard, SAIC Motor said that the independent operation of the r brand will explore the use of innovative company operation methods, business operation models and market-oriented incentive and constraint mechanisms to achieve independent operation and self-financing.
Independent operation also offers the possibility of attracting capital attention. It is reported that after the establishment of Zhiji Automobile, it has formulated an independent operation and independent IPO plan, and Feifan Automobile also has an independent IPO plan. The precedent of IPO after the independence of other brands is also not uncommon. Last year, GAC Aeon completed brand independence; in April this year, Geely also released a new high-end electric brand - Extreme Kr, all of which adopt an independent operation model. After independence, the two brands also reported the news of landing on the capital market.
As we all know, the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing requires a lot of capital investment. Taking Weilai Automobile as an example, although the gross profit margin has turned positive and sales have climbed, it is still not profitable under the conditions of high research and development and offline channel expansion. In order to seek more financial support, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile are also listed in Hong Kong after landing on the US stock market.
According to the data, the net profit attributable to SAIC Motor in the third quarter of this year was 7.036 billion yuan, down 14.75% year-on-year. Industry insiders said that the decline in SAIC's profits was caused by a variety of factors, including the sluggish sales of some joint ventures and independent fuel vehicles. At the same time as profits are declining, the continuous "blood transfusion" for new brands has undoubtedly become a burden.
It is reported that Feifan Automobile will launch a mass production version of the es33 concept car in the second half of next year, which is positioned as a medium and large pure electric SUV, which will be built based on r-tech high-energy intelligent body, r-tech includes cutting-edge technologies in the fields of intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and three electric technologies. An insider of an independent brand car said that the benefits of independent operation of high-end new energy vehicle brands include helping to better absorb social capital, promote their own development with the help of external resources, and better attract capital to support subsequent development with product planning and goals, while obtaining more alliances in the industrial chain and capital market is more beneficial to the future development of the brand. Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Yang liu xiaomeng