Author 丨 Cui Liwen
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
"Watch him rise to a tall building, watch him entertain guests, watch him collapse."
For Jia Yueting, who has been reduced to the "talking" of the entire automotive industry after the tea and dinner, standing at this node to look back on the past, there are perhaps three moments that are most impressive.
In 2014, when he stood in the spotlight, he shouted in front of everyone: "Let's suffocate together for the dream!" "What was harvested was the applause and shouts of all the hot followers.
At that time, it was also the shortest glorious period of the whole LeTV.
In addition to super mobile phones and super TV, saddled with the expectations of many investors, Jia Yueting was all in and began to build a super car that belongs to the Chinese. But behind the seemingly brilliant surface, it is a bubble that bursts at once. No one expected that the defeat would come so quickly.
Perhaps it is the contempt for the challenges of the new industry, and it cannot be calmly dealt with after entering the game; perhaps it is the PPT car manufacturing that is too high a style, and it cannot justify itself once it is exposed; or it is that the capital chain is in trouble, and it cannot be repaired if the ring is broken.
In 2017, when the aircraft hatch was closed, Jia Yueting lost a lot and went to the United States alone, and it is unknown when he will return. The former head of LeTV's "Empire" paid a terrible price for his unrealistic dream of building a car. Everything ended in the form of a farce.
In the end, only the condemnation of domestic creditors and the tsunami of infamy remained.
Soon, the time is 2020 and the reversal continues. When the open letter titled "Part-time Work and Entrepreneurship, Restart Life, with My Apologies, Thanksgiving and Commitment" appeared on Jia Yueting's Weibo homepage, we knew that his "car-making dream" was rekindled after desperate struggle.
In 2021, through the way of backdoor listing, FF Faraday Future, which is close to suffocation, is located on the NASDAQ in the United States and officially rings the bell to go public. This time, Jia Yueting and Bi Fukang, who is the CEO of the company, hugged each other tightly and shouted, and the two businessmen and professional managers whose career resumes were controversial were firmly bound together.
They know that there are few opportunities left to try to "justify" themselves. The extreme lack of trust from the outside world, coupled with the sharp increase in the survival pressure of the entire new energy track, makes FF have to survive the hellish test if it wants to survive again.
And I, I would like to use "hunting" to describe the whole process. As for whether to become a lamb to be slaughtered or to escape the hunter's pursuit, the choice is still in the hands of Jia Yueting and the FF behind him.
Warnings and shorts
To be fair, for Wall Street investors who hold the vast majority of the right to speak in the capital market, the series of performances that FF has shown so far are by no means the most "pleasing" existence. As for the reason, it's very simple, they already have better and worth betting on.
For example, The new Chinese forces that have successively gone to the United States to build cars Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, have been given the name of "Tesla Killer" since the beginning of the brand's establishment. FF is difficult to compete in multiple dimensions such as terminal delivery, quarterly revenue, brand volume and even follow-up new product planning.
Not long ago, the latter received a warning letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, because FF did not file the third quarter of 2021 financial report within the prescribed time limit, was listed as a non-compliant listed company, and if it was not submitted after the expiration date, it would receive a delisting warning from the SEC.
Soon, FF officials explained that the reason why it did not submit a financial report within the specified deadline was because J Capital Research, a short-selling agency, recently issued a short report on FF. The company is conducting an investigation in response to allegations from short-selling agencies.
It will not be possible to publish the financial report until the end of the investigation, and the time of the end of the investigation cannot be determined at this time. When the investigation is completed, FF will return to normal SEC filings in a timely manner, confident of returning to normal status in the short term.
In terms of business, due to the shortage of funds, FF's first mass-produced model, FF91, has been attracting much attention from the outside world. For the FF91 has not been able to be mass-produced and delivered so far, its official also reiterates again: the FF91 release plan remains unchanged.
Ceo Bi Fukang said at the meeting, "FF's first flagship store will be located in the rich area of Beverly Hills, California, and the Hanford plant is currently progressing smoothly, and there is enough funds to support FF91 to complete production in July next year." ”
FF has also made changes to the capital needed to achieve profitability in 2024, arguing that it needs another $1.5 billion to accomplish this target, up from a previous estimate of $1.4 billion. It is reported that this additional fund will be mainly used for the landing of FF81 and FF71 projects, and has nothing to do with the mass production of FF91.
Up to now, FF has planned four new cars, three of which are passenger cars, including the most high-end FF91, the high-end mass market FF81 and the mass market FF71. The latter two models are expected to be mass-produced by the end of 2023 and 2024, respectively, and the other new model is the unmanned transport vehicle FF LMD. More importantly, FF officials also disclosed for the first time that it has accumulated a loss of $2.8 billion.
Seeing this, if you stand in the perspective of a rational bystander, putting aside the prejudice of the emotional level, it can be said that FF, as a new force building car that is still in the early stage of accumulation, the information shown above is actually not too big a slot.
But the pain point is that once the scars of "untrustworthiness" exist, even if they have gradually healed, they are still facing the risk of being ruthlessly uncovered at any time.
"FF will never be able to sell a car. So far, it's nothing more than a barrel of money raised from American investors and then poured money into a debt black hole created by its founder, Jia Yueting, China's best-known securities fraudster. ”
In fact, this is the most fatal paragraph of the FF official mention of the short report. At almost the same time, Jia Yueting, located in the circle of friends, hit back: "This short report is completely cold and hot, nonsense, and the agency is not the first time it has been punched in the face." ”
Under the tit-for-tat confrontation, the two sides seemed to have reached the point of sword fighting. As for whose exposition is the truth? I don't want to "take sides" at the moment. Jia Yueting's dream of building a car was rekindled, how much gold content did it contain? Believe that time will give the answer.
However, it is impossible to avoid that after experiencing successive storms of shorting and warnings, FF's performance in the capital market has plummeted. As of the close of trading on December 14, EST, FF's share price only closed at $7.360, a decline of 1.74%, and the total market value also shrank to $322 million.
From this, we can't help but sigh that waiting for the whole process before the official mass production of FF91 in July next year, the hunting trend of Jia Yueting by the outside world may become more and more intense.
Sin deserves, not death
In the 2020 open letter, Jia Yueting wrote such a paragraph.
"In the twenty years since I started my business, I have experienced too many ups and downs. Although the outside world comments that the Internet ecological model I created is undoubtedly successful and proved by many similar companies, an unavoidable fact is that I am the first person responsible for the collapse of the LeTV system overnight. I am well aware that all parties involved and your families have suffered a great loss as a result, and I would like to express my sincerest apologies to all of you once again. ”
Recalling those suppliers, customers, and shareholders who have ended up in a dilemma because of his mistakes, and even have no money, I just want to say that this verbal apology is actually not enough to make up for their losses. However, compared with some cowards who choose to disappear completely after making mistakes, Jia Yueting still has only a trace of responsibility left.
And he also admitted that there were friends who tried to persuade them to give up FF, empty their shares, and then "hide" in the United States in the form of bankruptcy liquidation. Judging from the development of the final plot, Jia Yueting undoubtedly wants to give everyone an explanation.
To expound these is not to excuse anyone, but more to prove is as stated in the subtitle of this paragraph: sin deserves, but not death.
In fact, in my mind, it is not too much to describe this always controversial "orator" with many words such as idealism, opportunism, pursuit of profit, and advanced thinking. Along the way, it may be a good hand to fight the country, but in the end, it is impossible to defend the country.
I vaguely remember that in 2015, when the concept of "new four modernizations" had not yet been proposed, Jia Yueting led his LeTV car and had already started a similar journey.
From Volkswagen, BMW and other traditional car companies to dig up executives, research and development of three-electric system, to create a core technology for the creation of electric vehicles; acquisition of easy to, layout of the field of travel; into the charging service app, join the charging business; cooperation with BAIC BJEV, BYD, cooperation in the Internet of Vehicles; from Baidu to mine autonomous driving technicians, build LeTV intelligent territory and LeTV car connection; entertainment, film and television and other resources, put it into the Internet of Vehicles system.
All concepts coincide with the current trend of the new energy industry. "You can laugh at Jia Yueting's fiasco, but don't laugh at his strategic vision."
However, car manufacturing is always a comprehensive examination of the founders themselves, which requires not only a clear strategy and foresight, but also the financing ability, marketing ability, product landing ability, and team management ability in the later stage. And Jia Yueting's shortcomings were completely exposed.
So when FF was back on the road, Jia Yueting chose to decentralize, and Bi Fukang, who was an "old cannon" in the automotive industry, was pushed to the front of the stage. After all, no one wants to repeat the mistakes of the past.
In the strategic planning of this new force to build cars, "returning to China" also occupies a huge proportion. From January Geely Holdings disclosed that it and FF signed a framework cooperation agreement; to March FF officially announced that former Chery Jaguar Land Rover "young marshal" Chen Xuefeng officially joined as the CEO of FF China.
By July, it was reported that Zhuhai state-owned assets participated in the FF listing, injecting 2 billion yuan; by September FF Futurism Day, it was revealed that substantial progress had been made in cooperation with Geely Holdings to achieve the first stage of technical cooperation; and then in November, it was reported that FF's domestic production base may be located in Changzhi, Shanxi, and the Chinese headquarters may be located in Hubei.
All kinds of signals prove that FF's "determination" to return to China for mass production has not been interrupted for a moment. But behind the seemingly beautiful ideals, it is often the cruelty of reality.
At present, the terminal battle of China's new energy market has become more and more intense. What is more serious is that with the first breakthrough of pioneers such as Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal and even BYD, the pattern is gradually becoming clear, and resources are slowly tilting towards them. The outlet left for the pursuers is shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, back to the most realistic product level, when the FF 91 debuted many years ago, it was admitted that it was a product that was eye-catching enough and perfectly integrated with a sense of technology and luxury.
But years later, compared with many new cars that will be listed next year, it seems that there is no "leading" at all. Even if the localization process can be successfully realized, how many people will be willing to pay for it? Can the latecomers come first? Question after question ensued.
To be sure, there is really not much time left for Jia Yueting to continue to complete the "dream of building a car". And this time, if the ending still ends in failure, then FF will be forever nailed to the column of shame, and the former will also be firmly engraved with the label of "ten thousand deaths".