"Photovoltaic car + meta-universe", the future car returns to take off?

5 years ago, the future car was once the most beautiful car company in the new car-making force, and it was not even one of them. The future is the first batch of new forces to win the "double qualification", the first to launch the prototype concept car, and set a new high for the price of domestic production cars, and at that time, "Wei Xiao Li Na" was still struggling to break the shell. However, the highlight of the future came to an abrupt end with the slow sales of the first car K50, and then negative news such as wage arrears, arrears of goods, and withdrawal of stores continued to be exposed, and gradually faded out of the public eye.

Can the winged Dragonfly take off again? Recently, Qiantu Automobile has tweeted on its public account and Douyin number, officially announcing its return to the outside world. However, today's market pattern is no longer what it used to be, and the head car companies have stood on the steps of selling tens of thousands of vehicles a month, and with the continuous expansion of the capital market, is there still a chance to lose the future of the first-mover advantage?

Return to take off?

"With the gradual saturation and maturity of the new energy vehicle market, products that lack bright spots and a sense of experience will also face huge impacts and challenges." In the face of the rapid evolution of the new energy market, Qiantu Automobile will break the convention and create differentiated products with forward-looking design and independent mastery of core technologies, bringing users the ultimate sports car driving fun. A few days ago, Lu Qun, chairman of Qiantu Automobile, said at the 2022 Future Strategy Sharing Meeting. It can be seen from its words that the future has realized the changes in the market and its own shortcomings, and what needs to be done now is to "check the shortcomings and fill in the gaps" and return as soon as possible.

At the sharing meeting, the long-discontinued Future Automobile delivered the Future K50 to new users at its Suzhou plant, and announced the "three new plans", that is, in new materials, new energy, and new intelligence. According to the "Three New Plans", Qiantu Automobile's new model, The Future K20, will be officially listed in 2022 and begin to lay out overseas markets; through the development of meta-universe racing games, expand the broader meta-universe world and realize the interconnection and integration of the digital world and the real world; and have cooperated with Suzhou Canadian Solar Power Technology Co., Ltd. to plan to mass-produce and launch the world's first solar photovoltaic car in 2022.

In this 2022 strategy, three major points of interest are worth paying attention to: K20, photovoltaic vehicles, and meta-universe. It is reported that the K20 is regarded as a volume model by Qiantu Automobile and will be exported to Malaysia and Southeast Asian markets, and has now entered the dynamic testing stage. Qiantu's first model, the K50, is a supercar, and the K20 is a two-seat Coupe model, which is a niche route compared to the electric medium and large SUVs that are more popular with families on the market. Similar positioning is also zero-run S01, which is also a two-door trot, and the market performance is also quite average.

Look at photovoltaic cars and metacosms. Since 2015, Toyota and many other car companies have developed a solar panel roof, that is, the roof part of the car is replaced by solar panels, and then absorb as much solar energy as possible for the car's drive. But Toyota's technology is still being tested, and mass production has not been achieved for a long time, and the predictable price of ordinary batteries has also caused controversy. "The most questionable thing about photovoltaic cars is how far photovoltaic vehicles can run, and the efficiency of photovoltaic power generation is actually extremely low." How much power a car can fit with the battery panels is the core problem. The technical person in charge of a battery company told the "China Times" reporter. Qiantu Automobile is scheduled to launch mass production photovoltaic vehicles in a year, and from the current status quo of Qiantu Automobile, its technical strength and research and development investment have to be doubtful.

As for the current hottest "meta-universe" concept, the future car wants to hype it is still one step too late. According to the website of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, SAIC Motor recently applied for 100 meta-universe-related trademark classes. Previously, Xiaopeng Automobile registered the "Xiaopeng Yuan Universe", Weilai Automobile applied for the "Weilai Yuan Universe", and Ideal Automobile applied for the "Ideal Meta universe". It can be seen that even SAIC Motor, which has preemptively registered more than 100 trademarks, has not released any news and products related to the meta-universe concept so far. "The metaverse is indeed very hot, but this kind of fire is still very ethereal, very devoid of pyrotechnic gas, and it belongs to the kind of fire with its feet off the ground." The prospect construction of technology giants, the money-throwing pursuit of celebrities, looks incomparably gorgeous, but ordinary people want to say what the metaverse is, what can bring us, I believe few people can say clearly. Qu Jing, a commentator on the automotive industry, believes that "the automotive industry is a solid manufacturing industry, which needs to be down-to-earth." In order to build a good car, we must practice internal skills, focus on promoting technological innovation, and break through a series of technical bottlenecks such as key basic materials, core basic components, advanced basic processes, and industrial basic technologies. And all this needs to be done in the current dimension, which cannot be done in the virtual metaverse at present. ”

Warming up for a rebooted IPO

The return of Future Auto this time has changed the previous low-key and humble style, and the concept of speculation also seems to be deliberately catering to the tastes of the capital market.

Qiantu Automobile was established in February 2015 as the electric vehicle division of Great Wall Huaguan. As the earliest automobile design company in China, Beijing Great Wall Huaguan's main business is to undertake design and research and development business for many domestic car companies, and in 2015, as the first share of new energy, it was listed on the New Third Board and began to raise funds in the capital market for the blood transfusion of future cars.

It is understood that since landing on the New Third Board, Great Wall Huaguan has carried out five pledge financings, with the pledged shares accounting for a total of 32.02% of the company's total share capital, raising a total of 2.12 billion yuan. Although the amount of financing ranks among the top companies listed on the New Third Board, it is still only a drop in the bucket for the car industry.

From the annual report, the loss of Great Wall Huaguan is also increasing every year, from 2015 to 2018, the loss of Great Wall Huaguan is 0.22 billion yuan, 0.98 billion yuan, 226 million yuan and 606 million yuan, which shows that Future Automobile has been in a state of burning money.

In August 2018, Qiantu Automobile's first mass production car, the Qiantu K50, was launched. This two-door two-seat electric supercar is priced at 686,800 yuan after subsidies. However, due to the niche positioning of the K50 and the high price, it has led to serious slow sales after listing. Relevant data show that the cumulative sales of the future K50 in one and a half years and a half of the market are only 131 vehicles. At the same time, in 2018, the new third board market began to have few incremental funds entering, and the existing funds were difficult to make a profit from investment for several years, and many institutions were shrinking or even cutting off the business of the new third board. As the future automobile parent company of the New Third Board enterprise, Great Wall Huaguan, it is also difficult to get more capital participation with the concept of car manufacturing. In March 2019, Great Wall Huaguan terminated its listing on the New Third Board, and issued four consecutive announcements to suspend the transfer of shares, and finally chose to delist and delist.

Since then, the negative news of Qiantu Automobile has continued, and it has been exposed that it is in arrears of employee wages and supplier payments, and in November 2020, it was exposed that the capital chain was broken, its first store in Sanlitun has been withdrawn, and the delivery center located in Jingang Automobile Park has also been empty. In mid-2020, Lu Qun, chairman of Qiantu Automobile, was included in the list of dishonest executors.

The "China Times" reporter learned that in the middle of this year, the Great Wall Huaguan has begun to restart the IPO. In fact, Great Wall Huaguan has been looking for a new financing platform after delisting, and the listed entity has not been sure whether it is Great Wall Huaguan or Future Automobile. At that time, there was speculation from the outside world that the Great Wall Huaguan would be listed on the newly launched science and technology innovation board, and Lu Qun himself responded that "this possibility is not ruled out, as long as it can solve our development needs, we have no special tendency in financing and platform." Recently, the reporter saw from Tianyan that Beijing Binli Automobile, which was just registered and established on November 29, one of its shareholders is Great Wall Huaguan, and the specific shareholding ratio is not disclosed. Founded by Su Weiming, a former Volkswagen China executive, The industry speculates that it is not impossible for Great Wall Huaguan to oem for Binli Automobile in the future.

The future car that hangs the logo of "Dragonfly" is unknown how noble it can fly. But what can be seen is that among the new forces of car-making, there are already young eagles flying high.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping