The use of automatic car washers to wash cars has become a trend, from car wash shops to 4S shops, and then to gas stations and other high-traffic service places, there have been intelligent car wash machines.
Source: Chuangyezuiqianxian
Author: Fu Yancui
When the traditional car wash business meets intelligence, how much potential can it burst out?
At present, the number of domestic private cars has reached 300 million units, if each car owner washes the car every two to three weeks, then there is a demand for 6 billion car washes a year.
As the most frequent and just-needed consumer behavior in the automotive after-sales service market, the car wash business has become a track that many entrepreneurs are scrambling to enter, among which the intelligent car wash service has gradually begun to occupy a place in the industry.
There are post-85 entrepreneurs, after operating a car wash shop for more than a year, they cannot afford to pay employees' wages because of the impact of the epidemic. Later, after being introduced by a friend, it was found that the demand for contactless smart car washes in China climbed, and 150,000 people were invested in the industry. Now, he has taken the smart car wash shop as a side business, only occasionally "turning", without operation has earned tens of thousands of yuan a month. Some consumers even said that the smart car wash shop was the "new continent" he found.
It seems that the smart car wash business is slowly eating up the artificial car wash market.
1
Smart car wash is on fire
Last year, Li Xin (pseudonym), a post-90s car owner living in Hebei, finally found the "new continent" of smart car washing in the gas stations around his community after being plagued by car wash problems.
Usually, Li Xin's work is busy, and the general time to leave work is after 7 pm. Summer is still good, want to wash a car on weekdays, can directly leave work or finish eating in the car wash shop near the community, "but that time period is the peak period of the car wash shop, the car wash shop every time to wash a car, you have to arrange 2-3 clerks, while washing 2, 3 cars is already the limit." ”
In the winter, most car wash shops will close early, he can only take advantage of the weekend rest time to wash the car, but this can not avoid the car needs to queue, "and to go to the car wash shop to wash the car once costs 4, 50 yuan, after washing, keep less than 2, 3 days and become dirty, feel quite uneconomical." ”
After installing an automatic car wash device at the gas station around his community, it greatly facilitated his "car wash freedom". At that time, the gas station had just installed automatic car wash equipment, as long as the station refueled more than 200 yuan, you can get a car wash coupon. Li Xin took the event at that time, made a 1200 yuan gas card, and washed the car 6 times for free.
"It only takes about 3 minutes to complete the car wash process, because of the speed and the short waiting time in line. Anyway, where the car refuels are the same, you can also wash the car by the way, the cost performance is super high. ”
"Pioneer of Entrepreneurship" also found an automatic car wash device at a gas station in a street in Gu'an County and experienced it. In the conspicuous place of the car wash entrance, there are notices posted with precautions such as "opening the neutral gear, releasing the brakes, closing the doors and windows, putting away the antenna, and turning off the wipers", and there are staff members to manage before entering the equipment. The entire car wash is operated by the machine and takes less than 3 minutes. Once you've finished washing your car, you can drive straight out.
Figure / Smart car wash device in action
From the cleaning effect, in addition to a little gum and other stains that have not been cleaned, as well as a lot of water stains on the glass and body on both sides of the vehicle, the others are more satisfactory. A consumer also told the "forefront of entrepreneurship" that he can send a free car wash card when refueling, and usually does not need to queue, so the frequency of his car wash is generally three times a month.
In fact, in the past two years, more and more gas stations will set up a smart car wash point next to the gas station in order to improve the quality of service. After all, smart car wash is convenient and fast, there is no need to go around the street to find a car wash shop, many people are willing to try such a method. And smart car wash companies are also striving to become partners of PetroChina and Sinopec Group.
"We have established nearly 200 smart car wash outlets this year, of which PetroChina, Sinopec Group and private gas stations are important target markets for us." Shen Xiaopeng, the founder of Cheshujie, also sent a video to the "forefront of entrepreneurship", in which there are cars driving into the car wash smart car wash shop to wash the car, "Our 24-hour unattended intelligent car wash machine car wash experience is good, no worries about no customers, the whole process does not have to get off the car for a second to identify the order." ”
Video / Car Wash Jet one of the smart car wash shops
In addition, in the past two years, he has clearly felt that due to the impact of the epidemic, although such partners have made policy adjustments and reduced the number of cooperation, from nearly 20 stores that could be opened in the previous month to several now. But for the unattended and 24-hour intelligent car wash service, Volkswagen's acceptance is increasing.
Another entrepreneur, Liu Wei (pseudonym), also said that now people's pace of life is relatively fast, and the acceptance of new things is high, coupled with the smart car wash service is only 9.9 yuan of car wash fee, the cost performance is more attractive, "our customers are still quite many." ”
Obviously, with the car wash difficulty, car wash expensive, car wash long queue and other issues increasingly prominent, intelligent car wash machine as long as there is no failure, can be all year round, hard work and complaints, no emotion can also handle most of the work in the car wash process of intelligent car wash service is being sought after.
2
High costs overwhelm car washes
In fact, after seeing that the majority of car owners have chosen the smart car wash, not only the gas station, but also some entrepreneurs have smelled business opportunities to enter the industry.
In 2020, Liu Wei, the owner of a private car wash shop located in Zhengzhou, has been established for more than 1 year because the car wash shop business is not good, and later learned that there is a smart car wash service when he accidentally chatted with a friend, and after a local inspection, he chose to join as a member of the 24-hour unmanned intelligent car wash shop.
At that time, the epidemic hit the artificial car wash shop much harder than imagined, and Liu Wei watched the car wash business that had been open for more than 1 year more and more difficult to do, "When we first started to do the artificial car wash shop, the income was OK, 10,000 yuan when it was good in 1 month, and 10,000 yuan when it was not good, but then the epidemic came, the business in the store also plummeted, and the later income was almost the rent that could be taken care of, but it was a little difficult to pay the employees." ”
On the surface, the owner of a car has an income of 4 or 50 yuan for washing a car, and the car wash shop only needs to sprinkle some foam and open the water gun to flush it, which seems to be an enviable "profiteering" industry. But the business of car wash shop is not so simple, like other physical businesses, recruitment difficulties and rapid rise in rent and labor costs have become the three mountains on the head of car wash shops.
Among them, what makes Liu Wei most embarrassed is that it is difficult to recruit people in the car wash industry under the epidemic.
Generally speaking, the technical content of car washing is very low, many car wash workers think that when car washers can not learn technology, and people also have to work in a wet and cold environment all day, "compared to doing car washers, it is better to be a courier." ”
Therefore, from returning to work, recruiting people, to training and induction, most of the car washers are recruited from the migrant workers in the labor market. This type of migrant worker is generally more mobile, generally returning in the second year to continue to stay less, and car wash shops have to worry about recruiting workers every year. Not to mention that under the epidemic situation, car wash shops, as a place with relatively large traffic, are also waiting to see or choose to change their profession directly, and it is more difficult to recruit car washers.
"The rent does not need to be mentioned, let's say labor, 10 years ago, the monthly salary of a car wash employee was about 600 yuan, and now it has risen to about 3,000 yuan, and when it is better, it will be 4, 5,000 thousand yuan a month." Liu Wei revealed that it takes four or five people to open an artificial car wash shop, so that the monthly expenditure of light labor will be tens of thousands of yuan, including rent and water and electricity, and there will be a fixed cost expenditure of 15,000-20,000 yuan per month.
In contrast, the intelligent car washer is not only convenient for serving consumers, but also the operating costs after purchasing the smart car wash machine are more attractive to entrepreneurs. Shen Xiaopeng revealed that the cost of a car wash smart machine is as low as 6 or 7 cents, plus water and electricity bills of less than 1 yuan. The user washes the car for 9.9 yuan, and the operator can still have about 90% of the gross profit.
Photo / Smart car wash equipment at work
Speaking of profits, Liu Wei also can't help but complain to the "forefront of entrepreneurship", the frequency of car owners washing cars is quite high, but there are not many other additional businesses such as beauty, "at most it is to wax the car more car owners, other maintenance and beauty is relatively less, the owner may only do it once every six months, and sometimes the cycle of old customers may be longer." ”
In this regard, Li Xin also said that consumers like him are generally willing to wash their cars in car wash shops when washing cars. However, when you need to do maintenance and beauty for the car, unless you are particularly familiar with the boss, you are still more willing to choose a brand store such as a 4S store to consume, "because you can rest assured." ”
Liu Wei later calculated that the main income and expenditure of the car wash shop were mainly concentrated in the car wash business. Therefore, he thinks it is more cost-effective to run a 24-hour smart car wash shop without labor.
It is true that the store has been operating for more than 1 year, and Liu Wei's smart car wash shop only needs to pay monthly rent and water and electricity bills because there is no labor cost, and the total expenditure is about 6,000 yuan. In this way, his net income for 1 month has 10,000 yuan, and sometimes during the peak season such as the New Year's Festival, because the car wash volume is large, he will also add one or two workers to provide simple services such as washing interiors and waxing, "It is no problem to earn 15,000 yuan a month." ”
"Compared with traditional manual car washes, smart car wash shops have relatively stable income. The key is peace of mind. Now, Liu Wei also runs a tobacco hotel at home, and treats the smart car wash shop as a side business, "Usually I look at the tobacco hotel at home, and occasionally go to the smart car wash shop to change the cleaning products." ”
And entrepreneurs like Liu Wei are not in the minority.
"The first important target market for smart car wash services is now the gas station, and the others are the parking lot, next to the charging pile, the residential property, and the private car wash shop." Shen Xiaopeng even revealed that since the beginning of this year, 10 entrepreneurs have purchased car washers through the franchise model, "Our 10 franchisees can each open about 2 unmanned intelligent car wash shops." ”
Photo / Shen Xiaopeng with his city partner
According to the enterprise investigation data, from 2014 to the end of December 2021, the registration volume of smart car wash-related enterprises was 282, 364, 501, 736, 1018, 1238, 2414 and 5693, respectively, and the growth rate of entering the industry was rapid.
Obviously, under the impact of the epidemic, the worry-free operation, low labor costs and attractive gross profits seem to make the smart car wash a good business.
3
Tough Fortune Sutra
It is worth noting that smart car wash shops have developed for many years, but the mainstream car wash stores in the market are still mainly manual car washes, supplemented by machines.
In the optimistic scenario, the number of civilian cars in the country at the end of 2019 has reached 260 million, if these 260 million small passenger cars use intelligent car washers, an average of 50 times a year, according to the market price of 10-15 yuan / time, the annual market size of smart car washes can reach 120 billion to 180 billion yuan.
But the reality is that it will take time for domestic smart car washes to replace traditional car washes.
It is understood that in China's car wash market, nearly 90% is manual hand washing, close to 10% is machine washing, and the proportion of self-service car washes can be ignored. In the international market, Europe and the United States and other countries and regions have long entered the era of machine washing, and more than 50% of Nordics are self-service car wash models.
The reason is that the domestic market consumers on the intelligent car wash identification is not high, most of the owners are still willing to manually wash the car, some people think that the automatic car wash machine washing is not clean, but also easy to hurt the car paint, the later also need a lot of manual to deal with the details.
Graph /Photo Network, based on VRF protocol
Li Liang (pseudonym), a post-00 consumer, is not satisfied with the results of the intelligent car washer cleaning, and bluntly said, "In the future, I will not be greedy and cheap, and use an automatic car washer to wash the car." ”
Last year, because Li Liang, a recent graduate, had to commute back and forth between Beijing and Hebei every day, his parents bought him a 300,000 yuan car to travel. At the same time, relatives also gave him a 1200 yuan fuel card, when the gas station promised to give him 6 smart car wash coupons.
Because he just bought a new car, Li Liang cherishes his car very much and usually cleans the car once a week. He said, "The 6 smart car wash coupons that were given to me at that time made me happy. But only two or three times with the intelligent car washer, Li Liang felt that the use of intelligent car wash machine cleaning is ok, but the machine washing is still too hurt car paint, "very painful." ”
There are not a few consumers who have the same concerns as Li Liang.
Wang Qian also said that the newly bought car is not too worried about going to the smart car wash shop to wash the car, and the area around the community is a car wash shop, usually need to wash the car and do not want to queue, park the car in the store, give the key to the familiar store manager can, there is no need to go to the smart car wash shop to wash the car.
Not only that, but it is not so easy for small shops such as smart car washes to make money.
First of all, it is inseparable from the demand for site selection in the real economy. The intelligent car washer has special requirements for the size, width, depth, height, etc. of the site.
Vehicles entering and leaving, queuing and waiting, and manual processing and delivery in the later stage all require larger and reasonable venues. For example, the intelligent car wash machine selected by Liu Wei is about 4 meters wide and more than 10 meters long, and the site needs 4 or 50 square meters. Because the washing station point is too small, the infrastructure is poor, the owner experience is not good, it feels inconvenient, and it will naturally cause the loss of customers.
Geographically, it is also necessary to pay attention to the washing station in the place where the car is parked, rather than the place where the car flows.
Shen Xiaopeng also deeply understands this. In the past few years, companies have been racing, but since this year, they have also begun to be cautious, in order to produce better benefits, they usually choose high-quality outlets for investment. For example, everyone will choose to open a smart car wash shop close to the business office building, family area, which can provide a variety of convenient services, "because the car wash itself is a convenient thing, if it is inconvenient for the people, it can not be regarded as a poor service." ”
On the other hand, most of the car wash shops are small business, are making hard money, and compared with manual car wash shops, the price of automatic car wash equipment is not low, the investment is large, but it is difficult to recover funds in the short term.
It is understood that the price of the smart car wash machine purchased by Liu Wei is 150,000 yuan. That is to say, if he earns 15,000 yuan in the three holiday seasons of May Day, Eleventh and New Year's Eve, and 10,000 yuan a month at other times, it will take more than a year to earn the cost back.
According to Shen Xiaopeng, the car wash has also produced nearly 20 models of intelligent car wash machines in the past, covering the price range of 80,000 yuan and 90,000 yuan to 3 and 400,000 yuan. He said bluntly that when choosing a city partner, Cheshujie will also pay more attention to the local social resources and financial strength of the cooperation partner, "because only in this way can it help the development of both of us and have a full sense of operation in response to market changes." ”
In this way, even if you join a smart car wash brand, there is still a certain threshold for entry, and it is not easy to run well and make money from it.
4
Technology is king
Like other outlet industries, the smart car wash industry has also experienced a period of crazy development. Since 2015, like all industries, many institutions and entrepreneurs believe that capital can make the industry bigger and stronger through the rapid expansion of the cash-burning model, "you can raise as much money as you can do."
Enterprise investigation data shows that from 2014 to 2021, a total of 48 financings occurred in the intelligent car wash industry. The number of financing for smart car wash-related enterprises is 4, 12, 7, 7, 2, 9, 5 and 2 respectively.
Photo / The smart car wash market in 2015 was popular with capital
Around 2015, when financing was the strongest, there were also cases of grabbing tracks, chasing the wind, and telling stories in the market.
Shen Xiaopeng is a serial entrepreneur. Previously, his project did not have enough commercial pain points, and the landing process was not smooth, resulting in the failure of entrepreneurship. Therefore, when he founded Cheshujie, he paid special attention to whether the industry he was engaged in was enough pain points to really improve efficiency for customers.
In early 2017, together with the entrepreneurial team, he first walked through car washer factories large and small. After doing sufficient market research, he found that the car wash merchants in the current market are generally facing the pressure of expensive rent, difficult to find people, and expensive water and electricity bills in their operations, resulting in the high price of user car wash. He also found that even if some companies have developed intelligent car wash machines, they can't wash cars 24 hours a day, and the user experience is not good.
"It is to place a smart box on the ordinary car washer and paste the two-dimensional code, which forms a scan code to wash the car." This device is still lacking in the entire degree of intelligence, and the user still needs a lot of operation when using it. Some users do not know how to operate at all, not only very delayed time, but also often caused the phenomenon of car wash users queuing. ”
Not only that, the service life of the car washer is generally 5 to 10 years, and the maintenance and maintenance should be carried out frequently throughout the life cycle, and the performance and failure rate of the car wash equipment are very different, there is no core technology to support, even if the platform is set up quickly, but the operation may be half the time in maintenance and shutdown.
According to the "forefront of entrepreneurship", many manufacturers now promise well when signing a contract, but they cannot fulfill their promises when the equipment fails. You know, the quality of the selected intelligent car wash equipment is not good, there is always a failure, three days and two ends need to take the equipment to repair not only delay making money, but also the key problem is that even if it is re-repaired, the owner will habitually think that the machine is bad, and will not go to the car wash again.
"The industry still needs supervision from all walks of life and policy supervision, and bad money cannot be allowed to drive out good money." Shen Xiaopeng said that the industry has also entered a bubble period under the operation of some companies before, but as the market gradually matures, today's industry is about to usher in the moment of squeezing out the bubble.
Shen Xiaopeng revealed that there is no fanatical pursuit of capital, and now enterprises with technology and capabilities are quietly doing things, and the market has begun to expel a large number of companies, "Now more than 1/3 of the companies that began to do smart car washes in the early stage are either stagnant development or dead." Especially in 2021, about 80% of companies that do not have their own research and development strength or pseudo-intelligent car wash will be eliminated. ”
As the intelligent car wash industry enters the reshuffle period, Shen Xiaopeng judged that it will be difficult for companies without technology and management capabilities to survive in the future.
"The core competitiveness of intelligent car wash is technical ability." Shen Xiaopeng believes that intelligent car wash technology is equivalent to a technological revolution, which can liberate people's productivity. When using manual car washes, car washers may also cause damage to the vehicle due to operational errors. But as long as the smart car washer is enough technology, it is actually able to reach the technical level of absolutely not hurting the car.
It is undeniable that the use of automatic car washers to wash cars has become a trend, from car wash shops to 4S shops, and then to gas stations and other service places with large traffic, intelligent car wash machines have appeared. When the bubble in the market is squeezed out, if the technologically advanced intelligent car washer can achieve no damage to the body at all, but also allow people to achieve "after-bed income", why not?
*The title image in the text is from the photo network, based on the VRF protocol.