This article undertakes: 2021 year-end inventory| cross-border and new life (Part 1)
"Newborn calves" – the light orange age
Compared with the above-mentioned enterprises with the blessing of traditional OEMs and technology companies, the car-making rookie light orange era has almost no paving for the "turnaround" on November 8.
In fact, Light Orange Times was founded in June 2021 and received angel round investment from 3 companies, including Chuangxiang Investment, Weights and Measures Capital, and Qiande Fund, in September of that year. Five months after its establishment, the first model code-named VC of the Light Orange Era was unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show, positioning itself as a compact SUV and equipped with super fast charging technology that takes 8 minutes to charge and travels 200 kilometers.
It is reported that the technical research and development team of the light orange era has participated in the research and development of a number of new energy electric vehicles in China. Light Orange Times said that at present, the company has more than 200 people, mainly focusing on research and development work such as platform, three electricity, and automatic driving. Obviously, the light orange era has expanded its contacts in the field of new energy vehicles in multiple dimensions and intends to take the road of independent research and development.
Liao Bing's "Freedom"
Without PPT, without a passionate opening, Liao Bing returned to the new power car-making camp as the founder and CEO of Liberty Automobile on February 3, 2021, only three weeks before his last identity.
On January 25 of the same year, Liao Bing, founder and CEO of GAC NIO, posted on his personal social account on domestic social platforms that he had officially resigned as CEO of GAC NIO and all administrative positions in his subsidiaries and branches on January 22, but did not disclose where he had gone after his resignation.
In this way, it seems that the establishment of the free car may have been "deliberately planned for a long time". Liberty Auto was established on February 2, 2021 with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. According to the penetration of Tianyan's shares, Liao Bing holds nearly 90% of the shares of Liberty Automobile. In a sense, Liberty Auto is Liao Bing's second venture. In 2018, Liao Bing, then assistant to the president of the GAC Research Institute, decisively took over the GAC Weilai project, which was counted as his first business.
In fact, Liberty Auto is an extension of SOME LEVEL OF GAC WEILAI. Previously, Liao Bing said in an interview with the media that "Liberty Automobile basically maintains some of the settings of GAC Weilai, mainly to do a more high-end market segment in the field of intelligent electric vehicles, but the final price of the product should not be higher than 400,000." According to the plan, Liberty Will launch and deliver its first model at the end of 2022 or the first quarter of 2023, and after the first model is delivered, Liberty will prepare for the launch.
However, the plan could not catch up with the changes, and the freedom car was established less than half a year to regenerate the storm. In June 2021, the legal representative of Liberty Automobile was changed from Liao Bing to Zhang Hun, and Liao Bing and his Guangzhou Bopai Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) withdrew from the company and instead took a stake in Zhiyou (Guangzhou) New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., a holding subsidiary established by Liberty Automobile in March, which was officially independent in May, and at the same time, the official website of Liberty Automobile was changed to Zhiyou Automobile.
Although Liao Bing is a veteran of the automotive industry, he has not made eye-catching achievements in GAC Weilai. Nowadays, the second venture also has a bad start, free car was established less than half a year into Zhiyu Automobile, in the current competitive landscape, Zhiyu Automobile is difficult to arouse the attention of the outside world.
Two rounds become four rounds
"It will not learn from the successful experience of Maverick Electric, after all, the automobile industry is a complex industry compared to two-wheeled electric vehicles, and it is impossible to learn from it, and everyone should not call us Maverick electric vehicles in the future, we are self-touring cars." On December 15, Li Yinan, who resigned as CEO of Xiaoniu Electric for three years, officially announced that he had joined the car-making queue, with the brand name of "NIUTRON" (Niu Innovative Energy) and the Chinese named "Ziyoujia", and announced that the first product, Ziyoujia NV, would be produced on a small scale in March 2022, accepting reservations in the first half of the year and starting delivery in September of the same year.
It is understood that the technical route of the self-touring home is pure electric BEV and extended range electric EREV in parallel, "the reason for choosing such a technical solution (pure electricity + extended range) is likely to be that Niuchuang hopes that its products can be quickly volumeted to form a scale in the short term." Some industry analysts believe that the success of the ideal ONE has inspired Li Yinan to a certain extent.
According to public information, in October and December 2019, Niuchuang Technology and Niu Chuang Energy, the main operators of Youjia Automobile, were established successively; in June last year, Jiangsu Zhongzhiyang Investment Management Company auctioned the former Mahayana Automobile Science and Technology Park in Changzhou for 1.551 billion yuan. After the equity penetration, the former was an investment company with a state-owned background in Jintan District, Changzhou, and later Niuchuang obtained the production capacity of the original Mahayana automobile through leasing.
In terms of funds, according to Niu Chuangxin Energy, it has obtained a round of 500 million US dollars in financing led by IDG Capital and COATUE. Although Li Yinan said that "the financing of the A round is enough to take a while", there is no plan to start the next round of financing, but the investment in production line transformation, qualification acquisition, product research and development and so on is a lot of expenditure for Niuchuang.
Whether Ziyoujia can stand out among many new power brands is still unknown, it is certain that from the dimensions of car-making funds, technology precipitation, brand influence and other dimensions, Ziyoujia is facing great challenges, and the future is destined to be a road through thorns.
Bentley? Bingli?
On the same day as Li Yinan released the NIUTRON brand, the news that former Volkswagen executive Su Weiming wanted to start a business and build a car stirred up a lot of waves in the industry. In January 2021, Su Weiming left Volkswagen, where he had been in office for 16 years, when the industry reported that Su Weiming would start a business in the field of intelligent mobility, but this news was broken after Su Weiming became the CEO of Renault China.
However, after 11 months, a start-up named Beijing Binli Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Binli Information") with Su Weiming as the legal representative surfaced, which shows that the previous news is not empty. Founded in June 2021 with a registered capital of up to US$200 million, the new company is the main body of Su Weiming's entrepreneurship in the field of intelligent mobility.
Two other companies, Beijing Binli Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Binli Intelligent") and Shanghai Binli Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Binli Information"), have applied for the registration of 24 trademarks for transportation vehicles under the former name, the latest of which was filed on November 19. These three companies constitute the main body of Su Weiming's entry into the field of intelligent electric vehicles.
It is understood that Binli is positioned as a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand, and its first product may be benchmarked against the Porsche Taycan, focusing on luxury and intelligent high-performance four-door pure electric coupe, and announcing the specific content at the 2022 Beijing Auto Show. In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, "Dongfeng Motor has invested in Binli and intends to manufacture it.".
Su Weiming's own aura and dongfeng motor's blessing make the industry optimistic about the start-up, but this does not mean that the probability of success of Pennsylvania will be higher than other new brands, after all, there is no eternal winner in the market.
In addition to the above-mentioned clear car brands, 2021 will also set off a "cross-border car-making fever", and major leading Internet companies have announced cross-border car-making. On March 2, Jidu Automobile, a smart car company established by Baidu and Geely, was quietly established; at the end of the same month, Xiaomi officially announced its car-building plan at its 2021 spring new product launch.
With Baidu and Xiaomi successively entering the game, 360 is not willing to show weakness. On the first day of this year's Shanghai Auto Show, the figure of Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, appeared at the booth of Nezha Automobile, causing speculation from all walks of life. On May 11, Zhou Hongyi announced that 360 Group will strategically invest in Nezha Automobile, and after completing all the investments, it will become the second largest shareholder of Nezha Automobile.
Reviewing the domestic auto market in 2021, many new faces appear in the new track of the domestic auto industry, and how to stand out in the increasingly crowded new energy track will be the primary issue facing these novice players.