Lead
January 5,
Tuanche.com released a new strategic plan,
The new EV business line will be formed by forming teams including design, R&D, and production.
The strategic plan announced that the group car network will officially enter the field of car manufacturing.
Wen Wei, founder and CEO of Tuanche, said that the industry's top design, research and development and production teams that the company is forming to efficiently integrate with existing platforms, coupled with in-depth cooperation with various potential strategic partners, will definitely make Tuanche occupy an important position in the future electric vehicle market.
According to the data, Tuanche.com was established in 2010 as an auto trading and service platform, which mainly provides online and offline integration of auto marketing solutions and virtual dealer services based on transaction scenarios. In November 2018, Tuanche was successfully listed on nasdaq, claiming to be the first new retail stock of automobiles listed in the United States in China.
As for what kind of price range the group car will be positioned in the market, it is still unknown, but there is an analysis in the industry to tell the "China Automobile Pictorial": "The probability is a market with a lower price, because the sales volume of China's new energy vehicle market is mainly concentrated in the high-end and low-end areas, and the foundation of the group car is in the fourth and fifth-tier cities, so the market demand for the low-end new energy market is also greater." ”
At present, China's new energy vehicle market has entered a stage of rapid development. Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said in an interview with China Automobile Pictorial recently that it is predicted that the sales volume this year (2022) will be about 5 million vehicles, with a growth rate of 50%, and this number should not be too much of a problem.
Wen Wei said: "Based on the current innovative business model and the huge user base of years of in-depth operation, Tuanche will integrate into the future new business with a sales network covering the first line to the county level across the country and a strong sales ability. ”
In September 2021, the "New Energy and China Sinking Market Report" released by the E-Car Research Institute also showed that "the proportion of users in the new energy vehicle market in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities has increased significantly in recent years, accounting for nearly 30% in the first half of this year, which has become a new driving force for the market." ”
In the past two years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the business development of Tuanche has not been smooth, although Tuanche Network has increased its investment in online business from the first quarter of 2020, but its share is low, it is difficult to carry the banner of revenue growth, and the majority of revenue is still offline business. At present, its total market value is about 60 million US dollars, which has evaporated by more than 90% compared with the beginning of the listing.
Continuous net profit losses and declining revenues have made Wen Wei once have the helpless move of privatizing the group car network.
In January 2021, Wen Wei issued a non-binding preliminary proposal to acquire all of the Company's issued common shares at a price of $4.25 per share in cash, which Wen Wei did not yet own. But in November, Wen Wei withdrew his proposal, saying it was to open up more opportunities for the company.
In addition to the epidemic factors, the overall auto e-commerce industry is already sluggish, and it can even be said that the living environment is difficult, the weak cash flow of auto e-commerce and weak risk resistance are one of its major drawbacks, and platforms such as Uxin and Renrenche have experienced salary cuts, layoffs and even shutdowns.
Therefore, there are comments in the industry that entering the game to build a car is a road that cannot be retreated from the group car network, and it is also another stove to plan to turn over the salted fish, but whether it can succeed is unknown.
It is worth mentioning that car manufacturing is indeed a high-threshold industry, and it also requires huge capital investment. At the end of December 2021, Li Bin, founder of Weilai Automobile, said: "Don't think about building a car without 40 billion." And what he said in 2018 was, "There is no 20 billion yuan to build a car." However, the current total market value of the group car is only about $60 million.
In the past 2020, new forces in China, including Baidu, Xiaomi, DJI, Maverick, Box Car, Light Orange Car, etc., have entered the field of car manufacturing, and the field of new energy vehicles is very lively.