Recently, Nezha Automobile official micro-news, Nezha Automobile's 100,000th mass production car off the production line, from the 1st to the 100,000th mass production car off the production line, Nezha Automobile spent 42 months.
New forces have always been full of variables, and in the growing environment of the domestic new energy vehicle market, the new forces car companies are still competing with each other and constantly striving to survive. Nowadays, the first echelon of new car-making forces, "Wei Xiaoli", has gained a firm foothold in China, but it has ushered in a new round of market challenges.
Among the new car-making forces, the second echelon of Weima, Nezha, and zero-run cars are showing new changes.
The reason why Nezha Automobile has become a car company with a relatively high degree of attention among the new car manufacturers is not difficult to find, mainly because it has changed significantly in the sales ranking announced by the new force car companies in May 2021. Sales data show that in May 2021, Nezha Automobile entered the first echelon of the new car-making forces of Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal Automobile with a cumulative sales performance of 14,500 vehicles.
"Low-key" United new energy brand
According to public information, Hezhong New Energy Vehicle was established in 2014 with a registered capital of 626 million yuan, and at the end of 2017, Hezhong New Energy received 1.25 billion yuan of capital injection from Zhihe Travel, with a total investment of more than 2.5 billion.
In April 2017, Hezhong New Energy's "construction project with an annual output of 50,000 pure electric passenger cars" was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, becoming the 13th enterprise to be approved as a national new energy vehicle license. In May 2018, United New Energy Vehicle officially obtained the production qualification of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which means that The mass production vehicles of United New Energy began to enter the market.
At this point, United New Energy has become a vehicle enterprise that rarely obtains "double qualifications" for new forces. During May 2018, United New Energy officially released the new corporate brand HOZON and its product brand NETA Nezha Automobile, opening up the market competition of xinshi car companies.
Daniel Zhang, president of Hezhong New Energy, officially introduced the United New Energy enterprise brand to the public at the brand press conference, as well as NETA Nezha Automobile, a product brand that focuses on smart cars for young people.
From the perspective of brand and product, the brand logo of Hezhong New Energy "HOZON" is highly expected, while Nezha Auto products borrow the IP concept of traditional Chinese culture. When combing the brand structure, Hezhong New Energy once said that the fountain logo represents Hezhong, and the fountain logo + Nezha Automobile represents the Nezha automobile produced by Hezhong.
After the release of the brand, why was it named "Nezha Car"? Daniel Zhang, president of Hezhong New Energy, explained that Nezha is one of the big IPs of traditional Chinese culture. Some insiders said that by combing the brand structure and replacing the brand LOGO, it is conducive to United Automobile to focus more on Nezha Automobile.
United New Energy uses Internet thinking to name its products, to which Nezha Automobile explained: Nezha Automobile is the world's first automobile brand named after the traditional Chinese cultural IP, and "Nezha" is very well-known. And this name is very easy for users to understand and remember, which will greatly improve the efficiency of brand communication and reduce the time cost of brand communication.
Sometimes, however, expectations are far from reality. In August 2021, a WeChat group called "Nezha Brand Center Management Group" exposed that Nezha Automobile wanted to ask Wu Yifan to be a spokesperson, and once the incident was fermented, it triggered heated discussion among netizens.
Subsequently, Nezha Automobile issued a statement on the official Weibo and apologized, and Daniel Zhang, founder and CEO of Nezha Automobile, said that the person in charge of the marketing department and the half-brand public relations team that participated in the discussion and made inappropriate remarks were all fired. The Nezha car brand is well known to the audience, but the brand tone may be affected. In this regard, some insiders analyzed that Nezha Automobile leaked screenshots from the circle of friends, and finally apologized and fired the parties, which made people suspect that it was a marketing "script" that was intentionally manufactured.
In the early days, the product brand image of Nezha Automobile, a new energy brand, was indeed not well recognized by the market, and the name Nezha Automobile was only to be able to convey the brand concept more vividly, even if the new LOGO design of NETA, it is difficult for the audience to have a deep understanding of the new brand, but Nezha's product image has brought good market performance to Hezhong New Energy Vehicle.
In 2021, Nezha Automobile will deliver nearly 70,000 units throughout the year. In November and December, the monthly delivery volume exceeded 10,000 consecutive months, and the annual increase was 362%; among its two products, Nezha U Pro and Nezha V Pro, the single-month order of Nezha U Pro exceeded 5,000 units, and the single-month order of Nezha V Pro exceeded 10,000 units. The Nezha automobile brand has become the focus of the audience's attention, and the United New Energy Vehicle Company brand is behind the scenes.
In this regard, Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that the naming method of Nezha Automobile is relatively unique, such as Tesla, Weilai Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile, all of which have their own naming methods. The brand name and product name between Nezha Automobile and Hezhong New Energy are inconsistent, and there will be no excessive obvious impact between the two sides.
In general, this situation is more common, throughout the marketing process, the company will focus on the promotion of the product name, rather than the promotion of the corporate brand name. What kind of LOGO is used by car companies is mainly to improve market sales to do marketing services, so Nezha Automobile uses NETA's English LOGO naming to improve product recognition compared with Hezhong New Energy.
As of now, the number of Nezha Automobile's national channels has exceeded 330, Nezha Power has expanded to 150 cities, when talking about the sales target for 2022, the other party said that "Nezha Automobile's sales target for 2022 is in planning, and now Nezha Automobile's customer referral rate has exceeded 20%, and next year Nezha Automobile will strive to 40% of the target."
In terms of new products, Nezha S will be listed at the end of 2022 to support Nezha Automobile to enter the first- and second-tier markets. In terms of global development, Nezha Automobile has released the Nezha V right-hand drive version of the model for overseas markets, and announced that it will "go to sea", and it is expected to officially open the expansion and layout of the Southeast Asian market in the first half of 2022, and open a new journey of Nezha Automobile's global development. At the same time, Nezha S, which represents the future intelligent exploration of Nezha Automobile, will also enter the European market after listing at the end of 2022, thereby accelerating the process of Nezha Automobile's globalization strategy.
The team behind United "New Energy"
According to the data, at the time of its establishment, Hezhong New Energy had a total of five shareholders, namely Beijing Yihuatong 5%, Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute 5%, Shanghai Zhe'ao 10%, Hongli Zhihui 5% and Tongxiang Hezhong New Energy Automobile Industry Investment Partnership 75%.
In addition to the shareholder camp, compared with the founders of The Internet celebrity type such as Li Bin and He Xiaopeng, Fang Yunzhou of United New Energy Vehicles has always been the helmsman behind its scenes. United New Energy Vehicle was founded in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, led by Fang Yunzhou, who served as the deputy general manager of Chery New Energy Technology Company and became one of the members of the "4-person team" of Chery New Energy Project.
In 1998, Fang Yunzhou graduated from the Automotive Department of Anhui Hefei University of Technology, and then joined Chery Automobile, which was mainly responsible for the research and development of engine accessory systems. In 2001, research and development and testing of electric vehicles began.
In the more than 10 years of Chery New Energy Project, Fang Yunzhou has been exposed to the door of new energy for the first time, and has also opened a new chapter for the development of Chery New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. In 2021, Chery's total sales of new energy vehicles will be about 109,000 units, an increase of 144.6% year-on-year.
In 2018, Daniel Zhang, the former general manager of BAIC BJEV Marketing Company, ended nearly 20 years of experience in the BAIC Group and turned into the new car-making force car company Hezhong New Energy Vehicle, although the main business of the Daniel Zhang has not changed much, but in the face of 2017, BAIC BJEV achieved sales of 104,500 vehicles, how to bring the Hezhong new energy brand into the annual sales of more than 10,000 is extremely challenging, the market is full of challenges, everything depends on strength to speak.
In 2021, the cumulative sales volume of Nezha Automobile was 69,674 units, an increase of 362% year-on-year, and on January 8, Nezha Automobile's official micro-news, Nezha Automobile's 100,000th mass production car rolled off the production line, from the first to the 100,000th mass production car off the production line, Nezha Automobile spent 42 months. The official roll-off of the 100,000th mass-produced car is of great significance to the new car companies.
In addition to Fang Yunzhou and Daniel Zhang, Qian Dezhu, Peng Qingfeng, Lin Weiyi, Chen Yaoguang, the founder team of Hezhong New Energy in the early stage, as well as Wang Kefeng, Zhang Qi and Chang Bing from the former traditional new energy vehicle companies, have all played an important role in promoting the establishment of United New Energy Vehicles and the landing today.
There is no latest development in the IPO in Hong Kong
With the expansion of the market sales of Nezha Automobile, the rapid layout of channels and services, the brand continues to gain market recognition, while Daniel Zhang, co-founder and CEO of United New Energy, has a more rational understanding of this, and will continue to work hard to survive in 2022, and also reveals the competitive pressure of the new energy vehicle market in 2022.
Nezha Automobile's rising market sales can bring more capital to it, such as 360, Ningde Times and Nezha Automobile signed a strategic agreement and participated in the D2 round of financing strategic investment in Nezha Automobile, the two sides will fully open strategic cooperation in the field of technology research and development and supply chain assurance.
According to public information, a total of 7 rounds of financing have been completed since 2017. In December 2020, it obtained a Series C financing of RMB2 billion led by Huading Capital, and the Series D financing disclosed on April 27, 2021, with the investor being Qihoo 360, raised about RMB3 billion.
Nowadays, with the 100,000th mass production car off the production line, the next goal of Hezhong New Energy or will continue to exert force in the capital market, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that as the new forces of car manufacturing further increase investment in the field of intelligent networking, it will bring users a more efficient, convenient and safe intelligent driving experience, and its advantages with traditional car companies will be further expanded.
Whether it is sales growth or whether it can successfully achieve an IPO, it is still an indispensable topic. The reality is far from being as impressive as the incremental market sees.
According to public information, Nezha Automobile achieved revenue of 1.632 billion yuan and a loss of 693 million yuan in the first half of 2021, compared with the loss of 1.321 billion yuan in 2020, there is a narrowing trend, but the profitability is still not strong. Industry insiders believe that although the sales of several models in Nezha have exploded, this is the result of "price for volume", and most of the sales growth model in the low-end market relies on price to win. At present, the main sales model of Nezha Automobile is in the market of less than 150,000 yuan.
Are the new car-making forces short of money? This topic seems to be a problem faced by all new forces car manufacturers, leaving aside the new forces car companies, no car company will dislike their abundant capital flow, and the same is true for United New Energy Vehicles.
Since September 2017, the relevant checkable financing transaction records show that Nezha Automobile has raised more than 12 billion yuan in the past four years, and the market expansion of new car-making car companies is inseparable from the support of strong capital, even if the new forces car companies such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, which have been listed, still need the support of the capital market, and the same is true for WM and Nezha Automobile.
In order to gain market recognition, financing and successfully bring enterprises into the IPO track, becoming the "driving force" for new forces to survive in the fierce market competition. According to the Economic Observer, Daniel Zhang, co-founder and CEO of United Company, responded to the company's IPO matters by saying that "the development of enterprises requires a lot of money, and it is false to say that we are not short of money, that is, those that have now been listed and raised money, they also have to be re-financed." For enterprises, the more money the better, we hope that Nezha can raise more funds. ”
On December 30 last year, the shareholders of Hezhong New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. changed, and Jiangyin Xinchanghong Electric Power Technology Co., Ltd. withdrew, holding 0.34% of the shares before the exit, adding 21 new shareholders, and the shareholding ratio was not disclosed. At the beginning of the new year in 2022, West Shanghai (605151.SH) announced that it would invest 20 million yuan to participate in the equity of Hezhong New Energy through equity funds.
At present, the capital situation of United New Energy is good, in 2022, Nezha Automobile will continue to increase overseas market expansion, and it is also reported that Nezha Automobile is considering an IPO in Hong Kong and is expected to raise about $1 billion. In this regard, Caijing Network Auto contacted the relevant people of Hezhong New Energy, who said, "There is no latest progress at present, about the IPO plan, we are in the preparatory stage, and it is not convenient to disclose it now." ”
For Hezhong New Energy, whether it can be officially listed through the Hong Kong IPO or will become the focus of market attention, for Nezha Automobile Daniel Zhang, sales are still the primary task in front of them, and the market pressure facing United New Energy in 2022 is still not small.