Faraday Future is still shouting "mass production delivery within one year", and Gaohe is already crushing BBA and Porsche.
Since the backdoor listing, Jia Yueting's Faraday Future (FF) has been in a contradiction between self-affirmation and external doubts.
Judging from the process disclosed by FF itself, the production of the first mass production car FF 91 is in an orderly manner, but from the opinions of challengers such as J Capital, which issued the short report, the listing of FF is still a scam.
Recently, the US law firm Block & Leviton filed a class action lawsuit against FF or violated US securities-related laws and regulations, which undoubtedly brought a heavy blow to the already less positive image of FF.
When FF was in a crisis of public opinion, Jia Yueting's old partner, Ding Lei, who was the co-founder of LeTV Automobile, had already taken the lead in realizing the "car-making dream", and the results were already very eye-catching.
Ding Lei's pure electric brand Gaohe and FF have similar strategies, both choose to start from the high-end market, the first mass production car Hiphi X sales have once surpassed Porsche Taycan, Mercedes-Benz EQC and other luxury models, is likely to be the most direct competitor to FF 91.
When Jia Yueting "returns to China", he will stand on the adjacent track of the auto track with Ding Lei, the former "comrade-in-arms", the difference is that Gaohe has already started running, and FF is still standing at the starting point to warm up, waiting for the whistle that has not been sounded for a long time.
Who is Ding Lei?
Compared with Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, which have always been in the spotlight, Gaohe's sense of existence is much lower.
This is related to the positioning of Gaohe is too high-end, after all, the average selling price of 680,000 yuan means that the audience range is more limited, and it is difficult to penetrate the mass market in a short period of time.
Left: Jia Yueting Right: Ding Lei
On the other hand, it is also inseparable from the founder of this factor, the founders of "Wei Xiaoli" are serial entrepreneurs in the Internet industry, good at using the power of the media to create momentum for themselves, Gaohe founder Ding Lei has relatively little experience in the Internet industry, but his resume and background in the automotive industry are very strong.
According to public information, Ding Lei entered the automotive industry after graduating from Fudan University in 1988 and served as vice president of SAIC Group and general manager of SAIC-GM. From 2013 to 2015, Ding Lei served as the deputy mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area. That is, he has experience in both business and politics.
During his tenure in Pudong New Area, Ding Lei participated in and led the project to introduce Tesla. It is reported that when Tesla sought to enter the Chinese market, Ding Lei had actively contacted Tesla, and thus contacted many talents in the technology industry and the three electric industries, and accumulated a lot of resources for the road of car building.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the Tesla project and see the car-making outlet, coupled with his familiarity with the automotive industry, Ding Lei joined Jia Yueting's LeTV automobile project in 2015 to become a co-founder, at that time Jia Yueting was in a mess with the "ecological anti" model, but in the automotive industry is not much experience, Ding Lei's joining will undoubtedly bring more possibilities to LeEco Automobile.
The next fate of LeTV Automobile does not need to be repeated, LeTV ecological thunderstorm, Jia Yueting went to the United States after falling into a debt crisis to pursue the car dream that has not yet been realized. Sensing that the general trend of LeEco automobile has gone, Ding Lei finally withdrew in 2017.
But Ding Lei did not leave the car track for too long, a few months after resigning from LeTV, Ding Lei founded Huaren Express Technology Co., Ltd., with smart cars, smart transportation, and smart city "three wisdoms" as the strategic layout.
After three years of accumulation, Huaren Express released the hiphi X, the first mass production car of the auto brand Gaohe, with a price of up to 680,000 -800,000 yuan, directly breaking the ceiling of domestic electric vehicle prices.
No financing, the money is enough to burn
Curiously, despite the fact that the models manufactured are so high-end, there are few media reports on the financing of Huaren Express, and the public financing is only 5 billion yuan of strategic support funds from the Bank of Communications.
"Car building = burning money" has long become the consensus of the industry, "Wei Xiaoli" has not only carried out multiple rounds of financing, but also listed in the United States and Hong Kong to continuously "transfuse blood" for themselves, Li Bin is even more blunt, there is no 20 billion can not build a car at all.
Without a word, 800,000 cars were built, where did the funds come from? This is to talk about the capital behind Chinese Express.
First of all, it is necessary to mention a city - Jiangsu Yancheng, Jiangsu Yancheng is to The Chinese Express as Anhui Hefei is to Weilai.
Hefei's 7 billion yuan helped WEILAI out of the ICU, Weilai established a research and development and production base in Hefei, which can be described as a win-win cooperation, Yancheng and Huaren Express's cooperation method is similar, connecting the two not only with the joint establishment of industrial funds, but also Yueda Group.
According to a report by China's Jiangsu network in 2020, in order to support the development of the Huaren Express project, Yancheng city set up a registered capital of 1.89 billion yuan Yueda Zhichuang Company, the actual controller of Yueda Zhichuang is the Yueda Group with a shareholding ratio of more than 80%, in addition, Yancheng also set up a scale of 3 billion yuan of Chinese Express fund and 500 million yuan of East Coast Fund.
In addition, Yueda Kia, a subsidiary of Yueda Group, provided a factory for Huaren Express, and some insiders told the media that the cooperation between Huaren Express and Yueda Kia, similar to the "foundry model" of Weilai and Jianghuai, can greatly alleviate the demand for funds of Huaren Express, and also solve the problem of production qualifications.
Photo: Gaohe Yancheng plant
That is to say, Yancheng has given the most direct support to Huaren Express in terms of capital and production.
Of course, in addition to the help of Yancheng, Ding Lei, who has been deeply involved in the automotive industry for many years, naturally has some network advantages, such as many of the shareholders of Huaren Express, many of which are related to the business chain of SAIC-GM.
Rich people's toys?
Looking at the mainstream new energy vehicles sold in the market, even if it is the benchmark BBA Weilai, the highest price is just over 500,000 yuan. The future of the model K50, which was previously priced in the range of more than 500,000, has long been silent, and the pricing of The Hihi X is very risky, after all, in this range, most consumers recognize the value of luxury brands such as BBA and Porsche.
But fortunately, this time the reality is as "plump" as the idea, in 2021, the sales of Gaohe increased month by month, reaching 641 units in September, which strongly rewrote the script of the sales list of foreign luxury brands, leaving popular models such as Porsche Taycan and Mercedes-Benz EQC behind, and winning the sales crown of more than 500,000 ranges.
Who are the people who are buying such expensive electric cars?
According to reports, most of the 3,000 car owners in the founding version of Gaohe HiPhi X are business owners, who are also early owners of Tesla and Nio ES8, and already have one or more fuel vehicles, so For such a wealthy group, Gaohe is not just a travel tool, but more like a new toy full of technology.
Hiphi X highlights include two-way doors, spread doors, custom-programmable LED headlights, facial recognition systems, and smart driving. The labels of "smart sense" and "futurism" seem to be directly attached to the entire body.
The key point is that it is too similar to Faraday's future FF 91, both in form and in the central control area.
Left: Hiphi X Right: FF 91
When the FF 91 debuted in 2017, the advanced design and performance brought a surprise to the world, however, nearly five years later, many of the advantages that Jia Yueting was proud of had long been surpassed by other players.
In terms of performance, the top speed and 100 km/h acceleration of the FF 91 are not as good as the Model S Plaid, and in terms of design, the Hiphi X has met most of the expectations of consumers for luxury electric vehicles. The only thing that FF 91 is currently far ahead of may be the price (it is reported that it will be 1-2 million yuan).
At the end of last year, Gaohe released its second mass production car Hiphi Z, which will be put into production and delivered this year, from the official chart, Hiphi Z and Hiphi X style is not the same, more mecha style, the main innovation points include the mecha arm behind the central control screen, the official price has not yet been announced, but some media predict that the hiphi Z price or will be around 500,000 yuan.
If the prediction is true, it may indicate that Gaohe will adopt a similar strategy as Tesla, that is, open the market through high-end brands, and then start the "catfish" journey, and constantly launch models suitable for the mass market.
epilogue
The law of not advancing or retreating is not only applicable to sailing against the current, but also applies to today's new energy vehicle track. Jia Yueting was still accumulating strength on the boat, and Ding Lei was close to getting out of the countercurrent area.
From the perspective of the entire industry pattern, "Wei Xiaoli" occupies the range of 150,000 yuan -500,000 yuan, and Gaohe cuts from the range of 600,000 to 800,000 yuan, filling the gap of domestic pure electricity new power brands in the high-end market, and also bringing pressure to foreign luxury brands.
However, it should also be pointed out that the number of market users that Gaohe is currently focusing on is relatively small, and if you want to reproduce the script of Tesla's sinking market and winning by volume, you may also need to spend more effort on marketing methods and product design.
If you adhere to the high-end route, how to continue to maintain a unique sense of freshness, mystery and technology when more players enter the market will also be a problem in front of Gaohe.
Produced by ZAKER News
Text / Bao Xingwa
Editor / Zeng Xiantian