Following the "three consecutive burns" at the end of the year, the "lock electricity" crisis of WM Automobile continued to ferment. According to user feedback, WM Automobile used "free inspection of vehicles and 200 yuan Jingdong card" as bait to drive users to the store to inspect vehicles, but in fact, it quietly "locked the electricity" leading to the endurance locking water. At present, 173 car owners have issued a joint lawyer's letter to WM manufacturers, asking WM to stop false publicity.
In the past 2021, WM car flow year is unfavorable. The main sales model has spontaneously combusted one after another, the listing on the science and technology innovation board has encountered obstacles, the "quiet period" has hidden sales, the executives have frequently left their jobs, and the new forces of front-line car manufacturing have been "left behind"... As the only new car company in China that has built a self-built factory and a battery pack factory, why is WM Motor "lost"? To this end, Cheyun Network interviewed several insiders close to Weima.
"Compared with the other three new car companies, WM has left too much homework at the product and technical level, and WM itself should be clear." Originally, I wanted to make up for the previous problems by going public this year, but Weima did not expect that this breath would be so difficult. You Hao said.
Gap: WM's annual private insurance volume is only comparable to Xiaopeng's single month?
If you only look at the performance of Weima, according to its official data, WM has delivered 44,157 vehicles in the whole year, up 96.3% year-on-year. However, as one of the earliest new car manufacturers, 2 years ago, WM ranked 2nd in the new car manufacturing force, and now it has fallen to 5th place.
At the same time, when observing the amount of passenger car insurance in November, Cheyun Network found that WM Motor has slipped to 18th in the ranking of smart cars. Specifically, it can be seen that the article links to "November Smart Car Sales List| Volkswagen surpassed Weilai Xiaopeng, and Weima was thrown out of the top 15".
In addition to the decline in the ranking, it is also worth noting that: on the one hand, the gap between Weima and the head of the new car manufacturers is not small and continues to open, xiaopeng, Weilai, ideal this year's cumulative sales have been close to 100,000; on the other hand, through observation and analysis of the amount of insurance found that the acceptance of WM motors in the private market is not high.
Compared with Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng, which are the new forces of car manufacturing, WM Motors has the problem of over-dependence on the B-end market. From the january to November 2021 insurance volume data, WM Motors operated a total of 14,870 vehicles and 16,407 non-operating vehicles.
That is to say, the annual private purchase volume of the four models of WM Automobile is almost equivalent to the volume of Xiaopeng and the ideal single month. (The ideal non-operational insurance volume in November is 13,442 vehicles; Xiaopeng's non-operational insurance volume in November is 14,610 vehicles)
From the perspective of the industry, the sales structure of WM Motors is inconsistent with the current trend of the overall market to the C-end.
At present, the sales structure of domestic new energy vehicles for the B-end and C-end markets has changed from the original main sales to the B-end to the C-end. According to data jointly released by the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce and Gaz Automobile in October last year, the proportion of new energy vehicle To C end sales in the first three quarters of 2021 has approached 90%, while 3 years ago this data was still 20%.
Li Jinyong, executive chairman of the Automobile Dealers Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and president of the New Energy Vehicle Committee, said that the fact that more than 90% of new energy vehicles are purchased by C-end consumers shows that the mainland new energy vehicle market has truly entered the transformation from policy-driven to market-oriented, and also reflects that domestic consumers have fully accepted new energy vehicles.
Previously, under the vigorous guidance and promotion of various national policies, in addition to accelerating the use of new energy or clean energy vehicles for new and updated buses, sanitation, rentals and other vehicles in urban built-up areas, cities have also introduced measures requiring new online taxis not to use traditional fuel vehicles and all new energy vehicles.
Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, pointed out that pure electric vehicles, whether used as private cars or as shared cars, are of great benefit to further promoting the development of the mainland new energy automobile industry, but in terms of product and industry competitiveness, the number of private purchases is an important reference mark.
So why are WM Motors not making unsatisfactory purchases in the private sector?
Taking the wrong path: the technical investment is weakened, and Lu Bin is "thrown off the pot"?
"WM Motors is rushing to the market, and lacks medium- and long-term planning in terms of product technology." Li Xin said, "The direct reason why the degree of marketization of private users is not high is that the product strength is insufficient, and unlike other new car manufacturers, WM has spent a lot of money on the sales level in the early stage, rather than technical investment." ”
"The most direct embodiment is WM's car-making platform, the 4 models launched before and after it are all from the same platform architecture, and the origin of the platform is unknown, although WM said that it is a self-developed platform, but many people speculate that it was modified from the 'oil to electricity' platform." Li Xin revealed: "The first generation of WM EX5 can not even achieve window lifting through voice control, it is likely to be because of the limitations of the 'oil to electricity' platform chassis. ”
Recall that in August 2019, Geely filed a lawsuit against WM Motor for 2.1 billion yuan for infringement of trade secrets, claiming that WM copied its model and filed financial compensation; and recovered the patents that had been applied for by WM.
Although the litigation materials of the two parties have not been made public, the insiders are quoted as saying that the two sides have adopted the same vehicle platform. At the WM Research Institute, the body-in-white body of the Vision SUV was put on the chassis of the WM EX5. In addition, the wheelbase of the WM EX5 is the same as that of the Geely GX7, while the wheelbase difference is only 4.2 centimeters.
However, in 2020, Geely withdrew some of the lawsuits against WM, but the lawsuits between the two sides are still valid. According to people familiar with the matter, geely's withdrawal of some of the lawsuits is the result of high-level negotiations between the two sides, and the terms and details of the negotiations are not clear.
As for the extent to which WM's car-making platform borrows from Geely, or whether it comes from "oil to electricity", we have no clear answer. But it is certain that the 4 models EX5, EX6, W6 and E5 that WM are selling span the three categories of compact SUVs, medium-sized SUVs and medium-sized cars, with prices ranging from 150,000 to 280,000 yuan, but it is difficult to imagine that such a large product span is actually from the same car platform framework.
Even the WM M7, a blockbuster smart model released in October this year, is no exception.
Previously, when asked whether the new car M7 came from a new platform, Shen Hui, founder and CEO of WM Motors, replied: "New energy vehicles, especially pure electric, I think the platform is of little significance, because there is no engine, gearbox, oil circuit, emissions, these are gone, pure electric products there is no fundamental difference." But I think there are still differences between different pure electrical products, including the layout of the wires, some details such as reducers, inverters and axles. ”
So, what is the significance of the new car platform architecture for pure electric vehicles? We might as well look at the attitude of other new car-making forces.
It can be seen that Xiaopeng launched the P7 model after the G3 model, which is from the SEPA platform, which creates a centralized electronic and electrical architecture similar to Tesla. Facts have proved that Xiaopeng has made Xiaopeng Automobile have leapfrogging development after launching the P7 in 2020. In November last year, Xiaopeng released the G9, which reconstructed the software architecture, communication architecture and related hardware architecture, and launched a new generation of X-EEA 3.0 electrical and electronic architecture.
A series of future development contents announced by NIO in 2021 mentioned that it is necessary to accelerate the research and development of NT2 and NT3 platforms, and even 5 billion yuan of research and development funds will be spent this year...
To some extent, WM Motors is equivalent to using products from two years ago to confront today's new car-making forces.
"In the eyes of many people, Lu Bin's departure should be said to be very unjust." Zhang Ran said: "The statement given by WM PUBLIC RELATIONS is a personal reason, but the direct reason for Lu Bin's departure is directly related to WM's market performance. ”
In September 2019, Lu Bin, former co-founder and senior vice president of strategic planning at WM, was transferred from the sales company to serve as chief travel officer. The transfer is considered to be the beginning of Lu Bin's "marginalization", and people familiar with the matter said that the adjustment at that time was because WM Motors originally set an annual sales target of 100,000 vehicles in 2019, but the actual sales volume was far from the same.
"There are many reasons for Lu Bin's departure, among which it may also be directly related to EX6." Zhang Ran said.
In 2020, WM launched ex6 priced at 190,000-290,000, obviously trying to achieve an upward breakthrough in the main high-end after EX5, but the fact did not achieve the wish.
After the launch of the WM EX6 in May and September, it only released sales data from May to September, with 82, 38, 52, 15 and 72 vehicles respectively, with a cumulative sales of 259 units in five months. After September of that year, the sales volume of ex6 once "disappeared" from the data released by the association.
"In response to the poor performance of the WM EX6 market, it was discussed at an internal meeting of the company, when the executive of the product department 'preemptively' said, 'There is nothing wrong with our EX6 products, the technology is the best in the industry'. In this way, even if Lu Bin has been transferred from the marketing post when EX6 is listed, the 'pot' that EX6 does not sell well is still thrown to Lu Bin to a large extent. ”
However, is there really no problem with the product strength of WM EX6? Is its product competitiveness really the best in the industry? According to the data, the mileage of the WM EX6 is only 408km-505km. In the 200,000 yuan + market segment, consumers have much room to choose other new power brands and even joint venture luxury.
In 2021, WM Motors launched its third model, the W6, which is considered to be an opportunity for WM to turn around. WM Motors and Baidu, endorsed by Baidu Apollo Apollo technology, labeled the W6 as "smart" and indicated that the car should be "cool and affordable" for consumers. However, from the current point of view, the market performance of this model is average.
According to last year's insurance volume data, the WM W6 had the highest number of risks in November, but it was only 763 units, of which 364 came from the lowest priced entry-level model (WM W6 NEX Exploration Edition).
It is worth mentioning that unlike most of the new car-making forces with unified pricing, the sales staff of WM Motors said, "At present, some models purchased by WM are based on the official guidance price with a terminal discount of 20,000 yuan." ”
"False Boom": How crazy is Weima in order to boost sales?
The pursuit of immediate sales results may be the place where Weima is least like the new car-making forces.
Wang Zihan said, "Other new car-making forces will experience a painful period at the beginning due to huge R & D investment, but WM is just the opposite of a 'high open low go' situation, this is because WM in the early days to invest too many resources in the sales of sales, which is more like the practice of traditional enterprises." ”
At present, Tesla, Weilai, and Ideal all adopt a similar direct operation model, that is, opening stores in the city center, placing orders online, offline delivery, and on-demand production. Xiaopeng is a combination of direct operation and authorization mode, and the franchisee is responsible for collecting orders and does not need to wholesale vehicles.
In order to increase sales, WM did not hesitate to change the unique sales model of the new car-making forces and move closer to the traditional 4S store model.
It has been reported that at the beginning, the new retail proposed by Lu Bin was similar to Xiaopeng's licensing model. Recruit dealers to enter the network to share the cost of store operations; factories produce on demand and do not press inventory to dealers. WM recruited 20 dealers in this form and opened 5 direct stores.
However, according to people familiar with the matter, Lu Bin's "Internet" marketing concept cannot be understood by the traditional car school in WM Motors, including WM's founder Shen Hui, who is also a traditional auto person. Therefore, Lu Bin's idea is difficult to gain support within WM.
Perhaps, in the view of the WM executives, the sales model proposed by Lu Bin is too slow to work, after Lu Bin was transferred to the travel department, WM Automobile changed the era of direct sales, set up a chief retail officer, returned to the traditional dealer model, and set sales tasks for dealers every month, requiring them to wholesale vehicles from WM.
As a result, regardless of the performance of the terminal market, WM has a relatively stable wholesale volume and wholesale income.
"In fact, WM also spent a lot of financial resources in order to expand the channel" Wang Zihan said: "Because of the rush to expand the channel, WM originally offered a lot of favorable conditions to dealers, including reducing the store standard, subsidizing the store decoration cost, high sales rebates and even low-cost car supply." ”
As for how low can the price be? According to Wang Zihan, "low to middle-level and even ordinary employees want to open their own shops and sell cars." In fact, some people do do it. ”
I have no intention of evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of traditional sales models and new models, but only from the perspective of the development status of WM Motors, the performance of its terminal market is probably far from enough to feed its crazy expansion channel network.
It is reported that WM Motors has established offline stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenyang, and has a channel network of more than 200. However, according to the annual sales volume of 44,157 units announced by WM, each store can only sell an average of 2 units per month. Moreover, for stores in cities with limited traffic and purchase restrictions, sales may be more concentrated, and it should not be difficult to imagine how much pressure stores in other cities should bear.
A WM dealer said: "Previously, because the pricing was low and the competitors were relatively small, the EX5 sold quite well. But later, more and more new cars from other brands left us less and less space. Moreover, WM is also expanding the scale of dealers. ”
"You can eat 100 units of inventory by opening one store, and sell 10,000 units of 100 stores to complete it." A person from the sales department of WM said.
It is understood that in order to resolve the inventory pressure exerted by manufacturers, some of the vehicles have to be sold through relevant channels to the online car market wholesale sales to car rental companies. Perhaps, to some extent, this explains the high proportion of vehicles operated by WM Motors.
Dilemma: "Pouring a breath" is too difficult, why did Weima encounter obstacles in the science and technology innovation board?
WM Motors' dealer model may bring more problems than just inventory pressures, but may even affect its own financial performance.
At the beginning of this year, the news that WM Motors was preparing to land on the Science and Technology Innovation Board was confirmed. According to the announcement of the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau, WM Smart Mobility Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has met the conditions for counseling acceptance and listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange will soon accept the application materials submitted by the company.
However, in April this year, it was reported that WM Motor suspended the IPO process of the science and technology innovation board, because it found many problems in the review of listing materials, and was questioned about the lack of scientific and technological content, the proportion of R& D investment revenue was not high, and continuous losses were questioned.
In this regard, WM Motors responded to the media that it is currently queuing for IPO under the tightening of the science and technology innovation board policy, the listing time is undecided, and the listing situation of the science and technology innovation board should be subject to the announcement of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Since then, there has been no update news on the listing of the WM Automobile Science and Technology Innovation Board. WM Motors has always responded with "it is in a period of silence and it is inconvenient to respond".
According to the current situation learned and the information provided by informed sources close to WM, the reasons for its listing obstruction may exist in the following aspects:
First, the sales cost is too high, and the financial report data is ugly.
According to the summary report on the listing counseling work of the WM Automobile Science and Technology Innovation Board released by CITIC Construction Investment in January, from the beginning of 2017 to September 2020, WM has accumulated losses of about 11.4 billion yuan, with an average annual loss of nearly 3 billion yuan. In terms of cash flow, WM's operating cash flow has been negative for many years, and as of September last year, there was a remaining cash and cash equivalent of about 4.2 billion yuan.
In addition to the loss, the more serious key points are the extremely high sales expense ratio and the extremely low gross profit margin. This is a problem brought about by the WM auto dealer model.
You Hao explained: "It is not that the dealer model is completely unfeasible, but WM has given dealers very high discounts in order to expand stores, which makes a considerable part of the profits from car sales go directly into the pockets of 'middlemen'." At that time, brokers thought of many ways to deal with this large sales fee. ”
Second, the source of funds of WM Motors does not meet the requirements.
According to Qiu Kai, "At that time, when the IPO intermediary conducted an equity penetration check on WM Motors, it was found that a considerable part of the company's capital source came from the government, not venture capital. ”
"This is not eligible for a corporate IPO now." A brokerage investment banker told Cheyun.com, "On February 5, 2021, the CSRC issued guidelines for shareholders applying for initial listing. Under the guidelines, intermediaries are required to conduct penetrating checks on the issuer's layers of shareholders. The purpose is to avoid government personnel from participating in the operation of enterprises. ”
Third, the lawsuit between WM and Geely has not yet been resolved.
As mentioned above, in 2018, Geely sued four subsidiaries of WM Motor for "part of the design of the WM EX5 model suspected of plagiarizing the Geely Vision SUV model", and demanded that WM pay up to 2.1 billion yuan in damages to recover the patents that had been applied for by WM.
In 2020, according to the information published by the China Judgment Documents Network, Geely Automobile withdrew its lawsuit against WM Motor in December 2018 for patent infringement, but other lawsuits are still valid. That is to say, Geely revoked some of the lawsuits, and the "war" between WM Motors and Geely Automobile will continue.
You Hao said: "In fact, earlier on the issue of the focus of development, at that time, the top management of Weima was somewhat uncertain, but in the end it chose to 'fish for gold' first, originally wanted to open the channel to increase sales, and then considered the technical development through the listing, but what the WM executives did not expect was that it would be so difficult to take a breath. ”
Che Yun Summary:
WM's overall sales level and the new trend of head car manufacturing continue to open; its 4 models are on sale, and the cumulative number of private insurance vehicles in 11 months is less than 20,000; in order to obtain Baidu investment, WM will not hesitate to sign a non-compete agreement with it, and cannot do automatic driving by itself... The author believes that the current situation of WM Motors is the consequence of the short-sightedness of decision-makers leading to the inversion of the market strategy.
Initially, WM EX5 caught up with the times and the market, and WM, which tasted the dividend, did not use sufficient funds for technology research and development, but heavily "subsidized" the expansion channel in exchange for short-term sales. In the case of insufficient product strength precipitation, the strong push EX6 wanted to impact the high-end, and the result was a lesson by the market. At the same time, due to the weakness of the product, its huge channels not only did not bring considerable growth, but caused their own sales rates to remain high, the gross profit margin was sluggish, resulting in financial losses.
Compared with the ability to solve the current problems, WM Motors may lack the courage and attitude to face up to its mistakes.
Take the current "lock electric door", Weima responded: "I have not learned about this situation for the time being." This is incredible, when the "lock electric door" has been concentrated in the industry fermentation, how does WM Motors achieve "do not understand the situation"? Or does WM think that other brands have had similar situations, so such a fault is not a fault? Does this kind of operation violate the slogan of WM to let users "use it coolly and affordably"? Does this attitude also explain to some extent the reason why the private user market in WM is unpopular?
To know the causes of past lives, the recipient of this life is. To know the fruits of the afterlife, the author of this life is.
(Interviewees in this article: You Hao, Li Xin, Wang Zihan, Zhang Ran, Qiu Kai are pseudonyms)