Text | Qin Fanghui
Design | microcosm
Producer | Chen Zixuan
The automobile is changeable, but the big wave and the survival of the fittest are the eternal laws of survival.
Under the double blow of the new crown epidemic and chip shortage, 2021 can be described as a "life and death disaster" for marginal car companies, some are bitterly supported, the future is uncertain, some collapse overnight, sinking, and a few "lucky people", although they have found the opportunity to continue their vitality, they have undergone "qualitative changes" and are no longer what they were then.
On April 30, 2021, Cheetah Auto applied for bankruptcy review at the Intermediate People's Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province. Its company, Changfeng Group, was founded in 1950, formerly known as the 7319th Factory of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
At the end of 1995, the then 7319 factory signed a series of agreements with Mitsubishi on technology transfer and other technologies to introduce and produce the second generation of Pajero, enabling the company to complete the successful transformation and development from military supplies to civilian products. Through many classic models such as Black King Kong and CS10, Cheetah is firmly at the top of the domestic off-road vehicle sales.
However, Cheetah has always relied too much on Mitsubishi technology, and the product technology from the 1990s has become more and more obsolete. In terms of independent research and development, it has no qualitative breakthroughs in technology, products, etc., and quality problems occur frequently, with cumulative sales of only 1043 vehicles in 2020.
The operation of Cheetah Automobile has also become more and more difficult, and negative information such as dealer rights protection, parts supply cut-off, and after-sales service hotline shutdown has been exposed. At present, Cheetah Automobile's Changsha plant has been managed by Geely to produce new energy vehicles for Geely.
In July 2021, there were rumors in the market that Borgward Automobile was about to enter bankruptcy proceedings, and although both UCAR and Beiqi Foton said that "the bankruptcy news was not true", sales data showed that only 8740 new cars were sold in 2020. Due to insufficient orders, the factory also fell into shutdown.
On the evening of December 9, 2021, Borgward Automobile issued an announcement that the company's related assets were seized by the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing Municipality, involving a book property value of 2.209 billion yuan. Caught in huge debts, it is even more difficult for Borgward Automobile to achieve a turnaround.
Changjiang Automobile is the first batch of new energy vehicle companies in China to obtain approval, and it is also the fifth new energy passenger car company in China to obtain "double qualification".
However, despite the envy of the resources of peers, Changjiang Automobile in the domestic passenger car, commercial vehicles, but there is no ideal market performance, with the decline of state subsidies, the problem of tight liquidity is becoming increasingly prominent, from July 2019, Changjiang Automobile continues to expose the news of unpaid wages and production stoppage.
On January 14, 2021, the Intermediate People's Court of Yuhang District of Hangzhou issued an announcement: This court will restructure Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile Co., Ltd. according to the application of Beijing Bauhinia Julong Technology Investment Co., Ltd.
In July 2021, industrial and commercial information showed that Nanjing Zhixing New Energy Automobile Technology Development Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Byton Automobile, was applied for compulsory liquidation and bankruptcy by Shanghai Huaxun Network System Co., Ltd. On July 12, Byton Automobile's affiliates announced bankruptcy reorganization.
In the past four years, Byton has experienced 6 rounds of financing, totaling about 8.4 billion yuan, and the leading investors include Tencent Investment, FAW Group, and Ningde Times.
In January 2021, Foxconn signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Byton Automobile and Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone to accelerate the mass production of Byton's first model, M-Byte, but the cooperation was shelved not long after, it is reported that the reason is that Byton's financial situation continues to deteriorate, its debt difficulties and complex shareholder structure, and the difficulties brought to Foxconn exceed expectations.
In December, byton Auto's debts may have reached more than one billion US dollars, and employee wages have been in arrears since August. With the departure of the main creative team and the disappearance of brand value, byton's hopes of rebirth have become increasingly slim.
On December 27, 2021, Nanjing Bojun New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. added bankruptcy reorganization.
As early as the end of April 2019, Bojun Automobile announced that it had formally signed an agreement with FAW Xiali to establish a joint venture company "Tianjin Bojun Automobile Co., Ltd."
According to the agreement, Bojun Automobile shall pay the initial capital contribution of 1 billion yuan to the joint venture company in monetary terms. But until now, Bo County has only paid 14.1 million yuan to Tianjin Bo County in monetary terms.
In addition, in the process of preparing for the joint venture road, disputes such as "unpaid wages" and "layoffs" have been hovering around Bo County Automobile, as a company that claims to have core technology, Bo County has finally broken its own good hand.
As a company that once led China's auto market, brilliance group's bankruptcy reorganization made the outside world sigh. On November 13, 2020, Brilliance Automotive Group was filed for bankruptcy reorganization, and on November 20, Brilliance Group was officially bankrupt and reorganized.
On August 31, 2021, at the second creditors' meeting held in the substantive merger and reorganization of 12 enterprises including Brilliance Group, three proposals were passed, including BMW China's acquisition of assets related to the production of Zhonghua brand automobiles and the equity of Brilliance Automobile Manufacturing, including land use rights, buildings, machinery and equipment and other related assets, as well as 100% equity of Brilliance Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. held by Brilliance Group, totaling 1.633 billion yuan.
Excessive dependence on BMW Brilliance, resulting in Brilliance in many key nodes of enterprise development has not made the right choice, in the independent technology research and development of stagnation, fell to this can be described as self-inflicted, for the Chinese automotive industry is a painful lesson.
In April 2021, after the bankruptcy and reorganization of BAIC Yinxiang, it was renamed BAIC Ruixiang. At the Chongqing Auto Show in June, BAIC Ruixiang was officially released to the public, and its first model, the Ruixiang X5 SUV, was unveiled on the same stage.
BAIC Yinxiang once owned the two major automobile brands of BAIC Phantom Speed and Bisu, relying on low-cost routes and dividends of the incremental era of the domestic automobile market, and the development momentum is rapid.
The good times are not long, since 2017, the sales volume of phantom speed has dropped sharply, dealer rights protection, car owner rights protection have followed, and then the bank loan directly led to the collapse of the capital chain. In July 2018, BAIC Yinxiang Plant was in difficulty in operation, and the entire line of automobiles was stopped for production, and the company entered a difficult situation.
In 2019, BAIC Yinxiang announced bankruptcy reorganization, and in March 2021, the reorganization plan was officially approved by the court. Jointly built by state-owned enterprises in Chongqing and Hechuan and BAIC Group, the "reborn" BAIC Ruixiang is more in line with the current automobile market in terms of business ideas and product research and development.
However, in its production and operation, it still needs to repay the tens of billions of debts owed by BAIC Yinxiang. In the future, the brand should reshape its image as soon as possible and withstand the test of the market in terms of products.
On December 18, 2021, After two years of silence, Future Auto pushed the latest developments on its official Weibo and announced the construction plan of Future Auto in 2022. According to the construction plan, Qiantu Automobile will develop and apply new materials, new energy technologies and new intelligent technologies in the future.
At the same time, Qiantu Automobile also announced the development of the group's new upgraded car series, and The Qiantu K20 will be officially listed in 2022 and rationally layout the foreign sales market.
As one of the first batch of promising cars to obtain the production qualification of new energy vehicles, it originally had a good hand, but it was partial to be unique, and now it is back on the track, in addition to enhancing its own product strength, how to regain the trust of consumers is also the top priority.
For the huge Zotye Automobile, the process of its rebirth can also be described as vigorous. Not only has the stock price soared all the way, but there have also been rumors that Evergrande, Baoneng, Xiaomi, Weima, Geely and even Tesla will "take over", but in the end they were all debunked.
In the end, Jiangsu Shenzhen Commercial Holding Group Co., Ltd. became the "white horse knight" of Zotye Automobile, helping it complete bankruptcy reorganization. After the implementation of the reorganization plan, Jiangsu Shenzhen Commercial held 24.22% of the equity of Zotye Automobile, becoming the controlling shareholder of Zotye Automobile, and Huang Jihong became the actual controller of Zotye Automobile.
In July 2021, Lifan shares fell into a debt crisis, 10 wholly-owned subsidiaries were applied to the court by creditors for judicial reorganization, and the company will have the risk of being declared bankrupt due to the failure of the reorganization.
Lifan Automobile, which started as a motorcycle, was once very popular, but with the changes in market demand and the rise of competitors, Lifan Automobile did not seize the market opportunity and developed slowly, resulting in continuous decline in subsequent sales.
At the moment of crisis, JiLi extended a helping hand to Lifan. On December 13, Geely announced that it intends to jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture with Lifan Technology.
The establishment of the joint venture means that the brilliant Lifan will carry out a comprehensive blood change, Geely and Lifan in the field of technology, research and development, products in the field of cooperation to further strengthen, relying on Geely's industry foundation and management and operation experience, the future development of Lifan Technology is worth looking forward to.
It is not difficult to see that many of the top ten "life and death" auto companies on the list this year have been negatively entangled and frequent incidents as early as 2020, and the continuous impact of the epidemic in the next two years has finally forced these accumulated enterprises to the final critical juncture of life and death.
In addition to the bleak exit, taking advantage of the new round of new energy technology, there are also some car companies that still have strength, looking for the last glimmer of vitality.
What kind of story will they write next? Let's wait and see.