According to the data of dasou car, in January 2022, the monthly sales of WM Automobile were only 2685 vehicles, and the sales of its main models were almost waist-low compared with the previous month. In the same period, the sales of Xiaopeng, Weilai, Ideal, Nezha and Zero Run were all around 10,000 vehicles.
Segmenting the sales volume of WM Motors, the EX5 sold 876 units, down 56.5% year-on-year and 41% month-on-month; W6 sales of 767 units, down 42.9% month-on-month; EX6 sales of only 14 vehicles; and E.5 models that contributed more than 8,000 units in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly for the travel market, sales also fell in the month, down 53.8% month-on-month.
What's worse is that since New Year's Day, more than 600 Weima owners have collectively defended their rights and denounced Weima's false propaganda, including many first-generation owners of Weima.
The rights protection representative "Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" told "Big Travel Observation" that at the end of last year, Weima invited car owners to the store for testing with the "New Year's Special" activity. Unexpectedly, the actual endurance of the vehicle after the test was seriously reduced, and the virtual component of the endurance reached 70%.
There are not a few car owners in a similar situation, and there are more than 600 people in the rights protection group he belongs to. In their view, WM uses the "maintenance" method to quietly "castrate" the vehicle battery to lock the electricity, in order to cover up the serious safety defects of the continuous spontaneous combustion of the WM car battery.
The owners spoke out through various channels, and even sent a lawyer's letter to WM, but they failed to get feedback from WM. On February 15, "Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" shouted to Weima through Weibo, "We have prepared comprehensive evidence, Weima Motors, 315 is not seen and will not disperse." ”
The sharp decline in sales and the accumulation of negative points by brands are not accidental.
In the view of "Big Travel Observation", as one of the earliest established new car-making enterprises, WM Automobile has handed over an answer sheet that satisfies capital and the market. However, behind the long obstacles and unsustainable sales growth, it is the inevitable result of insufficient continuous R&D investment and product strength that is difficult to match the rapid iteration of market demand.
The B-side and inventory support sales
In 2021, WM delivered a total of 44,157 new vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 96.3% year-on-year. Among them, 15,114 Q4 vehicles were delivered, setting a record high in single-quarter sales. Such achievements are in the view of Shen Hui, CEO of WM Motors, and then he wrote into the "Weima Family Letter", which is the "annual growth answer sheet" handed over by WM.
How much does such an achievement look like in the new forces car-making camp?
From the perspective of total annual sales, the annual total sales of Weilai, Ideal, Xiaopeng and Nezha have exceeded WM, of which the annual sales of "Wei Xiaoli" have been more than twice that of Weima, and the year-on-year growth rate of Nezha Automobile is 362%, which is also much higher than that of Weima.
In Q4 2021, when WM claimed to have set a new record single-quarter sales volume, the main sales volume did not come from the C-end market, but 54.2% of the sales came from the E.5 model sold to the travel market. The model will be launched in August 2021. According to the sales data of the Association, from September to December, E.May sales were 2370 vehicles, 3171 vehicles, 2794 vehicles and 2227 vehicles, accounting for 47%, 63%, 56% and 44% of the monthly sales respectively.
It is worth noting that in the same month as the E.5 was launched, the main model OF THE EX5 sold by WM on the C-end fell by about 38.7% month-on-month, and in the following four months, the average monthly sales were even less than 1,500 units.
"With a low-cost strategy, the rapid deployment of volume in the travel market will work in the short term and be difficult to sustain in the long term." An auto industry practitioner told "Big Travel Observation". According to the data of dasou car, the sales of WM E.5 in January this year were 1028 vehicles, down 53.8% month-on-month, and the B-side of WM motors also began to stall.
"It can be seen from the traditional dealer model that distinguishes WM from the new car-making forces that they have always been very concerned about the short-term effect of sales." An auto industry analyst told Big Mobility Watch.
"Late Post" once reported that in the early days of the establishment of WM, Lu Bin, vice president in charge of sales, proposed a "direct operation + authorization" model similar to Xiaopeng Motors, with factories producing on demand and not pressing inventory to dealers. However, because the model was too slow to take effect at the sales level, Lu Bin was under pressure internally until he was transferred from the sales company.
Since then, WM has returned to the traditional dealer model, that is, the car company will produce the whole vehicle wholesale, retail by the dealer. This means that dealers will have to bear the dual pressure of inventory and sales.
The traditional dealer model is conducive to car companies to obtain stable wholesale revenue, and the sales data also looks stable. "The traditional car companies adopt the dealer model, which is a common phenomenon in the era of fuel vehicles, brand power and market have been opened, even if there is inventory pressure, dealers still make money, but the new forces are different, if the brand recognition is low, sales are not high, and then press inventory, dealers' days will be sad." The analyst said.
In the report of "Late Post", it was also mentioned that a number of WM dealers said that they had a backlog of 2-3 months of inventory cars. The industry warning line is about 1.5 months.
"Once a car company presses the chips in the online car market, it has lost confidence in the C-end market," said the above-mentioned auto industry practitioners, "WM's current product quality and brand appeal are also difficult to support the traditional dealer model, which will only be a vicious circle." ”
Spontaneous combustion, power locking, rights protection
WM was once one of the earliest and most optimistic companies in the new car-making forces. Founded in 2015, WM Motors is one of the earliest new energy vehicle companies to be established, and it is also the first new power enterprise to have a self-built factory and obtain the vehicle production qualification.
According to the official website of WM Motor, the foundation stone of the self-built Wenzhou plant was laid in November 2016 and mass production was achieved in 2018. The Ideal Automobile Changzhou Plant, which is also a new car-making force, did not obtain production qualifications until the beginning of 2019; Xiaopeng Automobile's Zhaoqing plant was even later, and the production qualification was approved in May 2020. With its first-mover advantage, WM gained 16,800 vehicle sales in 2019, ranking second among the new forces, second only to Weilai.
This momentum did not last, and the following year WM suffered a product security crisis. From September 23 to October 27, 2020, only one month, the spontaneous combustion accident of WM Motors occurred in many places. On October 28, WM launched a recall of 1282 WM EX5 models.
The occurrence of vehicle safety accidents immediately reflected the impact on the sales of WM Motors. At the end of 2020, WM's annual sales increased by only 33.3% year-on-year, while the year-on-year growth rates of Weilai and Xiaopeng in the same period were as high as 121% and 112%.
However, a recall did not completely solve the hidden danger of spontaneous combustion of WM motors. In December 2021, WM was again spontaneously combusted by the explosion vehicle, and many media said that WM EX5 had 3 charging fire and combustion accidents in 4 days. This time, for the accident, WM has not yet responded.
On the Internet, a large number of Wei ma cha owners began to complain, "In order to cover up the safety defects of continuous spontaneous combustion of the battery, WM Car tricked users into door-to-door maintenance and castrated the battery to lock the electricity." ”
"Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" as a representative of the owner of the rights protection told "Big Travel Observation" that at the end of last year, WM launched the "New Year's User Premium" activity, free testing and giving away 200 yuan Jingdong card, however, the mileage of the vehicle after the test was seriously reduced.
Such a situation is not in the minority, in the eyes of car owners, this is not unrelated to WM's recent spontaneous combustion, "if the battery may cause spontaneous combustion, it must be intervened through certain measures, WM can not suddenly do thermal management or battery balancing (that is, lock the power). ”
On January 10, 2022, more than 170 car owners joined forces and sent a lawyer's letter to WM. Today, more than 600 car owners have defended their rights. "The relatively cheap vehicle price means a relatively low gross profit, and it is difficult for WM to face the recall twice in the face of more after-sales service expenses that will be brought about by product defects." An auto industry practitioner told Big Travel Observation.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Weima has taken the "New Year upgrade" as the reason for low-key repair. "Late Post" has reported that WM has had problems such as cab leakage, new cars can not be opened and will lose power, etc., in order to deal with the above quality problems, in February 2019, WM launched the "New Year Upgrade Plan" to upgrade the vehicle for free. In fact, this is a low-key recall repair. The article said, "In order to reduce the negative impact, they also found a number of driving companies, picked up the car, and then sent the car back after the upgrade." ”
"Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" is the first batch of blind owners of WM Motors, he told the big travel observation, the choice of WM is to value CEO Shen Hui's traditional car company background, believe in its delivery ability. In his view, "We should be the most important batch of users of WM." ”
Today, they are on the opposite side of Weima and openly crusade against Weima on the Internet. On February 15, "Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" shouted to Weima through Weibo, "We have prepared comprehensive evidence, Weima Motors, 315 is not seen and will not disperse." ”
Insufficient investment in R&D
"The long-term lack of investment in product technology and research and development is the main reason why WM has not been able to catch up with the second wave of growth of new forces." The above-mentioned automotive industry practitioners said that WM has not invested enough in platform research and development, and intelligent technology is still relying on Baidu.
In 2017, WM proposed the "128 Strategy", that is, around an electronic and electrical architecture, the development of 2 model platforms, the launch of 8 electric vehicles. To this day, the four models on sale by WM and the newly released M7 model in October last year are still from the first generation of platform architecture.
M7 release, Shen Hui faced the media questions, said that "new energy vehicles, especially pure electric, I think the platform is of little significance." "In contrast, other new power enterprises are all investing in platform development and iterative architecture. Taking Weilai as an example, the research and development investment of NT2 and NT3 platforms even exceeds 5 billion yuan.
In the field of intelligent driving, WM also handed over the "soul" to Baidu. As one of the shareholders of WM, Baidu has participated in WM financing three times, including Series B, C and D. In 2019, the two companies established the "WM & Apollo Intelligent Vehicle Joint Technology and Development Center" and announced that they will cooperate in the development of an intelligent driving system for use in WM mass production models.
Behind the cooperation is containment. Tencent Technology has reported that Baidu signed a non-compete clause when investing in WM, that is, WM cannot do automatic driving itself, but needs to use Baidu's Apollo automatic driving system.
In December 2020, the W6 was unveiled at the Baidu Apollo Ecological Conference, equipped with the "AvP Unmanned Autonomous Parking System" jointly developed by the two parties. Four months later, the W6 was officially released. In the transmission, WM said that "the W6 is China's first mass production car with driverless capabilities, achieving L4 level unmanned driving." ”
In fact, WM W6 can only achieve unmanned autonomous parking in fixed parking lots and non-fixed parking lots, does not involve open road driving, and this function is only open in five parking lots across the country.
In actual sales, the "driverless" selling point has not worked. A WM dealer in Beijing said that with the AVP autonomous parking function is the WM W6 high-end model, the pricing is 20,000 yuan higher than the medium model, "few people buy, more money is not practical." According to the association data, since delivery, W6 sales have grown slowly, with an average monthly sales of less than 1,000 vehicles.
Relying on Baidu has not allowed WM Motors to surpass its peers in the field of intelligence, and it has also added hidden worries to it. In January 2021, Baidu announced that it and Geely would jointly build "Jidu Automobile" and participate in car manufacturing. Its Apollo platform is also expanding cooperation with other car companies, including BAIC, Weilai, GAC, Great Wall and so on.
On September 5, 2017, Shen Hui said in an interview with Automotive Business Review that the auto market is not a winner-take-all market, and a new car manufacturer can live well with an annual sales of 100,000 vehicles, "WM will definitely reach this figure in two or three years." On January 1, 2022, WM announced that its total sales to date were about 88,700 units.
In the view of "Big Travel Observation", R & D investment is insufficient, product strength is weak, it is difficult for brands to accumulate word of mouth upwards, dealer inventory backlog, and sales are difficult to continue to grow... The above interlocking links make Weima fall into a vicious circle.
The new car team is crowded with competitors, and Weima is getting farther and farther away.