Some people call Nezha "fat meat", some people call Nezha "ticket", different players come to Nezha with different purposes, join Nezha, help Nezha, and reshape Nezha.
Nezha, who had been ripe, had already squeezed out Weilai.
In January 2022, the sales list of new energy vehicles was released, in addition to Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile ranking in the top two, Nezha Automobile has surpassed Weilai Automobile and risen to the third place. At the same time, the top three sales exceeded 10,000, namely Xiaopeng Automobile (12922 units), Ideal Automobile (12268 units), and Nezha Automobile (11009 vehicles). In fourth place, NIO motor had 9652 units, and zero-run car sales rose to 8085 units, approaching NIO.
It can be seen that the original first echelon has changed from "Wei Xiaoli" (Wei Lai, Xiao Peng, Ideal) to "Xiao Li Na" (Xiao Peng, Ideal, Nezha). And to achieve this achievement, Nezha only spent 13 billion, in Weilai Li Bin said that the threshold for car manufacturing has been raised to 40 billion at the moment, in He Xiaopeng said that there is no smart car under 150,000 today, Nezha seems to have walked out of another intriguing road.
On the other hand, Nezha Automobile's loss is still expanding, according to the performance of Nezha Automobile revealed in the announcement of 360 Group, a shareholder of United Automobile, Nezha Automobile achieved revenue of 1.297 billion yuan and a net loss of 1.321 billion yuan in 2020; in the first half of 2021, it achieved revenue of 1.632 billion yuan and a net loss of 693 million yuan. Nezha Automobile is still in the stage of high losses.
What exactly has attracted so many big guys into the game, and Nezha's temporary success is due to the MAIN B-end BAIC model, or the Great Wall model of low-cost SUVs?
Marketing rollover with big guy platforms
Looking closely at the growth process of Nezha Automobile, it has almost always been accompanied by scandals and controversies.
On the marketing side, the most controversial and famous is the news that the head of Nezha Automobile Marketing claimed to ask for endorsements from bad artists, and in less than 24 hours, he was scolded on the hot search. By this year, Nezha Car is also a good drama, and recently when it was broadcast live on Douyin, the female anchor was invited to rub the side ball in a bright and honest manner, which caused heated discussion. Car critics collectively made up a ridiculous paragraph of "building a car is not very good, and the first place in the side ball" was made up.
In terms of business model, the controversy of Nezha Automobile has never stopped. One of the most criticized problems is its huge local government investment, as well as the unsustainable B-end sales, as early as 2020 Caijing magazine reported that Nezha Automobile backed by three local government industry funds in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, Yichun, Jiangxi, and Nanning, Guangxi. Daniel Zhang, founder of Nezha Automobile, also revealed to the media: "At present, the capital is mainly from local industrial funds, accounting for more than 60% and the team accounting for more than 20%; the remaining less than 20% is Tsinghua and social capital, including two listed companies and some natural persons." ”
Under this investment background, Nezha received many orders when there was no mass production. And this way of playing makes the sales of Nezha cars always be criticized by insiders as "very watery".
On the other hand, the sustainability of demand is a common question from the outside world.
Some industry insiders have commented on it: "Nezha first tests the water from the B-end, then improves the product, and then enters the C-end model, which is actually very similar to BAIC in that year." However, taxis or government cars are very different from family cars, and the product positioning and product logic are fundamentally different. How can this kind of discount be large and the volume of business continue? ”
Just like everything has a B side, the controversy of Nezha Automobile seems to stay only in the circle of consumers and professional car critics. On the capital side, Nezha Automobile ushered in a gorgeous turn.
There are two of the most representative, the first is Zhou Hongyi, although in the interview slightly helplessly said, "We do not have many choices, four of the top six of the new forces have been famous flowers, Nezha Automobile has accumulated more than 40,000 off-line production, completed the accumulation of core seed users, and initially laid the foundation for market expansion." ”
However, the shrewd red-clad sect leader did not hesitate when he made a move, and directly bought the second largest shareholder in the D round of financing of Nezha Automobile. The second is the Ningde era, Ningde as a world-class battery leader, the right to speak at the industrial end is very strong, especially after entering the Tesla industry chain, the Ningde era has been recognized by the world in terms of battery technology and industrial chain integration. At the same time, the leading position of technology has made the car manufacturers flock to the batteries of the Ningde era, and it is the norm to sell full production for many years.
At this moment, the Ningde era, which has never invested in the car factory, first landed Nezha Automobile, and after Ningde entered Nezha Automobile, Ningde opened up the whole industrial chain from the B end to the C end, which means that in the competitors of similar cars, Nezha has maintained an absolute advantage on the battery side.
Controversy and support occur at the same time on a car company, such as a reflection of history and the future, so where is Nezha attractive?
Neglected demand, hidden blockbusters
If the new energy vehicle is a ticket, then Nezha Automobile is the most cost-effective ticket.
Nezha's cost performance, first shown at the end of the product, the two main models Nezha V and Nezha U, priced at 60,000 and 100,000 respectively, this price is almost no competitor in the same category, both models are pure electric SUVs.
Nezha's strategic intention seems to be very obvious: relying on the advantages of the industrial chain, the main attack on the user needs of the sinking market. The penetration rate of new energy electric vehicles has reached a critical point of 20%, and if you look at it from the sales point of view, whether it is Tesla or Wei Xiaoli, almost all of them are piled up in the price band of more than 300,000 yuan, and the liveliness of the 300,000 yuan range is different, the sinking market of new energy is unusually cold, especially the pure electric SUV market below 100,000, according to the data of the car emperor, there are only 14 models, and in this range, Nezha is the deserved king.
Looking back at the development history of automobile sales, models with more than 300,000 yuan, although the profit margin is very large, are not the focus of sales. According to the data of the Federation of Passenger Vehicles, in 2019, the sales of narrow passenger cars were 21.09 million, most of which were less than 150,000, accounting for 60.4%. The proportion of 150,000-300,000 reached 29.8%. The proportion of models with more than 300,000 is only 9.8%, which means that only one of the 10 cars is priced higher than 300,000.
In 2020, luxury brand models, only 3.236 million vehicles were sold in China, accounting for only 16.2% of total sales, and many of these models are entry-level luxury brands, such as Mercedes-Benz A-class, Audi A3, BMW 1 series, because more than 300,000 models account for only about 10%.
The market is small, there are many players, and under the Red Sea, there is intensified competition and relatively low incremental space.
In the sinking market with a large space, Nezha has a certain degree of first-mover advantage, lower prices and fewer opponents, so that its sales have increased rapidly, from mass production to cumulative sales of more than 60,000 units, in the second half of 2021 is to begin to speed up, so far has reached the monthly sales of more than 10,000 results.
History is always strikingly similar, and today's Nezha Car's counterattack is easily reminiscent of the Great Wall Haval H6, which has dominated the SUV sales championship for 11 consecutive years. A generation of divine cars almost single-handedly supported the growth of the Great Wall for 11 years.
According to the brokerage research report, in August 2011, Great Wall Motors launched haval H6 for the first time, with super cost performance, as well as the vacancy in the low-priceD SUV market, H6 quickly became a hit once listed, in 2012 to 2013, Great Wall with haval series to seize the opportunity, Great Wall Motors stock rose nearly 240%, Haval also helped Great Wall Motors in 2012 car sales increased by 34%. Among them, the sales volume of SUV models increased by 90%, accounting for 45% of total sales, helping Great Wall to increase revenue by 43% and net profit by 63%. The change in the performance of the Great Wall in the past decade and the change in sales of SUV models, especially the change in the Haval H6, are the main influencing factors for the development of the Great Wall.
The success of the Great Wall Haval series can almost sum up the consumer's understanding of China's car sinking market in the past decade.
Compared with Haval H6 and Nezha Car, the two have strong similarities in terms of time nodes and sales strategies, first of all, it is cost-effective, Haval's pricing between 90,000 and 150,000 is about 30% lower than the same level of SUVs at that time. The same Nezha price of 6 to 100,000, almost let him have no opponents in the same field.
The second is the Great Wall's concern for the sinking market demand, and Haval H6 SUV at the same time often emphasize off-road, and then continuously strengthen the performance of the car, and in real life, most of the car buyers for pure off-road demand is not large, and the real urban car demand is the focus, so the sense of space and practicality has become the main direction of Haval. This is also very similar to the intelligent trend that the new forces of car manufacturing have been emphasizing, in fact, in the car scene of the sinking market, the proportion of intelligence is not as high as everyone thinks, and a cheap, convenient charging, and sufficient space products can often impress the market.
The third is the scale effect and the first-mover advantage, when Haval began to occupy the user mind of the 100,000 yuan range, and the scale effect of the association occurred, it has a considerable promotion for internal cost reduction and external brand marketing. In the field of electric vehicles, the success of the Wuling Mini can be compared with the continuous super sales is the occupation of the mind of the Wuling mini for the A00 class car, resulting in people almost binding the A00 class car with the Wuling mini, thus further promoting its sales.
Although Nezha Automobile has not yet reached the dominance of Wuling Mini for A00-class cars, its rapid growth in scale is not to be underestimated.
Daniel Zhang, the founder of Nezha, once proposed a three-step strategy from the bottom up: the first step is to sell more than 10,000 monthly sales, the second step is to expand the market with market sales of 5,000 to 10,000 units of 10,000 to 10,000 units, and the third is to sell 500,000 units in 2025. This is also very similar to the strategy of the Great Wall.
Together, take the path with the least resistance
Although there is a similar route to the Great Wall, it is not easy to replicate the road of the Great Wall. When the Great Wall started with pickup trucks, when building the Haval series, the use of collinear production, so reduced the cost, and for the understanding of explosive models, the Great Wall also has full experience, whether it was the former H6, or today's tank 300, and Euler good cat, the ability to continue to create explosive models has become its core competitiveness.
However, in contrast, Nezha Automobile, the three factories in Tongxiang, Nanning and Yichun, were almost only supplied to the government and the B-end, which is not the same as the Great Wall. And for the understanding of the explosive model, Nezha Car is still in its infancy.
However, for Nezha Automobile, it is not without good news. The intervention of a number of supply chain bosses makes Nezha look like the arsenal is very sufficient.
In particular, the investment of CATL and 360 has strengthened Nezha's confidence in electrification and intelligence almost at the same time. The next step for the giant platform is the injection of resources. According to tech times reports, as of now, the investment layout of CATL has spread throughout the upstream raw material market and downstream automobile manufacturers of power batteries at home and abroad. From the perspective of the upstream supply chain, the main materials of the power battery in the Ningde era are cathode material, graphite, diaphragm, electrolyte, shell, and mineral resources such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. As the price of raw materials for power batteries enters the upward cycle, raw material producers are increasingly squeezing out the benefits of the new energy vehicle industry chain, but such hidden worries are almost unlikely to occur in Nezha Automobile.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the two giants, in fact, Nezha also alleviated their anxiety.
The lack of growth of 360 is almost a fact that needless to say, the mobile phone business has been thrown away from the position, and I want to make up for it from the automobile business. At the World Internet Conference held at the end of September 2021, Zhou Hongyi talked about Nezha's motivations. He said, "360 investment in car manufacturing is to empower technology, talents, funds and digital genes to the traditional automobile manufacturing industry, produce chemical reactions and chain reactions, and create a new benchmark for intelligent and connected vehicles." "The expectations for Nezha are not high.
The Ningde era is even more so, the controversy with Xiaopeng Automobile in the supply chain at the beginning of 2022, in fact, to some extent, has shown that after the development of the Ningde era to a certain scale, car companies are afraid of it, and whether car companies will imitate Apple to support multiple players in the supply chain has become a new worry for Ningde. At the same time, the trillion-dollar market value itself has been criticized by the capital market, and the lack of layout of downstream depots has also made the Ningde era lose its imagination space on the road of integration, and the layout of the power exchange market and Nezha Automobile after the beginning of 2022 is almost a subconscious reaction under this driving force.
Giants in anxiety, often can form a synergy, and Nezha's not strong management (the founder only accounts for 2% of the equity) makes the emergence of this synergy possible.
At the same time, the B-end business is more like a guaranteed test field for Nezha, under the trial and error and stable cash flow, time is exchanged for space, so that the development of products can continue.
Some people call Nezha "fat meat", some people call Nezha "ticket", different players come to Nezha with different purposes, join Nezha, help Nezha, and reshape Nezha. But this Nezha is not Nezha, is it really the same as the mythical story of the "List of Fengshen Gods", the lotus root is shaped, the soul is soulless, the evil is inviolable, and the battle is invincible?
@ Tech New Knowledge Original
Author 丨 Sakuragi Editor 丨 Tsukimi