"Car Circle Layer" Peng Baoxuan
Edited by Ge Fanmei
On the morning of February 26, Chery New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chery New Energy") and Tianjin Jiewei Power Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiewei Power") signed a strategic cooperation agreement, and Chery New Energy intends to purchase about 5 billion yuan of power batteries from Jiewei Power in the next three years.
"Now we are in the best era, doing the best things, Chery is already doing a new layout for new energy vehicles," Said Bao Siyu, general manager of Chery New Energy, at the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement.
In fact, Chery New Energy sold a considerable amount of sales, achieving sales of 20,600 units in January 2021, an increase of 170% year-on-year. Among them, QQ ice cream has become a market hit since its listing at the end of 2021, but some market participants believe that the authenticity of this model's sales is doubtful.
In addition, Luxshare Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luxun Precision", 002475.SZ) announced in February 2022 that it had acquired a 6.24% stake in Chery New Energy. After the equity transfer, whether Chery New Energy can further plan to list it remains to be considered.
Sales of blockbuster models are questionable
Prior to the signing of the cooperation agreement, Jiewei Power has been the battery supplier of Chery New Energy in recent years. In January 2022, Jiewei Power squeezed into the top ten companies in the domestic power battery installed capacity market for the first time, occupying 1.08% of the market share. Catalonia Times, BYD and AVIC lithium batteries still occupy the top three positions in the market, with a total market share of 78.6%.
It is worth mentioning that Chery New Energy is also the leading customer of Jiewei Power. BoC Securities said that the top three customers of Gateway Power in 2018 and 2019 accounted for 100%, which fell to about 90% in 2020. And because Chery's new energy vehicle sales fluctuate greatly, the installed capacity of Jiewei Power is greatly affected by it.
According to data from China Merchants Securities, after Chery's new energy sales declined in 2020, sales increased significantly in 2021, achieving sales of 109,000 new energy vehicles, an increase of 144.6% year-on-year.
Among them, Chery New Energy's small ant models occupy the main body, with cumulative sales of 75,000 vehicles in 2021, accounting for more than 70% of the overall sales. In January 2022, Chery New Energy sold 20,600 units, an increase of 1.7 times over the same period last year, and new energy passenger car sales were 19,400 units, an increase of 190% year-on-year, of which QQ Ice Cream achieved sales of 9,984 units, accounting for 51%.
It can be seen that since the official listing of QQ Ice Cream, the market response has been considerable, and it is undoubtedly another "explosive model" of Chery New Energy after the Small Ant series of models. At the "Wuhu Q Music Festival and QQ Ice Cream Launch Conference" on December 28, 2021, QQ Ice Cream was positioned as a micro-electric vehicle, mainly featuring pudding, cone and sundae, priced at 29,900 yuan, 37,900 yuan and 43,900 yuan respectively.
In fact, low-cost models are not uncommon in the new energy vehicle market, and Wuling Hongguang MINI, which is priced between 28,800-48,600 yuan, has seen its sales rise all the way since its listing, and it still dominates the list of "pure electric A00-level insurance TOP20 models" in January 2022. QQ Ice Cream ranked second, competing fiercely with Benben Automobile under Changan Automobile and Euler Black Cat Automobile under Great Wall Motors.
Due to the similar appearance of QQ ice cream and Hongguang MINI, some market participants believe that QQ ice cream is a "replica" of Hongguang MINI. According to some parameters, the appearance size of QQ ice cream is 2980*1496*1637mm, and the appearance size of Hongguang MINI is 2920*1493*1621mm, which is almost similar. Secondly, the mileage of QQ Ice Cream and Hongguang MINI is 120-170km, and the motor power is 20kW. The power level of the two is also very similar, QQ ice cream has a power of 9.6-13.9kWh, and The power of Hongguang MINI is between 9.2-13.9 kWh.
However, while QQ Ice Cream is catching up with Hongguang MINI in terms of sales, the authenticity of sales has been questioned. According to the online car market network, QQ ice cream dealers account for a relatively high proportion of "brushing orders". It is mentioned that although QQ ice cream adopts the factory direct sales model, the person in charge of the manufacturer region has asked each dealer to use the name of the in-store salesman to "dading", so that the salesman becomes an order customer, hoping to complete the order task. After the QQ ice cream was listed, the person in charge asked the dealer to buy a car in full with the name of the staff in the store, which is equivalent to "brushing orders" in disguise, accounting for 30%-40% of sales.
Regarding the question of whether QQ ice cream has a "brush order", "Car Circle Layer" contacted Chery New Energy and did not get a reply.
Listing plan
"Under the new pattern, the market needs ODM (original design manufacturers) to build cars, but the joint venture company is not specifically for Chery to build cars, but for the whole market needs of artificial vehicles," the chairman of Luxun Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luxun Precision") said at a conference call with Chery New Energy.
On February 11, Chery New Energy, Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chery Holdings"), Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chery Shares") and Lixun Precision signed the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement and intend to jointly establish an ODM joint venture company specializing in the research and development and manufacturing of new energy vehicles.
At the same time, the controlling shareholder of Lixun Precision and Qingdao Wudaokou New Energy Automobile Industry Fund Enterprise (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Qingdao Wudaokou") signed the Equity Transfer Framework Agreement, agreeing to purchase 19.88% of Chery Holdings, 7.87% of Chery Shares and 6.24% of Chery New Energy held by Qingdao Wudaokou for 10.054 billion yuan.
According to enterprise investigation data, the largest shareholder of Chery New Energy is Chery Shares, holding 88.27% of the shares. Prior to Lixun Precision's shareholding, Chery New Energy had conducted three rounds of financing, including angel rounds, A rounds and equity financings in December 2015, April 2016 and January 2019, respectively, and the investors included Keda Dachuang, Tonghua Investment, and Guocheng Huijin.
It is worth mentioning that Chery Holdings is the only vehicle group in China that has not been listed as a whole. Previously, Chery New Energy had tried to list in 2016 through the backdoor Wuhu Conch Profile Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Conch Profile", 000619.SZ), but was unsuccessful.
According to the announcement, because Chery New Energy had not yet obtained the production qualification of new energy vehicles at that time, which had an important impact on Chery New Energy's assets, business integrity and independence, Conch Profile terminated the purchase of control of Chery New Energy.
In the traditional car market, there have been a series of cases of companies spinning off new energy business listings. Among them, Changan Automobile, Huawei, and CATL have jointly created its high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand Avita, and the researcher of "Circle Layer" learned from Avita that in 2022, Avita will have two rounds of financing and listing plans. In addition, SAIC Motor intends to spin off its hydrogen fuel cell focus on hydrogen fuel cell technology to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and BYD intends to spin off BYD Semiconductor to be listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Yingda Securities believes that in 2021, traditional car companies will perform well in the sales of new energy vehicles, but they are not well reflected in the valuation. It is expected that the pace of new energy of traditional car companies will accelerate, new energy sub-brands are expected to be spun off and listed, and the valuation of traditional car companies is expected to increase.