Author 丨 Yang Jing
Responsible editor 丨 Du Yuxin
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Who is Happy Cars? As a second-hand car e-commerce platform, many second-hand car dealers who have just entered the industry may not have too much impression. Because after searching the company's website, the display website is temporarily inaccessible and is intercepted by competing used car platforms, including when searching for APP applications, it is also directed to Renren Car used car.
In fact, Founded in 2015, Happy Auto, formerly known as Renren Automobile, was listed on the backdoor of the US stock market in 2018 and merged with Haitao Car Company, which is engaged in the import car business, in 2020. Compared with platforms such as Uxin used cars and melon used cars that like to burn money for marketing, Happy Auto is extremely low-key.
The low-key Happy Car chose to make a high profile on August 6, 2021, announcing the establishment of a new energy vehicle department and the establishment of a new energy vehicle research and development, production and marketing team. But in the influx of fish in the car-making army in recent years, Happy Cars is so inconspicuous. So, can it really change its life by building cars?
Car building, royal shortcuts
In 2006, Lei Jun's classmate Chen Yizhou, who took over the intranet from Wang Xing, changed his name to Renren in 2009, and then he also renamed the company Renren, of which WANG Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, is also an independent director of Renren. In 2018, Chen Yizhou sold his renren at a low price and said that he would focus on the second-hand car business in China, that is, Happy Car.
However, in recent years, the operating effect of Happy Automobile has not been good, and it has even been in a state of loss. Therefore, Chen Yizhou is also looking for a way to survive, such as merging with Haitaoche, reaching a sales cooperation agreement with JD.com, and even wanting to open up opportunities in the field of caravans. Obviously, as far as pure car sales are concerned, the way out is still relatively difficult.
The real story of Happy Car will start from building cars, but the story of car building has nothing to do with Wang Xing, Lei Jun, Wang Chuanfu, Chen Yizhou and others. On May 9, 2021, Chen Yizhou resigned as the chairman of the board of directors of Happy Automobile and was succeeded by Lin Mingjun, the founder of HaitaoChe. Three months later, Lin Mingjun announced that he had entered the car industry.
Subsequently, Happy Motors said that the company's new energy vehicle division has launched related development plans and will focus on the development of electric vehicles in the small and micro car categories, and has discussed merger and acquisition intentions with several electric vehicle manufacturers. Compared with the high-profile announcement of the entry into the car, the news of Happy Automobile's acquisition of the car factory can be described as low-key.
The car company that was acquired was Henan Yujie Times Automobile Co., Ltd., and in less than a month, Happy Automobile completed a series of operations such as news announcement, strategic planning and acquisition of car companies. In August last year, Happy Auto acquired 100% of the equity of Henan Yujie by issuing new shares to acquire car-making capabilities.
The parent company of Henan Yujie is Hebei Yujie, which was once a leading enterprise of low-speed electric vehicles. Later, it obtained the production qualification of new energy vehicles, and after the transformation, the business was divided into low-speed electric vehicles and new energy vehicles, but all of them were small electric vehicle products. Therefore, this acquisition also marks the official entry of Happy Automobile into the small electric vehicle market.
It is reported that the mengzhou plant in Henan Yujie has an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, and two of the three small electric vehicles launched have entered the commercial production stage. It is reported that these two cars are the punk Beauty and Punk Duoduo produced by Henan Yujie on behalf of Happy Motors, and the other one that has not yet been listed is punk Lala.
According to the data of the Association, last year's punk Meimei cumulative sales of 18,074 vehicles, punk Duoduo cumulative sales of 18,713 vehicles. It surpassed Baojun E200 and E300 respectively, and approached The Euler White Cat, and the total sales of the double car even exceeded the BYD e2. According to this trend, the punk brand will sell more than Happy Cars previously estimated 50,000 vehicles this year.
Thanks to the confidence caused by the rapid growth of the micro-electric vehicle market, Happy Auto also released a new strategic plan. In December last year, Happy Auto said it would rapidly expand its new energy vehicle team, initially develop medium-sized commercial new energy vehicles for urban and intercity logistics applications, and set a production and sales target of 50,000 new energy vehicles in the three-year period of 2022-2025.
"The plan was developed after four months of careful review and discussion, the company is in discussions with multiple strategic investors and our management team is confident in transitioning to a new business model in 2022," Lin said. ”
Since then, in less than a month, Happy Automobile has announced strategic cooperation agreements with Beijing Bujia International Logistics Co., Ltd. and Beijing Shencheng Biotechnology Group Co., Ltd., both of which intend to order at least 10,000 new energy trucks from Happy Automobile in the next five years, with an order amount of 750 million US dollars.
Lin Mingjun said that the company's research and development team is designing products to meet the needs of the other party, which is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2022. Since entering the car industry, the good news about Happy Cars has continued.
In January, Happy Motors said it had secured a $20 million strategic investment commitment from several investment institutions, of which $2 million was already in place, and the rest of the funding was expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2022. According to the introduction, this funding will be used for the development and design of new energy trucks that are mass-produced and delivered in the second half of the year.
No money, no wealth
There is no doubt that the used car business has not been easy to do this year recently. Second-tier e-commerce platforms have gone bankrupt one after another, and even first-line veteran players such as Uxin, Melon Seed, and Renrenche have been exposed to negative news. In the final analysis, the way to play the money-burning war cannot become a long-term development strategy in any industry, so it is difficult for the second-hand car e-commerce platform to find a healthy business model.
Previously, as a used car e-commerce platform, Happy Auto focused on luxury brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover and Porsche. The company's revenue comes primarily from used car sales and fees it receives as a channel partner as a third-party auto finance and other value-added service provider.
On December 29 last year, Happy Auto announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2021. According to the financial report, The total net revenue of Happy Automobile in the first half of 2021 was $2.04 million, an increase of 205.7% year-on-year; the net loss attributable to the company was $144.2 million, compared with the company's net profit of $50,000 in the same period last year.
From 2017 to 2020, Happy's total revenue was $117 million, $431 million, $335 million and $33.16 million, respectively, and the four-year net loss was $28.695 million, $89.532 million, $69.068 million and $5.320 million, respectively. Therefore, Happy Auto found an interface for the epidemic and stopped the second-hand car distribution business.
Happy Cars, which has entered the car-making industry, seems to have found the wealth code. According to data from the China Automobile Association, China's new energy vehicle sales in 2021 will be 3.521 million units, an increase of 157.6% year-on-year, of which micro and small new energy vehicles account for about 40%. That is, among the new energy vehicles sold in China, 4 out of every 10 are small cars.
Lin Mingjun said, "Mini cars and medium-sized cars have become the two mainstream models of new energy vehicle sales in China. "But in small electric vehicles, whether it is the explosive Wuling Hongguang MINIEV or the higher priced Euler cat series, they are all selling at a loss. On the contrary, Henan Yujie, which relies on low-speed electric vehicles, has a huge production cost advantage.
However, in addition, Happy Auto also received orders for new energy trucks, converted down, that is an average price of 350,000-700,000 yuan of products, Happy Auto has the strength to manufacture? Compared with the second-hand car field, the threshold for car manufacturing is higher, and it needs to be supported by technical reserves and a large amount of funds.
How high is the barrier to entry into the automotive industry? Li Bin said at least 40 billion yuan, He Xiaopeng said more than 30 billion yuan; Jidu Automobile plans to invest 50 billion yuan in 5 years, and Xiaomi plans to invest 10 billion US dollars in 10 years. From these data, it can be seen that if you want to really compete in the automotive industry, you must maintain long-term and high investment, and the $20 million war investment is like a dime.
Some people say that building cars now is equivalent to making rich. In the face of the sunrise industry of new energy vehicles, for any company that devotes itself to it, whether it is to increase revenue or profits or even the company's market value, it has great attraction. According to the performance of Happy Motors in the US stock market, if you are not careful, you will be stopped from trading stocks.
Even if you don't delve into whether Happy Auto really intends to build a car, from some data, Happy Auto still wants to make a profit in the capital market. Last year's earnings report included general and administrative expenses of $310,000, compared to $13,000 in the same period last year, an increase mainly due to increased administrative expenses due to haitaoche's preparation for listing.
And some institutions have analyzed that as of January this year, the market value of Happy Automobile (74,035,502 shares) held by qianhai Taoche shareholders represented by Lin Mingjun has also been reduced to 92.5444 million US dollars, a relative contraction of about 46%, close to 50%. It can be seen that Happy Auto still wants to go to the capital market game.