"Car Circle Layer" Chen Siying
Edited by Ge Fanmei
Zhidou Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhidou Automobile") may usher in a rebirth.
Zhidou Automobile, which was once a "beautiful time", achieved a significant increase in sales in the three years after the launch of the original brand in 2015. However, the good times are not long, with the "decline" of the national new energy vehicle subsidy in 2018, the sales volume of Zhidou Automobile began to decline all the way, and it has fallen into a storm such as a sharp decline in production and sales, unpaid wages, etc., and finally came to the situation of bankruptcy reorganization in 2019. Now, three years after Zhidou Automobile entered the pre-reorganization process in 2019, a housing enterprise that was implemented "other risk warnings" and was still in the reorganization stage reached out to Zhidou Automobile.
On March 2, Yinyi Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yinyi Shares", 000981.SZ) announced that in order to accelerate the company's strategic deployment in the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the manager of Zhidou Automobile, intends to invest no more than 400 million yuan to participate in the reorganization and reorganization plan change procedures of Zhidou Automobile, and intends to become a new restructuring investor of Zhidou Automobile and obtain the actual control and independent operation right of Zhidou Automobile.
Decay after the scenery
Zhidou Automobile was established in 2015 by New Ocean Electromechanical Group (hereinafter referred to as "New Ocean Group") and Geely Holding Group (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Group", 00175.HK) and other joint ventures to launch the Zhidou Automobile D series. Zhidou Automobile covers the research and development, production, sales and operation of electric vehicles. According to the official website of Zhidou Automobile, it is the only 8 enterprises in the country that have passed the audit of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and have independent and complete new energy vehicle production qualifications.
According to the enterprise investigation data, Bao Wenguang, the actual controller of New Ocean Group and the founder of Zhidou Automobile, and New Ocean Group hold a total of 66.3% of the shares of Zhidou Automobile, Geely Group holds 26.44%, and the remaining shares are held by third-party investment companies.
In the embryonic stage of the new energy automobile industry in 2015, Zhidou Automobile received a lot of attention as soon as it was launched. According to Gesz Auto data, from 2015 to 2017, the annual sales of Zhidou Automobile were 25,300 units, 24,000 units and 43,000 units, respectively. Among them, in the 2017 global new energy vehicle sales list, the model Zhidou D2 achieved the 6th place, directly comparable to traditional car companies.
However, the good times are not long, and the subsidies for new energy vehicles in 2018 have declined, which directly led to a sharp decline in sales of Zhidou Automobile. In 2018, the cumulative sales of Zhidou Automobile was only 15,300 units, a year-on-year decline of 63.9%; while in the first three quarters of 2019, the cumulative sales of Zhidou Automobile were only 2,095 units, down 84.5% compared with the same period in 2018.
At the same time as sales plummeted, layoffs, wage arrears, arrears, and lawsuits followed. Enterprise investigation data shows that Zhidou Automobile has been listed as a dishonest person many times in 2019. In addition, local courts have issued a number of civil rulings on disputes between Zhidou Automobile as a defendant and other companies, including disputes over sales contracts, corporate loan disputes, labor disputes, and disputes over arrears of payment to other companies.
Since then, Zhidou Automobile has slowly faded out of the consumer's field of vision. Until an announcement of Yinyi shares, it brought a touch of vitality to Zhidou Automobile.
Rebirth after decay
On March 2, Yinyi announced that it intends to invest no more than 400 million yuan to participate in the restructuring of Zhidou Automobile and the change procedure of the reorganization plan, and intends to act as a new restructuring investor of Zhidou Automobile.
Zhidou Automobile, which is facing reorganization, has its core assets as a wholly-owned subsidiary, Lanzhou Zhidou Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lanzhou Zhidou"), and the official website of Zhidou Automobile shows that Lanzhou Zhidou has a completely completed new energy vehicle production line and professional equipment, and has normal vehicle production and operation conditions. In March 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the Lanzhou Zhidou pure electric passenger car project with an annual output of 40,000 Zhidou; in October of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the information that Zhidou Automobile entered the list of new vehicle manufacturers; at the end of 2017, Lanzhou Zhidou's products entered the recommended catalogue of new energy vehicles and obtained the production qualification of new energy vehicles.
Yinyi shares may be therefore choosing Zhidou Automobile. However, as a restructuring investor of Zhidou Automobile, the situation of Yinyi shares itself is not optimistic. On January 29, Yinyi issued a performance forecast, saying that the company expects to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies from January to December 2021 of -2.3 billion yuan to -1.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year change of -111.5% to -74.71%.
According to the data, in 2019, Yinyi shares applied for bankruptcy reorganization in June 2019 due to continuous debt defaults, illegal occupation of listed company funds by major shareholders, and performance failures. Until the evening of December 15, 2020, Yinyi shares announced that it had found a reorganization investor, Jiaxing Zihe Jinxin Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), with a total investment price of 3.2 billion yuan and 29.89% of the shares. For Yinyi shares, which are "seriously ill and unhealed", participating in the restructuring of Zhidou Automobile may increase the burden of future expenses.
However, it is worth noting that Yinyi shares have been trying to cross the car industry for some time. As early as 2016, Yinyi began to transform auto parts manufacturing. In 2016, Yinyi Group spent 10 billion yuan to acquire two overseas auto parts manufacturers, ARC in the United States and Bonche in Belgium, with the purchase amount reaching 2.845 billion yuan and 7.981 billion yuan respectively. In the subsequent 2017, Yinyi Group injected the American ARC and Belgian Bunge into Yinyi shares.
The auto parts industry business appeared for the first time in the main business income of Yinyi Shares' 2017 annual report, with a revenue of 8.970 billion yuan, accounting for 63% of the total revenue. Yinyi shares 2017 to 2020 annual report shows that the company's current main products in the field of auto parts are stepless transmissions, automotive quiet airbag gas generators and so on.
The dilemma after the rebirth
In recent years, the market situation of city-level micro-electric vehicles has been very good, or one of the reasons why Yinyi shares plan to invest in Zhidou Automobile.
According to the data of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Passenger Car Association"), the sales of A00-class micro-electric vehicles in Mainland China have risen from 28,000 units in 2013 to 890,000 units in 2021, and have doubled from 2020, becoming a new force in the transformation of the mainland automobile industry to electrification. Zhidou Automobile is one of the car companies that stepped into the field of A00-level micro-electric vehicles earlier.
Screenshot source: Multiplying Association
According to the top 15 of the 2021 new energy vehicle rankings, A00-level micro-electric vehicles are on the list for a total of 8 places, and Wuling Hongguang MINI, Chery eQ, And Ben EV are all on the list. This market segment has also become a new battlefield for many car companies to dig for gold, Baojun E100/200, Chery QQ ice cream /Chery Ant, BYD Dolphin and a number of A00 pure electric vehicles, but also around 2021 have appeared, the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce.
At the same time, the continuation of the decline in new energy subsidies in 2022 plus the sharp increase in the price of battery costs, most new energy vehicle companies are forced to increase prices, and even low-end models have stopped receiving orders. This also brings uncertainty to the future development of Zhidou Automobile after the reorganization.
On January 18, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Development and Reform Commission jointly issued relevant notices, requiring that the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in the non-public sector in 2022 be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021, and the subsidy standard for vehicles in the public sector should be reduced by 20%, and the subsidy will be completely cancelled by 2023.
However, in this regard, Yingda Securities believes that the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy-driven to market-driven, and the impact of subsidy decline on the overall market growth of new energy vehicles is limited.
Compared with the early signs of the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles, the rapid rise in cost prices seems to have a more obvious impact on the new energy vehicle market. According to data from Shanghai Steel Federation, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in recent days reached 502,500 yuan / ton; the price of lithium hydroxide rose by 0.65-0.7 million yuan / ton, and the price reached 480,500 yuan / ton; the price of electrolytic cobalt rose by 0.17 million yuan / ton, and the price reached 573,500 yuan / ton. The nickel price soared sharply on March 8, reporting 260,000 yuan / ton on the same day, and now fell back to 219,000 yuan / ton, but it is still up nearly 55% from 122,400 yuan / ton in the same period of 2021. Taking ternary material batteries as an example, the cost of cathode materials containing metal elements such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel accounts for nearly 50% of the cost of battery materials.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, previously said that although the rise in raw materials will not affect the sales of new energy vehicles, car companies will bear certain pressure in terms of battery costs.
Correspondingly, since January 2022, some car companies have successively announced price increases. According to autohome statistics, since entering March, nearly 20 car companies have announced price increases for some of their electric vehicle models, including zero-run cars, GAC Ean, Nezha Automobile, Pole Star Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile, Tesla and other brands. Among them, Wuling Hongguang MINI, which is the 2021 A00 class electric vehicle sales champion, is also among them. On March 11, the Hongguang MINI EV was priced at 34,800 yuan / vehicle, an increase of 6,000 blocks / vehicle compared with the starting price of 2020.
Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Great Wall Motor", 601633.SH) brand Great Wall Euler directly stopped receiving orders for the "Black Cat" and "White Cat" series of micro-electric vehicles.
(Screenshot source: Great Wall Euler WeChat ANNOUNCEMENT)
Great Wall Euler said in the announcement that taking the brand "black cat" as an example, after the sharp rise in raw materials in 2022, the loss of black cat single unit (sold) exceeded 10,000 yuan. While stopping taking orders, Great Wall Euler is actively looking for ways to improve.
It can be seen that the future of micro-electric vehicles in the field of new energy vehicles is still variable. As a once popular producer of micro-electric vehicles, Zhidou Automobile has certain experience in this market. But how a brand that has been out of the market for three years may become the primary problem of competing with the current emerging brands. Zhidou Automobile's future product positioning and how to find cost advantages in the industrial chain are very important.
"Car Circle Layer" contacted Zhidou Automobile about whether the company would continue its original product positioning after reorganization, and the company replied: "It is not convenient to reply during the current restructuring period. ”