Per reporter: Li Xing Per editor: Pei Jianru
"Our first mass production car (Hengchi 5) has passed the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's new car and can start production and sales for the market." On March 14, the relevant person in charge of Evergrande Automobile said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that Hengchi 5 plans to officially open pre-sales in the second quarter of this year.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a licensed "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" (batch 353), showing that Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.'s Hengchi brand pure electric multi-purpose passenger car - HDE6470, that is, "Hengchi 5" is among them. This means that "Hengchi 5" has passed the one-month publicity period of the new car of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and has the sales qualification.
Image source: The official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
The relevant person in charge of Evergrande Automobile told reporters that at present, the Tianjin production base has begun to produce Hengchi 5, and the new car will be listed in the third quarter of this year and start delivery.
Hengchi 5 will achieve pre-sale in the second quarter
On November 9 last year, in the 350th batch of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Announcements" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Evergrande Automobile declared its first mass production model - Hengchi 5 LX (i.e. Hengchi 5).
It is reported that Hengchi 5 is positioned as a compact pure electric SUV, which is an entry-level model under the Hengchi brand. According to the above declaration data, Hengchi 5 is equipped with a lithium iron phosphate battery provided by CATL, and the power system is supplied by United Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. "Hengchi 5 is priced at less than 200,000 yuan and is currently in production at the Tianjin factory." The relevant person in charge of Evergrande Automobile said.
On January 12, Evergrande Automobile announced that the first car of Hengchi 5 has officially rolled off the production line, 12 days earlier than the original time. "We tentatively set out to open a pre-sale of Hengchi 5 in April and May, and complete the listing and delivery in the third quarter of this year." The relevant person in charge of Evergrande Automobile told reporters that the specific time for Hengchi 5 to open the pre-sale needs to be finalized according to the domestic epidemic situation and the company's production preparations. But what is certain is that Hengchi 5 will definitely achieve pre-sale in the second quarter of this year.
Image source: Sina Weibo (@Hengchi)
It is worth noting that according to the previous plan, Evergrande Automobile's first mass-produced model will be completed at the end of 2021 or early 2022. In other words, the delivery time of Hengchi 5 is about 9 months later than expected.
Industry analysts believe that the postponement of the listing time of Hengchi 5 is mainly related to the outbreak of a liquidity crisis in Evergrande Group. Evergrande Automobile (00708, HK) has issued an announcement that in order to improve the overall efficiency of the Group and supplement working capital, the Group has been actively negotiating with potential buyers to sell some of the Group's health valley, new energy vehicle life projects and other assets.
In order to alleviate financial difficulties, Evergrande Group sold some overseas businesses under Evergrande Automobile in 2021, including electric drivetrain company e-Traction in the Netherlands and Protean Electric in the United Kingdom, a wheel hub motor manufacturing company.
The first exhibition experience centers will be located in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai
It is worth mentioning that before Hengchi 5 obtained sales qualifications, Hengchi New Energy Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., a sales company under Evergrande Automobile, has begun to recruit externally. "Since the beginning of this year, we have begun to recruit sales consultants with sales background in the automotive industry, and the basic salary is 2 times higher than that of the industry." An internal staff member of Evergrande Automobile told reporters.
Image source: Courtesy of the enterprise
According to the recruitment poster released by Hengchi Automobile (Hengchi is the brand name of Evergrande Automobile), the auto sales consultants recruited by Evergrande Automobile cover Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Changsha, Xi'an, Hefei and Haikou, a total of 15 cities.
However, the reporter learned that the sales channels of the Hengchi brand are still in the initial construction. "The first batch of Hengchi exhibition and experience centers will be completed before the pre-sale of Hengchi 5 starts, and will be located in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin respectively. After the pre-sale of new cars is opened, the company's channels will be widely rolled out for construction. The relevant person in charge of Evergrande Automobile said.
According to the plan, the Hengchi brand will prepare for the construction of 36 Hengchi exhibition and experience centers, 1600 Hengchi sales centers, and 3000 self-built and authorized maintenance warranty after-sales service centers.
According to the development schedule of Evergrande Automobile, by 2025, the company's automobile production and sales target will exceed 1 million vehicles; by 2035, the company's automobile production and sales target will exceed 5 million vehicles. "With the rapid launch of new products and the layout of automobile sales channels and after-sales service outlets, I believe that we will be able to achieve the sales target of 1 million vehicles in the next 3 to 5 years and quickly achieve profitability." Liu Yongzhuo, president of Evergrande Automobile Group, said in an interview with reporters.
The transformation from real estate to new energy automobile industry is the transformation goal set by Xu Jiayin, chairman of the board of directors of Evergrande Group, for Evergrande Group. "Evergrande will fully implement the sales of existing buildings in the future, and the sales scale of real estate will be reduced from more than 700 billion yuan last year to about 200 billion yuan per year in 10 years." Xu Jiayin publicly stated at the special meeting of Evergrande Group to resume work and production in October 2021 that the company will complete the industrial transformation from real estate to new energy vehicles within 10 years.
However, as the "vanguard" of Evergrande Automobile in the face of market competition, although Hengchi 5 has obtained production and sales qualifications, it also faces many obstacles such as capital, mass production, sales, delivery, service, etc. Xu Jiayin undoubtedly has a long way to go to achieve the goal.