Paying a little attention to the automotive circle, it is easy to find that in recent years, most car companies have set up VCs, often called ** capital. For example, NIO Capital of NIO, GAC Capital, SAIC Shangyi Capital, Xiaopeng Motors' Xinghang Capital and so on.
Today's car companies, which do not have one or two wholly owned capital companies of the group, cannot play at all in the circle: at the end of the year, they are invited by the media to hold a retreat conference, not only can not get the award, but also have no material to brag on the stage.
Traditional car group with a lot of money, it is easy to understand to do VC. However, some car companies sell cars and do not make money at all, looking for leeks everywhere to borrow money, but they borrow money from others to start a business and play capital, playing better than rich people (car companies), which is somewhat confusing.
In particular, the new car-making force "Wei Xiaoli" is losing money every year, but investing in this matter is more active than anyone. NIO established NIO Capital in 2018. On March 17, Rockets Capital announced the completion of the first round of closure of the first US dollar fund, raising more than US$200 million.
The cornerstone investor of this fund is Xiaopeng Motors, and the LPs of the first phase of the fund are mostly investors of Xiaopeng Motors, such as IDG Capital, Sequoia China, Wuyuan Capital and GGV Jiyuan Capital.
My friend, a reader in the investment industry and an investor in the cultivation world, said: In the final analysis, investment is not so profound, there is only one direction, that is, the investment outlet.
This statement itself is profound. X boss's words, so far I have only half understood, but through it to see the new car-making forces engaged in VC, it is much clearer.
01.
The industrial chain is full of gold
In the 16th century, legend has it that there was a golden empire in distant South America, and many people borrowed it and crossed the ocean to find it.
The new car-making forces engage in VC, which is probably the same reason. The new energy vehicle industry chain has almost reconstructed the traditional automobile industry chain, and many new companies are on the rise, and investing money in such companies may earn more than building cars.
Rich companies naturally do not need to say, in the industrial chain more nibble a piece, will earn more than a plate of money.
On March 22, GAC Group issued an announcement that the board of directors agreed to establish GAC Energy Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. to build a charging and storage energy supply ecology and battery recycling ecology, build a smart and efficient energy cloud platform, and promote the research of energy storage system technology, "vehicle-station-network" collaborative interaction of smart charging and replacing service technology and product development and application.
The total investment of this project is 4.96 billion yuan, and the registered capital of the company is 1 billion yuan (injected in 3 years), of which the company and its subsidiary GAC Aian New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. invest 550 million yuan and 450 million yuan respectively according to the shareholding ratio.
This is already one of the many projects that GAC has invested in over the years, such as chips, autonomous driving, lithium mines in Jiuling Lithium and so on. What is entered by way of equity participation is often the operation of GAC Capital.
On February 24, battery manufacturer Sunwoda was jointly increased by 19 enterprises and institutions such as "Wei Xiaoli", SAIC, Dongfeng, GAC, etc., with a total amount of 2.43 billion yuan.
Previously, Xiaomi also invested in four battery companies, Honeycomb Energy, Zhuhai Guanyu, Ganfeng Lithium and Zhongxin Airlines, while Volkswagen invested in Quantun Scape, a solid-state battery developer in the United States.
If you don't make money, you can also find leeks to ah - the market value goes up, and the financing cost will go down.
As early as 2018, NIO capital invested in the self-driving chip company Black Sesame Intelligence; the newly established Xinghang Capital also quickly shot at the chip, and a chip entrepreneurship project is close to completion, and the specific investment object has not been disclosed.
In February this year, Great Wall Motor strategically invested in the automotive AI chip company Horizon, which is the only enterprise in China to achieve the mass production of vehicle-grade AI chip front-loading; on March 9, automotive electronic chip developer Core Engine Technology received hundreds of millions of yuan of strategic investment from FAW Group;
The new energy vehicle market has entered an explosive period, and every sector of the industrial chain may erupt in the future. For example, lithium carbonate, the raw material of lithium batteries, the price in the second half of 2020 is 50,000 yuan / ton, and the current price is 500,000 yuan / ton.
Now new energy vehicle companies and battery manufacturers have deeply felt the power of "no mine at home, panic in their hearts", and regret that they did not buy one when the lithium mine was cheap in the past few years.
02.
Panic out of control
The biggest problem is not whether to make money or not, but the problem of others not giving food.
In the mature field of traditional energy vehicles, OEMs occupy absolute dominance, and the parts and components in the industrial chain are generally weak (except for those with absolute core technologies). The purchasing manager of the main engine factory said a word at random, and he had to let the parts factory owner think about it for one night.
But on new energy vehicles, this iron law has been broken. In the industrial chain after the reshuffle, supply and demand are mismatched. The downstream market demand is coming, but the upstream supporting equipment is not ready, resulting in a lot of parts and raw materials in short supply.
Now it has become the vice president in charge of procurement in the main engine factory, running after the parts boss's ass.
Take batteries, for example. Battery manufacturers Ningde Times and BYD have few rivals in China. It is also common for the owner of the main engine factory to squat in front of the Ningde era factory to ask for batteries.
The Ningde era can't move to throw the face of the main engine factory. The owner of the main engine factory found Zeng Yuqun, the leader of the Ningde era, and did not even enter the door.
The Ningde era was listed only a few years ago, and he was crowned king.
Since the second half of last year, the price of power batteries in the Ningde era has increased twice, according to the battery cost of a medium-endurance new energy vehicle, each increase is about 10,000 yuan.
The chip is more stuck in the neck.
On March 26, NIO announced that it had decided to suspend production at the Hefei Jianghuai Automobile Plant for five days from March 29 due to chip shortages.
Chips are a common problem faced by global car companies. Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Herbert Diess has also publicly stated that a shortage of chips in the first two months of this year has led Volkswagen to cut production by 100,000 units worldwide.
Chip supply is too concentrated, and car companies generally do not have the right to speak, which is the core factor of the chip shortage. Mainland China's automotive chip import rate exceeds 90%, mainly from Renesas Electronics, NXP, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and other five major automotive MCU suppliers, while the foundries are mainly TSMC, UMC, and Global foundries.
Car companies should look at the chip factory, or the face of the dealer. If you can't get a chip, even if only one of the more than 1,000 chips is not in place, a car can't get off the line, and the factory is facing production stoppage.
Toyota, the world's largest car company, after the inventory of chips is used up, the replenishment is gradually unable to keep up, starting this year, the factory frequently stopped production, is expected to reduce production in the second quarter by 400,000 vehicles.
The life of car companies is not good, especially this year, most of which is a problem with the supply chain. In particular, new energy vehicles, the market is growing rapidly, and it may be difficult to change the current supply situation in the next one or two years.
Therefore, the layout of the industrial chain has become the correct option for the "safety" of car manufacturing. It is very realistic for car companies to engage in VC, if you look at it in a strategic position, this scene is more important than selling cars.
Cutting-edge Auto Watch has settled in: