Since "Wei Xiaoli" met in Hong Kong stocks, another new car-making force, "Zero Run Car", also announced that it will go public in Hong Kong. With a number of new car-making forces have successively exceeded the monthly delivery of more than 10,000 units, and set the target of "100,000 vehicles" this year. The battle for the survival of the new car-making forces has entered a new stage - the IPO in Hong Kong. Although the delivery figures of the repeated achievements are very good, it is obvious that the new car-making forces are still short of money and need to be listed to solve the difficulties.
The zero run of self-research in the whole region is facing great pressure on funds
On March 17, ZeroCar said it had submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first proposed listed company in the second echelon of the new car-making forces, and was jointly sponsored by CICC, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and CCB International. Just a week ago, on March 10, Weilai was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the first echelon of the new car-making forces, "Wei Xiaoli", has gathered in Hong Kong stocks.
According to the documents, the zero-run car plan will use the funds raised for the research and development of smart electric vehicles, increase production capacity, and enhance brand awareness. At the same time, in the prospectus, Zero Run describes itself as the only emerging electric vehicle company in China with global independent research and development capabilities, mainly focusing on China's high-end mainstream new energy vehicle market with a price of between 150,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan.
From the perspective of time, zero-running cars can definitely be regarded as the first batch of new car companies in China. The figures show that the total delivery volume of zero-run in 2021 is 43,748 units, of which the electric mini car T03 accounts for nearly 90%. At the same time, Zero Run chose to return to the "mainstream" play of the new energy market and launched the C11 medium-sized intelligent pure electric SUV, known as the "half-price Model Y". With the performance of T03 and C11, coupled with the small performance base, zero run revenue has grown rapidly in the past two years. According to its public financial report, from 2019 to 2021, the operating income was 117 million yuan, 631 million yuan and 3.132 billion yuan, respectively, and the revenue growth rate in 2020 and 2021 reached 439.74% and 396.13% respectively.
Although the above figures are gratifying, Zero Run, like other new car-making forces, is still losing money. The figures show that the gross profit of zero-run cars from 2019 to 2021 was -112 million yuan, -320 million yuan and -1.388 billion yuan, and the net profit was -901 million yuan, -1.1 billion yuan and -2.846 billion yuan, respectively. If calculated according to the delivery volume of 43,748 vehicles in 2021, the average loss of one car sold by zero-run is about 65,000 yuan. According to the financial data of last year, "Wei Xiaoli" is also "selling a loss". Even Euler from traditional car companies has "exposed himself": selling a car loses 10,000 yuan. In contrast, the traditional car companies with many years of experience in gasoline car manufacturing and factories, as well as the new forces that have achieved large-scale mass production, have obviously lost a little less.
As we all know, the research and development, production and marketing of automobiles need money everywhere, and insist on doing zero-run self-research in the whole region, in addition to the interior and exterior decoration and battery cells, the rest of the components are self-developed, which makes the financial pressure become greater. Through financing and listing, etc., the use of funds in exchange for time and development space has been successfully staged once in Weilai. In the same way, for zero-run cars, going public in Hong Kong is only a key step in "blood transfusion". The industry believes that compared with the US stock market, the return of new forces to Hong Kong stocks can provide investors with more circulation trading channels.
Observation: The new forces have opened a new round of market competition and capital competition
For the "background" of the new car-making forces, there is a brilliant summary in the industry: Weilai is born in "Easy Car Network" and backed by Tencent; Xiaopeng is born in UC and backed by Ali; the ideal is to be born in "Auto Home" and backed by Meituan. Each one has Internet genes behind it, which also makes them more "like a fish in the water" under the encounter of Internet car building. Relatively speaking, the zero-run car backed by the world's second largest security giant and the world's top 500 "Dahua shares" seems to lack these Internet flavors and is also an "honest person" in marketing.
For zero-run cars, in order to gain market share among many new car-making brands, it is not only necessary to adhere to self-research in all fields, but also to carefully polish the differentiated competitiveness of products. Although the IPO will help to reserve more funds for subsequent technology research and development, new products are also the core of the development of the brand. According to industry analysts, from the current market situation, the new forces have a popular model with outstanding sales, such as Xiaopeng P7, Zero Run T03, Ideal ONE, Weilai ES6 and so on. With the increase of the product lineup, if the follow-up new products cannot surpass the existing explosive cars and become the "new boss", the freshness of the existing explosive cars will always pass, and it will be difficult to meet the expectations at that time, making it more difficult to make profits. For example, NIO Automobile, although the frequency of launching products is very high, but the data shows that NIO U.S. stocks only $13.01 when the decline was seriously low this month, and NIO Hong Kong stocks fell to a minimum of HK$108. The most critical reason for the decline of Weilai's stock market is the current decline in sales, while continuing to lose money. Moreover, in the context of this year's sharp rise in power battery raw materials and subsidies, the profit road of new car-making forces may become longer.
Looking back at the development history of the new forces, "Wei Xiaoli" took the lead in embarking on the "clipper ship" of domestic new energy vehicles by virtue of the first batch of listings in the United States, obtained funds and ammunition, and also caught up with the east wind supported by national policies. This year, "Wei Xiaoli" has returned to Hong Kong stocks for listing, which means that a new round of market competition and capital competition between new forces is also unfolding. It is reported that there are also new forces such as Nezha and Weima who are interested in going public in Hong Kong. However, after the strong take the lead in opening the market, it will test the comprehensive strength of the follow-up new forces such as research and development capabilities, product rhythm, and brand maintenance.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Deng Li
Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Deng Li
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Zhong Dawen