「Core Tips」
"Now the car companies that make cars, especially those that do not have their own battery manufacturers, are looking for a source of goods, and who cooperates with whom is not surprising at all."
Author | Gokuneng
Edited by | Li Xin
On March 25, an insider told Super Source Force that new energy vehicle companies Weilai Automobile and Xiaomi Automobile are in contact with Bydy's power battery company Fordy Battery to discuss the use of Fordy battery products.
"The cooperation between Weilai and Fordy Battery has long been discussed, and it is time for negotiations to enter the end." The above-mentioned insider told Chaoyuanli that it is still unknown what kind of cooperation between the two sides will be carried out, "it can be a joint venture to build a factory, or it can be a direct buying and selling relationship".
The practice of the automotive industry is that car companies first send a fixed-point letter to suppliers to express their intention to cooperate, and then begin to test products, such as quality clearance and no major changes, will enter the batch procurement stage.
At present, the supply of power batteries is less than demand, which is a typical supply-side market, so it is not surprising that car companies look around for the right battery supply, and the supply and demand relationship in the battery industry has changed "vertically and horizontally".
Recently, a picture was widely circulated, in which Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, and Li Bin, founder of NIO, exchanged views in front of a NIO ET7 car at the Jianghuai factory. At that time, there was speculation that the two sides intended to cooperate, blade batteries or other cooperation, and there was no conclusion at the time.
BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu and WEILAI founder Li Bin at the Jacques factory
NIO's high-end brand NIO is oem by JAC. In order to seize the low-end market share of less than 250,000, WEILAI may release a new sub-brand at the end of the year, launch 200,000-level electric vehicles, or will be OEM by BYD.
However, Li Bin immediately responded that the rumors were pure rumors. But Li Bin denied that the OEM production car was made, and it was not involved in whether the two sides cooperated in batteries.
Another car-making latecomer, Xiaomi Automobile, has also been in contact with The Fordy battery for a long time.
On the evening of March 30, 2021, Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi, announced his entry into the smart electric vehicle market. On April 1, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu appeared in Xiaomi Science and Technology Park and met with Lei Jun. Just when the outside world speculated that "BYD OEM Xiaomi Car", on April 2, a group photo of Lei Jun, Wang Chuanfu, Li Bin, He Xiaopeng and Li Xiang was reported.
In addition to the above five people, the participants of the gathering also included Shen Nanpeng, Meituan CEO Wang Xing, Wanxiang Group Chairman Lu Weiding, Didi Chuxing founder Cheng Wei, Horizon founder Yu Kai and so on.
From left to right, he Xiaopeng, Li Bin, Lei Jun, Wang Chuanfu, and Li Xiang were respectively
"Now the car companies that make cars, especially those that do not have their own battery manufacturers, are looking for a source of goods, and who cooperates with whom is not surprising at all." A well-known car company executive told "Super Source Force" that it had heard that relevant car companies were looking for sources of goods.
The above-mentioned insider told "Super Source Force" that BYD and Weilai Automobile have been in talks for some time, and now it depends on what kind of cooperation method the two sides adopt, and it is possible to build a joint venture to build a factory to produce batteries and cars. The first car of Xiaomi Automobile looked at BYD blade batteries and products of the Ningde era.
According to the financial report just released by Weilai Automobile, the net loss for the whole year of 2021 is 4.02 billion yuan. In order to narrow the loss, WEILAI said in the financial report that the delivery guidance for the first quarter of 2022 is 25,000-26,000 units, and the revenue is expected to be between 9.63 billion yuan and 9.99 billion yuan, with at least 20% growth to be completed.
Li Bin said on the earnings call that the company expects to achieve profitability in 2024. Despite strong order growth, capacity is still affected by supply chains. Coupled with the surge in lithium ore and other reasons, the pressure on the company to complete the growth is very large. In this case, it is reasonable for Li Bin to look around for electricity.
Finding suppliers from many sources and increasing the strength of supply assurance has become the preferred practice of car companies. For example, Xiaopeng Automobile has adopted products from a number of battery manufacturers at the same time.
According to the executives of the above-mentioned car companies, the current market is in short supply, car companies are looking around for batteries, with the increase in production capacity, after the balance of supply and demand, the changes in the parties to the transaction may be more abundant and diverse. When there is an oversupply, car companies will return to the bargaining C position.
The above-mentioned insiders believe that at present, car companies are more realistic to grab qualified batteries first, after all, the first to take out the car to seize the market, more important than what, for some companies, even related to life and death.
"Super Source Force" called the relevant departments of the above-mentioned enterprises separately, but as of press time, there was no reply.