BAIC BJEV, relying on EC, EU and EX new energy series models, ranked first in China's pure electric vehicle sales for seven consecutive years. In August 2018, BAIC BJEV successfully "backdoor" listing, and the company's Chinese name was changed to BAIC Blue Valley. With the influx of more and more "players" in the new energy market, Beiqi Blue Valley began to seek transformation, and finally decided to take a high-quality development route, creating a high-end brand ARCFOX Polar Fox. However, Beiqi Blue Valley has not achieved the ideal development, and the company has been shrouded in the shadow of losses.
Recently, Beiqi Blue Valley released its 2021 operating financial report. According to the data, Beiqi Blue Valley achieved operating income of 8.697 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 65% year-on-year, but the net loss attributable to the shareholders of the parent company was 5.244 billion yuan, which was 19% narrower than the loss of the same period last year. In the past two years alone, beiqi blue valley has lost a total of 11.7 billion yuan, which has reached half of the company's market value. Beiqi Blue Valley officially explained that due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the shortage of raw material supply, the gross profit could not cover the inherent costs, resulting in huge losses.
In fact, the loss of more than 10 billion yuan does not seem to be a major event of life and death, after all, Weilai and other new car-making forces, the total loss has long exceeded this number. However, the loss problem of Beiqi Blue Valley obviously cannot be just brushed over.
Beiqi Blue Valley teamed up with Magna to create arcfox polar fox. The reason and logic is simple: Magna is at the top of the automotive industry. This century-old famous auto parts manufacturer has a wealth of high-end car manufacturing experience, and the Mercedes-Benz Big G is one of the cars manufactured by Magna. With Magna escorting, Polar Fox models can have better quality. "The torsional stiffness of our whole vehicle is even higher than that of the Rolls-Royce Phantom," Said The Fox once introduced the quality of the model.
In addition to Magna's technical endorsement, Beiqi Blue Valley also pulled Huawei to "support". In April 2021, ARCFOX Polar Fox released the Alpha S, a medium- and large-sized sedan, with two Huawei HI versions priced at 38.89 and 429,900 yuan respectively. Equipped with the Hongmeng OS car machine system, Alpha S integrates a variety of application ecosystems for users to use. Huawei's ADS driver assistance system, which is supported by three solid-state lidars, is reported to have reached the level of quasi-autonomous driving.
In order to explore in the field of unmanned travel services, ARCFOX jihu has also joined hands with Baidu Apollo, one of the most experienced and largest operators in China, to create a mass-produced shared unmanned vehicle Apollo Moon. Cooperate with Huawei to serve mass consumers, and join hands with Baidu to expand the B-end travel market. The Polar Fox pulled up two toughsters and tried to achieve "walking on two legs". But how beautiful the ideal is, how cruel the reality is.
After the subsidy, the ARCFOX Polar Fox αT, which starts at 241,900 yuan, has been listed in October 2020, with a maximum of more than 500 units sold in a single month, and the cumulative total sales volume is only about 4,000 vehicles. Another model of the Polar Fox, the Alpha S, sold a maximum of 692 units in a single month, with a total sales volume of 3590 units since its listing. The HI model created in cooperation with Huawei was originally officially delivered at the end of 2021, but as of now it is still in difficult production. Now that a year has passed, there is no official promise of delivery.
Not only did arcfox perform badly, but the "elders" of BAIC BJEV were also difficult to say. BAIC BJEV series models, in 2020, the highest single month can sell more than 5,000 vehicles, after entering 2021, completely beaten into the cold palace, with zero sales in 5 months, with a total sales volume of only 499 vehicles. New car sales are sluggish, old cars are crumbling, and Beiqi Blue Valley has suffered huge losses, which is expected. The transformation of Beiqi Blue Valley is difficult, not that I do not work hard.
Beiqi Blue Valley has spared no effort to promote the development of ARCFOX Polar Fox in order to achieve high-end product transformation. According to the 2021 financial report data, the amount of research and development invested by Beiqi Blue Valley is about 1.2 billion yuan, accounting for more than 20% of the overall revenue. According to the general manager of Beiqi Blue Valley, R&D investment will double in 2022. On the other hand, Beiqi Blue Valley increased its brand promotion, advertising and operation sales expenses of about 1.7 billion yuan. At last year's Shanghai Auto Show, ARCFOX Also officially released its international development strategy, which will start from the European market and plan to launch at least 8 models to the world in 5 years.
But the effort really did not reap the desired return. At the end of the day, Beiqi Blue Valley lacks the hard core that attracts consumers.
In order to seize the market, BAIC BJEV has earlier increased its scale online ride-hailing business and manufactured a number of low-cost products that adapt to the B-end, which can be said to have failed to accumulate excellent new energy technology. It doesn't matter if there is no technology, you can choose to climb the thighs for development. The reason why the high-end brand Lynk & Co created by Geely is better than the WEY sales of Great Wall Motors is because it is backed by Volvo technology and it is easier to gain consumer trust. Beiqi Blue Valley also used this trick, but it seems to have chosen the wrong object.
Although Magna is the top of the automobile circle, consumers who are interested in new energy vehicles may not particularly care about the quality of the car body, they may be more concerned about the intelligent control experience, etc., otherwise why Tesla, which has a rough manufacturing process, can deliver more than 480,000 vehicles in China last year. Huawei and Baidu are only equivalent to enablers, and the biggest significance is the icing on the cake, which cannot change the technical background of the car companies themselves. Xiaokang Automobile, which has in-depth cooperation with Huawei, does not have a very bright sales performance, which is enough to explain some problems.
Betting the "soul" in the hands of others is actually an unsustainable trick, otherwise why do so many car companies choose the full-stack self-developed route. It is not a reliable thigh, only like the new forces of car manufacturing to study technology, but unfortunately, Beiqi Blue Valley not only has a thin foundation, but also a less than ideal word-of-mouth image of BAIC, which will seriously affect the trust of consumers. Like a college student who graduated and looked for a job. If you are from a prestigious university, employers may look at their resumes twice. If it is only an ordinary university, the employer may refuse to accept the resume.
The new car-making forces without a historical background can also be understood as job seekers looking for jobs. It can be constructed through marketing means, as long as the technique is high, the confidence is sufficient and can withstand the test, it is often easier to obtain consumer trust than the new energy brand born from the traditional car company. So look back at ARCFOX Polar Fox, if you don't know its bottom line, check the information on the Internet or ask a friend, learn that it is a high-end brand under BAIC, I think your brow will be more or less wrinkled.
Of course, Beiqi Blue Valley definitely has a chance to rise, but the "players" such as Extreme Krypton, Lantu and Zhiji have opened a new round of offensive momentum, and the time left for ARCFOX Pole Fox may not be too much.