After surpassing Weilai and Ideal in the same period with the delivery volume of 15,414 vehicles in March, ranking second in the sales list of new car-making forces, Nezha Automobile's overseas layout may usher in a new stage.
On April 11, it was reported that HORIZON PLUS, a joint venture between Thai National Oil Corporation (PTT) and Foxconn, is currently planning to build a pure electric vehicle factory with a total investment of 1 billion to 2 billion US dollars in eastern Thailand to OEM for China's pure electric vehicle companies.
It is understood that the project plans to start construction in the middle of this year, and it is expected to start production work by 2024, with an initial target of 50,000 vehicles per year.
The head of Thai Petroleum's pure electric vehicle business revealed that as the first step of OEM, HORIZON PLUS is negotiating with Nezha. In this regard, Nezha also said in an interview with "E Chehui" that "in the plan, we are working hard to achieve cooperation, and we will announce it after making specific progress." ”
In fact, the pure electric vehicle companies that have lost money in the domestic market have basically gone a similar path, that is, to explore overseas markets to seek new increments. In the face of this new growth point, what Nezha needs to think about is how to strengthen the overseas market under the two forces of new car manufacturing and traditional car companies, and then feed itself.
Overseas markets have become the key to opening up the gap between new forces?
According to the data, the cumulative sales of Nezha last year reached 69674 vehicles, an increase of 361.7% year-on-year, and the growth rate ranked first among the mainstream car-making new forces.
In the case of soaring sales, Nezha still did not escape the curse of loss of the new forces of car-making.
According to the information disclosed in the announcement of 360 Group, Nezha achieved revenue of 1.297 billion yuan and a net loss of 1.321 billion yuan in 2020; in the first half of 2021, it achieved revenue of 1.632 billion yuan and a net loss of 693 million yuan. Obviously, how to achieve a turnaround in net profit is still a problem that the new car-making forces urgently need to overcome.
In this case, in order to seek new increments, new car-making forces have invariably set their sights on overseas markets. Among them, Xiaopeng and Weilai set the sales target of going to sea to 50% in order to seize the dominant position in the market.
However, unlike Weilai, Xiaopeng, Aichi, Weima and other car companies that choose to develop the European market, Nezha's first stop at sea points to Thailand.
In November last year, Nezha signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Thai Oil and officially announced its departure to sea. It is understood that the overseas strategy formulated by Nezha is the first to land the right-hand drive version of Nezha V that it has built for overseas markets in Thailand, and then take Thailand as the center to enter the entire ASEAN new energy vehicle market.
However, whether it is Europe or the ASEAN market, including Thailand, the new car-making forces are facing various cost problems such as product transformation, automobile inspection and certification, transportation, sales channel construction, operation and maintenance.
Previously, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory and Berlin Gigafactory built for overseas markets were designed to reduce costs while ensuring sufficient production capacity, and to kick off the prelude to the price war and achieve a boost in sales.
To a certain extent, Tesla has actually made a model for China's new power car companies that have gone overseas.
Unexpectedly, from the perspective of financial situation, Weilai and Xiaopeng, who had the deepest degree of "going to sea", lost 4.016 billion yuan and 4.863 billion yuan respectively last year, and it seems that they do not have the strength to build factories overseas at this stage.
This also means that once Nezha signs a foundry agreement with HORIZON PLUS, Nezha, who has seized the opportunity, will be the first car company in the new car-making forces to form economies of scale overseas.
Nezha overseas to find OEM to become a "breakthrough" shortcut?
At the same time, Thailand is also vigorously supporting the new energy automobile industry.
At the end of February this year, in order to further stimulate the consumption of electric vehicles, the Thai government formulated a package of subsidies for consumers who buy electric vehicles, including subsidies of about 13,000 to 28,000 yuan for the purchase of new cars, consumption tax reductions and reductions in import tariffs.
Subsequently, at the Thailand Auto Show held in March, Nezha immediately submitted an application to the Thai Ministry of Taxation to join the Subsidy Policy for Thai Electric Vehicles, and it is reported that Lawaron Saengsanit, Minister of Consumer Taxation of the Central Government of Thailand, has accepted the application.
However, Nezha is not the only one who submitted the application.
According to the Federation of Thai Industries Automobile Club, the Investment Committee has provided tax incentives for electric vehicle investment projects carried out by 13 companies, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, SAIC Chia Tai, FOMM, Mitsubishi and MINE MOBILITY.
Among them, companies that have a production base in Thailand and plan to use it for electric vehicles this year include Toyota, which has Thailand as its main production base for electric vehicles, and SAIC Chia Tai, which plans to spend 470 million yuan to build a factory that produces pure electric vehicle batteries and starts producing pure electric vehicles in Thailand next year.
At this time, compared with the traditional car companies that have established a foothold in Thailand, Nezha, which does not have production capacity, carries out local production through HORIZON PLUS, which may be the best way for Nezha to make up for the shortcomings and "break through" in a number of traditional car companies.
Obviously, Nezha also knows this well.
After clarifying the timeline, it is not difficult to find that Thai Oil and Foxconn officially announced the establishment of a joint venture company in May last year, and Nezha and Thai Oil announced cooperation in November. The cooperation with HORIZON PLUS may have been part of Nezha's strategic planning from the beginning.
"By sharing production equipment, [automakers] can reduce the cost and time required for manufacturing." According to the head of Thai Petroleum's pure electric vehicle business, HORIZON PLUS will use the pure electric vehicle chassis and software that Foxconn is developing to produce different brands and models of electric vehicles.
Some insiders said that at the moment when the value of pure electric vehicle platforms (including batteries) accounts for 74% of the value of pure electric vehicles, sharing production equipment will improve the flexibility of electric vehicle manufacturing, reduce the number of raw materials to be used, and shorten the time and cost of new electric vehicles from development to market, thereby reducing production costs and ultimately enhancing Nezha's competitiveness in the Thai market.
But the premise that cannot be ignored is that Nezha has come to this step.