Can weima, which is "left behind", catch up with the first camp of the new car-making forces?
On April 15, WM released its fifth product, WM E.5, priced at 180,100 yuan to 190,100 yuan, and priced at 150,100 yuan to 160,100 yuan after a limited-time discount, focusing on young consumer groups. In the price range of 150,000 yuan, Weima will also face the encirclement and suppression of BYD Song and Xiaopeng P5.
Compared with other new car-making forces, WM generally chooses not to publish specific monthly sales data. Since the sales volume exceeded 5,000 in September last year, WM has actively released sales data. According to March sales data, WM had 5,516 units insured in March, up 211.3% year-on-year and 66.6% month-on-month. Despite the sharp increase in sales in March, it still did not break through the 6,000 mark.
It is worth noting that WM's sales have always remained in the range of 5,000-6,000 vehicles, and it seems to have encountered a sales bottleneck. Nezha and Zero Run, who are also the second camp of the new car-making forces, have caught up with "Wei Xiaoli" in terms of sales, and their monthly sales have exceeded the 10,000 mark.
According to the consensus in the industry, the delivery data of 10,000 vehicles is a threshold, and WM is still a certain distance from the target of 10,000 vehicles.
Did Weima fall behind?
As early as 2020, Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, said on personal social media that there are 3 new car-making forces that can survive in the future, namely the ideal Weilai Xiaopeng. At that time, WM was the head of the new force, just ranked second in the 2019 new force delivery list with a score of 16,800 vehicles, second only to Weilai, and the WM EX5 was the single model sales champion. Shen Hui, the founder of Weima, was obviously not convinced, and shouted with Wang Xing, "I would like to make a bet with the Wang Xing brothers, Weima will definitely be one of the Top3." ”
From the sales point of view, Weima did fall out of the top three ranks. But Shen Hui believes that "the company is not left behind, and the first half of the new car has just begun." ”
Looking at Shen Hui's resume, although he is a new force in car manufacturing, he still carries the genes of traditional car companies in his bones. In 1994, Shen Hui graduated from South China University of Technology majoring in engineering mechanics, when alumnus Xiaopeng Automobile CEO He Xiaopeng was still in junior high school. Shen Hui then chose to go to the United States for further study and worked in the automotive industry for decades. In 2010, Shen Hui led the team to complete Geely's acquisition of Volvo and was responsible for restructuring Volvo's global governance structure, and later served as chairman of Volvo China.
In 2015, Shen Hui jumped out of the traditional car company and founded WM Motors. At the beginning of its establishment in 2016, it received a US$1 billion investment from Prancing Horse Capital, followed by Tencent and Sequoia also participated in financing, and Baidu participated in the three financings of WM in 2017, 2019 and 2020, becoming the largest external shareholder of WM. As of October 2021, WM's financing scale has exceeded 30 billion.
Last year, weima, which seemed to be smooth sailing, also planned to land on the science and technology innovation board, but for some reason it was shelved. Some media quoted informed sources as saying that WM Motors was questioned about the lack of scientific and technological content in the science and technology innovation board, the proportion of R& D investment in revenue was not high, coupled with continuous huge losses, and there were many problems in the review of listing materials. Weima denied this.
However, according to the listing counseling report, the operating income of WM Motor from 2017 to the first three quarters of 2020 was 0.14 billion yuan, 720 million yuan, 1.78 billion yuan and 1.68 billion yuan, respectively, and the net loss was 1.696 billion yuan, 2.453 billion yuan, 3.608 billion yuan and 3.649 billion yuan, respectively. WM's revenue is much lower than the loss, and in less than 4 years, WM's loss exceeds 10 billion.
Wei Xiaoli has completed the listing of the United States and Hong Kong, and the second-tier camps such as Nezha and Zero Run are also accelerating the impact on the Hong Kong stock market.
Spontaneous combustion lock electric storm is not flat, Weima and exposed to reduced allocation?
"If we can't stand firm in the next two years, it's our own problem, it's our own problem, it's our own fault." Shen Hui said this when talking about the external environment, and his words were tinged with a little helplessness.
As one of the first batch of new forces for mass production, Weima was initially in a leading position, but it was gradually surpassed by the ideals behind it and Xiaopeng, and was also surpassed by Nezha and Zero Run.
Weima, which is standing still in terms of sales, is caught in various negative problems. In December last year, WM EX5 had three spontaneous combustion accidents in Haikou, Sanya, Henan and other places in Hainan province within 4 days. In January this year, WM spontaneously combusted in Sanya.
According to the "Fire Accident Identification Letter" issued by the Sanya Fire Department, the cause of the fire was "a fire caused by a battery failure". WM insisted that there was no problem with the vehicle and that the cause of the fire was caused by the collision. However, the accident car did not collide before the fire.
Just in 2020, there were a number of spontaneous combustion accidents in WM, and WM eventually recalled more than 1,000 related models.
The spontaneous combustion storm has not subsided, and Weima has sent out a "lock electric door". At the beginning of this year, WM launched the "New Year's Eve User Premium" campaign, and the lucky users who were randomly selected will receive a comprehensive vehicle inspection and a Jingdong card worth 200 yuan. However, many car owners who participated in the activity found that after the vehicle "upgraded", the voltage dropped and the mileage shrank. Triggered a large number of car owners to protect their rights, and even the owner of the Wei carriage created a rights protection song "200 pieces will deceive me" and boarded the Guangdong 315 party.
In addition, Weima has been exposed to the reduction incident. According to media reports, WM updated the configuration of the two models of WM E.5 on the official website, and cancelled the ESP and automatic parking AUTOHOLD configurations in the configuration table, but the price remained unchanged, due to suspected lack of cores. However, WM customer service also denied that there was a reduction in the allocation of the vehicle.
Some Wei carriage owners reflected that the original choice of Weima was to see Shen Hui come out of the traditional car companies, different from other new forces, giving people a reliable feeling. Nowadays, Weima is more like a hammer deal, and the products and services are gone. "Our WM dealership is also closed."
Spontaneous combustion, power locking, allocation reduction, round after round of negative public opinion continues to impact the brand value of Weima, the external environment it faces is becoming increasingly fierce competition, Wang Xing mentioned the "3 + 3 + 3 + 3" (3 central enterprises + 3 local state-owned enterprises + 3 private enterprises + 3 new forces) in the new energy market Layout is accelerating, Chang'an's Avita, Dongfeng's Lantu; SAIC's Zhiji, GAC's Aian, BAIC's Polar Fox; BYD, Geely, Great Wall and "Wei Xiaoli" have formed a closed trend for WM.
In April 2020, Qi Liren, the chief retail officer of WM, left; in August of the same year, Lu Bin, co-founder of WM, left; in March 2021, the new chief retail officer Tang Junying, who had been in office for less than half a year, also announced his departure.
Behind the frequent appointment and dismissal of personnel is Shen Hui's dissatisfaction with the sales of Weima, betting on the M7 and E.5 models, and Weima also hopes to accelerate the first camp of catching up with the new forces.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.