Phoenix Network "Eye of the Storm" produced
Text/Kobayashi
A few days ago, Phoenix Auto found that the sky center located on the first floor of Oriental Xintiandi seems to be withdrawing. After communicating with the on-site staff, I learned that the place was indeed closed.
The Oriental Plaza store is Skyline Auto's first Skyline Center in Beijing, officially opening in January 2021. At present, the doors and windows of the store are closed, and the LOGO of Skyline Motors has disappeared.
From the completion of more than 5 billion yuan of financing in 2020, to the opening of IPO preparations in 2021, and now not only is the listing far away, the only two stores in Beijing are only one, what happened to Tianji Automobile?
Ambitious enough to fall behind completely in just a year
In the past two months, due to the shortage of chips and the rise in raw material prices, major new energy vehicle companies have taken turns to increase prices. Skyline Auto also issued an "adjustment" announcement: canceling the promotion policy of the previous 5,000 yuan deposit deduction of 10,000 yuan for car purchases. It seems that the price has also increased, but it has not risen completely.
Other brands have risen to the right, even the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has risen by 4,000 yuan, not to mention the ideal ONE of the extender has risen by 11,800 yuan. So why is Skyrim Auto "rising" so bottomless?
Perhaps it has something to do with the current embarrassing market performance of Skyrim Motors.
Deliveries of Skyrim's first product, the ME7, began in September 2020, with less than 100 units delivered in the first year. The second model, the ME5, was launched in November 2021, and official data shows that the cumulative orders for the car exceeded 4,000 units.
But orders do not equal sales, and throughout 2021, Skyrim's cumulative deliveries are less than 2,000. This achievement is not even as good as the Lantu automobile that has just been delivered, and the unknown Skyworth automobile. Even the HiPhi X, which has a unit price of more than 570,000, delivered more than 4,000 units last year.
According to the flag previously set by founder and CEO Zhang Hailiang, Tianji Auto's sales target in 2021 is 20,000-30,000 vehicles, and even to further challenge 40,000 vehicles. There is a huge gap between the real data and this.
In stark contrast, Nezha Automobile, which was also in the second echelon, officially entered the first echelon since the 10,000-month delivery mark in November last year, and the delivery volume in March this year has surpassed the ideal and Weilai, second only to Xiaopeng. At the same time, zero-run cars also achieved the first monthly delivery of more than 10,000 yuan last month.
Even WM Motors, which is deeply trapped in the "lock electric door", is in much better condition than Skyline Cars. It can be said that Skyrim Motors, which was previously in the second echelon and ambitious, has completely fallen behind. The only thing that can be put together is the Aichi car.
As far as we know, Oriental Plaza Skyline Center only sold 4 cars in the month before the store was withdrawn. The dismal sales volume has been infinitely magnified under the pressure of the high operating costs of the supermarket model, and it is reasonable to withdraw the store.
When the wave of electrification and intelligence hits, only a few can stand at the head of the tide, after all, more are sailing against the current, not advancing or retreating.
Vague positioning with confusing channels
Originating from the electric coffee car founded in 2015, Skyrim Motors officially launched its first product EV10, a miniature electric vehicle, in 2017. However, electric coffee cars have not yet waited for the outbreak of the A0/A00 level electric vehicle market, and they can't wait to go to the high-end.
In July 2018, a new high-end brand, ENOVATE, was launched, which is now Skyrim Motors. In September 2020, deliveries of the ME7, which positioned the mid-size SUV, began. In the case that the ME7 has not yet opened the situation, the second product debuted last year, positioning the ME5 of the compact SUV.
However, compared with the ME7, the price of the ME5 is nearly 100,000 yuan lower in the case of a short wheelbase of 80mm, a similar level, and a similar appearance. As for the reason, everyone can guess that the ME5 uses a range-extended hybrid system, while the ME7 is a pure electric vehicle.
This makes people wonder, what is the positioning of Skyrim Motors? What is the product strategy?
Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College and an automotive analyst, believes that from pure electric to range extender, the technical route of Tianji Automobile has taken a detour, because the range extender belongs to a niche market, on the one hand, it cannot be supported by policies (subsidies), and on the other hand, the market attention is relatively low.
"The reason for the success of the ideal car is not the range extender, but because he is doing product innovation in the medium and large SUV segment," he said. Skyline Auto does not have too many highlights in technology, and as the only selling point of ME5, the market recognition is not high, and consumers do not buy it. ”
When the ME5 was released, Zhang Hailiang had released a bold statement, who said that under 150,000 people could not build a smart car, in order to call He Xiaopeng. The right or wrong of this view is not important, what matters is that the 150,000 yuan smart electric vehicle market targeted by ME5 is a blue ocean?
In the long run, the answer is yes, but not in the moment.
For smart electric vehicles of more than 300,000 yuan, most of the target users have more than one car at home and are more willing to try new things. But for the target user of 150,000 yuan, basically there is only one car at home, and it will be more cautious when buying a car, and there is only a small chance to choose a brand that has not been heard.
In addition, from the perspective of channel layout, Skyline Automobile is not too much like a new car-making force. According to the official statement, Skyline Auto's sales service network includes four levels, namely Skyline Center (brand experience store), smart selection space (sales center), Safety Workshop (service center) and Speed Inn (express outlets).
According to the information displayed on the official website, Skyline Auto currently has a total of 108 sales stores across the country, including 9 in first-tier cities, 2 in Beijing (including Oriental Plaza stores), 3 in Guangzhou, 4 in Shenzhen, and the rest are mainly second- and third-tier cities, and there are 117 after-sales stores.
Of the 108 sales stores, only three are located in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Among them, the Oriental Plaza store in Beijing is located, which has closed its doors. That is to say, as the façade of Skyrim Motors, the brand experience store that shows the strength of the brand is now only two.
In contrast, Xiaopeng Automobile has 20 experience centers in Beijing, 23 in Shanghai, 24 in Shenzhen and 17 in Guangzhou. Ideal Auto has 23 retail centers and retail showrooms in Beijing, 11 in Shanghai, 21 in Shenzhen and 11 in Guangzhou. Where the brand gives consumers confidence, the judgment is made.
Skyline Auto not only adopts the model of direct operation + dealer marketing, but also the quality of service is difficult to achieve uniformity. Moreover, in the layout of channels, the siphon effect of first-tier cities has been missed. Even if we do not consider the demand and purchasing power of electric vehicles in first-tier cities, there is no reason to ignore the importance of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to enhance brand awareness.
According to the previous plan, Skyline Automobile will complete the layout of 400 sales and service stores in 2022, covering 300 prefecture-level cities. At present, it seems that this goal is basically unlikely to be achieved unless it is strongly supported by dealers.
"Going public" is lost
According to the data of Tianyancha, since its establishment in 2015, Tianji Automobile (Electric Coffee Automobile) has raised 8 times, with a total financing amount of more than 10 billion yuan. The investor in the first financing is LeTV, and the total amount of funds is tens of millions of yuan.
In April 2019, Skyrim Motor completed a series A financing of more than RMB 2 billion, mainly for the construction of factories and sales channels. Its last public financing information was in October 2020, with a total financing of more than 5 billion yuan, led by local government industry guidance funds and large state-owned banks.
Zhang Hailiang then said that the company has simultaneously opened the Pre-IPO round of financing and plans to go public in 2021.
However, before the bell rang, Tianji Automobile added a new equity freeze information in October last year, and the target of the frozen equity was Xinga Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), while Tianji Automobile held the latter's equity and other investment interests of 389 million yuan, and the freezing period was until October 2023.
It is inevitable to worry about whether the capital chain of Skyrim Motors can still be carried. Fortunately, in February this year, the company signed investment and strategic cooperation agreements with a number of investment institutions, which is a sigh of relief.
Although it has not been established for a long time and the market performance is not good, Tianji Automobile has built factories in many places such as Shaoxing in Zhejiang and Changsha in Hunan. Among them, the annual production capacity of the Changsha plant is 60,000 vehicles, and the planned production capacity of the first phase of the Shaoxing plant is also 60,000 vehicles per year. In addition, the Nanning plant will have a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles per year after it is put into operation.
This means that the total production capacity of Skyrim Motors has reached 220,000 vehicles / year. It should be known that the annual delivery of nearly 100,000 ideal cars, there is currently only one Changzhou factory in production, the annual production capacity is only 100,000.
Tianji Automobile is not only low in capacity utilization, but also importantly, it does not make reasonable use of the financing obtained in the early stage, and only knows how to bury its head in building a factory. Now that sales are not improving and a large number of production capacity is idle, how much money does Skyrim Auto have to support subsequent product and technology research and development?
Zhang Xiang believes that the main problem of Tianji Automobile is that the brand awareness is not high, and there are no large car companies or Internet companies to endorse it, although it was established very early, but the sales performance has been bad, so it does not have the conditions for IPO at present.
However, Zhang Hailiang said in March that the end of the Pre-IPO round of financing is currently being carried out, and the company's listing is also being promoted in an orderly manner. I don't know if this time is a smoke bomb, if the IPO cannot be achieved this year, I am afraid that what we will see at the end of the year will be another story.
Holding hands with JD.com, panicking and choosing the way?
Perhaps Zhang Hailiang also realized that Tianji Automobile lacked endorsement and low brand recognition, so he pulled Jingdong last year. According to the strategic cooperation agreement reached, the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in digital marketing, in-depth customization of intelligent products, and intelligent travel life.
And Tianji Auto also said that its products will gradually carry Jingdong's in-vehicle voice, map scenes and on-board payment capabilities, and introduce JD's core services, gradually covering multi-scenario innovation from payment, shopping, entertainment to life, and broadening the full-scene interaction capabilities of Tianji Automobile's intelligent cockpit.
In addition, Tianji Automobile will also explore the in-depth development and customization of intelligent mobile terminals with JD.com, and plans to introduce JD.com's own product development, retail and after-sales support capabilities to jointly create a mobile travel solution integrating the interaction layer, the scene layer and the hardware layer.
It is true that Skyline Motors wants to increase the brand's awareness by cooperating with JD.com, but the effect is not very good. On the one hand, as an e-commerce platform, JD.com has no influence in the field of technology and automobiles, and cannot become the endorsement of Skyrim Motors at the technical level, at most it is to attract a wave of eyeballs.
On the other hand, if Skyrim Motors looks at JD.com's channels, it hopes to broaden its online marketing capabilities through the latter. However, in the flagship store of Tianji Automobile Jingdong, there are only one-yuan test drive to send points products and aluminum alloy car models, there is no real product, and there are few messages, let alone contribute to sales.
From the front-end point of view, whether it is technical or marketing level, JD.com has not empowered Skyline Automobile, and its role is more reflected in the back-end.
It is understood that consumers who purchase ME5 PLUS Jingdong customized models can get the Jingdong PLUS Jingdian Annual Pass, the Beijing Tokyo Car Club Car Wash Card for one year, the Jingdong Allianz New Car Insurance 65% discount, the Jingdong Health Service Member Annual Pass and other car delivery gifts provided by Jingdong.
Obviously, these value-added services are concentrated in insurance, health, maintenance and other services after the car purchase transaction. But if no one buys your car, how can you care what services you have on the back end?
In addition, Jingchehui, a professional car maintenance store under JD Auto Business, has also reached a strategic cooperation with Skyline Automobile. The Kyo Tokyo Motor Club will provide one-stop marketing and sales experience services for the sales, test drives, and product delivery of Skyline Cars in key cities.
At first glance, it sounds like Jingche will help Skyline Further Broaden its channels and increase the number of offline and consumer and user touchpoints. However, Jingche will adopt a franchise model, even if the latest policy strengthens the control of stores, but the service level of each store is still uncontrollable.
Therefore, how can consumers rest assured that car purchase and maintenance are carried out here? In the end, is Tianji Auto's own channel capabilities not enough, need to use the power of JD.com, or simply want to expand channels? Either way, it will be difficult to win the trust of consumers for this brand.
Write at the end:
In fact, Tianji Automobile is not so, Zhang Hailiang, who came out of the SAIC department, has rich experience in vehicle development and department management, and many senior executives of the company have worked in SAIC.
But perhaps the bones are still engraved with the DNA of traditional auto people, Zhang Hailiang's car-making and marketing thinking has been hovering between traditional car companies and new forces, resulting in Skyline Automobile has not been able to play its own characteristics, nowhere to exert force.
Zero Run and Nezha have already caught up with Wei Xiaoli, which means that the Skyrim car has been left farther away. With the addition of new energy branches of traditional car companies such as Avita, Salon, Zhiji, and Feifan, the next battle situation is likely to be even more tragic.
In short, there is not much time left for Skyrim Cars.