On May 20, 2019, on this romantic day, GAC and NIO jointly released HYCAN Co-creation Automobile. As a product of the strong combination of two new and old car brands in China, Hechuang Automobile has been given high market expectations at the beginning of its birth, and in the eyes of many people, Hechuang is a car company "born on the starting line".
However, with the passage of time, when people talk about Hechuang automobile again, they have long lost their original confidence, because in 2021, Hechuang only sold 2907 cars, and its ranking in the new energy market is even lower.
At this time, in contrast to the performance of the two old owners of GAC and Weilai, one developed a safe and reliable magazine battery, which can provide a comprehensive endurance of 1,000 kilometers for the vehicle; the other is immersed in the technology of the replacement power station. Therefore, it is precisely under such a strong contrast that a sharp and harsh voice appears in the market: co-creation may have long been reduced to an "outcast".
Although as a bystander, Xiaobian did not agree with this extreme view at first. But it is undeniable that today's co-creation is like an angel with broken wings, helplessly watching the old owners "flying yellow and tengda" one by one, but they have fallen into a chicken feather.
Obviously, the biggest regret in the world is to appear in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this sentence is also suitable for Co-Creation. Although at the time of the release of Hechuang Automobile in 2019, Li Bin, founder of Weilai Automobile, and Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group, both gave great expectations to the future of Hechuang, believing that its birth can further promote the deep integration of the two major industries of automobile and Internet, and create a more intelligent travel experience for users.
But the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone, in the days that followed, GAC and Weilai did not give co-creation too many resources. From the perspective of the product lineup in the past two years, the current Hechuang only has two models on sale, 007 and Z03, and the overall competitiveness is very limited.
At the same time, in terms of model positioning, it has a very high degree of overlap with GAC's AION LX and AION Y products, which also leads to almost no comparison of Hechuang's products in the market.
If limited market resources are the key point of the decline of Co-creation, the lack of research and development capabilities behind it has become the last straw that crushed the camel.
According to a public data, Since its birth, Hechuang Automobile has only completed one round of financing, that is, the 2.405 billion research and development funds provided when it was released in May 2019, and it is difficult to find other related financing records. At this time, compared with Xiaopeng and Ideal's research and development funds of tens of billions in recent years, the 2.405 billion yuan of Hechuang is just a drop in the bucket.
The lack of financial support naturally drags down the development progress of the vehicle. Among them, it is worth noting that the valet parking ecology and "one-click summoning" and other auxiliary driving functions on the Z03 are also very intelligent at the beginning. However, through comparison, it is not difficult to find that these advanced configurations are basically the same as the ADiGO intelligent driving system on GAC AION Y, and also give people a feeling of "drawing a picture of the cat" in the control logic.
Obviously, in the absence of the inflow of research and development funds, Hechuang Automobile can only rely on the "cold rice" of GAC Aean to live.
In addition, it is slightly ironic that due to financial and internal management problems, at the end of 2021, Hechuang Automobile was exposed to negative news such as "employees forced to leave". According to the information of relevant insiders, a number of employees have been unilaterally cancelled by Hechuang Automobile, and the withdrawal agreement signed in the employee stock ownership plan signed at the time of departure has not received any refund payment since then.
Although the above news has not received a positive reply from the person in charge of Hechuang Automobile, the continuous negative events have also cast a shadow on the future of Hechuang.
Auto network review: born at the wrong time, but also the "victim" of the game of the two major car companies
From rising stars to being nameless, falling into today's picture, if Hechuang Auto really did something wrong? There are still many opinions, but it is undeniable that Co-creation only appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Because in the author's opinion, the basis for cooperation between the two sides is to take what they need. And GAC and Weilai, in the long run, these two independent new energy brands do not have any intersection of interests, intelligent and pure electric travel two modules, they can achieve self-research and development, do not need to cooperate to achieve. It is also based on this background that Co-creation naturally loses its "use value" and even appears to be somewhat redundant, so it is inevitable that it will become an "abandoned son".
Nowadays, Hechuang Automobile is like standing at a crossroads, behind which are the fading away GAC and Weilai, and the current is the uncertain future of fate, the next road, where to go? It can only be determined by the market.