On May 8, the first round of authorized agent recruitment of Hengchi Automobile under Evergrande Group was closed. Hengchi Automobile said that since the issuance of the recruitment order for authorized agents on April 30, enterprises and individuals across the country have enthusiastically signed up and showed full confidence in the prospects of Hengchi Automobile.
However, a number of car dealers told Red Star Capital Bureau that they did not participate in the first round of recruitment of authorized agents of Hengchi Automobile and held a wait-and-see attitude towards the Hengchi brand. "The brand power is insufficient, there is a lot of negative information before, even if it is an asset-light model, dealers can achieve profitable sales are not optimistic."
For the specific circumstances of agent recruitment, as of press time, Evergrande Automobile (00708. HK) did not respond.
According to upstream news, there are network rumors that Evergrande's first pure electric SUV Hengchi 5 has opened pre-sale during May Day, blind booking opened within 10 hours, Hengchi 5 orders reached 50,000 units. However, the official customer service of Hengchi Automobile told Red Star Capital Bureau that it has not yet opened pre-sale.
2021 Shanghai International Auto Show Hengchi 5 Cars Picture according to IC photo
The threshold for authorizing agents is low
On April 30, Hengchi Automobile officially announced the recruitment of authorized agents, and introduced in detail the sales channel model, store construction standards, investment policies, qualification requirements and franchise processes. The investment cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other 18 cities, which are basically first-tier, new first-tier and provincial capitals.
Hengchi requires agents to have independent legal personality and legal business certificates, the registered capital shall not be less than 5 million yuan, and also to form a qualified management team for Hengchi Automobile.
In terms of site requirements, the sales center should be established in the automobile business circle, the area of the exhibition hall needs to reach 200-300 square meters, the exhibition area of the exhibition car display area should be greater than 150 square meters, and the clearance height should reach 3.5 meters.
In terms of sales model, Hengchi said that it will adopt the mode of order-based sales and asset-light operation, that is, arrange the factory for production according to the order volume to reduce inventory pressure and reduce operating costs.
Hengchi specifically pointed out that the introduction of the "government supervision of third-party notary office independent account" to avoid frequent contradictions in the channel end of the capital disputes; channel construction 100% support construction costs, while not charging a deposit.
Some people in the auto dealership industry pointed out to Red Star Capital Bureau that the above conditions are not high. First of all, the registered capital does not need to be paid immediately; secondly, Hengchi requires an automobile business circle, not a car supermarket, and the exhibition hall of several hundred square meters only needs one or two million to win, while the traditional 4S store needs tens of millions of yuan; order-based sales and asset-light models are more friendly, and there is no need to spend tens of millions of dollars to pressure inventory, which allows dealers who are not strong to try to sell as agents.
The head of recruitment of Hengchi automobile dealers told Red Star Capital Bureau, "Companies or individuals, regardless of whether they have previous experience in car sales, can apply for authorized agents." "Compared with other new energy vehicle brands, applying for an authorized agent Hengchi only needs to fill in 8 basic information such as the applicant's name, address, telephone, company name, and current operating brand through the Hengchi Mini Program, which looks very simple."
Who is acting for Hengchi Auto?
A week after the official recruitment, on May 8, Hengchi Automobile announced the deadline for the first round of authorized agent recruitment. According to Hengchi's official WeChat, enterprises and individuals across the country have enthusiastically signed up and showed full confidence in the prospects of Hengchi Automobile.
The head of recruitment of Hengchi Automobile Agents told The Red Star Capital Bureau that in the first round of 18 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, a number of authorized agents were recruited according to different situations, and other cities will be opened in the future. Taking Chengdu as an example, the authorized agent of Hengchi Automobile is several large local car dealers.
However, a number of large car dealers in Chengdu have denied the above information to Red Star Capital Bureau.
The relevant person in charge of Jianguo Automobile said that it is not clear about the situation of the brand agent, and the information without official announcements cannot be determined. Qiyang Automobile and Sanhe Automobile have made it clear that they have not applied to represent the Hengchi automobile brand.
Some dealers pointed out that the time for the first round of recruitment of Hengchi is too short, the publicity is limited, and the company is not even too late to dock, investigate, let alone apply for an agent.
Even dealers who pay attention to Hengchi Automobile also said that it is only based on the transformation and upgrading of new energy, and maintaining attention to the Hengchi brand does not mean that they are optimistic about Hengchi. "Now it's time to make connections and keep communicating. As for cooperation, it is based on the premise that the resources of both sides are matched. ”
As for the rumor of "Hengchi 5 blind booking 50,000 units", The Red Star Capital Bureau did not find the official provenance, nor did it find the entrance to the booking. Hengchi Automobile's official customer service told Red Star Capital Bureau that Hengchi has not yet opened pre-sale, so please pay attention to Hengchi's official WeChat.
Red Star Capital Bureau noted that many people in the industry are not optimistic about Hengchi, "even if the agent franchise threshold is relatively low, but regardless of the design or automatic auxiliary driving and other hard power, Hengchi 5 has no advantage." A questionnaire that previously leaked out suggested that the pricing range of Hengchi 5 may be in the range of 150,000-240,000 yuan, which is the most competitive range. Coupled with the fact that Evergrande Group is in difficulty and lacks financial support, whether Hengchi can continue to operate has also been marked with a question mark. ”
"Everyone is waiting and seeing, Hengchi needs to come up with more news to boost confidence", some car dealers told Red Star Capital Bureau that the industry is currently cautious about Hengchi, "the brand power is insufficient, there is a lot of negative information before, even if it is an asset-light model, dealers can achieve profitable sales are not optimistic." ”
For the specific circumstances of the first round of recruitment of Hengchi Automobile, Red Star Capital Bureau sent an interview outline to Evergrande, and as of press time, no specific reply has been received.
Evergrande's life-saving straw mass production is imminent
In April 2021, Hengchi Automobile appeared at the Shanghai International Auto Show, and due to the prohibition of contact and the exposure of the chassis, it was flattened by the media, and it was questioned by the media that it was only an empty shell car. For a time, the news of Evergrande Automobile's counterfeiting was rampant.
Nowadays, Hengchi has become a life-saving straw for Evergrande. On April 21, Xu Jiayin led the management team to appear at Guangzhou Evergrande Center and praised Hengchi for 5 consecutive years, saying "Beautiful! It's beautiful! ”
At the Evergrande Automobile Strategic Partnership Conference in October 2021, Liu Yongzhuo, president of Hengchi Automobile, said that Evergrande Automobile has launched a three-month car-making battle to ensure that the first mass-produced car "Hengchi 5" will roll off the production line in early 2022.
Entering 2022, the good news of Hengchi continues.
On January 12, Hengchi announced on its official Weibo that the first mass-produced model, hengchi 5, was rolled off the production line at the Tianjin plant. A month later, Hengchi 5 appeared in the 353rd batch of automobile declaration public information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
On the evening of March 29, Evergrande Automobile announced that the company has been working hard to promote the mass production of Hengchi series products, and aims to achieve mass production of "Hengchi 5" on June 22, 2022.
On March 24 and April 20, Hengchi Guorui New Energy Automobile Sales (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which are wholly owned by Hengchi New Energy, were established successively. Its business scope includes online reservation taxi operation services, marking that Hengchi can sell cars in the B-end market through online car booking.
During the May Day period, Hengchi held new car tasting meetings in the experience centers in Tianjin and Guangzhou. The experience center landed in March, and since then there has been news of Hengchi 5 arrival.
Coupled with the completion of the first round of authorized agent recruitment, there are cars and channels, and Hengchi mass production and sales are close at hand.
However, the problem of funds is still a sharp blade hanging over Hengchi's head. From 2018 to 2020, Evergrande Automobile lost 1.428 billion yuan, 4.947 billion yuan and 7.665 billion yuan respectively, and as of the first half of 2021, Evergrande Automobile has accumulated losses of 18.83 billion yuan. Evergrande Automobile has not yet disclosed its 2021 performance and has been in a state of suspension.
Red Star News reporter Wu Danruo
Edited by Yu Dongmei
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