The Paper's trainee reporter Zhou Chunliang
If the car industry also has an undead "Xiao Qiang", the Aiways car that is about to be forgotten should be counted as one.
When "Wei Xiaoli Which Zero" is in the spotlight, more new forces are like a group performance outside the field, while working hard to cooperate with the head player to perform, but they are still worried about whether they can add chicken legs to their next meal.
At that time, The American Group Wang Xing made a bold prediction. He said that the automotive industry should not look so active now, and will eventually form a "3+3+3+3 survival model", that is, 3 central enterprises, 3 local state-owned enterprises, 3 private enterprises, and 3 new car-making forces. For the 3 new car-making forces, he said ideal, Weilai, Xiaopeng.
Now, although the prediction may not be all right, after all, zero running and Nezha have a great up-and-coming style, but the logic behind the prediction is no problem - after all, people's demand for cars is so few, there are not so many small cakes to divide, and each demand will be "winner-take-all" by the brand that achieves the ultimate in the field. The only remaining manufacturers are leftovers. In the "annual sales of 100,000 vehicles", the most basic break-even point of car building, "eating leftovers" is obviously not enough for enterprises to survive.
In fact, there is another person who has made the same prediction, that is, Gu Feng, the former co-founder and CEO of Aiways Automobile. He made the prediction that "the new forces will eventually have only two or three left", earlier than Wang Xing.
However, on the official website of aiways automobile today, Gu Feng's name has disappeared, he seems to have completely left the automotive industry, and the news two years ago showed that he resigned from AICHI and became the general manager of the investment department of Bailian Group.
Compared with the Rangers who are money-making in the PPT car circle and the Sai Lin who can see the shoddy construction at a glance, the outside world's evaluation of Aichi is still a "serious car", although it is currently the only model on sale, the U5, the average monthly sales since its listing has not exceeded 250.
According to public information, the cumulative retail sales of new energy passenger cars in 2021 were 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year, accounting for 14.59% of the total passenger car market. Aiways currently has only one U5 on sale, and since the launch of the new model in September 2020, the cumulative sales volume in the past 22 months has only been 4989 units. Among them, U5 sales from January to June this year were 1680 vehicles, a cumulative year-on-year decline of 34%.
Aichi U5 and competitor model sales comparison in June 2022 (data from the Association)
Compared with the first-line new car companies Such as Weilai and Xiaopeng Automobile, whose total sales have exceeded 200,000 units, the gap is not insignificant.
It's hard to walk without money
Although it is a serious car, it is useless to build a car just by having a correct attitude.
Seeing the rapid outbreak of the electric vehicle market in the past two years, it has been dragged down by the poor product line of Aiways. From this point of view, Aichi, born with a golden spoon, has not yet been able to join the mainstream, and it is not wronged. Although the problem of Aichi is far more than a single product.
In July 2015, Foxconn, Tencent and Harmony Automobile jointly registered and established Harmony Futeng with a 3:3:4 investment. In December of the same year, Harmony Futeng invested in the first vehicle project - Zhejiang Aiche Internet Intelligent Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. A year later, in May 2016, Fu Qiang, former president and CEO of Volvo Cars (China) Sales Co., Ltd., became CEO of the car company.
Since then, after experiencing the intricate process of harmonious Futeng's differentiation into Byton and AIWAYs, and aiways's transformation into AIWAYS, AIWAYS automobiles finally achieved independent development in April 2017. Also working with him is Gu Feng, who was the CFO of SAIC For many years.
After that, in 2019, AIWAYS also purchased "shell resources" Jiangling Holdings, becoming one of the few qualified "regular troops" in the new forces at that time. Two big men from traditional car companies who have combined swords and are well versed in car manufacturing should have been invincible. But a lack of awareness of key issues led the company to move slowly in the years that followed.
I don't know if When Gu Feng made the prediction that "the new forces will eventually only have two or three left", he predicted Aichi's today. He told the surging news reporter at the time that he believed that the new car manufacturers would eventually die not from financial problems, but from products. Gu Feng believes that financing is not the most critical place to build a car, and there is no need for financing of up to tens of billions of yuan. These views, which seemed sharp at the time, now seem clearly wrong. Funding is one of the most important guarantees for the survival of the new forces.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of Beijing University of Technology, divides AICHI into the "second echelon" of new forces. He believes that there is no obvious gap between the technology of AIWAYS and the new forces of the head, but the brand awareness is far less than that of the head company. The reason for this phenomenon is that "it spends far less on marketing than the head company".
According to public information, the total financing of WEILAI Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile has exceeded 40 billion yuan so far, and the ideal car has exceeded 20 billion yuan. Even in the second echelon, WM Motors has raised more than 30 billion yuan so far; Nezha automobile financing exceeded 11 billion yuan; Zero-run cars have also raised nearly 10 billion yuan in financing so far.
In fact, players who have already had a head iron prove that if they want to build a car, it is difficult to move without money. Lu Qun, chairman of Qiantu Automobile, has said in public that he does not think that it takes so much 20 billion yuan to build a car (the background is that Weilai Li Bin said that it takes at least 20 billion yuan to build a car), and the money should be spent on the knife edge. After hitting the "South Wall", Lu Qun changed his mind, admitting at a press conference in May this year that "[the reason for the failure of the future car] is that my understanding of the capital market is too superficial." ”
The importance of money has also been fulfilled in Aichi. On January 3, 2022, according to the information on the official website of AIWAYS Automobile, the company's executives underwent a major change, the former chairman and founder Fu Qiang retired to the position of president, and the investor Chen Xuanlin took over the position of chairman, while the company's CEO was changed to Zhang Yang.
Chen Xuanlin He Xuren, according to online information about him, was born in 1987 in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, into a merchant family. Started his business in 2006. In 2020, the Chen Xuanlin family ranked 173rd in the "2020 New Fortune 500 Rich List" with a wealth of 17.20 billion yuan.
According to the publicly disclosed amount of funds, from October 2016 to the present, AIWAYS Has completed a total of 8 rounds of financing, and its total financing has exceeded 10 billion yuan. During this period, Chen Xuanlin has provided financing for Aichi many times since 2017. Only recently, he went from an investor directly to the chairman of AIWAYS Auto.
No new cars have been issued for more than two years
Insufficient funding can lead to a series of problems, such as the slow progress of the product mentioned above.
2019 Shanghai Auto Show, at the turning point of China's auto market stagnation, in the first quarter of that year, the passenger car market as a whole fell, but the growth of new energy vehicles doubled, at that time, Aiways Vice President Jin Xin said in an interview with the surging news, which shows that the direction of AIWAYS is not wrong, the next thing to do is how to make differentiation.
In his view, in addition to product highlights such as intelligence, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Vehicles, the "7921" user partner plan launched by AIWAYS Auto at that time will become a point of difference. In the concept at that time, "7921" came from the nitrogen content of 79% in the air and 21% oxygen content, and AIWAYS hoped to form a partnership with users between one breath and one inhalation. In Jinxin's view, AIWAYS Auto recruits users to participate in the process of product creation and experience, while other brands sell products to users. The experience is very different between the two.
But he ignored an important premise, to create a strong connection with users, first of all, there must be users.
Public data shows that in 2020, aiways sold 2600 vehicles in the Chinese market. The sales of WEILAI, Xiaopeng and Ideal in 2020 were 43,700 units, 27,000 units and 32,600 units, respectively.
Since its first listing in December 2019, AIWAYS auto still has only one AIWAYS U5 model on sale. The Aichi U6 and U7 ion, which have been unveiled many times at auto shows, have not been able to land. On the official website of AIWAYS, news about the U6 extreme cold test and durability test is released from time to time, but there is no exact news about the time of the car's launch.
On the other hand, Wei Xiaoli has launched P7/P5/G9 in succession during this period; EC6/ES7/ET7/ET5； L9 and other new cars.
In order to boost sales, at the end of 2020, Aiways Automobile was exposed to force all employees to sell cars, and if it could not be achieved, the salary would be deferred. According to previous media reports, employees at all levels will have the number of assessment indicators in 2020, of which the annual cargo indicators for members of the AIWAYS Automobile Management Committee are 8, the annual indicators at the VP level are 5, and the annual indicators at the director level are 3. The above-mentioned senior executives will have their monthly salaries deferred by 50% before completing the annual targets, and if they complete the targets for the current year before the end of the year, all the deferred salaries will be reissued and the normal monthly salary payment standards will be restored. In this regard, Fu Qiang explained: "Aiways Auto is a start-up company, and our management is also a partner and a boss. It is only natural for the boss to bring goods and promote the company's products. ”
Such bizarre KPIs have not added to their sales. Combined with its cumulative total sales and sales data from January to May 2022, it can be simply calculated that its sales in China in 2021 will be 709 vehicles.
The main overseas effect is not good
Unlike the strategy of the new forces of the head to focus on the domestic market and supplemented by overseas markets, the business focus of AIWAYS Automobile is obviously more overseas.
The surging news reporter found that on the official website of AIWAYS Automobile, the content about overseas business accounts for the vast majority. For example, "The next city in Northern Europe Aiways Auto officially landed on the Swedish market", "This year's first batch of U5 shipments to Israel, AIWAYS Auto opened a new journey overseas in 2022", "Four new countries! Aiways Automobile's globalization territory continues to expand", "Exported to 15 overseas Aiways Automobile ushered in the milestone moment of the second anniversary of export", "AIWAYS U6 ion opened the Nine-Stop Tour exhibition in Europe and debuted in Belgium"...
According to the official data released by Aiways, in 2021, Aiways Automobile exported 1676 new energy vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 62.9% year-on-year. From May 2020 to January 2022, AIWAYS auto exported a total of 2,783 units.
In Zhang Xiang's view, entering the European market is a breakthrough or marketing strategy of Aichi. The domestic market has been unable to open up the situation, and it takes a lot of money to sell the car. The Aichi is not well known, and once There is sales in Europe, it appears to be of good quality, and it can be used as an endorsement to return to the domestic market.
In fact, if a vehicle product wants to enter the EU market, it needs to pass the extremely stringent EU Vehicle Form Certification (WVTA).
In addition to the unified 40 basic indicators such as motor vehicle noise, mileage, and crash safety, WVTA also distinguishes between "small batches" and "large batches". The certification of the former requires only 40 basic indicators, but stipulates that the annual sales volume in the entire EU market cannot exceed 1500 units, and the annual sales volume of a single member state cannot exceed 250 units. The latter does not set a limit on sales volume, but requires a review of production enterprises on a daily basis. In addition, three audit criteria have been added for the in-vehicle emergency call system "E-call", "pedestrian protection" and "material recovery".
On the other hand, AIWAYS has not much news about its domestic market recently, in addition to announcing that the second model U6 is being tested on the road, there is only one article titled "2021 Annual New Power Brand Quality Ranking Officially Released AIWAYS Auto Ranks First". In this article, it is a "2021 Annual New Force Brand Quality Ranking" of China Automotive Quality Network, and AIWAYS Auto ranks first. It also mentions that "AIWAYS Auto has been officially exported since May 2020... Exporting to the markets of developed countries with the EU as the core and daring to accept the test of global consumers is the best evidence of their high-quality confidence and strength. ”
What the specific content and standards of the China Automotive Quality Network are, the outside world is not clear, nor can it be commented on. But judging from the crash test of another well-known E-NCAP, the quality of the Aichi car does not seem to be as good as it claims. Founded in 1997, the company was awarded three stars by an authoritative safety certification body composed of seven european government organizations. Under the premise of a full score of five stars, this result is not good.
In the test results of the AIWAYS U5, occupant protection and child protection scores were 73% and 70%, respectively, but the pedestrian protection and safety system scored only 45% and 55%, respectively. E-NCAP pointed out that the side airbags of the AIWAYS U5 in the test did not pop out according to the design, were stuck out of the interior, and in more stringent tests, the airbags did not protect the head; In pedestrian protection tests, the AEB system of aiways U5 responded well to pedestrians, but weakly to cyclists; In the safety assistance test, the relevant safety system of AIWAYS was not operating precariously, did not recognize more signs, and provided insufficient information to the driver.
Zhang Xiang said, "The pedestrian protection score of 45% is a very poor result, which shows that car companies have insufficient investment or insufficient level of investment in this area when developing products. ”
For comparison, the NIO ES8 and SAIC MG ZS EV models are rated five stars at E-NCAP and the Marvel R models with four stars.
Where's the way out?
Although Europe as the second largest new energy vehicle market after China has great potential, but also many new forces must go to sea, but before the surging news in the "Uk announced the official end, Europe and the United States electric vehicle subsidy policy where to go" pointed out that the European new energy vehicle market is still heavily dependent on subsidies, and China's electric vehicle market has shifted from policy-oriented to demand-oriented.
On the other hand, although China's new energy vehicle market is rapidly becoming a "red sea", the opportunities are still huge.
According to dentsu and Malogic (Dentsu) and Malogic (Malogic) jointly released the "road to success in China's electric vehicle market" report pointed out that ordinary car users have greater purchasing power than domestic pure electric vehicle users, as far as the pure electric vehicle market is concerned, the current Chinese products are more for the low-end market, in other words, the high-end market is the future growth part.
This means that there are plenty of opportunities for international joint venture brands that entered the EV market late, and the possibility for Chinese automakers to further escalate the battle. In short, high-end is the way out for domestic electric vehicle brands in the future.
For Aiways Automobile, the current U5 model 16.69-24.99 million yuan range is obviously classified as "low-end", at most "mid-range". Whether the future U6 and U7 can break upwards may become a turning point in its market performance, but first it must ensure that it can survive.
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Hua
Proofreader: Yan Zhang