The "locomotive boss" sued BYD for delivering "illegal goods", and BYD countered: it is not consistent with the facts
was questioned "together", BYD, the "big brother", is not easy to do.
Author | Zhao Pu
Editor丨Takatoshan
Source | Mustang Finance
On the day that BYD looked up to the launch of the U8, a "locomotive boss" sued BYD for delaying delivery was made public, and after Great Wall Motor, it once again questioned who dared to be "together" with BYD.
On September 20, Weibo user "Loose Xiaolei" posted that Loose Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Loose Technology") had filed a lawsuit against BYD in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court for a "contract dispute".
Source: Weibo "Loose Xiaolei"
Weibo content shows that Loose has been manufacturing cars for more than 20 years, investing all 235 million yuan to entrust BYD to OEM products, but BYD delayed delivery for up to 25 months, and the final delivery was still unqualified parts, fake environmental protection car list, and "illegal products" without RDE experiments.
Zhang Xiaolei said that these "illegal products" made it impossible to move forward with tens of thousands of orders from all over the world, and accused BYD of "completely lacking the spirit of contract, bullying, overlord clauses, and regardless of the life and death of partners", such a "leading big brother" who dares to "be together" with you.
At the same time, Zhang Xiaolei also uploaded the above information to his personal Douyin account, but BYD's counterattack followed, and he successfully removed the video complaint.
BYD said in the content of the complaint, "After verification, the content of cooperation, contractual agreements, and vehicle tests mentioned in the video are seriously inconsistent with the facts." The author of the video ignored the facts, maliciously guided public opinion and interfered in normal judicial procedures in a 'rhythmic' form, and has caused serious negative harm to the BYD brand and violated our company's right to reputation. ”
BYD also provided an environmental protection list in the complaint materials, but Zhang Xiaolei said that the models it commissioned were still on the list of unrectified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Screenshot of the environmental protection list provided by BYD Source: Weibo "Loose Xiaolei"
Public information shows that "Loose Xiaolei" is the personal Weibo account of Zhang Xiaolei, the founder of the Loose Top Locomotive Museum, Zhang Xiaolei once joined Yang Kun, Li Yapeng, Song Wei, Geng Hui and other old Harley owners in Beijing in the 90s to establish the Loose MC American Locomotive Club, which is very famous in the locomotive modification industry.
From cooperative OEM to court
"Post-70s" Zhang Xiaolei is the first generation in Beijing to contact "motorcycle culture", Weibo certification information shows that the loose MC American Motorcycle Club he founded is the earliest high-end custom car club in China (1994), and is also a high-end classic car custom car manufacturer, many stars have customized their own "loose motorcycle".
Subsequently, loose locomotives began to enter the automotive field, different from traditional car companies and "Wei Xiaoli" such new energy car manufacturing forces, loose locomotives mainly focus on classical car customization business.
In 2009, Loose Auto cooperated with AMTECH to develop high-end custom motorcycles and classic cars, and in 2019, AMTECH officially invested in Loose and established a joint venture company to produce new classical automobile series products in China, and through AMTECH in the US factory for customized production of classical cars.
Loose cars at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show
According to the registration information of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed by Zhang Xiaolei, Loose has entrusted OEM cooperation with BYD in 2020 at the latest, and the production address is located at No. 1, Tailing Avenue West, Caotang Science and Technology Industrial Base, High-tech Zone, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
This time, Loose Technology sued one of BYD's companies: BYD Automobile Co., Ltd., whose address information is also consistent with the above production address.
THE LOOSE CAR MODEL INCLUDES THREE SEDANS AND AN MPV, NAMELY SSEDOLPHIN, MONTEREY, SSGT AND SS SUMMER.
Source: Understand Che Emperor
Among them, the earliest on the market is the 2020 loose dolphin, with a price starting from 700,000 yuan, which has attracted many industry media reports on it.
According to the report, the Loose Dolphin is a model based on the 1958 Chevrolet Corvette C1, which has a convertible version and a hardtop two-seater version, and is divided into two versions: imported and domestic.
However, the Loose Dolphin and the BYD Dolphin are not the same car.
Zhang Xiaolei said in February 2021 that Loose Locomotive and BYD Auto are cooperative relationships based on BYD technology and entrusted to OEM, and SS DOLPHINS has been registered and bred for nearly two years, not the dolphin among BYD's newly launched high-end brands.
In 2021, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu also went to the Loose Locomotive booth to watch its display models, and Zhang Xiaolei posted on Weibo that "Loose Locomotive is reviewed by BYD leaders".
From BYD's small partner to becoming BYD's plaintiff, Loose Locomotive has a lot of unpleasant cooperation with BYD for more than three years, and whether it can obtain compensation remains to be further heard by the court.
Zhang Xiaolei said that relevant evidence has been submitted to the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. However, since Zhang Xiaolei has not yet disclosed the specific information of cooperation with BYD, there are still many details to be confirmed from the current public information, including at least two key information:
First, cooperative foundry generally pays a part of the advance payment in advance, so if Zhang Xiaolei's "investment of all funds of 235 million yuan" is an advance payment, how to explain the statement of "all funds"? What is the amount of cooperation between the two parties?
Second, Zhang Xiaolei said that because BYD delivered "illegal products", tens of thousands of orders around the world could not move forward, and the number of orders remained to be verified.
Judging from the registration information of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed by Zhang Xiaolei, BYD's OEM models are similar to "loose dolphins", and loose dolphins are quoted from 700,000 yuan, and BYD's foundry costs should be expensive. According to the calculation of 235 million yuan to produce 10,000 vehicles, the OEM cost is only 23,500 yuan / vehicle.
The specific cooperation situation is yet to be further disclosed by Zhang Xiaolei and BYD.
Who is "together" with BYD?
Zhang Xiaolei is another person who questioned being "together" with BYD after Great Wall Motor.
Since Wang Chuanfu shouted "Together is a Chinese car" at BYD's August press conference, this slogan has become a hot topic in the industry.
Some people think that Wang Chuanfu has a large pattern and is a representative of China's automotive industry, and has received responses from many new energy vehicle companies such as FAW Hongqi, Dongfeng Lantu, Changan Deep Blue, Chery Automobile, GAC Hyper Haobao, GAC Aion, Li Auto, and Xpeng Motors.
At least, in terms of shouting slogans, there are still many peers who are willing to "be together" with BYD.
But some people believe that BYD is a "moral kidnapping", Great Wall Motor's CTO (chief technology officer) Wang Yuanli posted on his personal Weibo opinion, "We don't want moral kidnapping together... Business still has to be solved with the logic of business, if it is only verbally emphasized together, it must be honey on the mouth and arsenic in the heart, then it is better to fight first and then be together. ”
Source: Weibo
Previously, Great Wall Motor reported that Qin PLUSDM-i and Song PLUSDM-i used atmospheric pressure fuel tanks, suspected of failing to meet the standards of evaporated pollutant emissions from the whole vehicle, and submitted reporting materials to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on April 11.
Wang also posted on Weibo in August that on June 25, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had launched a joint investigation into the report.
Although there are peers who question it, there are not many cases like Loose Technology and BYD going to court.
Since the beginning of this year, BYD Co., Ltd. (002594. SZ) was involved in seven cases in the status of defendants, the causes of which were basically service contract disputes, sales contract disputes, etc., and the plaintiffs included Shanghai Yuhong Culture Communication Co., Ltd., Publicis Netfan (Shanghai) Information Transmission Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu AVIC Lanke Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd.
Among them, the lawsuit claim of Publicis Netfan has not been obtained by the Shanghai Jing'an District People's Court, and has been transferred to the Shanghai Songjiang District People's Court where Shanghai BYD Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. is located for trial.
BYD, which is making great strides, has not stopped because of the above doubts or lawsuits.
According to the latest production and sales data, BYD sold 274386 units and passenger cars 274086 units in August, a year-on-year increase of 57.5%. Among them, Dynasty/Ocean sold 262571 units, up 50.9% y/y, Denza Motor sold 11,515 units, and passenger car exports 25,023 units.
From January ~ August this year, BYD's cumulative sales volume was 1792184 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 82.16%; The cumulative production of 1832887 automobiles increased by 84.89% year-on-year.
Source: BYD announcement
Previously, Wang Chuanfu said at an investor conference that BYD's goal in 2023 is to become China's largest automaker by the end of the year, with an annual sales target of 3 million vehicles and a doubling of 3.6 million vehicles. Among them, 2.8 million units were in the domestic market and 800,000 units were in the overseas market.
As of August, BYD has achieved 60% of its annual sales target of 3 million vehicles.
It is undeniable that BYD is still the majority, and it is not limited to the automotive industry. In fact, BYD does not provide many automobile companies, but the mobile phone OEM business accounts for a larger proportion.
According to the 2023 half-year financial report, BYD's revenue of more than 51 billion yuan comes from mobile phone components, assembly and other products, accounting for 19.64% of the total revenue, and Android customers and overseas customers are one of BYD's main customers. In addition, BYD is also expanding in the fields of smart home, game hardware, and drones.
With the further growth of BYD's production and sales scale, there will be more and more "together" with BYD in the future, including car owners, suppliers, partners, etc., which is both motivation and pressure for BYD, and it is still a long way to do a good job of "leading big brother".