3.158 billion yuan! NIO will make a big move to buy JAC's assets!

Edited by Li Zedong

JAC Automobile (600418, share price of 17.36 yuan, market value of 37.91 billion yuan) announced on December 5 that the company through the Anhui Provincial Property Rights Exchange Center Co., Ltd. publicly listed and transferred part of the assets, involving the inventory, fixed assets, projects under construction, buildings and land use rights of the three factories of the passenger car company, and the structures and equipment assets of the Xinqiao plant of the passenger car company, and the transferred assets were listed and traded in the form of three asset packages.

On December 5, the company received the "Notice of Bidding Results" of the project, and NIO Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. became the transferee of the first package of assets and the third package of assets, of which the transaction price of one package of assets was 1.666 billion yuan and the transaction price of three packages of assets was 1.492 billion yuan, totaling 3.158 billion yuan. Hefei Hengchuang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. became the transferee of the second package of assets, with a transaction price of 1.418 billion yuan. The transaction price totaled 4.577 billion yuan.

On December 4, the credit information management system of vehicle manufacturers of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that NIO Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. appeared in it. For a time, "NIO obtained production qualifications" and "NIO no longer affixed the 'JAC tail mark'" and so on became hot topics.

Photo by reporter Li Xing

"Appear" in the system of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

On December 4, "Weilai Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd." appeared in the credit information management system of vehicle manufacturers on the government service platform of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with its legal representative as "Qin Lihong", registered address as "Building F, Hengchuang Intelligent Science and Technology Park, No. 3963, Susong Road, Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province", and production address as "No. 299, Baita Road, Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province", with the serial number of No. 214. According to Tianyancha, Weilai Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. was established in 2020 and is located in Hefei City, Anhui Province, which is an enterprise mainly engaged in research and experimental development, with a registered capital of 6 billion yuan.

It is understood that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's platform vehicle manufacturer credit information management system is the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's requirements for deepening the reform of the administrative examination and approval system and accelerating the establishment of the enterprise credit information system. Among them, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will blacklist untrustworthy enterprises that violate laws and regulations such as production consistency that does not meet the requirements, do not transmit certificate information in accordance with regulations, falsely issue certificates, resell certificates, etc., and punish them in accordance with the law and publicize them to the public.

This means that NIO has been included in the above-mentioned management system as an independent vehicle manufacturing legal entity, and is clearly identified as "214" in the "Catalog Serial Number" column, and this serial number corresponds to the unique identity in the "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" catalog announcement.

In addition, it is interesting that many NIO executives, including Shen Fei, vice president of power management of NIO, and Huang Xin, vice president of NIO, have previously said on Weibo that they will witness history today and Weibo will be temporarily suspended.

In October this year, JAC announced that the company intends to transfer some assets through public listing, involving the inventory, fixed assets, projects under construction, buildings and land use rights of the three factories of the passenger car company, and the structures and equipment assets of the Xinqiao plant of the passenger car company, with a proposed listing price of 4.498 billion yuan. At that time, the outside world began to speculate that the transfer of the factory by JAC Automobile was essentially a transfer of production qualifications.

If NIO obtains the qualification to make cars independently, the words "JAC" on the back of its car may become history.

Get rid of the OEM "burden reduction"

Previously, in 2016, JAC and NIO reached a cooperation, and the two parties signed an OEM contract, and JAC was responsible for the production of NIO's electric vehicles, including EC6, ES6, ES8 and other models. The partnership model brings complementary advantages to both parties, with NIO leveraging JAC's manufacturing experience and resources to improve product quality and delivery efficiency, and JAC leveraging NIO's technology and brand to expand the new energy vehicle market. During the cooperation period, the two parties jointly invested a lot of money and manpower to create a number of best-selling models and achieve common development.

However, with the growth of production and sales and the advancement of the business model, Xpeng Motors obtained the qualification to make cars through acquisitions, and only Weilai still relies on JAC Motors for OEM production in "Wei Xiaoli".

However, the disadvantages of the foundry model are also obvious. "No good car is made out. Shen Hui, the founder of WM Motor, once bluntly said that cars are complex intelligent hardware, and the practical operation and theory of OEM are too different, OEM may produce various problems, and it is difficult for people to feel at ease when OEM makes cars.

In addition, the cost of foundry is not low for new energy vehicle companies. According to NIO's financial report, from 2018 to 2022, it paid about 223 million, 441 million, 532 million, 715 million and 1.127 billion yuan to JAC Motors respectively. The high cost and low voice in the production process are important reasons for the new EV manufacturers to want to get rid of OEM.

According to the latest official data, from January to November 2023, NIO delivered a total of 142,000 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%, and by the end of November 2023, NIO had delivered a total of 431,600 new vehicles. As NIO's sales scale continues to expand, its foundry costs are also rising.

Previously, a number of new forces have obtained production qualifications through acquisitions, such as Li Auto obtained the production qualification of pure electric passenger cars (including range extension) through the acquisition of Beijing Hyundai Shunyi Factory, and Leapmotor acquired Fujian Xinfuda Automobile to obtain production qualifications. After obtaining the qualification of car manufacturing, the new car manufacturers have a stronger ability to control the production cost.

The industry generally believes that if NIO can obtain independent production qualifications, it will be a major benefit to NIO, which is conducive to the company's long-term operation and efficiency improvement.

The daily economic news synthesizes JAC's announcements, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and public information

National Business Daily