Gaohe stopped work, and front-line employees reported that Saudi Arabia's 40 billion could not solve the problem

Image source@Visual China

文 | 山上，作者 | 张文，编辑 | 王彬

Seven years after its establishment and the release of three models, the well-known high-end new power brand Gaohe Automobile announced the suspension of production.

Wu Qiang, an employee of Gaohe Automobile's Yancheng plant, confirmed to "Mountain" that Gaohe Automobile issued an all-staff notice on February 19, starting from February 19, 2024, to stop the daily operation of all wholly-owned and holding subsidiaries (branches) of its subsidiaries, and all employees entered a state of shutdown. Gao He said, "In the face of internal and external pressures and challenges, although the company has made every effort to take various relief measures, it is still unable to change the current business difficulties." ”

Over the past year, funding problems have plagued Gaohe. The company's highly-anticipated sales of the HiPhi Y fell short of expectations after its launch, and the US$5.6 billion (about 40.2 billion yuan) investment from Saudi Arabia also failed, and suppliers also came to the door to ask for debts.

A Gaohe employee said that last year, several projects she docked in her hands have not been settled, "all of them are small projects, the large amount is only hundreds of thousands, and the small ones are only a few thousand yuan." Even the Apple computers that employees work on were repossessed by the IT department at the end of the year because the company did not pay the rent of the equipment suppliers, "and many people ended up using some HP and Lenovo computers." ”

The crisis was officially revealed during the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon. Before the Chinese New Year, Gaohe announced the cancellation of the postponement of employees' January wages and year-end bonuses. On the last day of the holiday, employees were notified to postpone work and no other employees except for VP-level executives were required to come to work.

Some employees are angry at Gaohe's current ambiguity. Previously, the media reported that Gaohe announced a six-month shutdown at the staff meeting. However, a number of employees told The Mountain that there were no staff meetings, and that the shutdown meetings were attended only by VP-level executives, and most of them were verbally notified in online meetings initiated by department heads.

"We haven't known about the shutdown as soon as the media knows. A Gaohe employee said that the company is not upright enough, and so far the company's founder Ding Lei has not expressed his position internally, and the company's large group of employees are forbidden, and everything is unclear.

Gaohe's shutdown is embarrassing. The founding team includes Ding Lei, former vice president of SAIC, and Wei Yanqin, former president of Borgward Automobile Group.

How did Gaohe Automobile come to the brink of disbandment? In the eyes of internal employees, how did it fall?

The following is the self-report of three front-line employees of Gaohe, with slightly edited content:

Ding Lei's Feishu signature is Brother Pingtou, which means "life and death are downbeat, and if you are not satisfied, you will do it"

I joined Gaohe Motors at the end of 2021 and am responsible for the research and development of intelligent driving. At that time, only one HiPhi X was in mass production, and neither the Z nor the Y were in production.

At that time, Gaohe had just signed an investment agreement of 10 billion yuan with the Qingdao Municipal Government, saying that it would move its headquarters to Qingdao in the future, which caused a lot of trouble. At that time, Gaohe was rich and rich, and I had several offers in my hand at that time, but the salary given by Gaohe was the highest, about 10% higher than that of other companies.

But in 2022, when the epidemic rebounded, Qingdao's promised investment was said to have gone wrong, and the promised money was not fully in place. At the end of that year, we vaguely felt that the company's funds were a little tight, and many benefits were canceled.

The free flower tea in the rest room is gone, the disposable paper cups are gone, the garbage bags in the office are not changed much, the cleaning aunt has become less clean, and even the lights in the stairwell and corridor are not turned on. At that time, a supplier came to the door to ask for money, holding a banner that read, "Debt repayment, it is justified", but only once.

That year's salary was still paid as usual, and the company also held an annual meeting, but the year-end bonus was halved, and it was only issued in March and April last year. But in 2022, even if it is an ideal car that sells well, the employee year-end bonus will be discounted by 5%, which feels like an industry trend and is acceptable.

At that time, the lower-priced HiPhi Y car was not yet on the market, and we internally designated the Y as a "life-saving car", and if the Y sold well, it might still be alive, and if it didn't sell well, it might be the result today.

Ding Lei should have been actively pulling investment at that time and making every effort to prepare for HiPhi Y. Ding Lei is very ambitious, last year, Ding Lei's personality signature in Feishu has always been "Pingtou Brother", Pingtou Brother is an animal, "life and death are not convinced, just do it". Our slogan is also Let's Win, Let's Win. But at that time, I felt that the company was basically back to normal, and there were no suppliers to go into debt. The HiPhi Y sold just as well when it first launched, with more than 1,500 units sold in September.

The next opportunity was Saudi Arabia's investment, which did sign a $5.6 billion contract at that time, but there was no official document from Human Horizons. This contract is also said to have a lot of rules and conditions.

However, there were a lot of tours inside the company during those months, and people from various departments took people on tours every day. I heard that Saudi Arabia also invited a lot of professional teams to evaluate the prospects of Gaohe, and at that time, the company's internal rumors were that Saudi Arabia put forward two requirements, one was to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and the other was to require Gaohe to sell 2,000 units for two consecutive months. The wave of layoffs in October last year was said to have been at the request of Saudi Arabia, but sales fell short of the target.

Later, there was no public notice within the company, and everyone did not know that the Saudi investment was aborted, and there was only various gossip speculation.

Last year, there was only one supplier who came downstairs to ask for money, and this year there are at least five or six cases, and we are already surprised, and I feel that the security guards downstairs of the company are also skilled.

On the twenty-fifth day of the first month of this year, the company suddenly issued a notice saying that the holiday would be taken in advance, and those with annual leave would take annual leave, and those without annual leave would not be used. All the test cars were also taken back by the company, and I didn't feel good. On Chinese New Year's Eve, the last month's salary was supposed to be paid, but the company temporarily notified that the salary in January was delayed and the year-end bonus was cancelled, and I thought the company was going to be cold.

The eighth day of the new year is the last day of the holiday, and at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the company group sent a notice saying that after the company's discussion, it was decided to have a day off tomorrow, and everyone else except VP could not use it. On the evening of January 18, the ninth day of the new year, the head of the department held an online meeting and verbally notified the company to stop work and production, and on the afternoon of the 19th, a notice was issued on Feishu. But none of these messages have an official seal, and there is no official email.

In the past two days, I still went to the company as usual, there are not many people in the company, the canteen is not open, the canteen aunt and the cleaning aunt are said to have been dismissed, and I really haven't seen the cleaning aunt in the company in the past two days.

I don't have any plans, let's see if the salary is paid, many colleagues in the company are ready to apply for labor arbitration, and some change their resumes to find new jobs, but the environment is also more difficult this year.

We didn't sell a single car during the Chinese New Year

I just joined Gaohe Automobile in May last year, and I am responsible for the new media operation of a store in a provincial capital city in southwest China, and my main job is to promote it on social platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

Yesterday (February 20th) was the last time I broadcast live on the Gaohe Douyin account, and after an hour of broadcasting at noon, our store closed on the 21st.

In fact, we don't have to insist on live broadcasting, and we will only pay the basic salary in February, and there will be no performance appraisal. Even if I can't send it, I admit it, everyone is responsible for their own choices, and I recognize the Gaohe brand. After the accident, none of our colleagues in the store left, and everyone stayed until the last day.

Gao He had negative news before the Chinese New Year. In the second half of last year, our store was able to sell more than 20 cars a month, and in December it was a bit unselling. The Spring Festival was supposed to sell well, and we didn't sell a single car in our store.

I saw that many people on the Internet said that Gaohe was not good, and the pressure I faced was actually greater than that of sales. During the Chinese New Year, every time we broadcast live, some people would ask "Have you paid your salary", or people should leave their jobs quickly, and even some people would personally attack us. But is it the employees who are at fault? We have been working hard to keep working, is it really us who is at fault?

Before coming to Gaohe, I worked as a salesman at Mercedes-Benz. At that time, I chose Gaohe because it was positioned as a domestic luxury new energy brand. Although its car is expensive, it is worth the price in terms of products alone. For example, if you choose a fuel vehicle in the same price segment, it is impossible to have such a high configuration and so many technological and intelligent things.

But unlike Mercedes-Benz, if you spend 600,000 yuan to buy Mercedes-Benz, you don't need to explain the reason to others, but if you spend 600,000 yuan to buy Gaohe Automobile, others will have many whys.

I've driven a high-tech car and I'm very happy with its safety and handling. However, these things are difficult for consumers to see. Nowadays, the first thing many people see when they look at electric vehicles is refrigerators, large color TVs, and large sofas, and the control really needs to be really tested to perceive.

To be honest, Gaohe's salary and benefits are good among new energy vehicle brands. Before the accident, we usually stayed in hotels on business trips, and in second- or third-tier cities, sometimes we could be set to four or five stars, and the reimbursement process was very fast.

For Ding Lei, I personally admire him very much. He really came out of the automotive industry, like several cars of Gaohe, Z, X, Y, he is on the front line, before I went to Shanghai to participate in the training of HiPhi Y models, he was also on the spot.

Many people will say that he is Jia Yueting's disciple because Ding Lei has participated in Jia Yueting's LeTV car, which is too one-sided. Sure, you can see some hints of Faraday Future's FF 91 on the HiPhi X, but that car was also developed by Ding Lei and Jia Yueting when they worked together.

Ding Lei has always been a very kind image in my heart, and he wants China to have its own luxury brand, which is a very good thing. No matter what the future holds for Gaohe, I am really proud that domestic trams have been able to come to this day, and brands like Li and NIO have made such excellent cars.

Funding is not the whole problem of Gaohe

I joined Gaohe in the first half of 2019, when the construction of Gaohe's factory in Yancheng had not yet begun, and the company did not have a single car.

At that time, there were many people who jumped from traditional car companies to new forces, and I was in a multinational car company before, and it didn't have many projects in China, and there was basically nothing to do. At first, the headhunter pushed me several times, at first I didn't know what kind of company Human Horizons was, but then I went to talk once, and I felt that the company was not bad, so I passed.

But after I went, I found that Gaohe's style was still different from that of traditional car companies, very high-pressure, and it was a big and small week just after entering, which was more squeezing employees, and then it was canceled after slowly getting on the right track.

Within the company, Ding Lei is more one-of-a-kind, he basically has the final say on all matters, and others, including those vice presidents, have no room to play at all. is like Wang Fengying, who was found after Xiaopeng Motors, if she came to Gaohe, she would not be able to do it.

Although the price of the two early cars of Gaohe was relatively high, its cost control is still relatively strict, and the price of the supplier will be more ruthless. In the early days, Ding Lei would participate in the report meeting of our procurement, even if the amount was very low, until his focus was slowly put on marketing, and this kind of meeting was less attended.

But the payment was just too poor. In the past year or so, basically the supplier's money is not paid if it can be paid. Unless you have to pay, such as if the supplier sued you and pulled up a banner, then you will pay. I heard from a colleague that the Salt Lake plant also stopped production for a period of time in the second half of last year because there was no money to pay the parts suppliers.

Gaohe's products are still good, but other aspects are not so good. For example, marketing, the marketing boss has changed several times, and I can't tell why, it's quite complicated. Nowadays, many car companies, their founders themselves bring their own traffic, our marketing is really not good, there are many complaints on the Internet, sometimes our employees also go to the store to see, and some sales are relatively lazy.

In August and September, the due diligence of the Saudi Investment Authority was almost completed, including the headquarters and the two factories, and I thought that there should be no problem with Saudi investment, but the money did not come in.

Even if Saudi money comes in, it can only last for a while, and in the end, the company still has to survive on sales. It's like playing a game, you can make up some blood when the blood is gone, and you can play for a while, but in the end, it depends on whether the sales of the car can come up.

The first two cars of Gaohe are very expensive, and they are not destined to be the cars that run the volume, and the cars in the back must sell better than the cars in front. The question is, how good can it sell? HiPhi Y sold more than 1,000 in October last year, and the volume quickly dropped. (In the last three months, the HiPhi Y sold 574, 439 and 136 units, respectively.) ）

After the layoffs began in October last year, I felt that Gaohe was already a bit dangerous, so I took the initiative to ask the company to lay me off. Now Gaohe has stopped work and production, which can only be said to be expected, and now there is almost no possibility of recovery in this situation, the employees are scattered, the brand has collapsed, and the trust of suppliers is gone, even if there is a capital injection, it is impossible to recover.

If the company is responsible, it should apologize to its employees and suppliers.

(At the request of the interviewee, Wu Qiang is a pseudonym in the article)