[Introduction: In 2024, for the vast majority of new forces, they will experience a "life and death catastrophe". This is not alarmist, but there are already some companies struggling on the brink of life and death. Since the beginning of this year, new car companies including Aiways, Gaohe and Nezha Automobile have all kinds of news. For consumers who buy a car, once the car company to which the car belongs goes bankrupt, then not to mention the later maintenance is worrying, and the use of intelligent network-related systems will also be worrying. 】
Written by Zhang Chi and edited by He Zi
Aiways, Gaohe and Nezha are all in danger.
These new car companies have some commonalities: sales are not satisfactory, none of them have completed the listing, there is no stable financing channel, there is no breakthrough in the underlying core technology, and the company has failed to achieve profitability and has no self-hematopoietic function. When the domestic new energy vehicle market is growing rapidly, these companies can take advantage of the general trend, but without the rapid growth of the general environment and the lack of financing follow-up, then they will take a sharp turn. Especially from 2023 onwards, the fierce price war due to the overcapacity of domestic automobiles has made the capital chain of many car companies begin to tighten. In the future, the Matthew effect of the entire industry will continue to appear, and mergers and acquisitions between enterprises will even be directly eliminated, which will inevitably lead to the liquidation of production capacity. It is estimated that only a single digit will survive the hundreds of new domestic forces.
Aiways wants to make a comeback overseas
According to media reports, Aiways, which has been shut down since last year due to the breakdown of funds, has received a new round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan and is about to resume work and production. Surprisingly, Aiways will abandon the domestic market and focus on overseas markets. The main reason for this decision is that Aiways has accumulated more than 5,000 orders in the European and Middle East markets in the past, and some of them have paid deposits. For Aiways, this part of the order and the sales channels it has previously expanded in Europe have become the biggest confidence in its financing. Unlike other new forces, they first gain a foothold in the domestic market and then develop overseas. Fu Qiang, the founder of Aiways, has been two-wheel drive in the domestic and overseas markets since the first day of building Aiways, and even invited the father of Audi Quattro to preside over Aiways' business in Europe.
However, there are still many uncertainties in order to get this path through:
1. Policy level. It is likely that punitive tariffs will be imposed on Chinese electric vehicles by Europe, and the door to the export of Chinese-made cars to Europe may be closed. At present, SAIC, BYD and Chery are actively deploying European factories. With the current situation of Aiways, it is difficult to invest and set up factories in Europe in the short term. And if you don't have a factory in Europe, you don't have much chance of going to Europe.
2. Business level. Previously, it was rumored that Aiways owed many suppliers loans. To resume production this time, how to calculate the new and old accounts between Aiways and suppliers, and whether suppliers are still willing to give Aiways credit, it depends on whether Fu Qiang's face is big enough.
3. Strategic level. One of the highlights of Aiways' resumption of work and production this time is that it will focus on overseas markets in the future. The current competition in the domestic smart electric vehicle market is indeed very fierce, and it is indeed difficult to gain a foothold with Aiways' existing system strength. However, in overseas markets, not to mention that Aiways' brand appeal is not strong enough, it is much more difficult to improve popularity and expand channels than in China. Moreover, as the products of European and American electric vehicle companies begin to be continuously iteratively updated, it is necessary to put a big question mark on how much product power and cost advantage a relatively weak car company like Aiways will have in the future.
The predecessor of Hechuang originated from the joint venture established by GAC and NIO. Later, as NIO focused on its main business, the joint venture gradually became a vassal of GAC. Hechuang does not have its own core technology, and its existing models are basically born from GAC Aion's GEP platform. Therefore, Hechuang's products not only have a lot of overlap with Aion, but also their selling prices are higher. In the whole year of 2023, the cumulative sales of Hechuang Automobile will only be 18,559 units, which is less than the sales of mainstream new forces in one month, and it has also been gradually marginalized.
Gao He, looking for a helper
After the crisis of Gaohe, Ding Lei appeared in Changan Automobile and promoted the photo of Gaohe to Zhu Huarong, the head of Changan Automobile, which went viral on the Internet.
It has to be said that Ding Lei's original idea was good, to avoid head-on competition with other homogeneous brands and models by creating models with higher positioning. However, the development of Gaohe can only be said to have not stepped on the rhythm of the market. With sales of its three models slow to make significant breakthroughs, and Hi-Tech has not made much progress in financing, it is not surprising that the company's cash flow has become tight.
It's just that the three sub-brands of Changan Automobile, AVATAR, Deep Blue and Kaiyuan, are also facing a lot of pressure. In particular, AVATAR, which cooperates with Chang'an, Ningde and Huawei, does not have much competitiveness in the competition with other brands of new forces at the same level, especially by the AITO brand that also uses Huawei's full set of technologies. Zhu Huarong and Chang'an's senior management may have to think carefully about whether Chang'an, which has encountered a lot of difficulties in operating AVATAR, will be willing to carry another Gaohe who also does not have the ability to self-hematopoiesis and has poor market performance. However, the market will not leave too much time for Gaohe, as short as three months, as long as half a year, and the fate of Gaohe will be revealed. Considering the current situation of the domestic new energy vehicle market rolling up to a new height, unless there is a relatively large flip, the probability of Gaohe surviving is not large.
Nezha, brand upward
Nezha Automobile, which will be the sales champion of the domestic new forces in 2022, will only sell 127,500 units in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 16%, becoming the only car company with a decline in sales among the mainstream new forces in China, which indicates that Nezha will usher in a round of storms this year: At the beginning of this year, Nezha Automobile Sales Company experienced a round of major personnel adjustments, and the company's senior management personally led the sales company's related matters; And Daniel Zhang, the head of Nezha Automobile, even said that he wanted to pass on the cold to everyone.
In fact, the sharp decline in Nezha Automobile's sales in 2023 is not only unexpected, but also reasonable.
Brand upward is never an easy thing. Nezha chose to start with low-cost models, and Nezha V and Nezha U contributed a very considerable sales volume to Nezha Automobile and have always been the mainstay of the company. However, according to the data, a total of 9,010 Nezha GTs with higher positioning will be sold in 2023, and only 24,200 Nezha S will be sold. The poor sales performance of these two mid-to-high-end models has directly affected the product and brand improvement of the entire Nezha Automobile.
Now Nezha has set its goal on being able to complete IPO financing. However, the successful completion of the IPO can only help Nezha raise part of the funds, but if the problem of brand improvement is not solved, it is impossible to increase the sales of mid-to-high-end models such as Nezha S and Nezha GT, then the Nezha brand may also be slowly marginalized by the market. But it is also the last mile of the brand's upward movement, which is often the most difficult.
Comments
It is impossible for every new force to successfully complete its own path of salvation. As the resistance to entering overseas markets grows, and the domestic cake is only that big, the Matthew effect will become increasingly obvious. In this case, some of the new forces will be merged and acquired by large car groups, and the other part of the new forces are destined to be slowly eliminated. In the current market, even Xiaomi Automobile, which has a lot of cash and a lot of rice noodles, is not sure of winning. Other new forces with fewer resources and weaker brand appeal want to use the first-mover advantage to achieve corner overtaking and replicate Tesla's success at that time, which now seems to be just a dream.
(This article is the original of "Heyan Reading Cars", and may not be reproduced without authorization)