Last month, Maverick Electric Vehicle, which once enjoyed the reputation of "two-wheeled Tesla", announced its financial report, and its overall performance in 2023 was somewhat unexpected.
According to the data, Maverick Electric's annual revenue in 2023 will only be 2.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.3% from the previous year, and the decline in Q4 is particularly obvious.
As for the net profit, it is even more bleak, with a net loss of 270 million for the whole year, more than five times more than in 2022.
Now the bottleneck of Maverick Electric, also used to be infinitely beautiful.
Founded in 2014, this young electric car company entered the NASDAQ in only four years, with a peak stock price of $53.38, a total market value of $4.1 billion at that time, and annual sales exceeded one million units early.
Listed in 4 years, what is the concept of the two-wheeled electric vehicle industry?
You must know that the two giants of the track, Yadea and Emma, the former entered the two-wheeled electric vehicle market 18 years earlier than Mavericks, but waited for 20 years to be listed, and the latter waited 22 years to realize his dream.
The calf galloped so fast that it was the envy of everyone.
It's a pity that such a good situation didn't last long, and the calf, the "international cow" that killed overseas, has the momentum of being ruthlessly slapped on the beach by the waves such as No. 9.
In February 2021, Maverick Electric's share price reached an all-time high, and since then it has begun to fall again and again.
As of today, the total market value of Maverick Electric is only $185 million, a decrease of more than 95% from the peak of $4.1 billion.
The No. 9, which came later, has also successfully squeezed out the Mavericks and won the first place in the sales of smart two-wheeled electric vehicles in the domestic market.
Such a scene can't help but make people wonder, what happened to the "international bull" who once held the first-mover advantage?
The decline of the Mavericks did not start to emerge from last year.
According to past financial reports, in 2021, the annual sales volume of Maverick Electric will exceed one million units, with revenue of 3.705 billion yuan, an increase of 51.56% year-on-year, and a net profit of 226 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.9%.
But since the second quarter of 2022, Maverick's sales have continued to decline, and there has been no significant improvement until now.
For the whole year of 2023, the cumulative sales of Mavericks will only be 709,800 units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.65%.
Affected by sales volume, revenue was 2,651.8 million yuan, down 16.3% year-on-year, and the net loss for the year widened to 271.8 million yuan.
The number of offline stores with the most intuitive data has also decreased from 3,108 to 2,834.
In this regard, Li Yan, CEO of Maverick Electric Vehicle, explained:
"The conservative consumption behavior of Chinese consumers has affected the demand for our high-end range. ”
As we all know, when Maverick debuted, it entered the market with labels such as "smart" and "high-end".
It not only abandoned the traditional lead-acid battery, chose a lithium battery with a higher cost but stronger battery life, but also developed high-tech technologies such as NFC unlocking and APP positioning.
However, in recent years, the price of lithium carbonate, the main raw material of lithium batteries, has risen sharply, resulting in an increasing cost of car manufacturing, and Mavericks has to choose to increase prices.
According to statistics, after Maverick announced that it would raise the price of goods by 200-1000 yuan, the average price of Maverick's bicycle in the market was 3085 yuan.
Maverick's dealer revealed that if you want to buy a well-configured and fully functional Maverick electric car, you have to spend more than 3,000 yuan;
If the price is less than 3,000 yuan, you can only buy an entry-level car, and the endurance is average.
However, the average price of several traditional electric vehicle brands is still between 1500-2000, which is obviously more friendly to ordinary people.
Essentially, electric vehicles are a cost-effective means of travel, rather than a high-tech industry.
According to iResearch data, the top sales price of two-wheeled electric vehicles is between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan.
Obviously, the low-end small electric donkey is the mainstream of consumption.
Besides, the APP positioning, NFC and other intelligent functions that Mavericks has always been proud of have now become the standard configuration of models of major manufacturers such as Nine, Yadea, and Emma.
And according to statistics, No. 9, which also focuses on "high-end intelligence", will invest 583 million yuan in R&D in 2022, while Maverick's R&D investment will only be 176 million yuan.
In 2023, Maverick's R&D expenses will drop to 150 million yuan, while the pan-marketing expenses will exceed 495 million yuan.
Maverick was the first small electric donkey brand to play the "high-end intelligent" label, but unfortunately, it has only been working publicity and not actively developing research and development.
If the research and development is not active, it is naturally unable to provide products with a higher degree of intelligence, so the "high-end intelligence" of Maverick's main product has no special experience at all.
Therefore, Mavericks chooses to increase prices, which will inevitably lead to a significant drop in sales.
But what is puzzling is that the calf does not seem to feel the crisis at all.
In 2023, Mavericks will still launch a variety of expensive new products, among which the highest price is a 30,000 electric motorcycle.
Of course, there is no market.
Today's Mavericks not only lose color in intelligence, but also make it at a disadvantage in terms of cost performance, so it is inevitable that the performance will be overtaken by latecomers.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the reason why Maverick is facing today's predicament is not unrelated to the two souls of Maverick's start-up team who have been "distracted" one after another.
Someone once said that without Li Yinan, there would be no calves.
Li Yinan is a genius in the technology circle, who became the vice president of Huawei at the age of 27, and it was rumored that he would be Ren Zhengfei's successor.
In the early days of founding Mavericks, Li Yinan quickly obtained financing from many well-known institutions such as Sequoia and GGV with his connections.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and when Maverick was just a year old, Li Yinan was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of insider trading.
It is said that during his imprisonment, Li Yinan said many times,
"I am not only the founder of Mavericks but also a key soul figure, and now because of my detention, the company is panicked, and the investors are also worried, and my heart is dripping blood every day!"
As a result, he has repeatedly applied for bail pending trial.
But what is interesting is that after being released from prison, Li Yinan is no longer committed to the development of Maverick's two-wheeled electric vehicle business, but is greedy for the new energy vehicle business.
At the end of 2021, he officially announced his entry into the new energy vehicle track, and announced that the first Ziyoujia NV model would be launched in the first half of 2022, and the delivery would be completed in September of the same year.
In fact, in 2021, Maverick's business is still very good, it deserves to be the "boss" of smart two-wheeled electric vehicles at that time, if it can calm down to consolidate its advantages and continue to develop technology, presumably it will still be the "sweet and sweet" in the small electric donkey market.
However, at that time, many senior executives of Maverick Electric believed in Li Yinan's decision-making vision, so they followed Li Yinan to join the car-making industry.
Not only that, more and more Maverick employees have also joined Li Yinan's car-making army.
It's a pity that Ziyoujia NV couldn't complete the delivery at all, and Li Yinan's dream of building a car was completely shattered before it started.
And just as Mavericks racked their brains to get a piece of the four-wheeled car, Nine caught up and went straight to the Mavericks.
In fact, in 2021, the sales of the Nine have reached 420,000 units, compared with the 602,000 units of the Maverick, and the gap has gradually narrowed.
It's a pity that the Maverick, who is obsessed with the dream of building a car, has no time to care about anything else, let alone pay attention to how fast the No. 9 competitor is advancing.
As of 2022, the sales of No. 9 two-wheeled electric vehicles will reach 826,200 units, while the total global vehicle sales of Mavericks will reach 831,600 units, but the number of electric scooters will exceed 100,000.
So far, No. 9 has successfully replaced Maverick and won the first place in the sales of intelligent two-wheeled electric vehicles in the domestic market.
Moreover, whether it is in the sales volume of more than 5,000 yuan or in the sales market share of more than 7,000 yuan, Nine has maintained a leading position.
In the third quarter of 2023, the Nine sold 610,000 units, while the Maverick sold only 230,000 units.
Apparently, due to negligence and distraction, the calf was already slowly being slapped on the beach by latecomers.
And the departure of another soul character, Hu Yilin, also brought a lot of impact to the calf.
Hu Yilin used to be the vice president of R&D of Mavericks, and he led the design of Maverick's classic series of models such as N, M, and U.
However, in October 2022, Hu Yilin announced that he would no longer serve as the vice president of R&D of Mavericks, and announced the creation of a new company at the end of December 2023 and began to devote himself full-time to the second venture.
Today, only the current CEO Li Yan is still struggling to keep his business.
However, although he has an overseas study background and a beautiful resume, his fame and influence are far less than those of the first two soul figures.
In order to survive this life and death catastrophe, Maverick carried out preferential promotions on last year's Double 11 and this year's New Year's Day, and the discount even exceeded that of its peers.
However, the move to exchange price cuts for sales has not won the favor of consumers.
Because, in the hearts of consumers, the real reason why Maverick electric vehicles can't be sold is actually the image crisis of product quality.
They even angrily denounced that the quality of Maverick's product quality and after-sales service simply do not match its "high-end intelligent" image.
In September 2023, a consumer in Nanjing bought a new electric vehicle from Maverick at a price of 6,199 yuan.
However, after only a few days, he found that his newly purchased electric car could not be started smoothly.
According to the statistics of "Consumer Reports", as of May 2023 to the present, in less than a year, Maverick electric vehicle products have appeared on the list of unqualified sampling inspections announced by local market supervision departments 7 times.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are more than 2,500 complaints about Maverick electric vehicles.
The main complaints from netizens are the sudden power failure of the Maverick electric vehicle during driving, the actual mileage is completely inconsistent with the advertisement, and the poor after-sales service.
What's even more terrifying is that in addition to product quality defects and poor after-sales service, Maverick electric vehicles also have illegal modifications and safety problems of vehicle parts.
In January 2021, a consumer in Xi'an reported that the battery of the Maverick electric car he purchased suddenly caught fire, causing his family to suffer airway damage due to inhalation of thick smoke and toxic gases.
In September 2022, the Maverick electric car purchased by Mr. Yuan in Guangdong also caught fire due to a faulty battery.
Selling at a high price, but unable to provide the quality and service that matches, how can such a merchant be invincible?
The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and one wave is stronger than the other.
If you don't want to be slapped on the beach by the back waves, ambition alone is not enough.
I am afraid that only when Maverick can really put down his body and settle down to take R&D design and product quality issues seriously, can he change the situation of being auctioned on the beach by other competitors.
Author: Red One
Editor: Lu Yao