Reporter | Hou Zhuojiao
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Nezha, which is complacent about its June sales results, has gotten into some trouble.
Just last week, a self-media account called "Planet Business Review" became the focus of attention in the automotive industry. The content of the article shows that the author claims to have learned from 360's internal friends that at the end of April, 360 and Nezha Automobile's investment have only drafted an agreement, and 360 has only dispatched some technical personnel to Nezha Automobile, in fact, 360 has not paid a penny so far, and only belongs to spiritual shareholders.
Soon, the explosive remarks contained in this article generated a huge response on social platforms such as Weibo, allowing the joint efforts of 360 Nezha Automobile to return to the public eye again.
At noon the next day, 360 was the first to react by issuing a solemn statement in its official social account, and clarified the content of the article one by one, emphasizing that Zhou Hongyi, as the chairman of the listed company, did not have any behavior that harmed the public interest, strictly followed the disclosure of the regulatory authorities for announcements, and welcomed investors and the media to supervise.
However, compared with the reaction speed of 360 when it saw the article, the public relations team of Nezha Automobile may still be in a "confused" state. Two days after the "Planet Business Review" article was published, Nezha Auto officially issued a solemn statement.
In the statement, Nezha Automobile said that the cooperation between 360 and Nezha Automobile has always been carried out in a normal and orderly manner according to the preset schedule of both parties, and both parties are performing normally in accordance with the requirements of the agreement.
At the end of the statement, the sales data for the first half of this year was released - it is worth noting that more than 20% of its half-year sales still come from the B-end market, active in major time-sharing rental and mobility platforms.
This kind of publicity means that is obviously done for investors can allude to a certain extent that Nezha Automobile is not confident in itself, and at the same time does not understand its own market positioning.
In addition to the dispute over the investment quota of 360, Nezha Automobile, which has been founded for 7 years, also faces four major dilemmas:
Market: Low-end market involution, high-end breakout hopeless
"Nezha cars do not make toys for the rich, only cars that the people can afford." At the first fan festival of Nezha Automobile in the middle of last month, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, said.
At that press conference, Nezha Automobile released two new cars, both of which were based on the current Nezha V to launch a "high-end version" model, and Daniel Zhang repeatedly emphasized that Nezha Automobile would only focus on the low-end new energy vehicle market.
However, just a month later, on July 16, the reporter noticed that on the official WeChat account released in Tongxiang, it was learned that Nezha Automobile's high-energy coupe model Nezha S has entered the technical test stage and will be officially listed at the end of 2022.
As the brand's flagship model, Nezha S's concept prototype is called Eureka 03, and at an earlier communication meeting, the reporter learned from the public relations department of Nezha Automobile that the price of Nezha S after mass production may be maintained within 250,000 yuan.
According to the information of comprehensive official publicity, Nezha S is a high-end intelligent electric coupe model, and its body size, power parameters and intelligent driving assistance configuration are completely aimed at Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P7 and the bydir Han EV of the recent fire. If the models of Nezha S are split one by one, it can be found that due to the development and production costs of vehicles, the pricing of Nezha S will definitely come to the level of 200,000 yuan and compete with the above three models.
According to the data, Nezha Automobile was founded in 2014, when Fang Yunzhou, the former head of Chery New Energy Project, resigned his post and founded United New Energy Company, and then launched the Nezha Automobile brand with the help of the "Nezha" series of movies.
After nearly 7 years of development, Nezha Automobile currently has 3 models on sale, namely Nezha V, Nezha U Pro and Nezha N01, with a price range of 60,000-180,000 yuan. Earlier, the public relations department of Nezha Automobile also told reporters that compared with the three giants of "Wei Xiaoli", there is no strong capital support behind Nezha Automobile, but it is another way to pay attention to the low-end travel market.
According to the latest information of Tianyancha APP, the registered capital of Hezhong New Energy is about 1.672 billion yuan, and the paid-up capital is about 770 million yuan. After 360-led D round of financing, Nezha Automobile has experienced 7 rounds of financing, with a cumulative amount of public financing of more than 11.25 billion yuan.
We are all familiar with the famous saying of Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, that "you can't build a car without 20 billion". Obviously, 11.25 billion yuan is difficult to promote the "money-burning machine" of car manufacturing for a long time, and the capital chain is the foundation for all development of new car-making power companies.
The meaning of the existence of the enterprise is profit, if a car company simply creates low-end products, it is difficult to obtain a good financial statement, so as to continue to output new products.
This is especially true for corporate strategic investors, and whether the invested company's performance is good or not directly affects the market value of the investment company's stock price, after all, the capital is profit-seeking and cannot afford to wait.
According to the retail sales of new energy vehicles in the past six months announced by Chechedi, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV ranked first with 167,572 units; Euler Black Cat ranked fourth with 43,264 units; Chery Little Ant ranked fifth with 32,362 units; and Changan Benben EV ranked ninth with 18,738 units. Models of A0 class and below, led by Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, basically account for about half of domestic new energy vehicle sales.
However, behind the above-mentioned A0-class model fire phenomenon is the reality of low-end electric vehicles "losing money and selling". In 2019, China's A00-class micro-electric vehicle market opened the door to a new world - 40,000 Baojun E100, 60,000 Chery Small Ant, 70,000 Euler R1, or Reading i5 upgraded from low-speed cars, many independent brands have joined the "ranks" of selling micro pure electric vehicles at a loss.
At that time, many people in the industry calculated the accounts for the OEMs of these low-end electric vehicles: the unit price of the battery was calculated at 1,000 yuan / kWh, and the basic cost of a 30kWh car battery was 30,000 yuan. If this car is still a model developed on a new platform, there will definitely be a huge R&D cost. In this way, most of the low-priced pure electric vehicles, after subsidies, are lower than the cost price, are selling at a loss.
This is highlighted in SAIC-GM-Wuling's 2020 annual report. According to the financial report, it sold a total of 1.6 million vehicles in the whole year, but the net profit was only 140 million, and the average car earned less than 90 yuan. Although sales volume was almost the same as in 2019, net profit was 1.56 billion yuan less. In 2018, Wuling's net profit reached 4.18 billion yuan.
Such a market situation has been "rolled up" in the low-end car market.
For a number of car brands, the praise of "the people's real scooter" is more like a double-edged sword - when other independent brands, such as Geely, Great Wall, BYD, etc., have attacked the high-end market and achieved good results, they seem to be able to sprint in the low-end models, and the reputation is there, but the money bag is getting tighter and tighter.
Survey: People "don't love" Nezha cars
The reporter visited wuzhong business district in Shanghai's Minhang district on a weekend in mid-July. As an important business district in Shanghai, it does not gather two major shopping malls, the MixC and Aegean Shopping Park, but also has many car 4S stores and second-hand luxury car sales stores.
After lunch, the reporter noticed that the flow of people in the two major business districts was very large, and at the main entrance of the MixC, the Weilai Automobile Experience Center occupied the most favorable position in the mall. The flow of people inside the experience center is surging and many consumers gather here, or experience the technology configuration in the introduction of the sales staff, or stop to take photos before the EP9 electric supercar.
In the diagonal of Weilai Automobile, the Huawei Technology Experience Store located in the Love Sea Shopping Park is also set up here, and the huge door head echoes with the Audi flagship 4S store opposite, and on the most obvious side of the first floor of the store, two Huawei Smart Select Cyrus SF5s are placed in it.
At this time, it was 16:00 p.m., and in the 20 minutes of the reporter's conversation with the sales staff in the store, a total of more than 20 consumers came to check the new car, and 4 groups of home users came to ask about the price configuration and other information.
Sales staff also said bluntly that after Huawei announced its cooperation with Xilis, more and more consumers came to the store to see the car and order the car, but due to the production capacity of the Cyris, the ordering user needed to wait for 2 months to pick up the car.
It is lamentable that after the strong investment of 360, Nezha Automobile is much more "humble" - in a corner behind the Huawei store, there is a Nezha car experience store, compared with the flow of people in Weilai Automobile and Huawei stores, the past flow of people may not be cold to this new car force.
In the storefront, two models of Nezha Automobile are on sale, namely Nezha U Pro and Nezha V, and the store staff quietly fiddle with computers at the reception desk.
As soon as the reporter stepped into the store, the sales staff quickly greeted and introduced the two new cars in front of the reporter.
"Have you ever known about Nezha Car before?"
The reporter replied, "Yes."
"You have a car purchase need, do you need me to introduce it?"
The reporter replied, "Yes, thank you." ”
"We are a smart car-making new force company that has begun to cooperate with 360, which is our shareholder... This U Pro is our current main sales model. ”
When the reporter went straight to Nezha V, the sales staff told the reporter that this model can not be on the new energy auction license in Shanghai at present, and Shanghai is preparing the latest new energy vehicle license policy, and it is reported that it may be conclusive after mid-September this year.
The reporter asked, "Is it equivalent to saying that this new car currently has no sales in Shanghai?" ”
The sales staff did not return positively, but said: "At present, it is impossible to accept orders, and we can only wait until the announcement of Shanghai's new new energy license policy." ”
Seeing that the reporter was more interested in the Nezha V model that could not be listed at present, the sales staff once again introduced the Nezha U Pro model to the reporter. At this time, a young couple walked to the Nezha V model and began to look at the car, and another salesman received them, still the same 360 shareholders, or the same intelligent electric vehicle positioning.
In their conversation, the reporter learned that the male consumer came to consult in order to add a new electric car to the family, because the lower price of Nezha V came to consult, but when he knew that this vehicle could not be licensed, he greeted the sales staff for two sentences and went straight out of the storefront, not interested in the higher positioning of the Nezha U Pro model.
Yes, the Nezha V model, which accounts for the absolute sales proportion of Nezha Automobile, has been sold in Shanghai since the beginning of April, and almost all users who were scheduled in April have applied for the withdrawal process and turned to other new energy vehicle brands.
This new car-making company with the banner of "for the people" has not received real attention from users in China's largest new energy vehicle market, but has become a cheap car product that will be replaced by other brands at any time.
Sales volume: The B-end market does not represent real demand
At the beginning of July, the major new car-making forces handed over their own mid-year "report cards", in this list, "Wei Xiaoli" still firmly occupies the top three in the sales list, and Nezha Automobile and Zero Run Car opened up an order of magnitude gap of 10,000 vehicles.
According to the data released by Nezha Automobile, its sales volume in June was 5138 vehicles, an increase of 536% year-on-year; from January to June 2021, the sales volume totaled 21104 units, an increase of 478% year-on-year.
At first glance, Nezha Automobile has achieved very good results, but the reason can be found that Nezha V for the low-end market is the absolute main sales model of the brand, and the surge in sales is also related to the small product layout and low market proportion in the same period last year.
Among them, Nezha V, as the third mass production car under Nezha Automobile, was officially listed on November 3, 2020. The 2021 new car provides two versions of 401km long endurance and 301km standard endurance, a total of 8 models, and the official guidance price range after subsidies is 59,900-7.69 million yuan (excluding the online customized version).
According to the number of insurances released by China Insurance Research Institute in June, the number of insurance on the new cars of Nezha V in that month was 3579, while the number of insurance on Nezha U was close to 1600.
However, in the official information released by Nezha Automobile, Nezha Automobile's B-end market in June was 15%, and the sales volume of the B-end market in the first half of the year still reached 23%. For Nezha Automobile, the B-end market share, which is still high, is facing a "Tacillo Trap".
Let's extend the data of Nezha Automobile to 2020, according to the data released by Nezha Automobile, the total sales volume of Nezha Automobile in 2020 is 15,091 units, an increase of 51% year-on-year. Among them, Nezha V was launched in early November 2020, and the order volume in the first month of listing exceeded 5,000 units.
However, as early as 2018, when its Nezha N01 was not yet listed, it signed orders for more than 50,000 vehicles, which was recognized by many dealers and time-sharing rental companies and other B-end markets. Also at the signing ceremony of the first batch of "City Partners" that year, United New Energy signed strategic agreements with 19 timeshare leasing companies, including Tomato Travel, Bago Travel, Xiaoer Car Rental, PonyCar, etc.
By 2020, United Automobile and Little Greyhound Travel will launch the first batch of 1,000 new energy rental cars in Yichun; on August 12, Nezha Automobile and Chengdu Dige Travel 365 Ride-hailing reached an online ride-hailing service to launch Nezha N01.
In addition to Nezha 01, Nezha U also won purchase orders for online ride-hailing cars and government official vehicles.
Also in 2020, Tongxiang City, a subsidiary of Jiaxing City, repeatedly purchased Nezha cars as official cars, including Nezha U models; the Nanning Municipal Government also used Nezha cars for police patrol cars and locomotive VIP pick-up and drop-off vehicles, with a cumulative number of nearly 800 vehicles.
In just two years, Nezha Automobile has disclosed that the number of vehicles contributed to the B-end market is close to 5,000, accounting for more than 30% of the brand's total sales.
In this regard, Daniel Zhang also said in an interview with a media in May: "Nezha Automobile's entry into the B-end market can quickly make the products available in the market, and the car environment in the travel market is very bad." If its market can run well and the quality is controllable, it means that the product quality is good. Anyway, I will do both to B and to C markets, and we will increase our efforts to the B market. ”
The result of relying too much on the B-end market can refer to Geely Automobile's geometric cars. In 2020, the annual sales of geometric cars were only 22,500 units, and the average monthly sales volume was only more than 1,800 vehicles, according to media reports, among which Cao Cao Travel contributed more than half of its sales.
With little support from the C-end market, geometric cars have almost become synonymous with online ride-hailing, further making consumers resistant.
Indeed, the most visible geometric car is in Cao Cao travel, in the past B-end travel market is also a window of the brand, these products running on the road, but also equivalent to a brand promotion and publicity, which is why the products that sell well have some connection with taxis.
However, in the new era of automobile consumption, consumption upgrades and new energy consumption are more focused on experience, etc., excessive dependence on the B-end market will cause irreparable damage to the brand. After all, no one wants to drive a new car they buy, but passers-by think that they are online car drivers.
Hidden danger: User data security vulnerability
A few days ago, the reporter learned from the official WeChat public account of The Network Information Zhejiang that Nezha Automobile was notified because the App illegally collected user data, and there was a risk of personal information leakage in this behavior. And it's the only car company in the 57 apps.
On the one hand, it announces its own "people's car" to the outside world, and on the other hand, it is secretly collecting user data in violation of the law, and the operation of Nezha Car is indeed intriguing. It's hard not to think that 360's software faced the same risks.
In the context of the new four modernizations of the automobile industry, traditional car manufacturers began to transform into travel companies, while technology companies invested in the automobile manufacturing industry, and the two industries that were once unrelated are rapidly integrating, which seems to indicate the future industrial pattern.
Earlier on May 11, 360 Group and Nezha Automobile launched a smart car strategic media communication meeting, known as the "Red Cloth Sect Leader" Zhou Hongyi appeared in front of public opinion, at that time, Zhou Hongyi said: "As an Internet veteran, to be able to participate in the creation of the largest intelligent terminal in the future, and even in the change of global intelligent vehicles, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that must not be missed." 360 and Nezha should use the power of science and technology to build smart cars that the people can afford. ”
According to the plan revealed by Zhou Hongyi, "Software-defined cars, intelligent cars are essentially an intelligent terminal, 360 will provide partners with comprehensive digital technologies covering cloud computing, big data, AI, Internet of Things, and Car networking security, etc., to bring users 'experience equality' with 'technology equality'." In the future, 360 will take Nezha Automobile as a model and output safety technology to other car companies without discrimination. ”
However, Nezha Automobile, which has just won the booth of the "Red Sect Leader", has done the business of "illegally collecting user data" behind its back.
Write at the end:
Since 2015, the country has begun a vigorous car-making movement, and at its peak, there were more than 200 car brands. However, after the tide of capital retreated, less than 5% of the remaining new car-making companies in China.
In 2021, a new round of technology company car-making sports has begun, different from the previous round, under the blessing of capital, "car-making" has become a zero-sum game, in the "foundation" of product strength and technical reserves, who can make profits in advance in the automobile industry that continues to invest in high capital, who can really survive.
Is there still a play in Nezha?