This article was originally published by wumiancaijing.
Author: Fang Sijia.
Editor: Chen Jian.
Design: Lan Sheng.
In September 2015, Ding Lei resigned from politics and joined LeTV.
In order to persuade this former SAIC executive and deputy mayor of Shanghai's Pudong New Area to join the new forces in the car-making war, Jia Yueting offered attractive conditions related to profit and fame.
After Ding Lei joined, he became the core figure of LeTV's super car and was known as Jia Yueting's right-hand man.
Soon after, Ding Lei left LeTV and founded Gaohe Automobile. The product positioning also seems to be similar to Jia Yueting's Faraday positioning of high-end electric vehicles. His new car, the HiPhi X, was praised by the market as the FF91 "reborn from a shell".
Ding Lei once publicly declared, "We create works, not just produce goods", and the tone is so high that it was once similar to Jia Yueting's concept of "suffocating for dreams".
Unfortunately, the dilemma is the same. Now, Gaohe is facing a shortage of funds and has started to stop production. The message said,Ding Lei is still in ShanghaiDiscussions are ongoing with the company's management on matters related to investment and financing
I don't know if Ding Lei will have a thought in the middle of the night, "I really believed in Jia Yueting's evil back then."
The car was used to offset the arrears, and the store was hastily closed.
The scene of LETV's car-making and dilapidation has reappeared many times in recent years.
At the beginning of the new year, the first thunder in the automotive industry exploded. According to ** reports, Gaohe Automobile held an internal meeting on February 18 and announced that it would suspend production for 6 months.
According to China ** News, Gaohe Automobile held an all-staff meeting on February 7 to announce that the postponement of the payment of January wages and January wages will be repaid at the end of February, and the 2023 year-end bonus will be cancelled.
However, some relevant staff of Gaohe Automobile responded that "the rumors are not true". called".Today (February 19th) is still working normally, and there is no shutdown at present
In fact, at the beginning of January, some bloggers said that Gaohe Automobile had stopped working.
However, Gaohe Automobile reported at the time that "the company's operation is normal, and the work of R&D, production, marketing, and delivery is progressing normally." "It is said that the misinterpretation of the relevant information has caused serious damage to the brand reputation of Gaohe Automobile and misled the society, and the company has reported to the public security department.
Gaohe denied a shutdown in January. **From the web.
But this time, Gaohe has not sent a letter denying the suspension of work.
* Shang couldn't sit still for a long time.
According to the "Tram Park", an advertising and media company in Shandong Province has cooperated with Gaohe Automobile for millions of dollars. However, since last year, Gaohe Automobile has frequently defaulted on its accounts due to the company. There are also ** business claims,The business contact person of Gaohe Automobile discussed with ** business in November last year to use the car to offset the arrears, but was refused
He has worked in Gaohe for nearly a year, advanced nearly 20,000 yuan, and has left at the end of January. So far, the reimbursement money plus one month's salary has not moved. A person claiming to be a former employee of Gaohe Automobile said on social platforms.
At the same time, some of the stores of Gaohe Automobile in Guangzhou and Chengdu have been closed.
On January 23 this year, Guangzhou Gaode Land Plaza issued a notice saying, "Gaohe Automobile Store temporarily informed the shopping mall that it was unable to continue to operate in this ** due to internal reasons of the brand." ”
The mall also pointed out that "the store (referring to Gaohe Automobile) unilaterally closed the store without fulfilling its obligations under the terms of the lease contract, before the lease contract expired, without notifying the mall in advance as agreed, and without an agreement between the two parties." ”
That is to say,Gaohe's store was closed in a hurry, and he did not hesitate to "break the contract" and tear his face with the shopping mall
According to the management of the mall, "On January 29, 2024, the Gaohe Auto Store (hereinafter referred to as the store), Shop 2, Chengdu Plaza, temporarily informed that due to internal reasons of the brand, it was unable to continue to operate in the mall. ”
All the scenes are so similar, just like Weimar and Aiways not long ago.
He has mortgaged the equipment to continue his life and is still waiting for financing.
Ding Lei once threatened that Gaohe Automobile is not short of money.
He said in 2018, "We are not open to the absorption of private funds for the time being." If I didn't have enough money, I wouldn't have done it, I couldn't accept it, I might run out of money halfway through it, and I had to look for money everywhere to continue the work. ”
Everything was slapped in the face by sudden changes.
In June last year, news broke that the Saudi Ministry of Investment signed an agreement worth 21 billion Saudi riyals (about $5.6 billion) with Human Horizons, the parent company of Gaohe Automobile, to "extend the life" of Gaohe Automobile.
Hi-Hop has not released further details. More news points to the fact that the money does not appear to have arrived.
Gaohe's internal employees said to Tiger SniffThey heard that the money was not in place at all, and the two sides only reached an investment intention"Even the news of this investment itself was released by the Saudi side."
According to the "Tram Laboratory", in November last year, there were rumors that Saudi Arabia's public investment ** injected 2US$500 million (about 1.8 billion yuan). However, compared with the direct arrival of $1.1 billion in NIO's capital injection in the Middle East, Gaohe's two financings ended in nothing.
Sure enough, although the Middle Eastern tyrants are trenches, they are not wronged.
In fact, Gaohe Automobile has been in a state of lack of money. According to Qingliu Studio, the funds to support the continued operation of Gaohe Automobile may come from multiple financings at the end of 2023.
At the end of 2023, Gaohe Automobile had financed through financial leasing, and the total valuation of the production equipment involved reached 58.5 billion yuan
The so-called "financial lease" refers to the transfer and mortgage of the ownership of car manufacturing molds and production equipment to other enterprises by Human Horizons, the parent company of Gaohe Automobile, in exchange for cash flow.
Among them, the two companies that provide leasing financing to Gaohe Automobile, Jiangsu Oriental Financial Leasing and Yueda Financial Leasing, are both state-owned assets in Yancheng City.
In addition, Gaohe Automobile also has a "mysterious" financier from Qingdao.
Yangzhou Guoyi Hengyuan Investment***, a local state-owned enterprise from Laixi City, a county-level city managed by Qingdao City, Shandong Province, has signed a convertible bond investment agreement with Human Horizons Shandong Company. Gaohe Automobile has received a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan from Yangzhou Guoyi Hengyuan.
The agreement stipulates that Yangzhou Guoyi Hengyuan may, under the condition of satisfying certain conditions, purchase the corresponding amount of equity of the company by deducting the purchase price of the outstanding principal of the convertible bonds after deducting the interest paid.
On December 13, 2023, Yangzhou Guoyi Hengyuan pledged 1 billion yuan of debt in the convertible bond agreement to Bank of Qingdao, and obtained a comprehensive credit of 500 million yuan.
In addition, Qingdao (Laixi) Urban and Rural Community Construction Investment***, a subsidiary of Qingdao Chengtou, is also involved in the financing projects of Human Horizons.
Before the Spring Festival this year, Ding Lei also went to Qingdao to seek financial assistance, but it seems to have failed.
In the midst of the storm, a first-class factory director of the Yancheng factory in Jiangsu Province spoke internally and called on employees not to damage the factory's equipment and resources. Ding Lei is still in Shanghai and is in talks with the company's management on investment and financing matters.
He said, ".The company is waiting for any relevant investors (such as Yueda Group, local **, etc.) to enter the game。Now all the questions are about money. To be honest, Mr. Ding (referring to Ding Lei, the founder and chairman of Human Horizons) has no money, and if he had money, he would not have made such a fuss. ”
The battle of car companies is in full swing, and luxury cars are more difficult.
The battle of car companies is hot, and there is not much space left for Gaohe Automobile.
The war burned to the A-segment market, which accounts for the lion's share of car sales. After the beginning of the year, BYD launched a price reduction cannon and launched the Qin plus and destroyer 05 glory edition models, 7Minimum sale is 980,000 yuan. Among them, the price of the Qin plus glory version is about 10,000 yuan lower than that of the old version, and the main configuration has not changed significantly.
After BYD's price cut,A number of car companies announced price cuts
Including Wuling Hongguang's plug-in hybrid sedan Wuling Starlight, the entry model is sold at 8880,000 yuan. Zhou Jinkai, deputy general manager of Wuling, shouted, "One word, with!" "Suspected response to this wave of price cuts.
Zhou Jinkai, deputy general manager of Wuling, responded to the "** war". *From Sina Weibo.
Beijing Hyundai's A-class fuel sedan Elantra lowered its ** to 7580,000 yuan, and played the slogan "oil" is stronger than electricity", in response to BYD's "electricity is lower than oil"; The price of the plug-in hybrid sedan Changan Qiyuan A05 is reduced by about 110,000 yuan, to 7380,000 yuan, and played the slogan "Electricity is lower than oil!" Low! Low! ”。
In addition, Geely, Denza, Leapmotor, and Nezha have all launched some preferential models.
Not only are "low-cost cars" fighting, but mid-to-high-end cars are also "involuted".
Before the Spring Festival, in January 2024, the price of the new version of Tesla's **Model 3 rear-wheel drive will be reduced by 1550,000 yuan, to 24590,000 yuan; The price of the Model 3 Long Range Refreshed Edition has been reduced by 1150,000 yuan; In addition, the prices of the two Model Y models have also been lowered at the same time.
On the other hand, the sudden suspension of production of Gaohe Automobile is helpless and stop-loss.
Gaohe Auto has always been a niche brand in the market, focusing on the luxury car market. Its sales in 2021 and 2022 will be 4,237 and 4,349 units, respectively. In 2023, it did not report overall sales. According to the statistics of the third-party platform Pacific Automobile Network,For the whole year of 2023, Gaohe Automobile sold a total of 4,829 new vehicles
In September 2021, the monthly sales volume of Gaohe Automobile surpassed that of the Porsche Taycan, becoming the sales champion of the luxury electric vehicle market of more than 500,000 units, but unfortunately it was only a flash in the pan.
As far as the track is concerned, the days of luxury car brands are getting harder and harder. According to the Economic Observer, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi will all achieve year-on-year sales in China in 2023, but the growth rate is lower than the average level of high-end brands; Three of the brands Hongqi, Cadillac, Lexus, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and Lincoln achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, while three saw year-on-year declines.
In July last year, HiPhi Automobile launched its third new model, the HiPhi Y, which is positioned as a luxury mid-to-large electric SUV with a price range of 3390,000-4490,000 yuan. This price is already at a low price level among Gaohe's products. It is intended to lower the threshold and enter the mainstream luxury car market below 400,000 yuan.
It's a pity that the competition at this price point is more intense, and players such as Ideal, Tesla, and Wenjie have joined the battle. Gaohe's disguised price reduction did not have a full appeal to consumers.
Under the competition, it is difficult for Gaohe to occupy the market. According to the statistics of Cheju.com, in 2023, there is no Gaohe Automobile in the top 13 domestic mainstream luxury car sales rankings (number of risks).
Domestic mainstream luxury car sales ranking. **From Cheju.com.
2024 will be the most 'volume' year。Geely Automobile Group CEO Gan Jiayue said to the outside world. This means that the requirements for the funds and achievements of car companies in technology research and development, production management, and sales will be higher.
Obviously, Gaohe Automobile has not yet found a way to break the game.
References: 1. "Gaohe Automobile, which is not short of money, began to be short of money, who is the mysterious owner behind it?" 》 Clear Stream, New Energy.
2. "Directly hit Gaohe Yancheng Factory丨Ding Lei is still solving investment and financing problems, BYD, Ideal and other interviews "poaching people"" Daily Economic News.