Following the shutdown of new car-making forces such as WM, Aiways, and Tianji last year, at the beginning of the new year of 2024, another new car-making force has encountered the dilemma of suspending work and production. On the first day of resumption of work during the Spring Festival holiday, Hi-Tech announced at its internal meeting that it would suspend work and production for 6 months from now on, during which employees would only be paid basic wages and local minimum wages.
After a while, Gaohe Automobile, which is positioned as a luxury intelligent pure electric brand, is full of suspense whether it can survive the difficulties. With the performance of Gaohe Automobile, people are more worried about the future trend of new car-making forces. Are these brands, which were once regarded as dark horses in the industry, also fall into growing pains now?
It is difficult to solve the bottleneck of sales, and car companies have entered the countdown
In October last year, it was rumored on the Internet that Gaohe Automobile had a large-scale layoff, which has made Gaohe Automobile the focus of attention in the industry. However, the manufacturer refuted the rumors in a timely manner, saying that due to the adjustment of the company's business structure, it is normal for personnel to flow. "A large number of positions are being recruited, and all businesses are progressing normally. And within a few days of 2024, the news that Gaohe Automobile would stop production for half a year was exposed.
In fact, the price of Gaohe automobile products was more than 500,000 yuan, as one of the few "luxury" models in China that can sell the best and have a certain sales, once breaking the ceiling of domestic pure electric vehicles. However, on the road to building a luxury brand, Gaohe Automobile is still a bit high and low, and the sales volume is a relatively embarrassing performance.
Relevant data show that in 2021 and 2022, the sales volume of Gaohe Automobile will be 4,237 and 4,349 respectively, with an average annual sales volume of less than 5,000 vehicles. As for the sales data in 2023, Gaohe Automobile has not yet been officially announced, but according to the statistics of third-party platforms, Gaohe Automobile will sell less than 5,000 vehicles in 2023, which is not as good as the monthly sales of some new car-making car companies.
It is worth mentioning that in the sales volume of Gaohe Automobile in 2023, the main contribution model is Hiphi Y, and the official guide price of the car is 339-45.90,000 yuan, which belongs to the low-cost model launched by Gaohe Automobile. The cumulative sales of HiPhi Z and HiPhi X, which are priced at more than 500,000 yuan, were still about two or three hundred units last year.
Therefore, no matter from which point of view, the sales volume of Gaohe Automobile cannot be directly proportional to the investment. This kind of business state can make the company survive for a few years is a miracle, but luck cannot always favor Gaohe Automobile, so it is normal for it to stop production and even go bankrupt.
The product lacks competitiveness, and the financing burns not enough money to spend
Before starting the dream of making cars, most of the new car-making forces solved the capital problem through financing and the production capacity problem through the foundry. With the deepening of the market, some new car-making automakers are also learning from traditional car companies and increasing investment in R&D, production capacity, and channels to enhance their comprehensive competitiveness and occupy a place in the market.
For example, NIO has not only built a complete battery swap station across the country, but also has a self-developed intelligent driving chip, a self-developed global 900V high-voltage architecture, and a Tianxing intelligent chassis system, successfully empowering product strength. Even Xpeng Motors, which has slightly worse sales, has a full-stack self-developed Xpilot 30 intelligent assisted driving system and other advantages to enhance the selling point of the product.
In contrast, despite being a luxury brand, Gaohe Automobile does not have its own production base, and at the same time lacks competitiveness in the field of hard-core technology. For example, the HiPhi X uses Bosch's motor system, and the rear-wheel steering system is supported by Aisin technology. The lack of independent research and development capabilities not only causes the lack of core technology of Gaohe Automobile, but also the high cost of car manufacturing and the lack of initiative in the world.
At the same time, in 2023, the "first-class war" will reorganize the first-class system of new energy models, which will make it even worse for high-end high-end automobiles, and the decline in sales is inevitable.
In addition, the strategic cooperation between Gaohe Automobile and Saudi Arabia, which was rumored in the industry a few years ago, did not immediately solve the financial problems currently faced by Gaohe Automobile. In the context of not being able to achieve a substantial increase in sales to save itself and turn losses into profits, Gaohe Automobile now wants to survive, and financing blood transfusion is just a drop in the bucket.
The reshuffle has intensified, and the new forces of car manufacturing are a bit bad
After being eliminated in the first few rounds, the remaining few new car-making car companies have not escaped the wheel of fate, and the predicament faced by Gaohe Automobile now also indicates the pressure faced by the new car-making car companies in the future. Even if ideal, Weilai, Xiaopeng, Leap and other car companies with stable sales at the moment cannot stabilize, let alone Gaohe Automobile, which has no sales. It can be seen that the new car-making forces that were once pinned on high hopes are now encountering difficulties, which is an inevitable trend in the transformation of the automobile industry.
First of all, traditional car companies have successfully transformed into new energy vehicles and fully developed mid-to-high-end and high-end fields, further compressing the development space of new car-making forces. Compared with the new car-making forces in terms of production capacity, traditional car companies give full play to the comprehensive strength of large manufacturers, quickly change the old concept in just two or three years, and perform more fashionable and avant-garde than the new car-making forces in product design. Among them, high-end new energy brands launched by traditional car companies such as AVATAR, Wenjie, Zhiji, VOYAH, Denza, and Yangwang can set off waves in the market and seize the few market shares of new car manufacturers, and this situation is further intensifying.
Second, the new car-making forces cannot form a differentiation in hard-core technology. Taking the ideal as an example, the reason why the sales volume has been good in the past two years is largely due to the large space, many configurations and the small selection of extended-range new energy products, but there is still a question mark whether this advantage can continue. In contrast, traditional new energy vehicle companies have strong R&D strength, can continue to launch better new products, and easily disrupt the new energy market, which is also missing from the new car-making forces.
In the view of "Car One Circle": If in the past few years, the market has given new forces the opportunity to make cars, then now the balance of the market has tilted. Traditional car companies have obvious advantages in technology, production capacity, capital, channels, and chains, and at the same time have a more advanced awareness and stronger explosive power in the field of new energy, and will become the dominant market in the future.
On the other hand, the new forces of car manufacturing are obviously weak in the current fierce competition market, in addition to insufficient product power and limited production capacity, there is also the biggest shortcoming of insufficient funds. If you can't achieve sales increase and break even for a period of time, then when the money in your hands is burned out, the ending will be similar to the fallen "brothers" such as Aiways, Skyrim, Weimar, and Gaohe.