New energy vehicles are now a game of werewolf killing.
Please close your eyes when it's dark, it's the one who was stabbed tonight - Gao He. ”
Before the turmoil in Gaohe, the "villagers" such as Weimar and Hengchi had fallen. The witch with the antidote, that is, the investor with the funds in hand, also belongs to the "landlord's family has no surplus grain", and is unwilling to burn money to save people, the car sales list is the prophet, and the top three brands are those who have already gotten the gold water, and they can buy it with confidence.
Gaohe may be a little unfamiliar, but "return to China next week" Jia Yueting's Faraday ff91Everyone must have heard of it, there are actually many connections between Gaohe and Faraday ff91, these two cars can be said to be products made by LeTV.
In 2015, Ding Lei, then the deputy mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area, was invited by Jia Yueting to join LETV, the former vice president of SAIC became the head of LETV's car-making business, and in 2017, Boss Jia, who returned to China next week, lost contact, Ding Lei was not depressed, but relied on his own connections and resources to invest and establish Human Horizons, and it also brought Bosch to these top business partners, and founded Gaohe, so Gaohe's first car, Hiphi X, priced at 630,000, achieved annual sales of 6000 units. At one time, it was called the most luxurious electric coupe brand.
Jia Yueting and Ding Lei, who used to suffocate their dreams together, are not having a good time, and now Boss Jia's Faraday Future is in arrears of 9The rent of 10,000 US dollars was sued, and at the same time, Ding Lei's Gaohe Automobile also announced that it would stop production for 6 months, but LeTV relied on the copyright fee of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" to live very well.
Today, let's talk about what signals are revealed by Gaohe's suspension of production, from not being bad for money to being pulled by ** businessmen to pull banners?
Not all cars are called Q Boundary
Before cooperating with Huawei, Thalys's fame and prestige on the Chinese Internet were obviously not as high as they are today - the models produced were Dongfeng Xiaokang with an average price of 5W; After Huawei's empowerment, the Cialis assembly line produces the Wenjie M9 with a starting price of 46WIn the case of the lack of physical cars in the store, the blind booking exceeds 5w units
The confidence of this achievement, one is the Kirin 9000S chip and the endorsement of Comrade Raimondo, which makes Huawei's brand story full of dragon Aotian-style cool text, and the other is Huawei's technical accumulation in the ICT field for so many yearsThis car is a product of Huawei, which is the reason why consumers have no scruples to make money.
In stark contrast, the most asked question in sales of Gaohe is not car configuration and **, but more "Will the car factory go out of business?" For these brands at the end of the sales list, classic car owners are more anxious than the car factory, and the wrongdoers who have paid money to buy a car are staring at the sales list every day, "This week's sales are good, rushing out of the bottom three", ", why did the sales fall into single digits this week", I can't wait to pay for the list, which can be called a spiritual shareholder.
Gaohe, who was born out of LETV, not only does not have the influence of Huawei,But also because of Boss Jia's affairs, it is more or less negative,Ding Lei obviously wants to try his best to downplay this,Even his personal experience in LETV in 2015-2017 is silent,Even if Gaohe took over the design of the new car that has been completed by LETV 80%.
In fact, judging from the actual car performance of Hiphi X, Boss Jia said that making a car is not a joke, and he is also very attentive- The double wishbone design gets the front axle and excellent chassis tuning, so that the mechanical handling of this car is not inferior to BMW, with 3The acceleration of 100 kilometers in 8 seconds is worth the price of 60W;The mecha style and sense of line in the exterior design are also easy to capture the hearts of young people, and even the intelligent programming headlight design is earlier than Huawei's M9 application time, but it can't stand the HiPhi X is always a niche model, and it has not made a splash.
Since there is no brand appeal to make money, Gaohe can only rely on the heap configuration, and the propaganda uses the "British Treasure" audio, but it was picked up as false propaganda, which is actually a low-end domestic brand, and the already fragile high-end image is even worse.
The only thing that can be done is the bells and whistles of the top door, and a press conference is talking about the car door for half an hour, I don't know that Gaohe is the first door businessman, Weilai burns money to do battery replacement, looks up and establishes the benchmark of domestic high-end new energy vehicles, Xiaopeng's intelligent driving These are at least commendable features, all of which have formed their own brand moat, and Gaohe is left with a very cool door.
Luxury goods would rather be burned than flow into the market at a low price
Ding Lei once said "don't let ** define the grade of Gaohe", and also on a car forum, because the organizers put Gaohe and Audi, BMW, Volvo and other brands in one link and were dissatisfied, Gaohe goal wants to be an 80w car brand, but there are not many rich people in the market who recognize this value positioning.
First rely on the first to establish the luxury brand positioning, and then gradually explore the mid-range market, this is the pricing strategy of Gaohe, HiPhi X and HiPhi Z both sold 6,000 units eachHowever, because Gaohe does not have its own factory, it can only find Kia OEM manufacturing, and the production cycle and cost need to look at Kia's face, coupled with the fact that these two cars are not volume models, it is difficult to negotiate parts with **, although the price is as high as 60w, the profits that Gaohe can get are limited, and the capital chain is tight.
As a last resort, Hi-Tech had to launch the 30W HiPhi Y in advance to seize the family SUV market, the original idea was that Hi-Ho high-end brand market positioning has occupied the minds of consumers, at this time to enter the 30W grade market, will attract a large number of users because of the cheapness, and consumers will have the psychology of buying high-end cars cheaply.
But the problem is that this set of logic BBA can be played, but Gao He can't-The background and capital are not in the same rank at all- Mercedes-Benz C260 was ridiculed 30W to buy a car logo and some people pay, because Mercedes-Benz has Mai**, Mercedes-Benz has appeared since the invention of the internal combustion engine in 1862, and Gaohe has not yet passed his 10th birthday, so Hiphi Y's investment in the market has completely collapsed the image of Gaohe, and the image of the electric supercar has also been smashed by this family SUV, which has completely offended the already niche supercar market users.
And if you want to make luxury goods, if you want to make high-end cars, you have to understand,
Even if the product is rotten, it cannot enter the market at a low price.
This SUV positioned as a family model still continues the mecha style, the mecha wind is the fantasy of the little boy bumblebee deformation, but it can't attract mature and stable old men, and there are too many competing products in the market at this price, why not choose Weilai and ideal with a budget of 30W? At least you don't have to worry about the closure of the car factory every day, and your car has become a "unique piece of art".
In December 2023, the monthly sales of the three models of Gaohe will add up to 564 units, and who is panicking at this data, not to say that it is "launching the noon gate", at least it is also "going to prison" - if you want Gaohe to play another round of resurrection matches, it may be necessary for a company of Huawei's size to take over-A few days ago, didn't Banfo suggest that Audi buy Gaohe?
It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice
In terms of financial support, Gaohe is more embarrassed.
Not to mention compared with Weilai, Li Bin of Weilai has raised more than 20 rounds of financing in 8 years, with a total financing amount of 100 billion yuan; Even brands such as Nezha and Leap are backed by big trees to enjoy the cool - SAIC and GAC can give a steady stream of blood transfusions to their new energy vehicle brands through the cash cow of the fuel vehicle business, not to mention that Wei Xiaoli has already been listed.
The Human Horizons behind Gaohe is hard to say, the head is the former general manager of SAIC, and later cooperated with Jia Yueting, after the LeTV crisis, he founded Human Horizons, with the contacts and resources accumulated over the years, he scraped together the ** chain and funds, but the automobile is an asset-heavy industry, and the money is not enough to burn,In the intelligent driving sector alone, if you want to achieve the first echelon, you need to store 5,000 engineers, and you need to be prepared to lose $15 billion before entering the profitable stage.
Due to the downturn in the real estate market, Man Jinghua, the major shareholder of Human Horizons, is unable to come up with more money to support Gaohe, a big cash-burning company that may not see income in five years - because of the impact of force majeure, it will be even more difficult to go public in the United States after 2022 to absorb funds, and Weimar will also be dragged to death because it cannot be listed.
In 2021, Gaohe's annual sales volume will be 6000+, attracting investment from Qingdao and Yancheng**, and to some extent, it can also be said to have a backer, but what we see is: now Gaohe is in difficulty, but the willingness of these two companies to lend a hand is not very strong - this is because Qingdao also invested in Chery in the same period, and now Chery is the first in overseas sales, and it is expected to be listed before 2025, Qingdao will get a considerable return on investment, in contrast, Gaohe is forced to stop production due to sluggish sales-You are an investor, how will you choose?
The previously rumored investment of $5.6 billion in Saudi Arabia's sovereign ** has not been followed, and it really cannot be compared with other people's NIO in this regard - NIO at least has its own blood-making ability, even if it wants to renegotiate with Middle Eastern capital, it has much more cards in its hand than Gaohe.
Unlucky Gaohe employees and businessmen
Suspension of production - arrears of wages - bankruptcy This is the path taken by WM Motor.
Gaohe had no choice but to take the first step to "stop production".In 2023, Gaohe asked Han Lu, a big V with tens of millions of fans, to help him with publicity, but the budget was only 500 yuan- This matter was on the hot search at that time.
It can be seen that Gaohe is really a little shy in his pocket, and even revealed that he owed ** merchants the payment in 2019, and he gave Gao He 10 activities in a certain year and still hasn't gotten money - there was also news that ** merchants pulled banners to ask for money before.
Internal employees revealed that because they could not pay, the first merchant required that the goods must be paid first, which also made Gaohe's production shut down and difficult to maintain.
* Business can't get money, employees can't afford to eat - according to Caixin, citing a source familiar with the matter: 3After the 15th, Gaohe only paid the minimum wage of 2,690 yuan in Shanghai, while the rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the local area was more than 3,000 yuan.
After seeing this data, the director's thoughts were darker: if the salary can't even pay the rent, then there is only one way to resign - which can be regarded as saving N+1 for the enterprise.
Not only are there unfinished buildings, but with the gradual reshuffle of new energy vehicles, unfinished cars will also appear frequently.
These brands at the end of the crane on the sales list are in a high-risk state, and BYD Qin lowered the ** to 7 at the beginning of the year98w, it is directly a bayonet to see red - some people say that 2024 will make the new energy natal year, and this year will usher in a new round of ** big involution - new energy vehicle brands with no money to burn and insufficient configuration will be out in 2024.
In 2018, there were 487 new energy vehicle manufacturers in China, and in 2023, He Xiaopeng revealed that only 50 remain. If Gaohe falls this time, it will announce that the brands created by the executives of traditional car companies are basically wiped out, and the surviving new forces have a strong Internet color from the founder to the management model, which can be called a dimensionality reduction blow to the traditional manufacturing model.
Byton, Weimar and Weilai, Ideal were once called the four tigers of the new forces, the founder of Byton is BMW executive Bi Fukang, the founder of Weimar is Geely director Shen Hui, and the founder of Tianji Automobile, which is the same trajectory as Ding Lei, Zhang Hailiang also has a strong SAIC bloodline, and these car brands have disappeared.
Efficiency is the lifeline, BMW's concept car from the auto show to the delivery of users, it takes about three years, and the new force only needs 3-6 months, BYD Seagull from the project to the trial production of the full cycle of three months, traditional car companies reduce costs at a rate of 3% per year, the new forces increase manufacturing efficiency by about 15% per year, and the cost decreases by 3-5 percent.
The iteration cycle of traditional fuel vehicles is ridiculously slow today: on average, the iterative cycle of fuel vehicles is 40-50 months, and it will take four or five years to launch a new car. For electric vehicles and later smart cars, the iteration cycle will not exceed 24 months. Taking the BYD Dynasty series as an example, from 2016 to 2021, BYD has successively launched a number of different series of models in Qin, Song, Yuan, Tang and Han, including both SUVs and family cars, and the iteration speed has almost reached one a year. After launching its first mass-produced car, the ES8, in 2017, NIO launched a series of models such as the ES6, EC6, ET7, ET5, ES7, and EC7 by the end of 2022 – also basically one a year. The Volkswagen Passat was born in 1973, and today, in the entire 50-year history, there are only nine generationsAverage 5Generation 5 years
We have written an article before, and there may be only five mainstream manufacturers of new energy vehicles in the world in the future. Because in the era of smart cars, data is the most important asset, and how many cars a manufacturer has on the road and collects data, how good the tuning of its cars, systems, and services will be.
The car brand that ranks low in terms of sales volume will only have less and less room for survival, unless it is sold to a large company to make a sub-brand, just like when Rolls-Royce was sold to the BMW Group and Bentley was sold to the Volkswagen Group.
With the entry of Huawei and Xiaomi into the car, the threshold of car manufacturing has been pulled to a very high position, the first threshold is the capital threshold, and now the development cost of a new car platform has been raised to tens of billions of yuan, and car manufacturers need to develop core components such as chips, operating systems, intelligent driving, batteries, and motors.
Another cruel reality is that since the second half of last year, the sales growth of the domestic new car market has slowed down significantly, and the first used car has collapsed directly. In a market that is no longer growing at a high speed, it is the tragic struggle of stock.
So the more brutal knockout round began, and the crisis encountered by Gaohe was only the first shot of this year's cruel knockout round.
If you want to buy a car, it's right to stare at the top of the sales list. If you choose the right platform, you will follow it in the next three years, five or even ten years, and you can enjoy the guarantee of system upgrades and service upgrades.
But if you choose the wrong one, hehe, it's hard to say.