Core TipsAuthor |Zhu Xiaoyu, Chen Fashan.At the beginning of 2024, the Gaohe crisis will bring a warning to other new car-making forces, how to survive under the first war.
Edit |Xing Yun.
** The ceiling, after all, is no match for the sales of the floorGaohe Automobile, a luxury electric vehicle brand that takes the "small but beautiful" route, has been caught in a storm of shutdown since the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.
For a period of time, rumors about Gaohe Automobile's arrears of commercial payments, layoffs and suspension of wages, and tight capital chain have been fermenting, and finally became a reality on the first working day of the Year of the Dragon.
On February 18, Gaohe Automobile held an internal meeting and announced that it would suspend work and production for half a year from now on.
In the past two years, as the competition of new energy vehicles has entered the deep water area, a number of former star car companies, including Weimar, Tianji, Aiways, and Reading, have fallen one after another. Under the continuous downward exploration of high-end sub-brands and joint venture luxury cars launched by independent brands, Gaohe is not having a good time taking the high-end route, and it is frequently questioned whether it will become the next one to fall.
During this period, Gao He also had a short highlight moment. In June 2023, the high-profile official announced that it had received a $5.6 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's "local tyrants". The outside world once optimistically estimated that this huge investment was enough for Gaohe to "burn" for a while, but in fact, Gaohe, who was "shy in his pocket", was unable to meet the prerequisites for investment: the establishment of a joint venture company to open up overseas markets also made this money disappear.
The external blood transfusion was blocked, and Gaohe spent eight months, and finally came to the situation of stopping production and work, but had to face a more severe competitive environment. Just after the 2024 Lunar New Year, BYD, Wuling, and Nezha will "flip the table" to start a battle, and at the same time, including He Xiaopeng, founder of Xiaopeng Motors, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, and other industry bigwigs, all predict that 2024 will be a year of unprecedented fierce competition.
In the face of the predicament, although Gaohe has released a lot of positive signals, it is difficult to stabilize the morale of the army with "no food in hand". In order to protect their rights, many first-class businessmen and employees chose to vote with their feet and stand on the opposite side of Gaohe, which objectively increased the difficulty of Gaohe's tossing and turning. If you lose the time, people and Gaohe, can you survive 2024? Who can save Gao He?
1. From the store to the headquarters, Gaohe is in a crisis
6 months after Gaohe Automobile was revealed to have stopped work and productionDelivery stores, factories, headquarters and merchants are in a critical moment.
According to Jiemian News, on February 18, Gaohe Automobile announced internally that the company would completely suspend work and production for 6 months, and the wages of employees before February 18 would be paid as usual; Employees who remained in Gaohe Automobile before March 15 will only be paid basic salary; After March 15, employees will only be paid their local basic salary.
Since February 19, "Leopard Change" has visited several Beijing experience stores and delivery centers and found that Beijing Gaohe Fangcaodi Experience Center, Wukesong Huaxi Live Store, Century Jinyuan, Beijing Qinghe Vientiane City, etc., have all withdrawn stores. Beijing Blue Harbor and Beijing Wufang Tianya Delivery Center are still in operation.
Leopard Change" went to the Beijing Chaoyang Blue Harbor Gaohe Experience Center, and was told that there were no test drive vehicles for consumers to experience, and only Wufang Tianya Delivery Center in Beijing still had test drive vehicles.
Although Wufang Tianya is still in business, the staff said that "the test drive was done, and the current car was not delivered, and the current car seemed to have been mortgaged when it was pulled away." At present, there has been a mass departure of in-store sales, and only a few personnel are still on standby, and staff said they are also waiting for two months of salary arrears.
The dealers that Gaohe Automobile cooperates with are also in a passive position. In a car enthusiast***, a dealer posted "Gaohe Hiphi Y, 19990,000 yuan fixed price" screenshot went viral, this original guide price of 3390,000-45The 90,000 yuan car was hit at half price overnight, and many group friends expressed their heart.
Not long ago, there were a number of ** reports that car dealers are going to sell a batch of high-tech hiphi x quasi-new used cars, these vehicles will be licensed in 2024, and now **29980,000 yuan** processing.
The current guide price of the new car is 570,000 to 800,000 yuan, and the configuration is equipped with a 97kWh CATL ternary lithium battery pack, with a range of up to 630km.
A sales officer of Gaohe Automobile told "Leopard Change" that Gaohe Automobile is indeed much cheaper than in the past recently, but the official channels are far from reaching the level of 190,000 9 reported on the Internet, some discounts of one or two thousand, and some more, depending on the age and model.
According to the departing salesperson,Although Gaohe Automobile has completely suspended production and production, in order to protect the normal rights and interests of car owners, the company has given priority to ensuring the operation of after-sales and trading centers。In stores nationwide, only the salaries of delivery centers and after-sales staff are maintained, and it is unclear whether the full amount will be paid.
The chaos in the factory is far greater than in the store. Many employees went to the Yancheng factory in Jiangsu Province for several days to defend their rights and demand compensation, but to no avail.
A factory worker revealed to "Leopard Change".Since December 2023, the Yancheng plant has entered semi-production, and there are no more new materials**, only the remaining original partsAfter January, the company began to stop work, and the company confiscated the company's computer on the grounds of inventory. On February 7, the internal notice canceled the year-end and salary cuts, and it was not until there was a ** revelation that the employees knew that they would be suspended for 6 months.
In the crisis of Gaohe, the outsourcing of the Yancheng factory was laid off, and the employees were compensated, but the regular employees were dragged to death because of the shutdown, not only did they not have compensation, but even the wages were very uncertain until now, and many employees could only choose to leave voluntarily.
According to Tencent News' "Frontline", there are currently about 4,100 regular employees in Gaohe Automobile, and only a small number of production line maintenance personnel are on duty at the factory. If all the compensation is paid, this is a lot of financial pressure for Gaohe Automobile, which is currently in a situation.
Red Star Capital Bureau reported that on February 19, the leaders of relevant departments in Yancheng City received representatives of factory employees and said that they would set up a special team as soon as possible to help solve related problems. There were no representatives from the Gaohe side in attendance.
2. Poor sales and "suffocation" for dreams
As a new power brand that used to be "the most expensive in China", Human Horizons, the parent company of HiPhi Automobile, was established in 2017, and two years later, HiPhi officially launched its HiPhi brand.
Ding Lei, the founder of Gaohe, is a "god" in the automotive industry, with experience in politics and business and resource contacts, and has worked in Shanghai Volkswagen, Shanghai GM and SAIC for more than 20 years. In 2017, 54-year-old Ding Lei started his old car-making business.
Different from the car-making road of the mainstream new forces, Ding Lei chose the strategy of holding high and fighting high from the beginning, and Gaohe Automobile has launched a total of 3 mass-produced models so far, from the first mass-produced HiPhi X in 2020 to the HiPhi Z in 2022, all of which focus on the luxury car market, with a price of up to 800,000 yuan.
In many interviews with Ding Lei, he will say that this entrepreneurship is to create works, not just commodities. "Southern People Weekly" previously reported that in the first half of 2018, Gaohe has been thinking internally, what kind of car should be built? The team took out the clay models of the seven cars they designed, and in the end, Ding Lei knocked them all out after thinking about it for 10 minutes.
However, being a subversive is destined to be a difficult road. According to the data released by the Passenger Car Association, since the first product was launched at the end of September 2020, the sales volume of Gaohe Automobile in 2020 is unknown, and the sales volume from 2021 to 2022 are 4,237 and 4,520 units, respectively.
By the time the third model, the Hiphi Y, was launched in 2023, Gaohe began to turn to the mid-to-high-end market, 3390,000 yuan to 45The price of 90,000 yuan has been lowered compared with the previous two cars, and with the sales of overseas chong, the sales volume of Gaohe in 2023 will be 8,681 units.
The cumulative sales of 17,438 vehicles in three years are not as good as the monthly sales of other new power brands. Taking Li Auto as an example, in the first month of 2024, Li Auto delivered a total of 31,165 new cars.
The sales volume of the three models of Gaohe in the past year. Data**: Understand Chedi.
Its own hematopoietic ability is limited, which has buried a huge pit for Gaohe. Although Ding Lei is rich in resources in the political and business circles, and has the support of local state-owned assets such as Yancheng and Qingdao in the early stage of car building, he has not worried about funds, but on this road that continues to burn money, how to find more funds is always a compulsory course.
In 2023, Gaohe began to advertise that it had received investment from Middle Eastern capital, but it had not yet arrived.
According to the news at the time, the Saudi Ministry of Investment and Human Horizons signed an investment agreement worth about US$5.6 billion (40 billion yuan) to establish a joint venture engaged in vehicle research and development, manufacturing and sales. But so far, the high merger has not responded to the specifics.
Gaohe Automobile has said that Saudi Arabia's investment is a package agreement, which will be implemented from 2024 to 2030, in addition to the equity investment in Human Horizons, it also includes the construction of factories in Saudi Arabia, smart transportation smart cities, and the creation of a first-class chain ecosystem.
The life-saving money of the Middle Eastern tyrants is just an empty joy in the end.
A person in the automotive industry told "Leopard Change" that as a new power brand, Gaohe Automobile can obtain financing to establish a company, integrate factories and transform production lines, which is already very human. Precisely because the decision-maker is a very human genius,The experience of superior conditions leads them to be ungrounded, do not eat fireworks, and do not know what the market needs, which becomes the core reason for their failure.
Industry insiders believe that "as a brand positioned in the high-end market, Gaohe Automobile has no core selling point for each car. Taking Hiphi X as an example, the guide price of up to 800,000 yuan has surpassed that of traditional luxury car brands, but it has not been advertised as well-known, as well as the high-end and brand premium of its own brand. The Hiphi Y model, which focuses on high-tech luxury brands, is priced at as much as 450,000 yuan, and its technology content is not as good as the configuration of traditional new energy brands of 200,000 yuan. ”
3. Who can save Gaohe?
The hearts of the people are scattered, and the team is not easy to lead.
At about 7:30 p.m. on February 21, the live broadcast of "Gaohe" was searched on Douyin, and only two accounts such as "Gaohe Automobile Changsha High-tech" and "Gaohe Dry Security" were broadcast. Although some of them have as many as 100 people, most of them belong to the people who eat melons to watch the excitement.
In the comment area, negative comments such as "Which wronged boss is going to buy", "Bankrupt", "Gao Hehao, don't pit the poor", "Housekeeper group, no one replies to the message" and other negative messages, bombarded the anchor with social fear, and simply hid outside the camera.
Gaohe Automobile's live broadcast room was besieged by the melon-eating crowd.
And right now,**The storm has exacerbated Gaohe's predicament, and the online and offline "shutdown" has made it more and more difficult for Gaohe to save itself by selling cars and recovering funds.
Tiger Sniff previously quoted Gaohe employees as saying that before the Spring Festival, Ding Lei went to Qingdao to seek financial assistance, but in the end there was no follow-up. Red Star Capital Bureau reported that Ding Lei is still looking for financing in Shanghai, and there is no relevant investment participation at present.
In September 2023, FAW Besturn will increase its capital and settle down, and the investor behind it will appear Jiangsu Yueda Automobile Group, Yueda has a close relationship with Gaohe, and some analysts said that Yueda Group's move may be a matchmaking for Besturn and Gaohe to reach cooperation and exchanges.
It is rumored that the Saudi "local tyrant" who is most likely to become timely rain is just a void in the end, and many netizens have started their brains for Gao He: hugging Jia Yueting may be able to achieve a win-win situation.
In 2014, Jia Yueting officially announced the "SEE plan" of LETV's car. At that time, LETV car-making attracted a large number of outstanding car-making talents at home and abroad, and the lineup was luxurious. Ding Lei also resigned from public office to "go to the sea" and joined LeTV Auto in September 2015 as a co-founder. Until 2017, Jia Yueting left the United States due to LeTV's financial problems, established Faraday Future Automobile, and started "PPT car manufacturing", Ding Lei also left LeTV and started his own business.
Although the cooperation period failed to successfully launch LeTV cars, from this experience of working together,It can be seen that the two have similar car manufacturing concepts.
From the product level, in Gaohe, whether it is product positioning or appearance design, you can vaguely see the shadow of Jia Yueting Faraday's future. **All focus on a "expensive" word, Hiphi X sells for 800,000 yuan, Faraday Future is more expensive, and the price of FF91 models is around 2 million yuan, which far exceeds the consumption power of ordinary wage earners.
In terms of styling, Gaohe and Faraday Future both pursue a sense of science fiction futurism, and the muscular sense and styling outline of the body lines of Hiphi X and FF91 are quite similar. Some people ridiculed: It is worthy of being an old colleague who used to build a car together, and the positioning and aesthetics of the car are very consistent, and Jia Yueting's dream of building a car was "fulfilled" by Ding Lei.
Since leaving the United States to build cars, Faraday Future has frequently jumped tickets due to its delay in mass production, and if the two cooperate, not only the production line will be available, but even the production model will be solved. At that time, superimposed on Jia Yueting's marketing capabilities, it is not impossible to make the cooperative car sell well.
However, the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny, and the biggest problem is that Faraday Future seems to be more short of money than Gaohe. After hiding in the United States to build a car, Jia Yueting has been worrying about financing mass production. Judging from public reports, Jia Yueting can get some money from time to time, and it seems that mass production is imminent, but every time there is thunder and rain, and finally it ends hastily, so that he was ridiculed by netizens "(If it is really mass-produced, Jia Yueting will return to China next week".
Looking at the luxury car industry, sales are often inversely proportional to **, relying on high pricing and high gross profit to survive. Even so, most luxury cars also need to be "backed by a big tree to enjoy the shade".For example, Lamborghini and Porsche belong to Volkswagen, and Rolls-Royce belongs to the BMW Group.
In contrast, the young Gaohe Automobile lacks both the brand appeal of traditional luxury cars and the thighs to hug, and how to get out of the quagmire is a big challenge in the case of poor sales.
Back in early 2022, Ding Lei was asked on CCTV's "Dialogue Challenger" column "Have you ever thought that Gaohe would fail one day", and he replied: We have been thinking about this question, anxiety is useless, and no one will give me an answer. However, when our internal management team discussed, we made plans for different situations ......If all the factors are combined, there will be a sudden accident, it must be that we have not done a good job in front of us.