Dugo.
Photographed at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2023.
The increasingly volatile automobile market is accelerating the survival of the fittest. Only in the camp of new car-making forces, there are so many companies that appear on the "death list" every year, and this year's leader is only high-end Gaohe Automobile.
Following WM, Ziyoujia, Aiways, and Skyline, recently, Gaohe Automobile officially announced the "shutdown", which will suspend work and production for 6 months from now on, and at the same time provide negotiation and fast signing channels and corresponding compensation plans for employees who want to leave during the shutdown.
Although corporate employees are the direct victims of the collapse of car companies, they have also suffered heavy blows to relevant car owners, ** merchants and dealers. For example, Qingdao auto parts ** Shanghai Taike (301022SZ) suddenly posted a net profit decline of 5402%-59.53% of the earnings forecast, said that Gaohe Automobile announced the suspension of production and all payments, resulting in a discrepancy in the previous performance judgment.
In the new energy vehicle market, there is no eternal winning general. It is foreseeable that in 2024, the competition between the new forces of car manufacturing will become more intense, and those players with shallow roots and weak foundations may face a "fatal" crisis if they are not careful.
Gaohe Automobile will not be the last to fall this year, and some new forces and traditional car companies may also follow in their footsteps. When the time comes, car owners, employees, and supporting enterprises, how to find the "parachute"?
The fringe player fell in the cold winter
The advent of the era of new energy vehicles has given China's independent brands the opportunity to rise, but at the same time, it has also exacerbated the cruelty of the knockout competition. Even with the dividends of the outlet, some new forces are still struggling on the brink of life and death.
As early as 2017, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said publicly at an automobile forum: "The competition will be more fierce in the future, especially in the next five years."Personally, I think it would be very satisfying for Chinese brands to have about five (alive) in the future if they don't expand their presence to the global fieldOf course, 5-10 is not impossible, but I think it may not be so nourishing. ”
At that time, many people thought that Zhu Huarong's speech was a bit alarmist, but looking at it now, we find that his predictions are more like taking precautions.
Take the new forces as an example, those who have not been able to reach the head of the market in recent years, and do not have a deep technical background and capital reserves, have inevitably suffered the fate of being eliminated.
For example, there were once new forcesWM Motor, one of the members of the "Four Little Dragons", has been in a shaky state after admitting financial pressure in 2022.
In October last year, WM Motor started the reorganization plan and submitted a pre-reorganization application to the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court. In January this year, the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network announced that WM Motor's reorganization procedure had been accepted by the court. WM Motor also revealed on its official Weibo that it has recently negotiated with a number of potential investors.
The latest news is that WM New Energy Vehicle Sales (Shanghai)** has added 4 new information on the person subject to execution, with a total of more than 40.93 million yuan in the subject matter, involving cases such as sales contract disputes. The risk information shows that the company has more than 30 pieces of information on the person subject to execution, and the total amount of execution exceeds 1800 million yuan.
Also in distress are Hengchi Automobile, Aiways, Tianji Automobile, etc. Among them, Aiways is deeply involved in negative ** such as broken capital chain, arrears of wages, and arrears of rent. Finally, it was filed for bankruptcy liquidation in December last year, and the applicant was Anji Automobile Logistics (Shanghai)**, mainly because Aiways Shanghai Company was unable to pay off its due debts and obviously lacked solvency.
The relatively innocuous Skyline Auto was frequently rumored to have a tight capital chain as early as 2022, and then began to stop production in April last year. A few days ago, Tianji Automotive Technology Group and its Zhejiang Electric Coffee Auto Parts Manufacturing Co., Ltd. added a new information on the person subject to execution, and the execution target 1More than 100 million yuan.
Nowadays, it is not surprising that Gaohe Automobile, which everyone is more concerned about, failed to hold up. In January this year, it was revealed that the company had laid off employees in disguise since October last year, involving a number of employees working in the Laixi plant of BAIC New Energy, and the news that Gaohe Automobile had been promoting to obtain investment from "local tyrants" in the Middle East also appeared variable.
Although Gaohe Automobile refuted the rumors many times during the period, it still ushered in the moment of "slapping the face", and announced the suspension of work and production for 6 months on the first day of resumption of work during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon. This is equivalent to directly announcing the withdrawal from the track, and then it depends on whether there are peers who can take over.
It is foreseeable that the phenomenon of new forces piling up "bankruptcy" may continue, in addition to the brands mentioned above, there are many signs of falling behind, and no one wants to be next.
Car owners and businessmen are complaining
With the gradual maturity and improvement of the new energy vehicle market, the survival of the fittest, bankruptcy and bankruptcy of enterprises will become more and more commonplace, but the resulting "worries" are also increasing. For the employees of related enterprises, car owners, businessmen, and dealers, it is a "slap in the head".
For example, WM Motor, car owners are still complaining to this day. Not only can the vehicle only be repaired to some roadside repair shops, the car machine and software upgrades are completely stagnant, and the second-hand car cannot be sold, etc., and even some car owners have revealed that they have received a notice from the insurance company's salesman that due to the suspension of production of WM Motor, the problem of accessories is easy to rip off, and all car insurance companies no longer underwrite WM Motor's car damage insurance.
Relatively speaking, the car owners of the self-traveling family are lucky, after all, they have not been able to actually drive a new car. At the beginning of December 2022, Ziyoujia issued a statement on multiple platforms, saying that due to its own reasons, NV could not be delivered in the short term, and a full refund would be issued within 48 hours, and a model NV car and a 200 yuan Starbucks consumption card were prepared as compensation.
The NV is the first mass-produced model of the Ziyoujia brand, which was launched in October 2022 with a price range of 27880,000 31880,000 yuan, there are two versions: pure electric version and extended range version. Officially, since its listing, there have been 24,376 NV intending users.
This also means,More than 20,000 self-traveling intent users waited for two months to come with a car model and a Starbucks consumption card.
Gaohe Automobile is a more conscientious one, and has come up with a follow-up plan for employees and car owners. For employees, Hi-Hop Auto said that it will pay severance payments, wages in lieu of notice and outstanding wages to employees who signed the agreement before March 1, that is, the statutory "N+1" compensation provided to employees when the employer terminates the labor relationship.
However, this compensation cannot be paid to employees immediately. According to the announcement, combined with the current financial situation of Gaohe Automobile, the compensation will be compensated at a monthly rate of 25% from September to December this year.
As for the car owners, Gaohe Automobile said that it is currently making every effort to take various relief measures, during which it will take the user's service operation, vehicle after-sales maintenance and other related work as the highest priority, and will strive to ensure that the vehicle's after-sales service, Internet of Vehicles related function maintenance, HiPhi APP vehicle control function, community section can be used normally. At the same time, it will work with Yancheng Yueda Zhichuang New Energy Automobile to provide users with after-sales service guarantee.
It's just that the employees and car owners have taken it into account, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for the business to take care of it. **Shanghai Tech said in the announcement that because the customer Human Horizons (Shandong) Technology*** informed the company on February 26, 2024 that it had stopped work and production and suspended all payments, the company made impairment and price decline for accounts receivable and inventory involving the company, which led to a difference from the previous performance judgment.
Specifically, Hitech made an impairment and price decline for accounts receivable and inventory involving Human Horizons (Shandong), of which the single provision for inventory price decline loss was about 9.85 million yuan, and the individual provision for credit impairment loss was about 4.03 million yuan, which had an impact on net profit of about 11.8 million yuan.
On the bright side are employees and car owners, and on the dark side are ** businessmen and dealers, and every new force that came to the edge of life and death finally made the people around them "hurt".
Author |Li Li.
* |Carvisibility