Most of the more than 500 registered companies in the first half of this year are in the "PPT car manufacturing" stage——
The new forces of car building usher in the "speed of life and death"
Yang Zhongyang, reporter of Economic Daily and China Economic Net
Since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the elimination of new car-building forces has accelerated. Even the leading companies Weilai, Weimar, Ideal and Xiaopeng have also experienced the severe test of "life and death". Experts said that in the face of the unprecedented changes in the overall restructuring of the industry, the new car-making forces have sufficient psychological expectations to deal with the long-term and tortuous nature of development, focus on the main business unwaveringly, keep the integrity and boldly innovate.
The boss of Serin ran away, Bo County was suspended, Byton "bye bye"... Since the beginning of this year, the knockout competition of new car-building forces has accelerated significantly. In the face of Tesla's competition and the gradual cooling of the capital market, even the leading companies Weilai, Weimar, Ideal and Xiaopeng have to "remember hardships and think about changes."
Why is it so difficult to build a car? How should the road go? Who can survive till the end?
Knockout acceleration
A few days ago, Byton China has entered a phase of shutdown and production. At the same time, BYTON's North American and German offices initiated the bankruptcy application process. This means that another new car-building force will soon leave the public eye.
Coincidentally, Bojun’s office in Minhang District, Shanghai was seized on the same day. Although Huang Ximing, the founder and general manager of Bojun Automobile, has made a promise to actively solve the difficulties, it is almost an indisputable fact that Bojun is "cool".
Prior to this, the Intermediate People's Court of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province seized all the assets of Jiangsu Sailin Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch in accordance with the law.
With the emergence of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution, in recent years, new power companies in car manufacturing have sprung up. According to incomplete statistics, the number of registrations of such enterprises has reached more than 500. However, the current development of new forces in car-making is not satisfactory, and most brands are still at the stage of "PPT car-making".
Passenger car terminal insurance data in the first six months of this year shows that there are only 20 companies with insurance data in new car manufacturers, totaling more than 44,000 vehicles. Among them, Weilai, Weimar, Ideal, Xiaopeng, and Hezhong are the top 5 Companies accounted for 91% of the total, and the market concentration was high. In addition, the cumulative sales of the three companies of Speed, Leaprun, and Guoji Zhijun in the first half of the year were about 1,000, and the three companies of Ai Chi, Jinkang and Yundu exceeded one hundred. The sales of Xinte, Yangtze River and Guojin were in double digits. The sales of car companies such as Lin, Tianji, Singularity, Min'an, and Tianmei are only single digits.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Information Association, divided the new power car companies into three echelons: the first echelon includes five car companies, Weilai, Weimar, Xiaopeng, Ideal and Hezhong, all of which have market influence. The main models, even under the influence of the epidemic, the sales in the first half of this year are also picking up. These leading companies have smooth financing and have clear development plans, which are worth looking forward to. The second echelon includes auto companies such as Ai Chi, Qiantu, Xinte, Yundu, etc., which have mass-produced models, but monthly sales are very small, and it is difficult to obtain financing. Currently, their operations are frustrated. The third echelon is the vast majority of new power car companies that have no mass-produced models until now, such as Byton, Qiantu, and Singularity. They have almost no "future" and are being eliminated by the market at an accelerated rate.
"The past two years will be a critical period for new car-building forces to face severe challenges." said Liu Zongwei, an associate researcher at the Institute of Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy of Tsinghua University. "As the pressure of competition continues to increase, it is expected that new car-building forces will become polarized. It has become increasingly obvious that companies that cannot gain a foothold and expand their advantages during this period will be ruthlessly eliminated by the market."
Where is the difficulty of building a car
"The reason for the emergence of so many new car companies is that the country encourages the development of new energy vehicles, and that it is no longer necessary for electric vehicles to overcome engine and transmission technology. Everyone feels that the barriers to car manufacturing have been lowered." Tsinghua University Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy Zhao Fuquan, the dean of the research institute, said that in fact, lowering the threshold means more competition, and it is more difficult to make differentiated products. From traditional internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles, although the threshold of the power system has indeed been lowered, the requirements for basic functions such as the body, chassis, electronic and electrical systems and braking and steering have not been reduced at all.
Automobile is a typical long-term, heavy investment, and high-barrier industry. Zhao Fuquan said that a car needs a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources from early market research, product planning, to design and development, manufacturing, and operation and sales. Without strong technology and strong capital, it is difficult for a company to survive. In the end, "automobiles have always been an industry with extremely low survival rates for startups."
"The biggest challenge for the current new car-building forces is delivery." Weimar Motors founder Shen Hui said: "Only when vehicles are delivered to offline users in a large area, can the name of "fudge" be washed away."
At the same time, large-scale capital investment is also a test for new power auto companies. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, once said that due to heavy assets, large investment, and short-term profitability, 20 billion yuan is only a "starting point" for making cars. In the first quarter of this year, Weilai Automobile raised US$435 million and exchanged 24.1% of its equity for a strategic investment of 7 billion yuan by the Hefei Municipal Government. At present, the total financing amount of Weilai Automobile is as high as 54.3 billion yuan, and the output has exceeded 50,000 vehicles, but it has not yet achieved profitability.
In addition, automobiles have very high requirements for product technology and safety, and the improvement of the ability of the automobile manufacturing system is by no means a day's work. Even for the Evergrande Group, which has strong financial strength, the road to car building has not been smooth sailing. On the road of real estate enterprises transforming to build cars, Evergrande is ahead of Baoneng, Wanda, Country Garden, Wantong, and China Fortune Land Development. The current progress is generally not smooth. Two years after Baoneng entered Qoros, it did not bring about advances in concepts, technology, management, and systems, so much so that Qoros relied mostly on internal digestion, and sales declined.
How to go
"No car manufacturer can achieve long-term development without the support of products and markets." said Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. "For the new forces in car manufacturing, only continuous improvement of product and brand market competition In order to survive the current fierce competition, some car companies that have not achieved mass production must have products that can be obtained. If they are separated from the product, they will only talk about models and services, and they will inevitably be eliminated by the market."
Zhao Fuquan told reporters that the market performance of the first car of the new car-making forces largely determines its survival. "Although there is no historical burden on the new forces of car-making, it is difficult to support the survival and development of enterprises only with the production and sales of tens of thousands of vehicles a year. After all, the automotive industry needs continuous R&D investment, and continuous investment needs sales as strong support. "In Zhao Fuquan's view, only by creating a variety of star products and increasing the volume as soon as possible, can new car-making forces form a scale effect and enhance their competitiveness.
With the deepening of industrialization and the increase in sales, the problems encountered by new forces in car-making will also increase exponentially. On the one hand, large-scale production puts forward higher requirements on the comprehensive guarantee ability of product quality, sales and service, which is undoubtedly lacking in new car-making forces with limited experience; on the other hand, new car-making forces must strive to cultivate New selling points of distinctive products and new brand connotations.
"Faced with the unprecedented changes in the overall restructuring of the industry, new car-building forces should persist in focusing on their main business and have sufficient psychological expectations for the long-term and tortuous nature of the development of new technologies." Liu Zongwei suggested that new car-making forces must " Keeping integrity is surprising", on the basis of fully respecting the basic laws of the automobile industry and steadily doing a good job in research and development, procurement, production, sales, service and other links, boldly innovate and even launch revolutionary new solutions to try to lead the future industry direction .
In addition, new car-making forces must have more and stronger technical capabilities and resource control capabilities. "It used to be enough to make the engine and transmission well, but now it won’t work if you don’t do electric technology, or intelligent network technology; it’s no longer enough to do hardware alone, you must do software; if the hardware and software are done, it’s not enough. System integration needs to be done, and a series of issues such as how to lay out the business model must be considered." Zhao Fuquan said that in the face of changes, although the new forces in car-building have great challenges, there are more opportunities.
"Tesla has also experienced many difficulties such as continuous product quality problems, inability to deliver orders on time, continuous losses, etc., but it has survived. This is an inspiration to China's new car-building forces. It is not entirely lack of opportunity, but full of hope. The competition is still going on, and it’s hard to say who wins and who loses.” An Qingheng, director of the China Automotive Industry Advisory Committee, insisted, “We must have confidence in the development of emerging industries and enterprises. The top priority is to have a unified understanding, adapt to the situation, and work hard. ,Stick to it".
The restructuring of the automobile industry is a long marathon, and different participants are bound to enter the track. "In this process, there will be many new attempts, and there will definitely be a lot of tuition fees, and even a group of pioneers will become'martyrs.' These are all normal phenomena, and they are also a process of great waves and sands that must be experienced for successful industrial restructuring." Zhao Fuquan Said.