Reporter Gong Mengze

  "From 0:00 tonight, the promotional materials and exhibition cars of the black cat and the white cat of ORA will be removed. The two cars will no longer receive orders, and the orders that have been entered into the system will not be affected." On the evening of February 15, there were European La car sales staff suddenly advertised that the black cat and white cat models had stopped selling.

  "Securities Daily" reporters checked with ORA dealers for confirmation at the first time, and got a positive answer: received a notice from the manufacturer on February 14, and will no longer accept orders for black cat and white cat models from February 15. unknown.

  Great Wall Motor's 2025 strategic plan released in June 2021 stated that by 2025, Great Wall Motor's global sales will reach 4 million vehicles, 80% of which will be new energy vehicles.

This means that Great Wall Motor's sales of new energy vehicles will increase from 137,000 in 2021 to 3.2 million in one fell swoop.

As a representative brand of new energy vehicles under Great Wall Motors, ORA will sell 135,000 units in 2021, a year-on-year growth rate of 140%, but only account for about 10% of Great Wall Motors' total sales.

  With the removal of the black cat and white cat models, the pressure of ORA's future sales growth can be imagined.

According to the data, Euler will sell 135,000 units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 140%.

Among them, the cumulative sales of black cat and white cat models exceeded 88,000 units throughout the year, accounting for 65% of the total sales of the ORA brand.

  Too many orders

  Black cat and white cat models announced to stop selling

  The reporter of "Securities Daily" learned that the current ORA brand has four models including ORA IQ, black cat, white cat and good cat.

The ORA IQ is the first model of the ORA brand, which was launched earlier and has a higher price.

After the ORA IQ, the ORA brand changed its name. "ORA R1" was renamed "Black Cat", "ORA R2" was renamed "White Cat". car market.

  A salesperson of an ORA brand 4S store in Beijing revealed to reporters: "There are also black cats and white cats show cars in the store. You can watch them, but you can't place orders." According to the salesperson, with the black cats and white cats After the sale is stopped, ORA will keep only the Haomao and Haomao GT on sale.

  Talking about the reasons for the suspension of sales of black cats and white cats, ORA official reply said, "Due to the shortage of chips, the supply of spare parts, the decline of national subsidies and many other reasons, the order backlog of black cats and white cats is large, and customers buy cars. The cycle is too long, which affects the customer experience. In order to avoid bad feelings for car owners who trust the ORA brand, taking into account all factors, stop accepting new orders for ORA black cat and white cat models. The manufacturer will coordinate internal resources to update Quickly meet the production scheduling plan for existing orders, and ensure the speed of car pickup and car purchase benefits for customers who have ordered cars.”

  ORA officials also stated that the production of black cats and white cats has not been discontinued. Currently, it is only no longer accepting new orders, and existing orders will continue to arrange production.

As for whether to temporarily not accept new orders or permanently, the official did not clarify.

  According to ORA's production plan, ORA brand will launch new products such as Ballet Cat, Punk Cat and Lightning Cat in 2022.

The above salesperson said: "Affected by factors such as the decline of the new energy subsidy policy in 2022 and the rise in raw material prices, some models of ORA may increase the price in March 2022, and each car is expected to increase by about 5,000 yuan."

  Huge sales pressure

  Want to raise prices to get rid of profit problems

  As the early models of the Euler series, the black cat and white cat sell at lower prices. Against the background of rising raw material prices and chip shortages, the profitability of these two models and their effect on brand image dissemination have been extremely limited.

The latest data shows that the total sales volume of ORA in January this year was 13,229 units, of which Haomao sold 9,020 units exclusively.

This means that the total sales volume of the black cat and white cat models in January this year was only about 4,200 units.

  It is understood that the starting price of the black cat and white cat models is only 69,800 yuan and 71,800 yuan.

The good cats currently on sale are priced from 103,900 yuan to 133,900 yuan, and the good cats GT is priced at 135,000 yuan.

Another source said that Ballet Cat will be listed in March this year, and Lightning Cat may be listed in the second quarter of this year.

  Some people believe that stopping the sale of black cats and white cats is actually a transformation of the ORA brand.

"Black cats and white cats are equivalent to the beginning of the ORA brand and low-end transitional models, and the models released after that have improved significantly in terms of price and quality. Considering the factors of limited sales and shortage of chip supply, there is no production Necessary." Insiders pointed out that after identifying the product positioning, ORA hopes to complete the brand renewal and upgrade with the help of the successively listed Ballet Cat and Lightning Cat.

  According to Zhang Xiuyang, Secretary-General of China Passenger Car Industry Alliance, with the advancement of the "Double Points" policy, Great Wall Motor's car-making concept dominated by fuel SUVs will be shaken. Core power point.

  According to the strategic plan, by 2025, Great Wall Motor's sales of new energy vehicles will jump from 137,000 last year to 3.2 million.

However, combined with the current new energy layout of Great Wall Motors, the first car of its high-end new energy brand Salon has not yet been launched, and ORA has stopped selling two models in the micro-electric market under 100,000 yuan this time, so it falls on ORA. The pressure on sales speaks for itself.

  In addition, the short-term profit prospects after the transition to new energy are also subject to consideration.

In 2021, even Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng, the three leading new car manufacturers, will be in a difficult situation.

The financial reports for the third quarter of 2021 show that all three companies are operating at a loss.

During the reporting period, Xiaopeng had a net loss of 1.595 billion yuan, Weilai had a net loss of 830 million yuan, and Ideal had a net loss of 21.5 million yuan.

As the subsidy policy declines, new energy vehicle companies will invest more capital. In order to better change the profit problem, the price band of new products of ORA has increased significantly, in order to improve the company's gross profit through higher product prices. profit.

  It is worth mentioning that the ORA brand has previously encountered large-scale user complaints.

In December 2021, CCTV Finance revealed that the "car system chip does not match the publicity" of Ora Haomao, a brand of Great Wall Motors, and it was once on the hot search.

Recently, ORA has caused market controversy due to the "secret battery upgrade".

"In the critical period of brand uplift and new models, the above-mentioned product and service quality problems should not occur." Zhang Xiuyang commented on this.

(Securities Daily)