【Introduction: With the arrival of a new round of financing of hundreds of millions of dollars from Chen Xuanlin and his Dongbai Group, the management of AIWAYS Automobile has ushered in an adjustment. Chen Xuanlin, who previously participated in aiways' multiple rounds of investment, became the chairman of AIWAYS Automobile, while Zhang Yang, who had previously served as vice president of the development of the automotive industry of WEILAI, became the CEO of AIWAYS. Fu Qiang, the founder of Aiways Automobile, only retained the position of president. 】
Written| by Zhang Dachuan and editor | Kangqiao
Compared with the upturned Wei Xiaoli, the current situation of Aichi Automobile is not good. According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the cumulative sales of Aiways in China in 2020 are only 2600 vehicles; while from January to November 2021, the cumulative sales of Aiways automobiles are 2992 vehicles, an average of less than 300 units per month. At present, aiways has only one AIWAYS U5 on sale, which is priced at 166,900-249,900 yuan after subsidies. As for another coupe model, the Aiways U6, it has not appeared for a long time. According to the sales situation in 2021 announced by Wei Xiaoli, if it is not the impact of the lack of cores, it has basically crossed the annual sales threshold of 100,000 units. If AIWAYS does not make changes, it is very likely to be pulled away by competitors at a greater distance, and then gradually marginalized.
Traditional Auto people to operate the new forces "a little tired"
Taking Fu Qiang as an example, his resume cannot be described as glamorous. Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Skoda, Volvo, in each stop Fu Qiang has made a good performance, and there is enough capital to boast. However, this success, in addition to Fu Qiang's own ability and efforts, is also largely due to the rapid growth of the domestic automobile market and the strong ability of the relevant brands themselves.
At that time, the domestic automobile market was basically occupied by foreign brands, and most of the major Ashkenazi brands operated by Fu Qiang had a good reputation in China. Even Skoda, at the beginning, was also an entry-level brand in the layout of SAIC Volkswagen, and in the era when the quality of its own brand car manufacturing was still relatively low, relying on Volkswagen's platform technology, it achieved very good sales. As for Volvo, it allowed Fu Qiang to catch up with its first wave of localization, and through localization, Volvo's sales in China stepped to a new level. On these strong brands, Fu Qiang's leadership and integration ability have been fully reflected, and it has also drawn several strokes of Fu Qiang's resume. On the traditional car track, Fu Qiang is an excellent manager who runs in front.
However, starting your own business is different from a number of new forces and serving as an executive in a strong foreign brand, especially in the current situation is not the competitors of traditional car companies, but Li Bin, Li Xiang and He Xiaopeng, who are born with Internet genes. They know how their customers operate because they are strong enough to survive the Internet industry, which is more competitive than the automotive industry. In the process of comparing with these interconnected people who have had many successful entrepreneurial experiences, the shortcomings of traditional automakers have also begun to be revealed.
The sales volume of the Aichi terminal could not be opened for a long time
At present, the first camp of new domestic forces, Wei Xiaoli, is actually not created by traditional auto people. In addition to Aichi, the other two weima and skyline companies that we are familiar with, built by traditional automakers, are also not in a good situation. The situation of Skyline Automobile and Aichi is similar, terminal sales can not be opened for a long time, and it has been opened by competitors in front of it. As for Weima, because its founder Shen Hui can still continuously raise funds from the market, it is still relatively in the second camp of new forces, but there is also the possibility of gradually being thrown away by Nezha and Zero Run. For WM, after missing the science and technology innovation board, if its heavily funded car model equipped with lidar M7 is difficult to hit, its situation will also be very passive.
In fact, from the perspective of electric vehicles, although the accumulation of traditional cars can help enterprises to establish internal processes faster in the early stage of entrepreneurship, from planning, design to car manufacturing, sales can be on the right track as soon as possible, but this practice is often only a copy of a complete set of processes of traditional car companies, and there is no way to help new car companies to make breakthroughs in concept and create a core competitiveness that is completely different from traditional car companies. On the other hand, Wei Xiaoli, the model or business model it has created is obviously from the pain points of consumers, whether it is Weilai's power exchange mode, Xiaopeng's lidar and the ideal extender, it is very focused on the pain points of consumers in the driving process, and enlarges their advantages to the maximum. On the other hand, companies such as Aichi and Tianji are new forces compared with traditional car companies, but compared with those new forces from the Internet, their Internet genes are still lacking. As a consumer, you must either accept a new force like Wei Xiaoli, or buy an electric vehicle of a traditional car brand with stronger brand appeal and a more perfect network layout. Sandwiched in the middle is not very unpopular.
In 2022, the reshuffle of new power brands is likely to intensify
From the perspective of market competition, in 2021, many new electric vehicle brands have come out. This also means that in 2022, there will be many competitive models that will make the domestic electric vehicle market more competitive. Huawei AITO's Q&A M5, Cadillac's LYRIQ, NIO's ET7/ET5, and Xiaopeng G9 will all be strong competitors in the market.
Under such circumstances, the domestic new power brand will usher in a deep reshuffle. The previous shuffle of Byton, Sailin and Bo County is likely to reappear. In the future, capital will continue to concentrate on the head enterprises, which will lead to the intensification of competition in the entire new forces and even the entire domestic electric vehicle market. Electric vehicle companies that can lead the market will be able to obtain more resources, from core technologies, product matrix to sales networks and even to explore overseas markets, continue to improve and optimize, and further increase their competitiveness. The weak new forces will no longer be favored by capital and will slowly fade out of the public's sight. As for Chen Xuanlin, who took the management of Aichi to his subordinates this time, in fact, he is also facing a lot of pressure, after all, it is difficult to pull Aichi out of the abyss with hundreds of millions of dollars. At most, this money is only enough to maintain daily operations and promote the U6 listing, which is a drop in the bucket. How the follow-up Aichi develops, we will wait and see.
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Ai chi automobile, which has vowed to be the "Tesla of China", chose to change at the beginning of the new year in 2022. Indeed, if Aichi does not carry out a complete revolution, it will inevitably be eliminated by the market. As traditional car companies will list many new electric vehicle models with strong competitiveness in 2022, relatively weak new power brands such as AIWAYS will face a new round of challenges, and there are only a few who can really survive the siege. Therefore, this reform of Aichi is also full of thorns and difficulties.
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