Text/Zhou Xiongfei
Edit/Midnight
In the past 2021, the joys and sorrows of new energy vehicle companies are not the same.
On the first day of 2022, the three "Wei Xiaoli" have shown the "report card" of December and the whole year last year, the monthly sales have exceeded 10,000, and the annual sales have approached the 100,000 mark, although they have experienced "lack of cores" and "battery shortages" in the past year, but in the overall sales volume, they are still in the top three of the new car-making forces.
Under the bustle, Aiways Automobile, which is also a new energy vehicle company, seems sad.
According to Future Auto Daily, AIWAYS Recently obtained a new round of financing, and the investors in this round of financing are from Chen Xuanlin and his Dongbai Group, and the amount of financing has reached hundreds of millions of dollars. With the injection of new funds, a high-level "blood change" also occurred.
Aiways Automobile's new round of financing information, screenshot from Tianyancha
According to the information on the official website of Aiways Automobile, its founder Fu Qiang will continue to serve as the president of Aiways Automobile, while Chen Xuanlin, as an investor, will "join" Aiways and serve as the chairman of Aiways Automobile; Zhang Yang, who was once vice president of Weilai, will serve as the CEO of Aiways Automobile.
After completing such a change, in the industry's view, the original head of Fu Qiang is likely to be marginalized, and the car-making plan after AIWAYS will be controlled by the capital represented by Chen Xuanlin.
The capital personally coordinated the construction of the car, which also revealed the current decline of Aichi.
Aiways Automobile, although it is also known as the "new force of car manufacturing", but it embarked on the track much later than "Wei Xiaoli", and was officially established in 2017. After its establishment, IT took two years for AIWAYS to obtain car-making qualifications, and at the end of 2019, it launched its first model, the AIWAYS U5.
Perhaps knowing that it is slow, after the release of the model, AIWAYS deliberately avoided the fiercely competitive domestic market and focused its main energy on the European market, and the domestic market began to lay out at the end of 2020. It seems that the double layout at home and abroad, but it turns out that the final sales did not run out.
In addition to the decline in sales, from 2020 onwards, AIWAYS Automobile has been exposed to negative news such as arrears of employee wages, supplier payments, and the departure of many executives, which has plunged AIWAYS Into the abyss step by step.
Under such a dilemma, this high-level "big blood change" has become a key node to determine the future life and death of AIWAYS Automobile.
1. The dilemma under the change of power
A power shift is taking place within Aichi.
According to the data of enterprise investigation, the new round of financing of AIWAYS Automobile has been completed, and the investors are Chen Xuanlin and his Dongbai Group. It should be noted that this round of financing is not chen Xuanlin's first investment in AICHI Automobile.
In April 2018, AIWAYS Auto announced the completion of the A round of financing, led by Shagang Group, and among the investors, in addition to Fuding Capital, FunaYuanchuang, Puyin Industry and other enterprises, there is also a company called Guangwei Holdings. Through the enterprise investigation and inquiry, it can be seen that the legal person of Guangwei Holdings is Chen Xuanlin.
According to a person familiar with the matter quoted by Future AutoMotive Daily, Chen Xuanlin, as an old shareholder, this further strategic investment has been unanimously recognized and supported by aiways' existing shareholders and founder team. Subsequently, the news that Chen Xuanlin "entered the master" Aichi was exposed.
In fact, just a few days before this year's round of financing, according to a number of media reports, Fu Qiang, who is the founder and chairman of Aiways Automobile, will be transferred away, or may be transferred to the factory to manage the production and manufacturing of Aiways. For this news, Aichi did not make any response, and for a time the industry speculated about it.
Until the completion of the new round of financing, everything is settled.
By logging on to the official website of Aiways Automobile, Lianxing found that in the core management column of the introduction page of Aiways Automobile, the position of the former chairman of Aiways Automobile was changed from its founder Fu Qiang to Chen Xuanlin, and Fu Qiang's position was changed to president of Aiways Automobile; the position of CEO of Aiways was held by Zhang Yang.
Aiways Auto management information, screenshot from AIWAYS Auto's official website
Chen Xuanlin and Zhang Yang, the new managers of AIWAYS Automobile, also know more about car manufacturing and automobile industry. The former is currently the chairman of Shanghai Zhongtong Ruide (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Zhongtong Ruide") Investment Group Co., Ltd., and the chairman of Shanghai Wanxiang Automobile (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Wanxiang Automobile") Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Among them, Shanghai Zhongtong Ruide is a comprehensive group focusing on pan-transportation industry investment and industrial operation, the company's industries involve automobile manufacturing and trade, general aviation industry and technology manufacturing, and its main industries include Zhejiang Zhongtong Holdings and Baalian Business Jets in addition to Shanghai Vientiane Automobile.
Zhang Yang, as the CEO of AIWAYS, is closer to building cars than Chen Xuanlin. Zhang Yang has served as vice president of NIO's industrial development and other positions, and has publicly shared NIO's exploration of business model and industrial development many times. It is understood that Aichi hired him as CEO, which is also his previous work experience.
After Chen Xuanlin and Zhang Yang entered Aichi, the internal changes within Aichi continued. According to future auto daily reports, at present, Chen Xuanlin and other shareholders have sent some employees to AIWAYS Automobile.
From the sudden control of the field with money by the capital, to the founder Fu Qiang being exposed to "marginalization", all of this in the industry's view, perhaps the capital has to personally "save the scene" due to anxiety.
After all, what they are facing is a half-dead Aichi car.
For any car company, sales are the core indicators to prove their strength, and on this indicator, Aichi's performance can be described as dismal.
Aiways U5, as the only mass-produced model of Aiways Automobile, according to the data of the Association of Automobiles, the total sales volume of the model from January to November last year was 2992 units, and the sales volume in November was only 28 units, ranking 26th in the sales ranking of new energy medium-sized SUVs in that month.
By flipping through the sales data of the first ten months, we can see that in the first two or three months of last year, the sales volume of the Aiways U5 can remain at about 500 vehicles, and the sales ranking can also enter the top ten, but after this, sales began to decline, until the double-digit sales in November, its sales ranking also fell sharply.
From January to November 2021, aiways U5 monthly sales, data from the association, connected travel mapping
In contrast, there is also only one production model of the ideal car, ideal ONE last November sales of 13485 units, almost 481 times the sales of the Aichi U5 that month; ideal ONE last January to November sales of 90491 units, compared with the sales of the Aichi U5 in the same period there is also a 25 times gap.
Not only that, the sales gap between Aiways Automobile and new energy vehicle companies such as Weima, Nezha and Zero Run, which is regarded as the second echelon of new car-making forces, is also large.
According to public data, Nezha Automobile, Zero-run Car and WM Automobile sold 69,674 vehicles, 43,121 vehicles and 44,157 vehicles respectively last year, and if each company subtracted December sales, it also reached 59,547 units, 35,314 vehicles and 39,095 vehicles respectively, which is also about 12 times the gap with Aichi's 2992 vehicles.
From January to November 2021, the sales volume of some new car-making forces, the data comes from the Association of Passenger Transport, and the mapping of online travel
It can be seen that in the domestic new energy vehicle market, Aichi has been visibly seriously left behind. For the overseas markets that AIWAYS valued, the sales performance was also unsatisfactory.
According to the tram report, according to the official export of AIWAYS to overseas markets in May 2020, as of December 15, 2021, the total overseas exports totaled 2705 vehicles, which have landed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries. In contrast, Tesla, the total export volume of Tesla pure electric vehicle models produced in China from January to August last year was 97,496, which shows that the gap between the two is also huge.
Although AIWAYS Automobile has a business layout in China and overseas, in terms of sales performance, it can be said that it has been in trouble. For Aichi, it is not surprising that there will be such a result.
2, Aichi, not only slow
To talk about Aichi Cars, we have to mention Harmony Futeng.
In 2015, Foxconn recruited Tencent and Harmony Automobile to jointly invest 1 billion yuan to create the Internet car brand "Harmony Futeng", and there are two major sub-brands under its main brand, namely Future Mobility Corp (FMC), which focuses on the high-end electric vehicle market, with Dai Lei and Bi Fukang as executives.
Harmony Futeng inauguration ceremony, the official public account of Foxconn
Another sub-brand is the car company, with Fu Qiang, who has single-handedly built the Audi and Skoda brands, as CEO.
Although Harmony Futeng can be described as a powerful combination, the brand soon disintegrated with the withdrawal of Foxconn and Tencent. Wired Travel has been in "Towards Bankruptcy Byton Car, Why No One Takes Over?" This is described in detail in the article.
After the disintegration of Harmony Futeng, Dai Lei and Bi Fukang renamed FMC to Byton Automobile, and Fu Qiang also found Tencent with the car project and obtained investment, established AIWAYS Yiwei (the predecessor of AIWAYS Auto) at the end of 2016, and in February 2017, renamed AIWAYS Yiwei to AIWAYS Auto.
After the establishment of Aiways Automobile, although it is also known as the "new force of car manufacturing" in the industry, compared with the car companies such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weima that were established in 2014 and 2015, Aiways has been slow in the initial stage.
And such a slowness is only a beginning.
Just after the establishment of AIWAYS, Fu Qiang did not rush to build cars, but first hired Gu Feng, who had served as the CFO of SAIC Motor, as the co-founder and CEO of AIWAYS. "I hope to contribute my experience, professionalism and wisdom, exert my expertise, and work with my entrepreneurial partners to turn Aichi into a successful car manufacturer." Gu Feng once told the media.
After completing this step, Fu Qiang may think that the time is ripe and begin to prepare for the car. In order to realize car manufacturing as soon as possible, like Ideal and Weima, Fu Qiang chose to obtain car manufacturing qualifications through acquisition.
After more than a year of consultation, in August 2019, the joint venture between AIWAYS Automobile, Jiangling Group and Changan Automobile was officially landed, and the three parties reorganized and established Jiangling Holdings with a 50%:25%:25% share ratio, and in order to acquire 50% of the shares, Fu Qiang spent 1.747 billion yuan.
In contrast, Ideal Auto's acquisition of Lifan Automobile and WM Automobile's acquisition of Huanghai Automobile cost 650 million yuan and 1.18 billion yuan respectively. As a result, Aichi acquired Jiangling Holdings, which once set a record for the highest cost of obtaining production qualifications for new domestic car-making forces.
In April of the same year that AIWAYS obtained the car-making qualification, it also released its first model, the AIWAYS U5. According to the official introduction of AIWAYS, the model is positioned as a pure electric medium-sized SUV, with a 65-degree battery pack, the cruising range of the vehicle can reach 503 kilometers.
Aiways U5, the source of the aiways auto official micro
In terms of intelligence, due to the eyeQ4 chip from Mobileye, coupled with 22 sensing hardware throughout the car, the model can achieve L2+ automatic assisted driving, and the price range after subsidies is 166,900 yuan to 249,900 yuan.
At the same time as the release of aiways U5, AIWAYS also unveiled its mass production concept car U7 ion, according to the introduction of AIWAYS, this concept owner played the "fourth space", and took the lead in equipping the car with independent rotating seats, which became the star model at that time.
Under such heat, Gu Feng even publicly announced that the vision of AIWAYS Automobile is to become a "Chinese version of Tesla". Although the slogan is loud, one fact cannot be ignored - Aiways has fallen too far behind in the construction of cars.
In the two years when AIWAYS was rubbing its car-making qualifications, Xiaopeng and Ideal have released their first models, the Xiaopeng G3 and the Ideal ONE, the former model has also achieved mass production delivery at the end of 2018, and Weilai has even realized the mass production delivery of ES8 and ES6 models at the end of 2019.
The configuration of aiways U5 in terms of mileage and intelligence, if placed in 2017-2018, still has some competitiveness, but at the end of 2019, such a configuration can only be regarded as a passing level, when the industry's mass production models generally have a mileage of 600 kilometers.
One step is slow, step by step, and there may be no time to take care of these Fu Qiang and Aichi, because there were more crises at that time.
First of all, in May 2020, AIWAYS Auto was exposed to the news that CEO Gu Feng had left his job and joined Bailian Group as the general manager of the investment department of Bailian Group. In this regard, although Aichi quickly made a rumor, saying that "Gu Zong is still the vice chairman of Aichi, this has not changed", but the fact is that Aichi did not retain Gu Feng.
After Gu Feng left AIWAYS, the backward mess of AIWAYS products was placed in front of Fu Qiang. In order to avoid the pattern of fierce domestic competition, compared with other new energy vehicle companies to put the main sales market in China, AIWAYS Auto "found another way" at the beginning, focusing on the European B-end rental market, and the sales of domestic and European C-end markets also began at the end of that year.
But unexpectedly, a sudden epidemic has given Aichi and Fu Qiang a "blow to the head". Due to the impact of the epidemic, the first to be affected is the domestic new energy vehicle sales market, and by the beginning of 2021, the foreign automobile sales market has also begun to be affected by the epidemic. In the face of these, Fu Qiang once admitted to the media that "the outbreak of the epidemic did not give Aichi any chance at all." ”
In addition to the impact of the epidemic, the safety hazards of AIWAYS products have also become a "stumbling block" to its development.
According to the crash test results released at the end of 2019 by the automotive safety certification authority E-NCAP (European New Car Safety Evaluation Association), the AIWAYS U5 only received three stars. Specific scores are: adult safety score rate of 73%, children safety score rate of 70%. The worst was the post bump, where the driver's seat dummy suffered a severe head injury, with a side score of 16 out of 16, and it scored only 7.5 points.
Aiways U5 crash test results, image source E-NCAP official website
The news spread to China, and gradually formed a reputation of "Aiways U5 is unsafe", so that consumers have questions about this domestic car.
In this regard, under the influence of multiple factors such as slow product launch progress, lack of competitiveness in performance parameters, executive departures, epidemic situation and insufficient product safety, it is normal for Aichi's domestic and foreign sales to show a downward trend.
Due to the sluggish sales volume, aiways also began to have a crisis in terms of funds.
In March 2020, after the Automobile Commune and other media quoted aiways internal employees to expose the news, in February of that year, AIWAYS began to reduce the salary of employees internally, and did not pay the year-end bonus of the previous year. At the same time, there are also some media reports that Aichi is also in arrears with suppliers, and some suppliers have to embark on the road of rights protection.
Today, Aichi is getting deeper and deeper in the predicament, so that the capital can't look at it and personally come down to build a car, and can they save Aichi?
3. Can the "big change" of executives save Aichi?
To discuss this issue, we must first see whether this "great blood exchange" can solve some of the existing risks of Aichi.
For the matter of car building, Li Bin, He Xiaopeng and Li Xiang have actually expressed their views, and Li Bin even shouted out "Don't build a car without 20 billion yuan." In terms of views on this matter, Gu Feng, the former CEO of Aichi, is more optimistic.
Gu Feng once told Fenghuang Auto that pure electric intelligent vehicles as a new industry, 10 billion yuan is enough. "Build an intelligent factory, 300,000 vehicles, 4 billion to break the sky, the development of an electric vehicle platform 2 billion, 1 billion can make a product, 2 billion for operation."
Facts have proved that although Aichi has always been "invisible" in terms of sales performance, it is not ambiguous at all in spending money.
According to Tianyancha data, since the completion of the Pre-A round in October 2016, AIWAYS Has completed 8 rounds of financing so far, and according to the publicly disclosed amount of funds, the total financing of AIWAYS has exceeded 9 billion yuan.
Aiways Automobile's past financing information, screenshot from the sky eye check
However, Aichi was also listed as an executor by the court twice last year, with a total amount of 34.1396 million yuan; at the same time, it was also involved in as many as 25 legal proceedings, and the fees that needed to be paid also reached 5.927 million yuan.
In addition, aiways' second model, the AIWAYS U6, which was supposed to be launched in September last year, has not been listed so far, and AIWAYS sales staff said that it is expected to be delivered as soon as the end of the first quarter of 2022. For the reason for the "skipping ticket" of the listing of this model, the Future Automobile Daily quoted people close to Aiways Automobile as revealing that it was mainly due to financial problems and could not support mass production delivery.
It can be seen that although Aichi has raised many rounds of financing before, in the industry's view, it has fallen into the predicament of lack of money.
In order to solve the problem of funds, AIWAYS has tried to raise funds through listing. According to Sina Technology, citing insiders, AIWAYS Auto will officially impact the domestic science and technology innovation board and IPO last year, but as of now there has been no new news and action.
This round of hundreds of millions of dollars of new financing may also be a drop in the bucket for Aiways, because Aiways not only has to pay off the debts it owes, but also to ensure the mass production delivery of AIWAYS U5 and U6, which is bound to require a lot of funds to complete.
At the same time, due to the late entry of AIWAYS, the overall product launch time also missed the best window period, resulting in the AICHI U5 after the launch of not much product competitiveness. In this regard, Fu Qiang also frankly said, "In this group, we are the latest, and compared with the head of the friendly businessman, there is still a gap between Aichi." ”
To solve this problem, it is necessary for AIWAYS to upgrade backward products and technologies, and to increase investment in research and development, which also needs more funds as support.
In addition to the lack of money, the lack of AIWAYS brand power is also another key issue facing the new management.
Since its establishment in 2017, Aichi has been 5 years so far, but it is a bit weak in the construction of sales channels. According to aiways' official public data, at the end of 2020, there will be more than 50 aiways offline sales stores, covering more than 35 cities, including 25 experience centers and 2 delivery centers.
In contrast, the number of offline stores of "Wei Xiaoli" at the end of 2020 reached 204, 160 and 52 respectively, which shows that there is a large gap between AIWAYS and "three brothers". Because of this, AIWAYS basically does not have much brand power.
The number of offline stores of "Wei Xiaoli" and Aiways Automobile in 2020, the data comes from public data, and the mapping of online travel is connected
Wired Travel has asked a number of new energy car owners "do you know the brand of Aiways Automobile", and the answer is basically the same - I don't know. In their view, the brand's models have basically never been seen on the road, and even some people do not know what the brand's logo looks like.
Although the location of aiways offline stores is the same as that of "Wei Xiaoli", they all choose to open in the business circle, but according to the observation of wired travel, the overall effect is very different, which is obviously reflected in the flow of people entering the store to see the car.
For example, on weekends, the three stores of "Wei Xiaoli" will frequently have consumers entering the store to see the car, but the Aichi store is a door to the door, and basically no consumers enter the store to see the car.
"A brand, especially a new energy car brand, itself is not the marketing route of traditional car companies, and will rely more on the reputation of consumers." But if a person like Aichi has been established for five years and has not yet established effective consumer brand recognition, then the future development of this brand is extremely detrimental. Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, told Wired Travel.
In the industry's view, Aichi hired Zhang Yang to be the CEO to solve this problem, after all, Zhang Yang is more aware of Weilai's business model, and will definitely improve the problems existing in AIWAYS in sales and brand, but in the increasingly fierce competitive environment, whether the improvement can be effective is still unknown.
Speaking of funds and brands, there is another key factor that is also hindering the development of Aichi, that is, the overall development route of Aichi.
As can be seen from the foregoing, in order to avoid the fierce domestic competitive environment and offset the disadvantage of Aichi's late start, Fu Qiang invested his main energy in overseas markets and tried to support domestic development through sales in overseas markets, but facts have proved that this development route has not achieved good results.
In Zhang Xiang's view, the newly entered management will definitely adjust the current route after fully controlling Aichi, or it will certainly not follow the old road that was proved invalid. But it also means that Aichi will need some time to plan and adjust the future route.
But at the same time that Aichi spends these time adjusting, the entire new energy vehicle market will not stop waiting for it, and perhaps when Aichi adjusts everything, it is still at the tail end of the entire industry.
"Although AIWAYS has experienced high-level 'blood change' and capital takeover, under the influence of unfavorable factors such as lack of money, insufficient brand power and invalid development routes, there are also many uncertainties in the development of AIWAYS, and it is conceivable that the road ahead of this brand is difficult." Sun Yi, an investor who has been concerned about the new energy automobile industry for many years, told Wired Travel.
Although the prospects are uncertain, the capital side represented by Chen Xuanlin still needs to do their best to save Aichi. After all, the second half of the new energy automobile industry is coming, and in their hands, the Aichi that has not yet fallen has become the only opportunity to enter the second half.
(The head picture of this article comes from the official micro of Aiways Automobile, and Sun Yi is a pseudonym in the article.) ）