Huge market capacity, huge technological transformation opportunities, and huge cross-border integration development potential have brought huge business opportunities and unlimited possibilities
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Wen | Guo Yu Li Yang Li Haoyin Shi Zhiliang Zhao Cheng
Editor| Zhao Cheng
For the automotive industry, the undercurrent in 2021 is surging, both the production crisis caused by the repeated epidemic and the shortage of chips, as well as the huge opportunities brought by 5G interconnection and cross-border car manufacturing. While China's automotive industry is meeting the changes, it is also facing unprecedented challenges, and the old pattern seems to be in jeopardy.
"A hundred ships compete for the current, and those who strive are the first; a thousand sails are launched, and those who are brave win."
The market is changing rapidly, the big guys in the car industry who are usually in the spotlight, some people have fought back after encountering Waterloo, and some people are still digging gold against the trend.
Business is like a game, someone unveils, naturally someone ends, but no one can predict their next expression.
1
Zeng Yuqun
The story of the King of the Ningde era seems to continue, the capital market, with the entire industrial chain army, no matter whether there is a bubble in the industry, but collectively enjoy the benefits of high valuation, this is not, the Ningde era has opened a fixed increase plan of up to more than 50 billion. Even, this kind of positive has brought spillover effects, near the end of the year, but also through the CCTV report Xiti Weibo hot search # programmers leave the big factory into the factory ## More and more highly educated people to join the manufacturing industry #
Behind this, it is the Ningde era that has become the local government's fragrant food, settled and built a factory; the Ningde era is not only the largest local power battery manufacturer, the rise of overseas market share, the mastery of forward-looking technology, and then the layout around the broader fields such as energy storage, so that the Ningde era has gained more imagination space. Since 2011, Zeng Yuqun led the independent development of the Ningde era, and in ten years, he has built a new energy vehicle power battery giant.
In 2021, Zeng Yuqun and ningde times have become a force to be reckoned with in the investment circle. According to incomplete statistics from the investment community, NINGDE Times and the head Zeng Yuqun have invested in more than 13 funds last year alone. CATL participates in investing in a private equity fund almost every month.
According to incomplete statistics, the amount of investment in the GP of CATL has reached 3 billion yuan. Involving lithium-ion batteries and materials, intelligent manufacturing, energy storage, intelligent driving, renewable energy, new energy vehicles, information technology, artificial intelligence, upstream and downstream industrial chains, battery reuse, clean energy, modern logistics projects, etc., behind the seemingly complex different investment entities, the investment goal of the Ningde era focuses on the new energy industry, and the layout track is sufficiently subdivided and comprehensive. At present, ITC has chosen to become the LP behind the VC/PE to improve and accelerate the layout of the new energy industry.
At the same time, CATL is also doing VC direct investment. In November 2021, it participated in the D2 round of financing of Nezha Automobile, in addition to supporting batteries, the two sides will jointly develop innovative integration technologies for new energy vehicles. CATL is also one of Avita's major shareholders.
When new energy vehicles become the hottest track, looking back at Zeng Yuqun's two sentences, you will find that his knowledge and action are one. First, on the wall of Zeng Yuqun's office, there have been four big words hanging on it: "Gamble strong." He once explained to a friend, "Fighting alone is not enough, that is physical work; gambling is mental work." Second, "I don't want to be a humble part of the car company, but rely on myself, so that the car company can't do without me." ”
2
Wang
The two years after the epidemic were two years of great expansion of the global new energy vehicle market, and Wang Chuanfu waited until his prosperity.
Wang Chuanfu mass-produced the F3DM electric car as early as 2008, and Musk started almost at the same time. For a long time, Wang Chuanfu was called "China Musk" because they also came from a technical background and advocated an engineer culture, but within BYD, Boss Wang was not angry about this title and thought it should be the other way around.
Time into 2017, the ningde era that came out of nowhere caught up with BYD in the field of batteries, and the following year the Ningde era was listed, and the soaring stock price and Zeng Yuqun's repeated refresh of the richest man list made Wang Chuanfu and his BYD slightly lonely. This is the importance of luck to technology.
But all of this has changed from 2020 onwards. During the epidemic period, 3 days out of the drawings, 7 days to create mask machines, 10 days out of the product, Wang Chuanfu "tough" to promote the technical transformation of R & D personnel, Shenzhen's mobile phone parts factory was transformed into a mask manufacturing plant, built 2,000 mask production lines, the maximum daily output of 100 million, becoming the world's largest mask manufacturer. Although there were tidbits such as the substandard masks shipped to the United States, BYD also strengthened Wang Chuanfu's leadership and authority internally under extreme circumstances.
In the same year, there was also a war of words between the Ningde era and BYD. BYD with acupuncture test to show that its blade battery (lithium iron phosphate battery) is safe, while ternary lithium batteries are more likely to burn, Ningde era pointed to BYD's so-called blade battery as its own old technology, and hinted that the other party abused the test.
In the Ningde era, Chairman Zeng Yuqun came out, and BYD was Li Yunfei, deputy general manager of the sales company, and the two sides launched a debate on technical issues. Judging from the results, BYD's newly launched battery quickly seized the market, and Wang Chuanfu was quite satisfied: "BYD is pulling lithium iron phosphate back on track by its own strength, China does not lack lithium, but lack of cobalt, can not be stuck in the neck of the necessary cobalt in ternary lithium batteries." ”
While the battery field is catching up, there are also passenger cars selling out in 2021. BYD sold 730,000 passenger cars in the whole year, including 590,000 new energy vehicles, all of which are record highs. Wang Chuanfu waited for the day when the cost performance of electric vehicles surpassed that of oil vehicles, and since January last year, the penetration rate of new energy has been climbing month by month. The growth of new things is never equally proportional, it is always low first and then high, and the growth rate of the back is much higher than the front, "which represents the trend and inertia, which is completely market behavior." ”
Many technical fields of new energy vehicles have a route and direction dispute, as long as the wrong one, is tens of billions of losses, while will lose three to five years of time, understand technology, have the industrial chain integration foundation and technical reserves can greatly reduce the risk of stepping on the wrong, has been candidates for the Chinese Academy of Engineering academician Wang Chuanfu is ushering in his era.
3
Li
Looking back on the year, the development of Geely may make people feel slightly "flat", but in the current situation of black swans and gray rhinos running wildly, Li Shufu can be surprisingly upright, calmly and positively respond to changes, and this calmness is so difficult at the moment.
In October 2021, Li Shufu won a gold-rich award in the industry, the "Rao Bin Award for China's Automotive Industry" sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, and was the only winner of the award that year. In the award speech, Li Shufu is a unique presence in China's automotive industry, with the persistence of continuous entrepreneurs, continuous independent innovation, integration of global resources, and the development of Geely, which was initially not optimistic, to the present.
From the perspective of automobiles, in March 2021, Geely announced the establishment of a new electric vehicle company - Extreme Kr, the chairman of which is Li Shufu, which is not a simple new car brand, but an important starting point for Geely's comprehensive self-innovation, which Geely hopes to connect its own intelligent technology ecology. At the same time, the rapid development of brands such as Lotus Technology and Polar Star in the product and capital markets has been difficult to cover up their muscles. Results are expected to be achieved this year and next.
Like an iceberg, the obvious part of the exposed water is often just a tip. Li Shufu's emphasis on talent and education is also gradually bearing fruit. "In addition to building cars, education is the softest feeling in my heart." Li Shufu also admitted that the biggest difference between Geely and other car manufacturers is that it has a strong education and training system. Geely has successively founded 10 non-profit colleges, including Geely College and Sanya College, from vocational high schools to graduate schools, and trained more than 150,000 talents.
Not only that, in August 2021, Geely Automobile (00175. HK) also awarded an average of approximately HK$400,000 in equity incentives at local prices to 1/4 of the staff of the Hospital on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Starting from this pilot unit, Geely tried to gradually expand this to the entire Geely system of business groups, so that all employees can participate in co-creation, sharing, sharing, and common wealth.
Today, these soft powers are becoming increasingly important. In the current talent war of the automotive industry, Geely, as a company that continues to deepen internationalization, allows employees to share the company's development dividends, which can not only stimulate the vitality of employees, but also help to enhance the overseas image and strengthen the sense of identity of overseas partners.
At the same time, the development of enterprises should consider employees, industrial chain, and social win-win, which has become the trend of the times. The world's leading companies are renewing their business consensus, moving beyond the past principle of shareholders' interests to emphasize creating value for customers, investing in employees, supporting communities, protecting the environment, and safeguarding shareholder interests. When the 996 Blessing Theory has long been abandoned, the builders are looking forward to newer and more humane values, and enterprises will also guide the way forward through values and go further.
4
Zeng Qinghong
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At the age of 60, it should have been the statutory retirement age, but Zeng Qinghong, the 60-year-old chairman of GAC Group, will continue to start a three-year helm career, after he had been at the helm of GAC Group for five years.
On October 8, 2021, GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE GROUP (601238, SH) announced that the first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held by the group in 2021 and the first meeting of the sixth board of directors elected Zeng Qinghong as the chairman of the sixth board of directors of the company.
Born in 1961, Zeng Qinghong served as vice chairman and general manager of GAC Group in 2005 and has been appointed chairman of GAC Group since October 2016.
From the perspective of sales, when Zeng Qinghong took over the baton in 2016, the annual sales of GAC Group's automobiles were 1.65 million, and in 2020, the sales volume increased to 2.04 million, of which the automobile market experienced a downward cycle of 3 consecutive years. In 2021, despite the impact of chip shortage, the overall sales volume of GAC Group is still eye-catching, and the annual production and sales have achieved positive growth. According to data released by GAC Group, in 2021, the group's automobile production and sales were 2.138 million units and 2.144 million units, up 5.1% and 4.9% year-on-year, respectively.
From the perspective of revenue, during zeng Qinghong's helm of GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group, the group's revenue increased from 49.4 billion yuan in 2016 to 63.2 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 27.9%; due to the impact of the epidemic and other factors, the net profit fell from 6.3 billion yuan in 2016 to 6.05 billion yuan in 2020. It is worth mentioning that in 2018, GAC Group achieved double growth in revenue and net profit, with annual revenue of 72.4 billion yuan and net profit of 10.9 billion yuan. After entering 2021, the company's performance has picked up, and the net profit in the first half of the year has once again doubled.
In the "14th Five-Year Plan", GAC Group proposed that by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2025), it will achieve annual production and sales of 3.5 million vehicles, with an annual compound growth rate of more than 10%, new energy vehicle products accounting for more than 20% of the production and sales of the whole vehicle, the group's total operating income exceeds 600 billion yuan, and the total profit and tax exceeds 66 billion yuan. At the same time, the announcement of the 8th meeting of the sixth board of directors released by GAC Group shows that in 2022, it will challenge the goal of 15% year-on-year growth in automobile production and sales.
Today, Zeng Qinghong has been re-elected for another three years, and he can fully survive the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of GAC Group. How he leads GAC Group to achieve these goals is worth looking forward to.
5
Jia Yueting
In 2021, Jia Yueting, who had been away from China for four years, almost really returned to China.
On the evening of July 22, Farady Future (Faraday Future, hereinafter referred to as "FF") went public as desired, and the bell ringer was not Jia Yueting, but FF's current CEO, Carsten Breitfeld, and Jia Yueting showed a happy smile in the audience, which is the most gratifying day in 5 years.
On the first day of the opening, FF's stock price rose by 22%, and the total market value once reached $5.4 billion, and Jia Yueting's "return to China next week" was paved with major platforms. However, this time, Jia Yueting still passed by the return of China.
It is undeniable that from personal bankruptcy to FF backdoor listing, every step is developed in the direction expected by Jia Yueting, and it is not too much to call Jia Accounting. However, the calculation of capital operation is easy to control, and it is necessary to link up and downstream when it really enters the car-making link, and things are far more complex and uncontrollable than capital operations.
These uncertainties were quickly reflected in FF's stock price. After the opening rally, FF shares quickly fell back and broke an hour later. As of the close of the day, FF closed at $13.98 per share, up 1.45% from the issue price, with a market value of $4.511 billion; as of the close of trading on December 28, FF Auto's stock price was $7.565, with a total market value of $331 million.
In addition, at the end of 2021, Jia Yueting also received a US delisting warning, And Faraday Future, founded by Jia Yueting, was accused of car-making scams, and received a delisting warning letter from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that because FF did not submit the third quarter financial report within the specified period, it was listed as a non-compliant listed company. The implication is that FF is currently facing delisting warnings and risks.
Ups and downs, Jia Yueting finally lost his hand with returning to China, but fortunately, the FF91 that carries Jia Yueting's dream of making cars is about to be mass-produced. According to the planning of FF automobiles, in July 2022, the mass production version of FF 91 will officially roll off the production line. At that time, Jia Yueting, who has been abroad for 5 years, will usher in the opportunity to return to China.