Some netizens recently broke the news that Gaohe Auto recently began to cut 20% of employees, and some departments even cut employees by as much as 50%. "Che Yi Talk" learned that if the news is true, this will be the largest layoff since the establishment of Gaohe Automobile.
Such a "routine" seems familiar. That's right, it's about the same as last year's WM. First lay offs, then reduce wages, and finally stop production.
Gao He's move makes people wonder: Is it also in trouble?
"Talk on the same day, sign after talking, and then collect the equipment badge and leave immediately." An employee who has left Gaohe Auto wrote on a workplace social platform.
In terms of compensation, the employee receives an N+1 compensation. The employee said that this round of layoffs has ended, and from the information he has so far, there will be another wave of layoffs at the end of the year.
The employee also said that the layoffs involved basically all departments. As for the number of layoffs, it said that "the amount is not small" and "some departments have been laid off."
Gaohe Automobile was founded in 2017, as a member of the new forces of car manufacturing, Gaohe and many brands take a different route, it has focused on the high-end luxury car market of 600,000-800,000 yuan.
The company behind Gaohe Auto is Huaren Express, and the founder Ding Lei was the vice president of SAIC, the general manager of Shanghai General Motors, the deputy mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area, and the director of the Zhangjiang Park Management Committee.
Gaohe Auto has been holding high from the beginning of its establishment, and the two models launched earlier, HiPhi X and HiPhi Z, both have a starting price of about 600,000 yuan, positioning them higher than new power brands such as NIO and Li Auto.
"Rich people's 'toys'", "the most expensive domestic car", "more than 500,000 yuan luxury pure electric market sales champion" ... The label on Gao He is always related to you.
Unfortunately, in China, there are very few users who are willing to spend 600,000 yuan or more to choose a new force brand, which also makes it difficult for Gaohe Auto to obtain good sales results by taking the high-end route.
"Che Yi Talk" noticed that since August last year, Gao He has not announced monthly sales, and has not released monthly sales data for many consecutive months.
It was not until April this year, eight months after the launch of HiPhi Z, that Gaohe said that HiPhi Z deliveries exceeded 1,000 vehicles, and the proportion of car owners who owned both HiPhi X and HiPhi Z reached 12%. The reason why I want to say this percentage separately is to tell people that the love of this car is still very high, because I like it, so I buy both cars.
However, for a new force car company, it is far from enough to focus on high-end models, and Gaohe Auto after reflection has to lower its head and begin to exchange low-priced models for the market.
In July this year, Gaohe Auto released the lower-positioned HiPhi Y, with a price range of 339,000 yuan to 449,000 yuan.
However, in the relatively mainstream luxury car market of 300,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan for the domestic market, Gaohe Auto does not have much advantage.
The latest data shows that in September, the sales volume of HiPhi Y was 1556 units, the sales of HiPhi Z were 154 units, and the sales of HiPhi X were 25 units. In terms of absolute quantity, the sales of HiPhi Y are still reasonable, but HiPhi Z and HiPhi X are somewhat "collapsed".
In particular, its first model, the HiPhi X, sold only 25 units in September. The 3 cars of the entire brand add up to only 1735 units, this data is indeed a little embarrassing, after all, you are a car company led by Ding Lei, a veteran in the automotive industry, and his qualifications in the automotive field are far better than Li Bin, Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng and other "raw melon eggs".
In fact, after gaining the first batch of users, Gaohe began to plague Gaohe due to the lack of core competitiveness of the product, low brand awareness but high price.
At a time when the automotive industry is constantly reshuffling, Gaohe is also facing great pressure. Gao He, it is becoming more and more difficult to continue harvesting the rich.
As a "'toy' for the rich", Gaohe cars have always been incompatible with the needs of the family. Cool doors and lights, over-stacking design and configuration.
But flat-chested, Xiaobian still likes the design style of Gaohe Automobile, and has previously written that in the domestic car world, there are only two brands that can be called cool in body styling: Gaohe, and Changan Automobile's Avita.
No matter how bad Gaohe sells, it is impossible to let its high appearance back the pot. There is nothing wrong with looking good, the fault is that the price is indeed too high.
In June this year, Huaren Express, the parent company of Gaohe, signed a cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia equivalent to more than 40 billion yuan. At that time, some analysts said that this money was enough to renew the life of Gaohe Automobile.
With the financial support of local tycoons in the Middle East, the news of layoffs was really surprising to the market. In this regard, Gaohe Auto said on the afternoon of October 24, "The rumors are untrue. ”
A few more words
Gaohe products have no highlights worth discussing whether it is performance or technology, and in terms of technology and luxury, Gaohe cars are still quite good, especially the robotic arm that controls the large screen, which is simply too cool.
As for other aspects, there is really nothing remarkable, for example, the cell battery assembly motor relies on purchase, and the manufacturing depends on OEM.
From the editor's personal emotions, I sincerely hope that the news of this layoff is false, after all, the technical configuration is the same, and it is rare to see cool models.