After five years of burning money, two joint ventures, and the number one person in battle, AVATAR, a high-end new energy brand under Chang'an, is still difficult to realize its high-end dream. Sales are sluggish, with sales of less than 30,000 units in half a year, which is the bottom of the new forces, and Zhu Huarong still failed to save AVATR after all.
1. Sales in the first half of the year are less than 30,000 units
Half of 2024 has passed, and many car companies have handed over their semi-annual examination transcripts. Among the new car-making forces, leading car companies such as Ideal and Wenjie have achieved beautiful results and their sales performance is very good. On the other hand, AVATAR, a subsidiary of Changan, has not achieved satisfactory sales results. According to the data, in June this year, AVATR sold 4,682 vehicles, which is basically the bottom among the new forces. Not only is it inferior to Jihu, Zhiji, and Lantu, which are also new energy brands owned by state-owned car companies, but also inferior to the fledgling Xiaomi car.
In the first six months of this year, in addition to more than 7,000 units in January and less than 2,500 units in February due to the Spring Festival holiday, the sales volume from March to June has been hovering around four or five thousand units, and even showed a downward trend from more than 5,000 units to more than 4,000 units. In the first half of this year, AVATR sold a total of 29,030 vehicles, and it is still the bottom among the new forces. Not to mention that compared with the ideal and question world of nearly 200,000 units, it is also far from ZEEKR and Denza. has been in operation for at least five years, and AVATAR's sales performance is a bit stretched.
2. Zhu Huarong failed to save AVATAR
AVATR can be traced back to 2018, and its predecessor was Changan Weilai, a joint venture established by Changan and NIO. However, NIO's focus shifted later, and the cooperation between the two sides gradually ran aground. In 2020, Chang'an, which was unwilling, introduced two giants, Huawei and CATL, and reorganized the original Chang'an Weilai into AVATAR. Later, AVATR 11 and AVATR 12 were launched one after another, but sales did not increase significantly. In 2023, AVATAR's cumulative sales will only be 27,600 units, only 27.6% of the annual delivery target.
Around the end of 2023, Changan Automobile will break through the kettle and begin to make vigorous changes to AVATAR. Tan Benhong, the original chairman and CEO of AVATR Technology, was transferred to the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Changan Automobile, Zhu Huarong, the leader of Changan Group, personally served as the chairman of AVATAR, and Chen Zhuo served as the president of AVATR Technology. Now that half a year has passed, under the personal leadership of Zhu Huarong, although AVATAR's sales have been boosted, there is indeed a very big gap compared with other new power car companies, and it is basically at the end of the new power track.
3. AVATR is not up to the task
As a key measure of the "third venture" and a heavy injection of electrification transformation in the high-end field, Changan has high hopes for AVATAR. Backed by three towering trees, AVATR is in charge of Changan, Huawei, and CATL is responsible for electrification. With the empowerment and blessing of many parties, AVATR not only carries the hope of Chang'an's electrification, but also has the ambition to move towards high-end. Although sales volume cannot represent everything, with the current sales volume of AVATAR, it will definitely not be able to assume the important task of Changan Automobile entering the future of electrification and conquering the high-end field.
What's more serious is that the amount of AVATAR's losses is expanding year by year. From 2020 to 2022, AVATAR's net losses will be 150 million yuan, 210 million yuan, and 2.015 billion yuan respectively. In 2023, AVATAR's revenue will be 5.643 billion yuan, and its net loss will expand to 3.693 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 83%. Based on this calculation, AVATR will lose more than 130,000 yuan for every car sold in 2023. Since the restructuring in 2020, AVATR has accumulated a net loss of 6.07 billion yuan in the past four years. Among the new forces, Ideal and Wenjie have made profits, while AVATR is still burning money.
At the 2021 Chongqing Auto Show, Zhu Huarong once said: "When the product is not good, it depends on marketing tactics." When Zhu Huarong became the chairman of AVATAR, he transferred Tan Benhong, who was born in technology, and promoted Chen Zhuo, who was born in public relations and marketing. In addition, AVATR has two major changes: first, it will gradually cancel the direct sales model and turn to the distribution model to reduce costs and increase efficiency; Second, it will follow the example of other brands and enter the hybrid market through power-to-oil, in order to get out of the sales dilemma. The competition in the auto market is becoming more and more intense, and the industry has entered a stage of deep reshuffle, leaving little time for Zhu Huarong and AVATR to turn around against the wind.