Before talking about extreme yue, it is necessary to talk about Wei Lai first.
In November, Weilai Automobile achieved a sales volume of 20,575 vehicles. Although 5,082 of them were contributed by the second brand Ledao, in any case, from the total sales volume of the two major brands, Weilai Automobile has stabilized at more than 20,000 vehicles for seven consecutive months. In the new power camp of independent pure electricity, this achievement is the existence of the top five, the absolute head echelon!
In addition to sales, look at the financial report. As we all know, up to now, Weilai Automobile has not achieved profitability.
In the first three quarters of this year, the quarterly net loss of Weilai Automobile exceeded 5 billion yuan. Looks dangerous, doesn’t it? However, according to the third quarter financial report, Weilai’s gross profit margin has not only increased to 13.1%, but also its free cash flow has turned positive, which means that Weilai Automobile has the ability of self-hematopoiesis and its financial health is continuously improving.
In addition, Weilai Automobile has lost tens of billions in recent years, which is also related to Weilai Automobile’s huge investment in the field of power exchange. In the past year or so, Weilai Automobile has signed power exchange strategic agreements with many domestic mainstream car companies, and the power exchange alliance with Weilai as the link is growing.
With the gradual landing of the power exchange layout of various car companies, this is a signal that Weilai is expected to enter the "payback period". You know, the alliance is getting bigger and bigger, car companies share the cost, the standards are gradually unified, and Weilai will invest less and less in the field of power exchange.
In terms of technology, from intelligent cockpit to intelligent driving, from chip to operating system, Weilai has laid a good foundation, and the next "building" speed will only get faster and faster. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Weilai’s founding. It is said that Weilai may release a third brand firefly in the upcoming NIO day 2024.
There is no other reason for saying so much, just to prove that Weilai Automobile is continuing to improve.
What’s the matter with Guan Ji Yue? When Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue Automobile, communicated with all employees through video conference, Xia Yiping mentioned that the following four things need to be done when the company enters the 2.0 stage of entrepreneurship: 1. Adhere to the long-term investment in core technologies to maintain the leading edge; 2. Strengthen sales and service capacity building to cope with fierce market competition; 3. Merge departments and posts with duplicate functions and change inefficient internal workflow; 4. Reduce projects that cannot improve financial performance in the short term.
Are these four measures familiar? About a year ago, Weilai Automobile was experiencing the second "bankruptcy rumor".
At that time, Li Bin’s internal staff letter "Organizational Optimization and Two-year Priorities" mentioned Weilai Automobile’s organizational and business optimization plan: to ensure long-term investment in core key technologies and maintain the leading edge of technology and products; Ensure that sales and service capabilities can cope with fierce market competition; Ensure that 9 products of 3 brands are listed as scheduled; Organize and improve efficiency, merge redundant departments and posts, and change inefficient internal workflow and division of labor; Improve the efficiency of resources, postpone and reduce the project investment that can not improve the company’s financial performance within 3 years.
Comparatively speaking, the similarity between Ji Yue and Wei Lai’s "self-help" plan is at least 90%, right?
It is a compulsory course for rulers of past dynasties in historical civilization to learn from others’ experience and spur themselves, and it is also a truth that quality education has taught for a long time. A year ago, Wei Lai, like Ji Yue now, faced a "big test" about life and death. Now Weilai has stepped out of the quagmire of public opinion. Even though there are still losses, there are still challenges in development. However, compared with the situation of "life and death" in 2019 and the situation a year ago, Weilai has greatly improved.
Whether Xia Yiping copied it or carefully pondered Weilai’s organizational optimization strategy, it seems that there is nothing wrong with taking the road of Weilai Automobile. Stabilizing the storm of public opinion, strengthening superficial confidence, reducing staff and costs, and cutting down projects with large investment are indeed things that need to be done at present. Only by doing these things well can we survive.
However, Xia Yiping seems to have overlooked one thing. In the past ten years since its establishment, Weilai Automobile has suffered a bankruptcy storm, and it has been on the verge of life and death for several times, with a loss of nearly 100 billion yuan. However, Weilai Automobile’s pre-sales and after-sales service, power exchange advantages, user reputation, technology matrix and high-end brand tonality all have Weilai characteristics. In the fierce market competition, Weilai Automobile is not a fight with bare hands.
However, in order to do these characteristics well, Weilai Automobile’s excessive investment in marketing and huge investment in changing power stations really need to be "changed" through the optimization of organizational structure. In other words, what Wei Lai mainly needs to change is the thinking and mentality of spending money lavishly.
This is the difference between Extreme Yue and Weilai, and it is also the reason why the organizational structure optimization strategy of Weilai Automobile may be difficult to apply to Extreme Yue.
From the birth point of view, as a new force car enterprise that Baidu and Geely Automobile cooperate, it is more reasonable to say that it is a new force car enterprise born with a golden spoon, which has more foundation than the new cross-border forces such as Weilai, Tucki and Ideality. However, the design at the product level is too advanced, the pricing is not close to the people, and the impression of the organization level, the secret game between the two companies, the disagreement of the leadership and other factors has finally failed to make Extreme Yue "an instant hit".
Since it went public in October last year, its sales have not improved much. After the price reduction again in July this year, the Extreme Yue 01 has a certain growth, but it has gone downhill since it sold 2147 units in August. As the second model of Extreme Yue, it has learned the experience of Extreme Yue 01, and the price in one step has finally made Extreme Yue "proud" in the vertical sense, with orders exceeding 5000+ within 48 hours of listing.
From September to November, the sales volume of Extreme Vietnam in 2007 was 927, 1936 and 1030 respectively. Although it is much better than the data of Extreme Yue 01, we should know that the medium and large pure electric car market where Extreme Yue 07 is located is not only full of strong rivals, but also its monthly sales volume has exceeded 20,000 vehicles for two consecutive months, and the latest Tucki P7+ has achieved 6,950 vehicles in the first month of listing.
Compared with the sales of most models of the same class, Extreme Yue 07 has also become an "upset".
It is worth mentioning that, although Extremely Yue has always emphasized that it is the best car company in intelligent driving, as of now, Extremely Yue has not opened the city pilot, and the label of the strongest intelligent driving has not been set up, while the other three power companies, chassis and architecture, mainly rely on Geely’s output. In other words, there is almost no visible capital that can make capital and market trust again.
What does this mean? It means that the process of "actively promoting financing" mentioned by Ji Yue will be very difficult, and it also means that it may be difficult for both shareholders to rekindle confidence. Since the release of Taizhou Declaration, Geely has moved from strategic expansion to strategic focus. On the basis of focusing on Great Geely and Great Krypton, it may be difficult for Geely to be distracted.
According to media reports, Extreme Yue has not only owed Geely a lot of OEM expenses and suppliers’ payment, but Baidu is not optimistic about the prospect of achieving profitability for Extreme Yue, so it chooses to stop loss in time. Of course, there is also a saying in the industry that Baidu is willing to continue to invest, but only if Xia Yiping must leave the CEO position.
No matter what the facts are, Baidu’s timely stop loss or watching the fire from the other side, from the rumor of bankruptcy to the rapid fermentation and spread in the industry, to the extreme crossing of Xia Yiping by employees, to the extreme crossing of the line of life and death, and now it is basically isolated and helpless.
In the eyes of many people, the ending of the extreme leap seems to have been doomed.
It is true that in recent years, the new car companies, once Weimar, Baiteng, Aichi, etc., have been gradually forgotten by the market. The high merger at the beginning of the year did not usher in a real reversal on schedule. The joint venture established by GAC and Weilai did not wait for the support of both shareholders, and Nezha, who was deeply involved in the rumors of bankruptcy, even though it was rumored again and again, the storm continued …
There are too few car companies like Weilai Automobile that have rallied from a state of near delisting and re-emerged. However, Ji Yue is not Weilai and Xia Yiping is not Li Bin, so it is hard for the market to believe that Ji Yue can become a new miracle.
Of course, for Xia Yiping, who is surrounded by employees, this philosophical problem is obviously not what he has time to think about.
Red dot observation:
From the Gaohe Ding Lei at the beginning of the year to the extreme Yue Xia Yi Ping at the end of the year, history is once again staged, and the whistle of the knockout stage is pressing. Ji Yue will not be the last one, and Xia Yiping will not be the last one. In the end, we still don’t know what the ultimate outcome is, whether it’s going against the sky or really "dissolving" on the spot, but what is certain is that it will never be easy and simple to get through this difficulty.
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