On March 20th, 2020, according to many employees of Future Auto, the company still had no money to pay the salary that had been in arrears for several months after adjusting the salary payment time for employees many times. That evening, employees only received half a month's salary reissued by the company. A few days ago, the cash-strapped future car made a new move, and its parent company, Beijing Great Wall Huaguan, launched the latest resignation settlement agreement.
According to the agreement, the future car will give employees three choices. The first one is to choose to resign voluntarily this week, and the company will settle the salary before the end of May without compensation. The second is to leave the company by agreement within two days, sign a compensation agreement with the company, provide compensation according to the national standard N+ 1, and settle the salary before August 3, 2020. Third, stay in the company, and the company will try its best to solve the salary problem as soon as possible. "It's just that it's really impossible to give a promise on the payment time in a short time."
Even if the first two options have time commitment, it is hard to believe compared with the previous practice of future cars. In June 5438+10, Future promised to resign before the Lunar New Year and settle his salary within two months. However, the employees who have signed the agreement have been paid two months' wages and have not settled on time. Since then, Future Auto has used the same agreement to "induce" employees to leave, and the agreed time of the settlement agreement was changed to April 30, 2020, with no follow-up.
In fact, as early as the second half of last year, the future car began to default on employees' wages. Among them, the employees of post A, post B and post C stopped paying wages in July last year, and other posts D, E, F and G began to default on wages in August and September.
In addition to wage arrears, in the future, the car will force some employees to apply for credit loans in the name of paying wages. It is reported that in September, 2065438+2009, its chairman, Lu Qun, announced that he would pay the employees of the company and forced some employees to apply for credit loans with their personal information. However, after the loan came down, the employees who were in arrears did not receive their wages. In addition, due to the financial crisis, the future car-making business is also on the verge of suspension.
Why is the once bright "future" here?
secretly
Committed to the research, development, production, sales and operation of future automobiles, it was established in February 20 15. Although it was nearly 1 year later than "the originator of PPT", it came from behind. 20 16, 10 In June, after BAIC New Energy and Changjiang Automobile, its parent company Great Wall Huaguan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. became the third enterprise to obtain the production qualification of new energy passenger cars.
When the new car-making forces are still "selling concepts", the future cars will be justified and the prospects seem bright.
At the Shanghai Auto Show two months after the establishment of the brand, the K50 engineering prototype independently designed and developed by the future car made its debut. In September, Great Wall Huaguan landed on the New Third Board, becoming the first electric vehicle in the New Third Board. 2065438+February 2006, the foundation stone laying ceremony of the future automobile production base was held in Suzhou. The first phase investment of the base exceeds 2 billion yuan, with an initial area of 230,000 square meters and a planned production capacity of 50,000 vehicles.
In March of the same year, Great Wall Huaguan cooperated with international first-line parts suppliers. Bosch becomes the ESP supplier of the future car, and IAC becomes the dashboard supplier of the future car. At the Beijing Auto Show that year, Future Auto officially released the production version of the future K50 model, and the new car was positioned as a pure electric two-seat supercar. According to the plan, the K50 will be mass-produced at the end of 20 17, and will be launched in June of 20 18.
On April 4, 20 18, in the 306th batch of road motor vehicle manufacturers and products announcement issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the future automobile officially entered the list of new vehicle manufacturers. Coupled with the "production qualification" obtained before, Future Auto became the sixth enterprise to be "double recognized" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission.
At this point, it can be said that the "Dongfeng" future cars needed to build cars are all ready, just waiting for the K50 to land in batches. Great Wall Huaguan once said that its annual sales target in 2020 is 654.38+10,000 vehicles.
If life develops in the direction we imagine, it will be a happy and peaceful ocean. Unfortunately, life is like a play, with too many ups and downs.
The future of listing two months later than planned was secure, and K50 finally announced its arrival on August 8, 20 18. Known as "the first pure electric city sports car in China", this model has a national unified price of 686,800 yuan after subsidy, and it is also the highest-priced model launched by the new domestic car-making forces.
It is puzzling that a Porsche 7 18 series can be bought at the same price. Why can K50 sell at such a high price?
If only from the K50 design, K50 is still a super-run with good completion. Some media people once commented on the K50: "The design of the cheeks and grille is quite fierce, and there is a sense of vision of shareholders in the front face, Ferrari -NSX. The short front and rear suspension and a large number of carbon fiber covers make the K50 sideways a bit like Bugatti Wovier. The fierce tail layout is a bit like the McLaren 720S. Starting with a future K50 is equivalent to starting with the bone marrow of three top sports cars. "
The future of automobile drama is that success is also the future of K50, and failure is also the future of K50, which is also the turning point from the highlight moment to the "anchor point". As a new force in car-making, the listing of products has freed it from the trouble of "slogan-style" car-making, but the future K50 is a failure in terms of quality and workmanship, except for its beautiful appearance.
"How attractive the appearance of the future K50 will be, how disappointing its works will be." This is the evaluation of K50 by potential customers. A media who has tested the K50 also said: "Although the interior of the K50 is also made of suede and other materials, the overall workmanship is very fragmentary, not exquisite, and there is a gear delay, which is completely different from a 700,000 car."
If you look at the sales of K50, you will find that the above comments are not exaggerated at all. Even if K50 takes the niche route, the sales volume is terrible.
In the past two years, the future sales will be 59 vehicles and 95 vehicles respectively, totaling 154 vehicles. However, regarding the sales volume of K50, Lu Qunxin, the chairman of Future Automobile, said: "Looking at the next 20, 30 and 50 years, the future K50 is only the first product, which sets the tone, location and space for the future, so we are not particularly concerned about how much the future K50 can sell, but about what foundation the future K50 will lay for subsequent products after entering the market."
The quasi-mass production model originally planned to be launched in the fourth quarter of last year has not made any movement in the future K20. What's more, regardless of the future of those concept cars, such as K50? Spyder？ Concept, K25? Concept, future concept? 1, the future concept? 2. Obviously, the ideal of building a car is full, but the reality is very skinny.
From system capacity building to brand building, it is decided that building a car is a very expensive thing. Without sales, there will be no profit, let alone sustainable development. Great Wall Huaguan New Third Board was listed until the end of 20 18. The net profit attributable to shareholders of Great Wall Huaguan listed companies was-22 million yuan,-98 million yuan,-226 million yuan and-606 million yuan respectively, and the losses showed an increasing trend year by year. The debt ratios of 20 16 and 20 17 are 35.28% and 69.46% respectively.
Although the new forces can solve the problem of funds needed to build cars in the early stage through financing, once the financing fails to keep up, it will lead to weakness or even elimination because the funds cannot keep up. According to statistics, since landing on the New Third Board, Great Wall Huaguan has successfully raised funds five times, totaling 210.2 billion yuan. For individuals, this money is huge, but for making cars, this money is a drop in the bucket.
Not only that, Great Wall Huaguan issued an announcement in February last year, applying for the company's shares to be terminated on the New Third Board. Great Wall Huaguan responded: "The reason for withdrawing from the New Third Board is to improve financing efficiency." However, senior securities analysts have different views: "Great Wall Crown may be listed in other directions after its exit, and it is difficult to switch from the third board to the second board, and it is difficult to refinance."
It is reported that this 2 billion yuan has been spent when applying to withdraw from the New Third Board. The threshold for "building 20 billion vehicles" in the future is only110. The first decade of the future car has not yet arrived, and it has already stood at a stormy crossroads, and its fate seems to have been decided.
If the future car insists on setting a more realistic small goal for 2020, such as paying the wages owed to employees and suppliers first, or trying to deliver 1 0,000 new cars?
The future has been decided.
There is no doubt that it is difficult to stick to the model of taking a niche market like the future car. Only when the sales volume of the automobile industry reaches a certain amount and the production scale of the enterprise is expanded can the unit production cost be reduced and the scale benefit be brought. Generally speaking, the annual output needs to reach 654.38+10,000 vehicles to achieve profitability. This is still the amount of mature traditional cars after sharing various costs, and the new forces need a relatively larger amount.
Take Tesla, the "leader" in this field, as an example. 20 19 is the best-selling year since the establishment of Tesla 16, with the annual delivery of 367,500 vehicles. This also directly made Tesla's annual revenue in 20 19 reach 24.578 billion US dollars, higher than 2.65438+0.46 billion US dollars in the same period last year. Although Tesla's profit rose, its net profit still lost, with a loss of $862 million, but it was better than the loss of $976 million in 20 18.
In addition, from the perspective of Tesla's sales and profits in the past two years, if the quarterly sales volume is more than 70,000 vehicles, the profits can achieve positive growth. Although the sales volume of 20 19 in the second quarter was about 65,438+10,000 vehicles, its gross profit margin was only 18.9%, which was lower than the previous 20%, resulting in a decrease in profit and loss. Generally speaking, the new forces want to make a profit, and the annual sales volume of 6,543,800+vehicles is far from enough.
Among Tesla's four products, Model? As a mass-produced product, the total sales volume in 20 19 was 302,000, which shows that the global sales volume of the other three cars is only about 60,000. And models? The basic price in America is $30,000. What is the current domestic model? The price is within 300,000 yuan. Although the model? 3 It is not the same as the positioning of the future K50, but compared with the global leader in the field of new energy, it is so difficult for Tesla to support profitability, not to mention the future K50 with a smaller market and higher price.
Tesla's relatively mature history of building cars is a bit cruel for the future. Compared with Wei in China in the same period, there seems to be no "money way" in the future.
Weilai Automobile has been losing money since the establishment of 20 14. From 20 16 to 20 18, the losses were 2.573 billion yuan, 50.2 1 100 million yuan and 9.639 billion yuan respectively. In 20 19, weilai automobile sold 20,565 vehicles, and its annual operating income was 7.825 billion yuan, up 58.0% year-on-year, but its annual net profit loss was1/2.96 million yuan, up 17.2% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, Weilai Automobile's net profit loss was 2.865 billion yuan, more than the five fund-raising of future automobiles.
It can be seen that Weilai has lost nearly 30 billion since its establishment. Previously, Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, once said: "It is best not to build a car without 20 billion yuan." Now, 20 billion cars, we need to be cautious.
In addition, according to statistics, Weilai Automobile has raised 12 times so far, with a financing amount of 44.3 billion yuan, making it a new force automobile enterprise with the largest financing amount in China. By 2020, Weilai has completed the total financing of convertible bonds of 435 million US dollars, and signed a financing framework agreement with Hefei Municipal Government of Anhui Province of more than 654.38 billion yuan. It seems that Weilai seems to be rich this year. However, no matter how rich you are, "lack of money" is still the mainstream for Weilai Automobile, which burns money "Wang Zhongwang".
Although the total financing of famous new car-making forces such as Weilai, Weimar, Tucki and Baiteng 10 has exceeded10 billion, it is even more difficult to finance more new car-making forces like Weilai. It is conceivable that the days of new car-making enterprises in the future will be more difficult.
The new car-making forces want to get on the right track, and increasing product sales is the only channel. However, there is still a long way to go compared with Tesla. Faced with the pressure of the transformation of traditional car companies and the intensification of the market winter, there are very few new forces that can stay in the future. The "future" of most new car-making forces seems to have been set, either eliminated or on the way to elimination.
As for the theme of new forces in 2020, we still have to live.
Text/Gan Fangli
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.