Text | Connected Insight, Author | Li Xin, Editor | Ye Lili
Weimar dragged on the D round of financing for a year, and finally made new progress.
Recently, according to the financial magazine, the lead investment institution of Weimar Automobile’s D-round financing has confirmed that the scale of this round of financing is expected to be 5 billion yuan or the equivalent of US dollars. After the financing is completed, Weimar Automobile will start to declare science and technology innovation board and is expected to land in science and technology innovation board early next year.
Previously, Weimar had raised 23 billion RMB, and in 2019, it promoted the D round of financing with a total planned amount of 1 billion US dollars, but it never landed. Subsequently, the sudden outbreak of the epidemic led to the deterioration of the financing environment, and Weimar’s financing was delayed again and again. Until now, no new news came out.
In contrast, Ideal and Tucki have been financing and listing rapidly in recent months.
On June 24th, LI received a US$ 550 million financing from Series D led by Meituan, and then it was officially listed on NASDAQ on July 30th, becoming the second domestic new energy vehicle company to go to the US for IPO after Weilai.
Xpeng Motors has also been listed on the NYSE on August 27th. Before listing, it completed the C+ round of financing of US$ 500 million on August 3rd, and less than half a month later, it was again financed by over US$ 300 million led by Alibaba.
In terms of financing and listing speed, Weimar is slow. In terms of sales volume, Weimar also faces challenges.
According to the statistics of the Association, in 2019, the top three domestic new energy vehicle companies were Weilai, Weimar and Tucki, with sales of 20,565, 16,876 and 16,608 respectively, and Weimar ranked second.
By the first half of this year, the top five brands of domestic new energy vehicle companies were Weilai, Ideality, Weimar, Tucki and Nezha.In July, Weimar dropped to the fourth place, with a total of 2,036 vehicles sold.
However, it is worth noting that compared with Weimar itself, Weimar’s sales volume has achieved five consecutive increases.
"I believe that the stage of Weimar automobile from 0 to 1 has passed, but the stage from 1 to 1000 still faces various challenges." Weimar founder Freeman Shen said.
At present, domestic new energy vehicle companies have gone through the mass production stage, and then their goals are aimed at sales volume, profit and scale.
Among several domestic new energy vehicle companies, Weimar’s price is relatively close to the people, and now it is going deep into third-and fourth-tier cities, trying to tap the potential of the sinking market. Will this bring more sales to Weimar?
It can be said that the real competition of new energy car companies has just begun. How much market space can Weimar finally win?
Compared with the internet background of the founders of other domestic new energy automobile enterprises, Freeman Shen has been immersed in the traditional automobile industry for many years and has profound resources and experience in the automobile industry.
Before the founding of Weimar Automobile, Freeman Shen was the right-hand man of Li Shufu, the founder of Geely Automobile, who successfully helped Li Shufu acquire Volvo. As a result, he became the global senior vice president of Volvo Cars and the chairman of Volvo Cars in China, responsible for the production and commercial operation in China.
However, at the end of 2014, Freeman Shen left Volvo and joined Botai, a car networking company, as CEO of the Group and CEO of the Smart Car Division, and officially set foot in the field of smart cars. However, less than a year later, Freeman Shen left Botai, chose to start his own business, and established Weimar Automobile in 2015.
It is precisely because of years of working experience in traditional car companies that Freeman Shen saw the limitations of fuel car companies.
"There are already one or two million traditional fuel vehicles running, and it is impossible to spend all your efforts to engage in electric vehicles to reduce the amount of their fuel vehicles. Only those new energy vehicle companies like us, without historical and brand burdens and technical burdens of traditional fuel vehicles, can wholeheartedly concentrate on the real quantity. " Freeman Shen mentioned in an interview with the media.
It is worth noting that when Weimar was formally established, new energy vehicle companies such as Weilai, Tucki and Ideality had made their appearances one after another, and gained a lot of financing by relying on the glamorous resumes of their founders.
Freeman Shen, the founder of a domestic new energy vehicle company with a different background from the Internet, has worked in the traditional OEM for many years. At the beginning of Weimar, he set up a luxurious founding team, among which Lu Bin, the chief travel officer, worked for SAIC-GM, Chery and Geely; Chief Operating Officer Xu Huanxin has worked for Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo; Yan Feng, chief technology officer, once worked for SAIC-GM and SAIC passenger cars.
The glamorous resume of Weimar’s founding team is enough to rank among a number of new energy vehicle companies, and Weimar, which has these talents, has also been recognized by the capital market.
In August 2016, Weimar won the A round of financing, with a financing amount of 1 billion US dollars, becoming a unicorn enterprise. The following year, Weimar successively received several rounds of financing, which also attracted two domestic Internet giants, Tencent and Baidu, to continue to raise money. At that time, Lu Qi, the president and chief operating officer of Baidu Group, personally stood for Weimar.
"We value the management ability of Weimar team and highly recognize Weimar’s product concept. Baidu Apollo plan will be open to Weimar." Lu Qi said at the launch conference of Weimar’s first production car.
Weimar, which got financing, also quickly entered the development period. In November 2016, the Weimar Wenzhou factory started construction; In March 2018, the first trial car of Weimar EX5 rolled off the assembly line; In September, Weimar held the EX5 listing and delivery conference, crossing the watershed of mass production delivery; At the end of 2019, Weimar EX6 was also successfully listed.
However, Weimar, who had a smooth journey, was hit by his old club.
In August 2019, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Geely Automobile Research Institute Co., Ltd. sued four subsidiaries of Weimar Automobile, claiming that part of the design of Weimar EX5 model copied Geely GX7 and Yuanjing SUV model, demanding Weimar to pay 2.1 billion yuan in compensation and recover the patents that have been applied by Weimar.
At the same time, Geely sued more than 100 natural persons, including Freeman Shen. Most of these Weimar employees used to work in Geely. Among them, Hou Haijing, the co-founder of Weimar Automobile, is responsible for the production of GX7 models in Geely, and serves as the product team leader of Vision SUV, responsible for the development of Vision SUV.
According to the auto media, Yueguan Auto Market reported that during the test run, Weimar Research Institute directly put the white body of Vision SUV on the chassis of Weimar EX5 for test run. At the same time, the track of Weimar EX5 is exactly the same as that of Geely GX7, but the difference between axles is only 4.2 cm.
Perhaps because of this lawsuit, Weimar, which had a very smooth financing before, has not finalized its D round of financing.
"Based on Geely’s position in the industry, litigation will definitely have an impact on Weimar. This is like a time bomb. Investors must eliminate all uncertainties before they dare to bet." An auto industry analyst told Wired Insight.
However, Geely’s lawsuit against Weimar did not affect the sales of Weimar. Although Weimar failed to reach the annual sales target of 100,000 set by Freeman Shen last year, Weimar sold 16,876 vehicles in the sales ranking of new energy vehicle enterprises last year, which was second only to Weilai, which ranked first in sales volume.
Today, Weimar has two products, namely the compact SUV Weimar EX5 and the medium-sized SUV Weimar EX6, and other products are derivatives of these two cars. Next, Weimar will launch two SUVs and a car product.
However, other new energy vehicle companies are also making full progress. Weilai has launched the third car EC6, and Tucki has also released the second car Xiaopeng P7. It is not so easy for Weimar to break through from a number of new energy vehicle companies.
"The valuation is definitely wrong, and the last round was more than that." Freeman Shen told the media recently.
Earlier, some media reported that Weimar Automobile will be listed in science and technology innovation board IPO as soon as this year, with a valuation of over $4.3 billion. Whether the valuation is wrong or not, Weimar is already in a backward state from the financing point of view.
At present, Weilai, Ideality and Tucki, which have been listed, have market values of $23 billion, $14 billion and $16 billion respectively. This means that the three new forces have got considerable funds from the secondary market.
In addition, this year Weilai China signed strategic cooperation agreements with six banks, including China Construction Bank, and obtained a total of 10.4 billion yuan of comprehensive credit.
In contrast, Weimar has only recently been exposed that it has just finalized the D round of RMB 5 billion financing, and the listing time is also early next year.
The financing speed is slow, and the competitors in sales are obviously accelerating. Weimar is quite challenging.
According to the data released by Weilai, Weilai sold a total of 17,702 vehicles from January to July this year. We should know that Weilai’s sales last year just passed 20,000 vehicles, which means that Weilai almost caught up with the sales in the whole year of last year in half a year.
Since the delivery of Weilai, 49,615 vehicles have been delivered, which has properly become the sales overlord of domestic new energy vehicle enterprises.
It is worth noting that LI has become a dark horse in sales this year. Since it was delivered by Li ONE at the end of last year, it took LI six months to sell more than 10,000 vehicles, setting the fastest speed for new car companies to sell more than 10,000 vehicles. By the end of July, LI had delivered a total of 12,182 vehicles, ranking second among new car manufacturers.
From the price point of view, the official guide price of Weimar EX5 is 13.98-19.88 million, and that of EX6 is 18.99-25.99 million. Compared with Weilai and Ideality, Weimar’s price of more than 300,000 yuan takes a differentiated pro-people route.
However, the price close to the people did not bring an advantage to Weimar.In the sales competition of new car-making enterprises in July this year, Weimar also fell to the fourth place due to the official delivery of Tucki P7. In that month, the sales of Weilai, Ideality, Tucki and Weimar were 3,533, 2,516, 2,451 and 2,036 respectively.
Although compared with Weimar itself, the sales volume in July has doubled year-on-year, and the chain has achieved five consecutive increases, it is also an indisputable fact that the sales volume has been surpassed by other new energy vehicle companies, and behind this, it may be related to its vehicle performance.
For new energy vehicles, cruising range is an important performance display point, and the cruising range is long enough to alleviate users’ anxiety about new energy vehicles.
At present, among the major new energy vehicle companies, the cruising range of Li ONE has reached 800km, which is also the highest cruising range reached by domestic new energy vehicle companies.
Weilai automobile, which adopts pure electric technology route, has a cruising range of 580-610km for its three cars; The cruising range of Xpeng Motors’s two cars is 520km and 706km； respectively; The cruising range of the three models currently on sale by Weimar is between 475-520km.
In contrast, Weimar has the shortest cruising range. In addition, Weimar’s models all use the same technical platform, the same body mechanism and three electric power systems, but there are some differences in body length and battery capacity.
"Weimar products perform in general. You see Weilai positioning the high-end market. Ideally, there is no mileage anxiety. Tucki has functions such as automatic parking and has its own characteristics." An auto industry analyst said.
It is enough to see that Weimar can not be eliminated in the competition only if it introduces more distinctive products.
This year’s new energy automobile industry is obviously more severe than in previous years.
Due to the continuous influence of epidemic situation and subsidy recession, the domestic new energy automobile industry is polarized this year. Enterprises that have achieved mass production have begun to usher in a new round of capital feast, while enterprises that have not produced mass production have been accelerated to be eliminated.
Since July 1, Baiteng Automobile has suspended its business operations in China, leaving only a small number of employees to maintain the basic functions of the company; After selling all the factories and land, Bojun Automobile began to sell core technologies to make up for the wage loopholes; Sailin Automobile Nantong Rugao Factory and Shanghai Branch were closed down one after another.
"New energy car companies will be eliminated, and in the end there will only be about three or even less." An auto industry analyst told Wired Insight.
Judging from the current development situation, domestic new energy vehicle companies have gone through the financing and delivery stages and started to move towards the self-hematopoietic stage.
As early as the second half of last year, Weimar began to focus on sales and made a series of structural adjustments. Freeman Shen personally served as the general manager of the sales company, and announced the establishment of a chief retail officer, reporting directly to Freeman Shen, and invited wangxin, the former chief marketing officer of Youxin Group, as the chief growth officer.
"Weimar’s goal is to become the first profitable new energy vehicle company in the world." At the Guangzhou Auto Show Media Day at the end of last year, Freeman Shen also told the media.
Freeman Shen didn’t just shout slogans. During the epidemic this year, Weimar launched the sales model of "Weimar Direct Purchase", which is similar to the combined version of financial leasing and value-added repurchase, which lowered the threshold for entry consumption of electric vehicles.
According to Qi Liren, the chief retail officer of Weimar Automobile, told the Economic Observer that after the launch of "Weimar Direct Purchase", Weimar Automobile harvested a large number of orders, and Weimar EX6 Plus 400 Light Edition acquired nearly 30,000 high-intention users within two months.
Since the beginning of this year, Weimar has also vigorously laid its own sales channels. "Weimar added 46 stores in the first half of the year, and its contacts went deep into third-and fourth-tier cities. In June alone, 18 new retail channels were added, covering 15 cities in China. " Freeman Shen said.
According to Caijing. com, Weimar will increase its penetration rate in the second half of this year, adding brand contacts on the basis of thousands of stores in thousands of cities.
As Weimar penetrates into the sinking market, its people-friendly price may push up sales and accelerate the scale effect, which may become the key to Weimar’s profitability.
Of course, Weimar’s actions not only vigorously expand sales channels, but also develop different models.
According to relevant data, Weimar will launch three models before the end of 2021, one is the production version of the conceptual 5G SUV at the Shanghai Auto Show in 2019, which will be equipped with 5G technology, the other is the long-life SUV EX6, and finally there is a pure electric car.
"The cruising range of our current mainstream products is 500 kilometers, and it will reach 600 kilometers soon next year. It is expected to exceed 700 kilometers when the car goes on the market in 2021." Freeman Shen said.
It is worth noting that after the Tesla Shanghai factory is put into production, it will also play a certain role in driving the new energy automobile industry.
In the process of Tesla’s continuous localization, although it will directly hit domestic new energy vehicle enterprises in the short term, in the long run, the problems of cost, charging convenience, cruising range and battery attenuation of new energy vehicles will be gradually solved under the leadership of Tesla.
At the same time, Tesla’s brand effect has also educated the market to a certain extent, allowing more people to understand and experience new energy vehicles, which will also drive the sales growth of new energy vehicles.
"We are not in the survival period now, we are in ‘ Long body ’ At this time, we should give users more and better products and cover more people. " Freeman Shen said.
As a new energy vehicle enterprise that has survived and achieved mass production, Weimar has regained the favor of capital, and after a new round of capital injection, Weimar still has some imagination space, and how big this space is depends on Weimar’s next-generation products and service system.
