Zhongxin Jingwei, December 17 (Sun Qingyang) Near the end of the year, all major car companies have entered the sprint stage, making every effort to achieve the sales and revenue targets. However, brands including Tucki, Ideality and Aouita have successively changed coaches or frequently transferred high-level personnel. As the end of the year approaches, why do the new forces of building cars frequently leave the company?
The new forces of building cars are now leaving the company.
On December 9th, it was reported that Li Pengcheng, assistant CEO of Xpeng Motors, had recently left his post. Xpeng Motors responded that Li Pengcheng resigned due to personal physical reasons. On the same day that Li Pengcheng was rumored to leave, Li Xiang, the founder of LI, issued an internal letter announcing that Shen Yanan, the co-founder, would resign. Since January 1, 2023, Shen Yanan will no longer serve as the president of the company. Ma Donghui, the chief engineer, will succeed Shen Yanan as the president of LI and join the board of directors, taking charge of the R&D and supply group as a whole, and Xie Yan, the senior vice president, will be the ideal CTO. Coincidentally, in recent days, there are many new power enterprises that have also experienced similar situations. After the release of the third quarterly report, Beiqi Blue Valley and Changan Automobile Aouita have undergone major personnel adjustments.
"Substitution is to tap the potential internally, on the one hand, improve the supply chain and enhance the bargaining power for suppliers; On the other hand, reduce management and consumption costs and make enterprises break even. " Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International Joint Business School of Zhejiang University, believes that the new car-making forces have generally not got rid of the situation of increasing income without increasing profits, and many new car-making forces still have negative profit margins. For the new forces making cars, it is their goal to get positive cash flow and net profit in the future. At present, the sales of new car-making forces have reached a certain scale, and the scale effect has indeed reduced certain costs, but it is far from enough.
Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Automobile Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Science and Technology Vocational College, said that at the end of the year, companies are generally required to conduct assessments. If the assessments fail, the executives will resign. If the assessment is really unqualified, the bonus incentives promised to executives before will not be available. Therefore, the end of the year is a time node for a company to assess its annual performance. In addition, the company also needs to make a new year’s work plan and hope to make adjustments to the management. These factors are superimposed, leading to the departure tide of senior executives. At present, many car companies hire professional managers to be executives. In a certain assessment period, those who fail the assessment will resign automatically.
Can the new forces get out of the long-term loss dilemma?
IDC’s latest report "Market Trend Forecast of New Energy Vehicles in China from 2022 to 2026" shows that the market size of new energy vehicles in China will reach 15.98 million vehicles in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.1%. It has always attracted various players such as new car-making forces, traditional car companies, technology companies and mobile phone manufacturers to join.
However, many new forces have fallen into the situation of "selling one car and losing one". In the first three quarters of 2022, Weilai Automobile lost 8.6 billion yuan, and in the third quarter alone, it lost 4.1 billion yuan. Xpeng Motors followed closely, losing 6.8 billion yuan in the first three quarters; LI also lost 650 million yuan in the first half of this year.
In the future, can the new forces get out of the long-term loss dilemma? Pan Helin believes that some car companies can, and the key is how to improve the bargaining power of the supply chain. The new forces of car-making need to extend from the downstream to the upstream. When the key parts are self-sufficient, the bargaining power will be improved, the cost of the new forces of car-making will be reduced, and the new car design will be more comfortable.
Zhang Xiang said that only a few of the new brands in the head can finally make a profit, and the profit cycle is still very long. Comparing Tesla’s profit time, we will know that it took more than ten years to make a profit. "Tesla started early, when the industry market was still a blue ocean." Now, these new car-making forces are facing greater challenges than Tesla. In addition, traditional car companies like BYD, GAC and Volkswagen have already caught up. Therefore, it will take a long time for some new forces to get out of the long-term loss dilemma. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
