Executives return to traditional car companies, and the new forces of building cars highlight the crisis. Has the dark hour arrived?

The salary has tripled, and the position has also risen by three levels. Three or four years ago, the new force of making cars was a hot potato in the eyes of many autobots. However, all the executives or front-line employees who have changed jobs have taken a fancy to this attractive treatment. Of course, there are also ambitions to make great efforts in start-up car companies.

Today, the situation seems to have changed by 180 degrees. Many new car-making forces have suffered salary cuts, layoffs, and even the embarrassing situation of executives leaving their jobs and returning to traditional car companies. Their ambitions have run out. Looking back, comparing the two scenes before and after is quite tricky.

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At the beginning of 2020, the auto industry drama "Feng Haichao", which was "participated" by many senior executives of the new car-making forces, was staged in turn. The play "tells" the story of traditional autobots who defected to the new forces of making cars for their dreams. After experiencing the double test of ideal and reality, it is sobering to return to the true story of traditional car companies.

First, on February 27th, Sky Motor's director and chief marketing officer (CMO) resigned from Dongping, and soon joined Hyundai Motor and became Hyundai Motor Group (China)? Bad habits? President? Deputy general manager and sales minister of Beijing Hyundai.

Subsequently, Chen, the former vice president of automobile marketing and sales in jori County, joined Chery as the general manager of EXEED Xingtu brand marketing center, and was fully responsible for Xingtu brand marketing business; Deng Ling, former general manager and vice president of marketing in He Zhong, joined SAIC Chase as deputy director of brand public relations and strategy department; Zhao, the former vice president of Weilai User Center, joined Great Wall Motor as the general manager of the User Center of Great Wall Sales Company. Lin Wei, Senior Executive Vice President of Guo Zhiwei Military Automobile Co., Ltd., left to join Mei Tian Automobile.

Followed by a wave of resignation. Gu, vice president of Xpeng's auto driving R&D, and vice president of Zero Run Auto have left successively; Liu Liqun, general manager of Weimar Automobile Travel Division, left in February; Zhang zhen, who just "jumped ship" from Lectra to Bojun at the end of 20 19, recently announced a similar resignation in the circle of friends.

Of course, in the eyes of many people in the industry, the case of the resignation of the above-mentioned executives is only the tip of the iceberg. With the new energy automobile market entering the "post-epidemic era", many unstable factors have intensified, and professional managers of the new forces of making cars have returned to traditional automobile enterprises or left their jobs. The situation will be more obvious, and 2020 will be the year of life and death for the new forces that build cars.

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As we all know, under the impact of the "COVID-19" epidemic, the survival of all walks of life is very difficult, especially in the long-term recession of the automobile industry. This can be seen from the fact that the sales volume of various car companies decreased by about 80% in February.

In other words, even the giant traditional car companies feel the pressure of survival, not to mention these new forces with poor foundation. It is in this case that the survival of enterprises is generally difficult, but anyone with a little experience in the workplace knows that now is not a good time to quit. It is impossible for the above-mentioned automobile operators not to know such a simple truth. Then, under such circumstances, why did they resolutely choose to leave the new car-making forces and return to traditional car companies?

It can only be said that it is too difficult for the new forces to build cars now, which can't be true. Take the future car as an example. In late March, a number of future employees broke the news that wages have been postponed many times in the future, and there is still no money to pay wages that have been in arrears for several months. After the news broke, I only received a half-month salary reissued by the company. In addition, it is reported that as of March, Future stopped paying some employees for nine months.

Of course, the new force of building a car that is in arrears with wages is by no means a future car. If you open Baidu and enter keywords such as wage arrears of new car-making army, you can search for many typical cases.

In addition to the arrears of employees' wages, some new car-making forces have also defaulted on suppliers. According to the information disclosed by Qixinbao, Bojun and its affiliated company * * * are involved in litigation 2 1, involving suppliers in different fields such as automotive materials, molds and marketing planning. In addition, some new forces, such as Guo Jin Auto, are also in arrears with suppliers.

Even the "good boy" in the new force of building cars has not heard any negative news about Du Yun's new energy. According to Zhang Hongyan, deputy general manager of Du Yun and general manager of the marketing center, Du Yun's supply chain and capital chain have been broken due to the epidemic and have not yet resumed work.

As Li Xiang, CEO of Li, said on social media: "In hundreds of new car-making enterprises, we have never defaulted on employees' wages or suppliers' payments. The two most basic and most important estimates are no more than five. " There is no doubt that the tragic situation of the new car-making forces is more serious than we thought.

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Why did the new forces of building cars end up in such a situation? In fact, apart from the general recession, to a great extent, consumers' confidence and interest in new power for making cars have not been established for such a long time. A series of problems have appeared in new energy vehicles, including battery spontaneous combustion, higher failure rate than fuel vehicles, unsafe after-sales, battery life and life decay, which have stifled users' confidence in buying.

As far as the author's conversations with friends and relatives around him during the Spring Festival are concerned, it is generally believed that there are many pain points such as expensive purchase and more expensive use of new energy vehicles, and there are also many troubles encountered in the use process. The maintenance rate is lower than that of fuel vehicles, and the failure rate remains high. In the words of many young people, spending 65,438+10,000 on a Corolla or 200,000 on an Accord is worry-free and inexpensive. Why do you have to be a "white mouse" of new energy? Unless you live in a restricted city like Beishangguang, you must choose a new energy vehicle.

In fact, in Zhang Hongyan's view, in addition to the above problems, almost all new energy OEMs are faced with the reality that "the more they sell, the greater the loss", and there is no scale effect. That is, limited by the huge costs of R&D, personnel, store building, after-sales and marketing, as well as the bleak sales situation, the profit of a single model generally cannot run beyond the cost. Imagine such a deformed profit situation, and the new forces with strong financing ability may not last long. Undoubtedly, this has become the fundamental reason that restricts the development of new forces to build cars.

Looking at the development pattern of new energy vehicles in the next few years, two completely different market segments will be formed. First, in the subdivision of more than 200,000 yuan, the new forces of making cars will compete with masters such as Tesla, and the result of the competition will be very fierce, just like now; The other is the low-end car market dominated by rural areas with a price of about 60,000 yuan. This undeveloped virgin land may contain opportunities.

It is necessary to know that the rural market has almost been replaced by informal battery cars. Relatively speaking, these cars are unsafe and irregular, and the "regular army" is in urgent need of rescue. After all, it is convenient for farmers to charge at home, and the battery life is basically worry-free. Coupled with the positioning of about 60 thousand, the support of these three selling points may open up a vast field.

However, in the eyes of many founders, the innate gene of the new car-making force is a high-level term such as "ecological opposition". Its mission is to change the travel life of human beings, just like drinking coffee and suddenly drinking corn porridge, which will be a little uncomfortable.

However, in view of the fact that Geely, Great Wall, BYD, Chery and other traditional independent car companies all started from the low end and slowly entered the high-end market after decades of efforts, the new forces built cars from low to high, put down their so-called face, and truly build cost-effective new energy vehicles in order to survive in the cold winter. Only by surviving can we talk about a series of grand plans.

Now look back at the article published by Zhang Wei, CEO of Cornerstone Capital, "Why are there no new forces worth investing in?" ",he once hit the nail on the head:" The new force is the product of mature capital. Without the support of policies and hot money, there is no way out "Indeed, after so many years of tossing, after the capital gradually returns to calm, what should the new forces of making cars do next? This really needs the founder to think hard.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.