Traditional car companies have frequently filed for bankruptcy. Has a new round of reshuffle begun?

After Zotye, Byton, Bojun and others declared bankruptcy one after another, these car companies failed to survive until New Year's Day, and they also moved from marginalized brands to bankruptcy and reorganization. The Matthew Effect of domestic car companies has intensified unprecedentedly.

On November 11, Yangtze Motor was exposed and liquidated before bankruptcy, and has now officially entered bankruptcy liquidation procedures. As the fifth domestic new energy vehicle company to obtain "dual qualifications" from the Development and Reform Commission of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Since the release of the small Yikou in 2016, Yangtze Motor has been slow to move forward with new products, and relevant information is very scarce. On the contrary, negative reports about Changjiang EV's suspension of work and resignations have continued since 2017. At the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, Changjiang EV finally assembled 3 concept cars and 6 pure electric commercial vehicles, but it still did not play a big role in establishing the brand. In July 2019, it was revealed that Changjiang Motors was defending the rights of employees who were underpaid at the factory. As predicted by the outside world, Yangtze Motor was eventually forced to file for bankruptcy due to insufficient funds.

On November 13, two major car companies, Dongfeng Yulona Zhijie and Brilliance Automobile, were reported to have filed for bankruptcy. On the same day, Dongfeng Yulon Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. stated that it had applied to enter the bankruptcy liquidation process in the Zhejiang court. Recently, Dongfeng Yulon Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. also carried out industrial and commercial deregistration. The marginalized Nazhijie brand has long been ignored in the domestic automobile market.

On November 20, the Shenyang Intermediate People’s Court ruled on the 20th to accept the creditor’s application for reorganization of Brilliance Automobile Group Holdings Co., Ltd., marking the car company’s formal entry into bankruptcy and reorganization procedures. It should be noted that this bankruptcy only involves the independent brand part of Brilliance Auto.

In December this year, Zotye New Energy was also formally filed for bankruptcy liquidation. This was the fourth independent car company to declare bankruptcy in the past month. Different from the new car-making forces, Zotye New Energy can be regarded as a new energy brand that entered the Chinese market very early. As early as 2008, Zotye began to engage in the research and development, production and sales of new energy vehicles. In the same year, it also launched its first pure electric model, the Zotye 2008EV. Since then, Zotye New Energy has quickly entered into healthy development, launching new pure electric models almost every year. It is reported that as of 2017, Zotye New Energy has sold more than 90,000 vehicles, accounting for 18% of the total sales of new energy pure electric vehicles in the country.

Since then, Zotye’s sales have begun to decline, and new energy sales have not improved. Judging from the currently published sales data, Zotye New Energy's monthly sales in 2020 will only remain at around 110 vehicles. Due to poor sales performance and constant negative news, it was eventually filed for bankruptcy liquidation on the grounds that its assets were insufficient to pay off all debts.

Judging from the four car companies that have recently filed for bankruptcy, they are undoubtedly sending a signal: the Chinese auto market has begun another round of reshuffle.

In the past two years, the domestic automobile market has been sluggish, and overall sales have continued to decline. After years of rapid growth, car ownership and household car ownership rates in large and medium-sized cities in China have become saturated, and new users are decreasing day by day. China's auto market has moved from an incremental market to a stock market, and the main theme of survival of the fittest is getting faster and faster. It can be said that for marginal car brands, the pressure to survive is increasing.

The most intuitive feeling of this process is that competition in the auto market is extremely fierce, and industry reshuffles are becoming more frequent. As for independent brands, traditional car companies such as Geely, Great Wall, and Changan have already established their foothold and have considerable market sales. For joint venture brands, brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, etc. that have large sales volumes and high brand loyalty can also rely on their large inherent user base to develop stably in the domestic market. On the other hand, fringe brands with low brand awareness, such as car companies such as Lifan, Haima, Cheetah, Huatai, Qoros, etc., not only cannot gain support from new users, but also the small number of old users they have accumulated will gradually lose, and their living space will definitely be affected. Severe squeeze.

The fundamental reason is that these car companies that have declared bankruptcy or are on the verge of bankruptcy often do not have excellent technology and products, so that their production, sales and ownership have not been high, and their popularity and reputation will decline rapidly over time. . Car companies without the support of sales volume quickly fell into the dilemma of insufficient funds and were eventually forced to exit.

Tan Benhong, executive vice president of Changan Automobile, once said, "China's automobile industry has entered a comprehensive elimination period. The stronger the strong, the weaker will face greater pressure. The survival of the fittest is more obvious, and Chinese automobile brands I think 50% will cease to exist in a very short period of time.”

With the rapid development of China’s auto market, those car companies without product competitiveness will be exposed at an accelerated pace, and they will be exposed as marginal cars. For enterprises, the ultimate fate can only be to be eliminated by the market.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.