The new forces of global car-making reshuffle

Under the catalysis of the epidemic, the automobile elimination championship of the new forces was staged on a global scale.

Yan Wenqian Bo Yan

In the summer of 2020, under the bright sunshine, rows of neat brand-new electric cars were parked in the empty factory building. This is a new power for electric vehicles that have gone bankrupt.

This is a brand-new electric vehicle carrying the hopes of entrepreneurs and local governments: wheelbase1.48m, power 40 HP, maximum load 260kg, cruising range139km, 50km acceleration 4.7s, and the price is as high as196000 yuan.

This scene appeared in Aachen, where the Emperor of the First Reich of Germany was crowned. What is the name of this model? Life.

The frustrated under the bankruptcy storm

The COVID-19 crisis, which lasted for half a year, is still impacting the global automobile industry.

Large-scale deficit and uniform performance decline are the same themes in the semi-annual reports of major international automobile giants in recent days. However, compared with these large multinational automobile companies, they can still rely on abundant cash flow, bank loans and government subsidies to tide over the crisis. Those yesterday's stars, electric car start-ups, are obviously not so lucky.

Not only did Lindsay and Baden set off a storm in China, but the bankruptcy storm of the new car-making forces also swept the German car-making country.

E. GO, a representative enterprise of the new forces once known as German Tesla, actually filed for bankruptcy protection with the local court on April 2, two weeks after the outbreak of the epidemic. According to the provisions of the German bankruptcy law, the company will be granted a grace period of three months after applying for bankruptcy protection, during which the company can suspend payment of payables through restructuring until the capital problem turns around.

According to the data released by e.go in February, since its establishment in 20 15, the company has successfully raised 3 10/00000 euros, but there is still a funding gap as high as 150000 euros.

During the three-month grace period, e.GO failed to create a miracle. E.GO can neither find new investors nor guarantee the employment of employees. On July 1 day, e.GO officially entered the bankruptcy liquidation procedure, and more than 80% of employees relied on the short-term working system provided by the government to protect part of their salary income.

Actually? E.GO can be described as a seedling red. Its founder guntherschuh is still a professor of mechanical engineering at Aachen University of Technology, the number one engineering school in Germany. 40% of the shares of Moove brand owned by e.GO are held by ZF, a famous component supplier. ZF not only invested at least tens of millions of euros in e.GO, but also provided almost all technical support for e.GO, including electric drive components, steering mechanisms, control units and other chassis.

Supported by strong technical capabilities, e.GO achieved mass production as early as May last year, and once shouted the slogan of selling 5,000 vehicles in 2020.

Unfortunately, even with the double blessing of technology giants and ZF, the decline of e.GO can be traced back to 20 19. What was its e.GO in those days? Life has only sold 540 vehicles, and the number of new car registrations issued by the German Federal Vehicle Administration is only 17 1. Volkswagen e-UP with the same positioning sold 8200 vehicles in the same period.

According to the estimation of the German Federal Court, the loss before interest and tax of e.GO in that year was between 75 million and 90 million euros. According to E-Go's own statement, some investors were willing to provide bridge loan to the company on the condition of entering the China market, but the plan fell through due to the outbreaks in China and Europe in February and March respectively. E.GO entered bankruptcy proceedings.

The fall of e.GO is not a case.

Another new automobile manufacturing force troubled by negative news is Uniti of Sweden. This startup, which started with Nordic style, solar panel charging and crowdfunding, announced its high-profile entry into the electric vehicle market as early as 20 17, and demonstrated its first two-seat concept car Uniti in 20 18. One.

Uniti？ The initial price of one set is as high as 20,000 euros, and the names of technology giants such as Siemens, Borgwarner and KUKA Robot have also appeared among the investors behind it. But Uniti's car was bumpy all the way.

Compared with e.GO? Life has at least entered the mass production stage. Uniti originally scheduled for 20 19 mass production? So far no one has been able to deliver a real car. In the official YouTube channel on April 29th, Uniti claimed that the reason for the repeated delay in delivery was that its supply chain was broken due to the suspension of the automobile industry in Hubei Province in February. In fact, according to Swedish local media reports, Uniti's supply chain was almost frozen as early as 20 19 and 12, which obviously had nothing to do with the COVID-19 epidemic.

In addition to explaining the reasons for the delay in delivery, Uniti also announced that it would make a major organizational restructuring, otherwise it would be difficult for the company to guarantee the payment of employees' wages, and said that this was one of the ways to avoid bankruptcy. Since then, Uniti has completely withdrawn from public view, and according to local media reports, its staff number is only seven.

Even start-ups attached to giants can't resist this storm.

StreetScooter, a startup also born in 20 10 of Aachen University of Technology, also chose the typical integration road of Europe and Industry-University-Research. Its founder is also Aachen University of Technology (Achim? Kampker), the founder of e.GO, Professor Shure also has shares. The difference is that the more pragmatic StreetScooter chose the 2B electric commercial vehicle from the beginning.

In 20 14, Deutsche Post wholly acquired StreetScooter and bought a new factory in Rhineland, and the annual production capacity has gradually increased to 20,000 vehicles. The order of the parent company Deutsche Post 15000 vehicles once made StreetScooter beautiful. In May, 1965, at 438+08, Deutsche Post even planned to list StreetScooter separately.

Unfortunately, Deutsche Post's plan to achieve carbon neutrality by replacing the existing logistics fleet and even driving other logistics companies to buy StreetScooter soon fell through. StreetScooter, which was hastily launched, exposed some quality problems, such as the cruising range is not up to standard in bad weather, and it caught fire when charging. The embarrassing figure of almost zero exports made StreetScooter lose 6,543.8 billion euros to the parent company in fiscal year 20 19.

Now, under the impact of the epidemic, Deutsche Post's performance has plummeted, and it has to announce that it will completely abandon StreetScooter this year, which also means a write-down of nearly 400 million euros.

The decline of the new forces occurred not only in Europe, where the automobile industry was strong, but also in the United States, where the entrepreneurial atmosphere was strong and venture capital was abundant.

Workhorse, the largest vehicle manufacturer in American logistics system, also officially confirmed the complete abortion of its electric pickup W- 15 project in late March. Workhorse chose UPS, Amazon, FedEx and other large-scale logistics companies to replace the market segment of the fleet from the very beginning, and timely launched the electric pickup truck code-named W- 15.

The price of W- 15 is $52500. Although the cruising range is only 130 km, the cruising range can be greatly increased to 730 km by the extended-range internal combustion engine. To open a new niche market, W- 15 or 7.2? KW's fast charging interface provides reverse charging function for American farmers who work as generators in remote areas. According to Workhorse's own data, W- 15 has captured 6000 orders.

W- 15, which seems to be in a good situation, has not been heard since the outbreak of the new customs. It was not until the end of March that the company was interviewed by electrive.net that it finally confirmed that the W- 15 project had been terminated.

Successful people who have experienced wind and rain and risen against the market?

Lindsay's limelight doesn't mean that the new forces of making cars have entered the dark ages. In fact, the head power of electric vehicle start-ups represented by Weilai, ideal and Xpeng Motors has written a new chapter on NASDAQ.

This polarization trend is no exception on a global scale.

If StreetScooter is the latest fallen member in the field of 2B electric commercial vehicles, Rivian, who also started with electric commercial vehicles and electric pickup trucks, is a rising star in Ran Ran.

On July 10, Rivian announced that it had won the fund giant Puxin Group (T.Rowe? Price) led the investment of $2.5 billion, and Amazon and BlackRock Group are also on the investment list.

Rivian is not only short of money, but also maintains close cooperation with North American pickup truck champion Ford. Amazon Group, which had invested 700 million dollars before, ordered 654.38 million electric pickups from Rivian at one time to update its logistics fleet. "The largest single electric vehicle order in history", Amazon's rhetoric is so loud that almost no one remembers that Rivian's R 1T listing date has jumped to 202 1.

Rivian's success even caught Tesla's attention. On July 24, Tesla publicly accused Rivian of stealing trade secrets by maliciously poaching Tesla employees, and took four former Tesla employees who jumped ship to the San Francisco District Court for this reason.

Rivian's success is not a case. Start-ups with unlimited scenery in the field of electric pickup trucks and electric commercial vehicles include Nicholas in the United States and Arrival in the United Kingdom.

Just as Tesla broke into the new world with electric batteries, Nikolai hopes to revolutionize the commercial vehicle field with hydrogen fuel cells. Nicholas introduced Nicholas one after another. One/Two/Tre three heavy trucks, and plans to launch a fuel cell/power battery hybrid pickup truck Badger. In July, Nicholas's market value has surpassed Ford to squeeze into the top three car companies in North America.

The same success story happened to the arrival company, a new force in British automobile manufacturing. Arrival had previously received an order from UPS UK for 654.38+00,000 electric logistics vehicles, and was awarded UPS? A large amount of investment by venture enterprises.

The success of the new overseas car-making forces is not limited to logistics vehicles or electric pickup trucks. In the field of passenger cars, more and more old faces also ushered in a turning point during the epidemic.

On July 22nd, Polestar, the independent brand of electric vehicles owned by Volvo and Geely Automobile, officially delivered its second production model Polestar 2(Polestar? 2) On July 29th, Polaris 2 was officially delivered to customers in the European market in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The price of Polaris 2 before subsidy is 298,000-465,438+0.8 million yuan. Its 4.7-second 100-kilometer acceleration and 500-kilometer NEDC standard cruising range make Polar Star 2 a model of Tesla. 3 strong competitors.

The first model before, Polaris 1, has been unknown because of the limited sales of 100, but Polaris 2 with beautiful data has really aroused positive response in the European market. Unlike electric vehicle start-ups rooted in Europe or China, Polaris brand not only enjoys the productivity advantage of Taizhou factory in China, but also enjoys Volvo's technology and its dealer network in Europe. In the first half of this year, the European market has surpassed the China market and become the largest electric vehicle market in the world.

Similarly, Fisco, an electric vehicle company, has made a strong return. This company introduced the hybrid Fisk as early as 2008. On July 3rd, Kloc-0, Karma's company launched four new cars, including electric SUV and electric pickup truck. According to its founder Henrik? According to the data released by Fiske, the company has received 7062 confirmed orders and 30000 intentional orders.

It is worth noting that HenrikFisker said in an interview with Reuters: "It is unwise for startups to try to build their own factories. Fisco will cooperate with other vehicle companies and parts companies to ensure the production plan. " According to Reuters's later reports, Fiske finally chose Volkswagen's MEB platform, and the signing of the contract between the two parties was only a thin line.

Another surviving new force is Sono in Munich. Motor.

The company launched the first electric vehicle Sino three years ago, which added the additional function of continuous charging of solar panels compared with ordinary electric vehicles. This function has not been favored by German auto giants, only German local venture capitalists WiVenture and ELFH? Sino's holding investment jumped continuously during the epidemic, Sono? The car company was once on the verge of bankruptcy. But what about Sono? Motor still got an investment of 50 million euros through two rounds of crowdfunding and survived the crisis.

Lindsay, Baten, and e.GO have fallen, but the track of the new global car-making forces has not become empty at all. On August 8, local time, Togg, a startup company from Turkey, officially announced that it would mass-produce the country's first pure electric vehicle within 18 months. To this end, the Turkish Ministry of Finance injected 22 billion lira (2 1 100 million RMB), and even Turkish President Erdogan personally went into battle to advertise Togg. Togg plans to export to Germany, France and Italy as soon as possible after mass production.

At this time when almost everyone is eager to try, it seems that few people remember Venturi, a Monaco company that was founded in 2002 and once confronted Tesla Roadster, and Aptera, which was founded in California in 2005. Lighting, an electric super-running project established in the UK in 2008? GT, OptimalEnergy, was also founded in South Africa in 2008, or is it a joint venture of Think, Norway and Finland? City, French startup Mia? Electric, DetroitElectric Project, the electric version of Lotus Elise from the United States, and a series of names that disappeared in the long river of history.

Nowadays, the traditional car companies represented by Volkswagen ID.3 are about to start mass production and delivery. How many new car-making forces will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, and how many will join the new chess competition? I believe this answer doesn't need to wait too long.

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