Cargo Lala also wants to build a car! Is it a little late?

Founded on 20 13, Freight Lala has seized the booming demand of freight/moving in the same city in recent years and built itself into a unicorn enterprise in the field of short-distance freight in just ten years. Now walking in the streets and alleys of the city, the number of vans and trucks with stickers on the truck body will not be less than that of the online car.

For consumers, the goods are quick to respond and the price is reasonable. Even if it is windy and rainy, you can easily place an order through your mobile phone;

For drivers, the platform of cargo pulling can make them take orders easily, avoid empty cars, and realize easy and efficient communication with customers. The application can also provide accurate route and positioning, further improving the efficiency of making money.

Although drivers must pay a certain fee to enter the platform, the platform will also draw a certain commission according to different orders, but thanks to the efficient operation of the whole platform, according to the official data of the platform, there are currently more than 7.4 million certified drivers on the platform, with an average monthly active driver 1 10,000+.

Obviously, this huge and growing group of drivers will need one thing-cars.

0 1 goods pulled into the car?

Recently, Shenzhen Huolala Technology Co., Ltd. has undergone industrial and commercial changes. According to the data, its business scope has added new energy vehicle sales, auto parts and accessories manufacturing, and intelligent vehicle equipment manufacturing/sales.

In the prospectus of the previous listing of Cargo Lala in Hong Kong, it was also clearly mentioned that the introduction of capital would open up new business opportunities, and the research and development of new energy commercial vehicles was one of them.

Yes, Lala will be listed in Hong Kong, but the main name of the listing is not Lala, but Lala Technology Holdings Limited. It can be seen from the name that Lala's ambition is not just as simple as the freight industry.

In fact, as early as 20021,Cargo Lala has already posted a series of jobs related to new energy truck manufacturing on the recruitment platform. At that time, everyone speculated about the purpose of the cargo Lala, but at that time, the cargo Lala denied the rumor of building a car, saying only that it was the normal talent reserve of the enterprise.

However, in July last year, a seemingly "casual" announcement by the Management Committee of Chongqing High-tech Development Zone revealed some information-it was mentioned that Cargo Lala planned to invest 654.38+005 billion yuan in Chongqing Science City to set up an automobile China headquarters, and to lay out and build a vehicle research institute, an intelligent networking center, a supply chain and a manufacturing collaboration center.

In other words, if the cargo Lala really enters the market to build cars (it seems to be stable at present), its headquarters will probably be located in Chongqing.

There are advantages and risks.

Getting on the bus is really an attractive cake for the freight girl.

First of all, as mentioned earlier, there are currently 7.4 million registered drivers on the platform, with monthly drivers 1 10,000. If the follow-up cargo trucks can develop a series of new energy trucks, it is not a problem to realize "self-production and self-sales". Even they can provide these trucks to drivers who want sports cars but can't afford them for the time being, so as to achieve perfection from customers, orders, drivers to vehicles.

To some extent, this is actually like Cao Cao's trip, such as enterprise trip and other online car companies, except that Geely and Ian build cars first, and then build a series of platforms to digest the produced vehicles, while the cargo women build platforms first, and then enter the market to build cars to seek further breakthroughs in operating profits.

At present, for those drivers who can't buy their own trucks for the time being, Cargo Lala has actually launched a series of rental services for different models. According to the vehicle type, the minimum monthly payment is about 2 100 yuan. However, apart from the inevitable "handling fee", the bulk of this part of the funds actually eventually flowed to automobile manufacturers such as Changan, Wuling and Iveco.

As an enterprise with first-hand resources, cargo Lala naturally knows the potential and profit of truck or commercial vehicle industry.

If the car-making business really starts, whether it is truck rental or sales, it is only a left-handed thing for the cargo girl, but it is of great help to the overall profit of the enterprise.

Of course, all this is just an idealized idea. To achieve this step, there are still many things that women need to do.

First of all, the design and manufacture of commercial vehicles are different from those of family vehicles. Although commercial vehicles generally look rough and have no high-tech configuration or eye-catching design, to some extent, the R&D and design of commercial vehicles are even more exquisite than passenger cars.

Needless to say, the attendance rate of commercial vehicles determines whether users can return their money and make profits in the fastest time, but the use environment of commercial vehicles is just more harsh and harsh than that of passenger cars, which is a very test for the quality and reliability control of car companies.

The second is functionality. For the logistics industry, which is a hero in terms of loading capacity, even if car A can only hold one more carton than car B, it can be said that car B is basically worthless when the prices of the two cars are almost the same. How to improve the loading capacity by optimizing the layout and space design under the premise of complying with laws and regulations is a test of the design ability of car companies.

In the case of achieving the above two points, the production cost and price of vehicles can directly affect the purchase desire of end consumers. After all, this level of commercial vehicle buyers are more sensitive to the cost of car purchase than our family car buyers can imagine. As a latecomer, how to keep up with the old commercial vehicle enterprises such as Wuling and Chang 'an in cost control will be a big problem for freight forwarders.

More importantly, the success in obtaining the qualification of building a car is a decisive factor in whether a cargo lesbian is qualified to enter the car.

After the country tightened the qualification for building cars, the threshold for building cars is much higher now than when a group of new forces rose. There are even rumors in the rivers and lakes that "Xiaomi Automobile" will probably be the last new brand to obtain the qualification to build a car, and the qualification of Xiaomi Automobile was actually taken back from "Baowo Automobile" by the Beijing Municipal Government.

In other words, if a woman wants to build a car, she either chooses to acquire the qualifications of other brands or can only take the route of OEM.

Obtaining qualification, in addition to finding a suitable car company, also means spending a lot of capital costs. According to the operating conditions announced by Lala, in 2020 and 20021year, Lala lost $6,543.8+55 million and $6,365.438+0 million, respectively. It was not until last year, that is, in 2022, that she realized a profit of $53.23 million. In other words, even if it is already an industry giant, the profitability of cargo Lala is actually not as strong as people think.

In this case, the uncertainty of the global economic environment is still strong, and the risks faced by freight forwarders are undoubtedly huge.

However, if the OEM mode is adopted, just like Didi Chuxing and BYD jointly launched BYD D 1 for the network car market, it seems that there is not much need for cargo Lala. After all, logistics and travel, the former is for goods and the latter is for people. There may be a lack of "people-oriented" models specially built for the online car rental market, but there is definitely no shortage of qualified trucks. For freight forwarders, the OEM model can neither make money nor fundamentally improve the service experience, which is really unnecessary.

Although compared with the increasingly saturated passenger car market, China's commercial vehicle market still has great potential to be tapped, but the nature of the commercial vehicle market determines that it is doomed to undergo earth-shaking changes in a short time like passenger cars. If this rally is serious, not just to "build a car" before the listing of Hong Kong stocks, then I can only wish them good luck.

This article comes from the owner's guide of Easy Car Number, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author in any form. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.