Zotye's "Tesla" Fantasy

Since the bankruptcy reorganization, Zotye's products have disappeared from the auto industry. But in fact, on a certain social platform, someone has been constantly updating the video of Zotye's "resurrection". In the video, the most common one is the TS5, which was parked at the Zotye auto factory and launched in 2019 but has not yet been launched.

In the corner outside the public eye, the story about Zotye is far from over. In mid-June, Zotye Auto released a "2022 Non-Public Issuance of A Shares Plan". The main content is that after the reorganization, Zotye Auto will raise 6 billion yuan to resume work and production, and re-enter the automotive industry.

The company has just gone through bankruptcy and reorganization and is in the process of recovery. Zotye Auto’s asset-liability ratio is still at a relatively high level, and the follow-up research and development of new energy vehicles , rectification of production bases, reshaping of the supply chain system, reconstruction of the brand system, and marketing channels all require funds Therefore, it is urgent to enhance capital strength through capital market financing.

This time, Zotye Automobile made it clear that it will enter the new energy vehicle industry. The 6 billion yuan successfully raised is planned to be used for new energy intelligent connected vehicle development and R&D capability improvement projects, investment in channel construction projects and supplementary working capital. Among them, the funds used for the development of new energy intelligent networked vehicles and the improvement of R&D capabilities accounted for nearly 80% of the total amount.

Lane change new energy

In fact, as early as 2005, Zotye Automobile has invested in the field of new energy vehicles, and has successively launched a variety of new energy vehicles such as 2008EV, Yun 100, Sesame E30, E200 and Damai A3. According to the annual sales ranking of EVSales, Zotye Automobile was the third largest domestic and the eighth largest new energy vehicle manufacturer in the world in 2015.

That year's Zotye miniature electric vehicles can be said to be all over the streets. If Zotye Auto can maintain to this day, maybe it can also get a share of the current hot A00-class electric vehicle market. However, Zotye Automobile has embarked on an unsustainable road. After the lack of competitiveness, Zotye New Energy has also been uprooted.

After Huang Jihong's Jiangsu Shenzhen business took over Zotye Auto, this mess has long since lost any real value. From research and development, products, marketing, channels, have been stagnant. As of the end of 2021, the combined production capacity of nine auto production bases under Zotye's two subsidiaries, Zotye and Jiangnan, will be 685,000 vehicles. At present, all major bases of Zotye are in a state of shutdown, and the capacity utilization rate is 0.

Even the employees of Zotye fell and scattered. At the end of 2019, Zotye Auto had 8,098 employees, and by the end of 2021, the number of its employees had dropped to 1,612. Zhao Chun, the former vice president of the Institute of Automotive Engineering, and three designers, Martin Klopp, Anthony Williams-Kenny and Anthony Williams-Kenny, have all left.

Therefore, for the 6 billion yuan raised this time, for Zotye Auto, which is in dire straits, can it really be brought back to life with such a meager amount of funds? Judging from the industry, this is just a drop in the bucket, but for Huang Jihong, who is good at dancing in the capital market, there may be some gains.

In February this year, Zhejiang Zotye Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zotye Automobile, completed the acquisition of Shanghai Junqu Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. In the announcement of Zotye Auto, it is acknowledged that Shanghai Junqu is its subsidiary and undertakes the task of automobile research and development, which is equivalent to the automobile research institute of Zotye Automobile in Shanghai.

And after the acquisition, Shanghai Junqu released a large number of recruitment information on the recruitment platform, involving more than 50 positions such as interior and exterior design, modeling engineering, and clay modeler. The next focus of Zotye Auto is to develop four new energy and intelligent connected passenger vehicles based on three platforms, including three pure electric large and medium-sized SUV models and a pure electric sedan model.

As mentioned above, most of the funds raised this time are to improve research and development capabilities. However, Shanghai Junqu also provides some "extra" support. Wu Yunfei, the legal representative and executive director of Shanghai Junqu, has an inextricable relationship with Huang Ximing, the founder of Bordrin Motors, which has gone bankrupt.

Bordrin Motors has previously built three highly flexible and scalable platforms, i-SP, i-MP, and i-LP, and will develop dozens of platforms covering the three major market segments of A, B, and C in the future. models. In fact, after some operations, it is entirely possible for Zotye Auto to utilize these technologies of Bodine Auto.

On the one hand, the sales of new energy vehicles are rising, and on the other hand, the strong performance of new energy vehicle companies in the stock market. If the controlling shareholder wants to "profit" through Zotye Auto, it must seize the current development of new energy vehicles. Moreover, Zotye Auto also announced plans to participate in next year's Shanghai Auto Show. This time, Zotye is bound to race against time.

"Tesla Fantasy"

Although Zotye Auto is silent in the auto market, it does not affect its ups and downs in the stock market. After the release of the fixed increase plan, Zotye closed two daily limits on June 13 and June 14 in a row. Wind data shows that from January 1, 2021 to June 14, 2022, ST Zotye has a daily limit of 113 days, ranking first in A shares.

The "demon" of Zotye Motors often appears with the news that the wind is the rain. Acquired by Tesla, OEM BYD, and joint venture with Toyota, although these news were urgently refuted when they appeared, it did not prevent investors from making a lot of money by taking this as an opportunity. Even though Zotye is unable to "climb with the powerful", its heart to go to the middle and high end has settled down.

At the end of last year, Zotye Auto disclosed that it has long-term plans to build a brand matrix through acquisitions and joint ventures, and lay out the mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle market. At the same time, it will actively deploy the business of micro electric vehicles going to the countryside to seize the commanding heights of the micro electric vehicle market. Zotye Auto, which has re-started this time, has more precisely aimed at the mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle market in the price range of 150,000-300,000.

Data shows that in 2021, new energy vehicles priced in the price range of 150,000-300,000 yuan will account for 39.0% of China's total sales of new energy vehicles, and the compound growth rate of sales from 2017 to 2020 will be 45.4%. Sales of new energy vehicles in this range are expected to increase from 1.3 million in 2021 to 5.2132 million in 2026.

At the same time, this segment will become the largest and fastest growing segment in China's new energy vehicle market in 2023, with an annual growth rate of 41.6% in 2023 and a market share of nearly 50% in 2026 , which has become the main segment model in the segment.

Zotye Auto said that in order to seize the growth opportunities in the mid-to-high-end vehicle market, it will extensively apply digital and intelligent technologies, and continuously strengthen the development of pure electric mid-to-high-end SUVs and coupe models at the level of intelligent networking technology, adapting to the development trend of the automobile market and further enriching the current situation. There is a product portfolio of models to enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of products.

In addition, Zotye revealed that it has been developing intelligent driving since 2016, and in 2017, it has developed the first-generation Level 4 intelligent driving "DEMO prototype car". However, Zotye Auto also admitted that the L4 level of autonomous driving in 2017 was a special case of a single vehicle, which did not mean that the company as a whole had reached the corresponding level.

In addition to products, Zotye Auto plans to build 216 self-operated stores in 100 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, etc. in the next two years, covering the main target markets and paving the way for the company's upcoming new products. flat road. On the surface, Zotye Automobile has the taste of a big fight.

But capital's sense of smell has always revolved around an eternal truth, that is, where the policy points, it will go. In the well-known impression of the public, from the financial industry to the real estate industry to the automobile industry, it is better. Especially in recent years, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, companies such as the Internet, home appliances, real estate, and communications have set off a cross-border car building boom.

Since Jiangsu Shenshang became the owner of Zotye, there have been many opinions questioning the real reason for its reorganization of Zotye Auto. For example, in the electrified emerging industry, making money, telling stories, financing, listing, cashing out, refinancing, and cashing out, capital enters the automotive field and continues to play capital games.

This argument is not groundless, but it is not the final answer. How the story of Zotye will continue is unknown.