Weilai Automobile, which is determined to compete with Tesla, keeps an eye on its opponent, and at the same time, it is also suffering in the advanced cultivation of martial arts.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2019, the preview version of Weilai ET, the first product of Weilai car series, was unveiled. It was circled far away on the display stand, and there was no more information except the expected release at the end of the year.
Netease Intelligence learned exclusively from multiple sources that ET, the first car project of Weilai, has been stopped internally. Netease Intelligent asked Weilai Public Relations Department for verification. Relevant persons said that the project will be adjusted according to the feedback from the auto show. What is the specific product behind ES6 has not been decided yet, so it cannot be said that ET is suspended.
Through the delivery of ES8, Weilai officially launched its first shot of building a car on the Internet, and the subsequent release of ES6 was highly anticipated. Since they started their business, they have always been accompanied by different voices.By achieving the delivery target of ES8, Weilai Automobile tried to resolve the doubt that "building a car on the Internet is equal to building a car by PPT", but in a technical failure together, they have to further prove that they are indeed on a solid and safe road.
Tesla’s production in China marks a more intense competition situation, and the long-term loss situation is also testing Weilai’s ability. In March of this year, Li Bin, founder and CEO of Weilai, admitted that "some departments of Weilai have repeated settings, unclear tasks and unclear responsibilities, and optimized personnel by about 3%." People close to Weilai Automobile exclusively revealed to Netease Intelligence that the main scope of optimization personnel is to compensate Weilai Center all over the country with N+2.
Li Bin publicly declared that the current Weilai "is certainly no more difficult than what I have experienced in the past few years". However, in Weilai’s target action list, there are still many "bones" that are difficult to chew. According to him, Wei Lai has gone through the "team training stage" according to the plan and entered the "qualifying stage" in 2019. That is to say, Wei Lai, who is in the qualifiers, has not yet entered the race.
How to play this "game" next, what is the end of the game, and some people are waiting for it.
First, the "black" Weilai automobile
"Understandable, but unacceptable."
Liu Xing repeated this sentence many times. He is a functional test engineer in a delivery center in Weilai, responsible for writing a new version of the system for the car and carrying out functional verification. This team of more than 100 people is in the last link of vehicle delivery, and it is also the last line of defense for new cars to reach customers.
If there is a slight mistake in their work, quality problems may erupt in large quantities.
In August, 2018, Weilai ES8 was in hot delivery. Liu Xing and his colleagues conducted functional road tests on the vehicles to be delivered as usual, but he still has a lingering fear of what happened that day.
When the vehicle drove to the ramp of the expressway around the city, the speed was only 40 kilometers per hour. To the tester’s surprise, the display system of the whole vehicle suddenly went black. "The power system can still operate normally, but the sudden crash of the display system surprised us into a cold sweat."
There was a glitch in the test before delivery, but it crashed in the last link, which was unexpected by the test engineer. "In fact, vehicles can be improved in many places, and the first customers have become mice. I can understand this, but it is unacceptable."
On the afternoon of April 4th, Jack made an appointment for the filming service in Weilai Center with great expectation. Five hours later, the work was completed, and he immediately drove back. "No one knows the real fear of me sitting in the car on the highway." Jack then posted everything that happened that night on his blog.
According to his recollection, the vehicle driving on the Minjiang Expressway suddenly braked, and the situation was very critical. The horn of the rear car kept coming. He immediately contacted Weilai "Service Worry-Free WeChat Group" and then tried to restart the system power to return to normal many times. He continued to embark on a long way home with embarrassment.
When he was driving to the high speed, the same situation happened again. After repeatedly contacting Weilai Consultant, Jack listened to the instructions of the 110 Command Center and finally chose to abandon the car and "escape" and wait for rescue.
Angry Jack made the whole process public. Judging from his past experience in Weibo, his feelings for Weilai Automobile have changed suddenly. Before, he shared the joy of buying a car and his experience in using it, but now he is more like an activist blogger.
"I will never drive such a car again," he said in Weibo.
Weilai’s official statement is that during the filming process, the staff did not operate according to the standard specifications, which led to the water in the A-pillar, which affected the plug-in work and led to the power system failure.
In Liu Xing’s view, such a reply is not reasonable. The power system of the vehicle has a set of redundant algorithms, even if the power system is flooded, it will not be affected, and what Jack encountered has nothing to do with the flooding. He said firmly, "However, some people have exaggerated Wei Lai so badly now, but some people have said it so well that it is not realistic."
In addition to the power system failure, more cases are the display system failure of ES8, such as the sudden black screen of the driving display screen and the central control screen, but the power system is not affected.
On January 29th, the failure of the ES8 display system in a main road in the central city of Beijing caused widespread concern. The incident began to ferment in a circle of friends. A friend of Weilai ES8 owner said that the owner was going to pick her up, and the system reminded OTA to upgrade when driving, so the owner hung the P file and chose the upgrade button. After clicking the upgrade, the whole display system went into a black screen, and then they began to wait for a long time. The window could not be opened, and waves of police officers could only stare.
One broke down on the endless highway, and the other was unexpectedly upgraded on the main road in the central city of Beijing. These two cases were discussed by everyone with more topical characteristics.
Zhang Kai, a car safety expert, told Netease Intelligence that it’s not that the new forces don’t pay attention to safety, but that if nothing goes wrong, they will not be so concerned and have luck.
Guo Lifeng believes that "the problem exposed by Wei Lai is fundamentally because software defines hardware".
He is driving an ES8 at this time, and Guo Lifeng is also a senior automobile expert who is the chief engineer of the traditional OEM. He thinks that the case of accidental upgrade of Weilai ES8 is unacceptable.
"Software-defined hardware is a very advanced concept, but if it is implemented in a real production model, I think there is still a long way to go.The standards of the Internet industry and the quality standards of the automobile industry do not match.-At the time of quality inspection,The failure rate of a car is a few parts per million. Think about how often your mobile phone and computer crash and restart.He doesn’t think it’s a good thing that such innovative ideas are used in the automobile industry.
Different from the traditional model of building a car with mechanical control, heavy assets and long chain, the new forces with internet genes follow the design concept of software and hardware integration and focus on electronic control, thus realizing rapid iteration of functions and continuous improvement of user experience.
Wei Lai calls himself an internet company, but the shortcomings of "hardware" have not yet appeared, and the long board of "software" has been in danger.
In the face of frequent system failures, Weilai made a targeted investigation and response, while constantly patching and upgrading users. On March 9th, ES8 released the software update of version 1.2.1. Just like the mobile phone system upgrade, they constantly improved and updated the vehicle in this way.
From the published timetable, ACC adaptive cruise function will be launched in April; In May, functions such as driving recorder were released; The main functions of NIO Pilot were released in June, including high-speed automatic assisted driving, congestion automatic assisted driving and automatic parking assistance system. Liu Xing confirmed to Netease Intelligence that with the upgrade of the system, the current crash failure is definitely much less than the initial delivery of ES8.
As an auto media person, Yang Bing, the "mr. six" of the Beijing auto circle, is dismissive of this practice.
"The user is your customer, you let us spend four or five hundred thousand to accompany the car to grow, why? What consumers want is a reliable, safe and easy-to-use means of transportation. " He also encountered a screen crash the day after driving the ES8.
Liu Xing, an automobile engineer, said frankly,In fact, every car has a system failure, and there are more than 1000 bugs in a fully imported car. The failure is not terrible, and it can be solved by patient polishing and improvement by the car factory. If it happens frequently, it may be the result of hasty delivery.
Tian Daxin, deputy dean of the School of Transportation Science and Engineering of Beihang University, also told Netease Intelligent that the test of intelligent vehicle software system may be more complicated than the traditional test of vehicles, and we should respect the cycle of building cars.
The delivery promise of ES8 was originally in April 2018, but it was not until May 31 that 10 vehicles were delivered internally. The first batch of customers No.550 started to deliver 481 vehicles until June 28. The insiders believe that constant ticket skipping is Weilai’s helplessness in the face of mass production problems, and hasty delivery is their inevitable choice to fulfill their promises. Weilai delivered a total of 11,348 vehicles in 2018, and most of the other new car-making forces are still in the booking stage.
Weilai has not invested in research and development, and has been upgrading and perfecting. According to the prospectus and financial report, from 2016 to 2018, the technology research and development expenses were 8.006 billion yuan, which were 1.465 billion yuan, 2.603 billion yuan and 3.998 billion yuan respectively. During this period, Weilai accumulated losses of 17.233 billion yuan, mainly due to sales and operating costs and R&D investment.
Second, is there a solution to "mileage anxiety"?
Endurance is the life gate of electric vehicles, and it is also the place with the loudest volume of Weilai.
This is an era of widespread "mileage anxiety", a kind of mental pain or anxiety caused by fear of sudden power failure when driving an electric car.
Li Bin repeatedly raised his arms and shouted that charging should be as simple as ordering takeout, and the slogan was "It is more convenient to add electricity than to refuel".
Where is the confidence? Weilaide energyThe service system includes three main ways: exclusive piling, power station changing and mobile charging car, and the "one-button charging" service which is sought after by Weilai car owners is also introduced. Once 180 yuan is paid, the car owners can call a "driver", but he doesn’t want to send you home. He is just a porter of car power.
On April 16th, the Shanghai Auto Show kicked off, and Li Bin announced the service data of one-click power-on, which reached more than 93,000 times by the end of the day, and chose to promote it. Other electric vehicles can call Weilai for "one-click power-on" from now on.
With the exponential growth of delivery volume years ago, in the last two months of 2018, 3,089 and 3,318 ES8s stepped on the spot to prepare for the Spring Festival.
Weilai’s ES8 Spring Festival charging data shows that there are 120 power stations in China, 500 standby charging vehicles and 300 service stations and service vehicles. This is ammunition prepared by Weilai for this tough battle, and the results obtained are more than 1,500 power exchanges and more than 6,500 power charges with one button.
The utilization rate of one-button power-on is three times higher than that of power-on-demand, which means that Weilai service brother and charging car are extremely busy this Spring Festival.This is not the most economical charging method, but Weilai chooses to pay for the convenience of users at a high cost.A Hubei ES8 car owner called the "one-button power-on" service during the Spring Festival. Because there were not many charging piles locally, I didn’t expect Brother Weilai to drive 180 kilometers and drive for nearly 4 hours to reach his destination to complete the service.
However, most car owners who drive long distances during the Spring Festival still use the method of changing electricity and charging piles.
"There is no mileage anxiety, just an extra hour to charge in the service area." Liu Hongwei’s family’s ES8 journey home is solved by charging twice and changing electricity once. The whole journey is more than 350 kilometers, and the whole journey takes 4 hours and 48 minutes. He thinks this is the same as the driving time of a gasoline car.
However, in Guo Lifeng’s view, changing the power station is not a reasonable plan. Regardless of technology, there is no unified national standard, and second, it occupies land resources. How much does the state have to grant to build this for you? Not universal yet? This is the essential difference in the logic of gas stations, which can be added to the national standard fuel.
The controversy caused by the charging car is that at the end of 2018, Weilai supported several car owners ES8 in Xinjiang, and the practice of "the scooter dragging the charging car" to "renew the life" for ES8 became a joke.
Is there any solution to the "mileage anxiety"?
"If you want to be the owner of a charging car, the ideal way is to have your own exclusive parking space and charging pile."Yang Bing has expressed this view many times, and he thinks it is the best way at present, and it is also based on the daily commuting needs.
In fact, the Weilai team is doing the same. They hope that users will do everything possible to install charging piles. At present, the exclusive charging piles have covered 78% of users.
Li Bin once said that blindly increasing the battery life is of little significance, and there is no technical content. It is nothing more than increasing the number of batteries, reducing the drag coefficient, and lightening the body. The key is to do a good job in charging service. "We switched from Nokia charging one week to iPhone charging every day ten years ago. The reason why you are not anxious is that charging is convenient."
Guo Lifeng’s point of view tends to change the idea of energy supply. Car manufacturers should not bypass themselves. "He is determined that the next 20 years will be the market for hybrid vehicles, and it is impossible to completely ban fuel vehicles in the short term. He added,We are optimistic about Li Bin’s innovative ideas, but there is still a long way to go in terms of execution and Weilai’s product strength. "
Third, "sea fishing" service
Now, Weilai is using "sea fishing" service to make up for the lack of product strength.
In November 2017, six months before the delivery of the first batch of ES8, Weilai started the Weilai Center.The trial operation, here is also the proof of this enterprise’s "user-driven", and it is currently open to the 15th. Li Bin has said on many occasions that "an idea came into being at the time of Easy Car Network, and car companies should organize off-line activities such as car clubs".
Netease Smart visited a number of Weilai Centers and saw that in addition to the basic vehicle display function, Weilai Center has opened up more user areas. Weilai also called it "NIO House", which is a free space for Weilai car owners and friends. Meetings, rest, audio and video, entertainment and other functions are all-encompassing.
In addition, Weilai Center follows the concept of "one store, one design". Compared with Tesla experience store, Weilai pays more attention to the user service function, while Tesla adopts the "small and scattered" model, with a smaller single store area and more distribution areas, while Weilai is a "big and focused" model.
Here, the "points in hand, Weilai I have" integral gameplay is also introduced, which increases the user’s stickiness and personalized experience. Users can earn points by using services such as Weilai APP, fun quiz, car pick-up, etc., such as publishing articles for a total of 100 points, and picking up cars for a reward of 1,000 points. Most of the points are used in Weilai Center, and users can exchange points for Weilai surroundings, book conference rooms, participate in offline activities, etc. Weilai also launched a "red envelope charging pile" free of charge during the Spring Festival, which is an innovative way of making cars on the Internet, which has never been seen before in traditional car making.
Weilai Center faces customers with two teams, one is similar to product consultant, which specializes in researching products, giving professional explanations to customers and providing test drive services, while the other is Weilai consultant exclusive to consumers.A series of services such as car booking, payment and after-sales are handled by the latter.
"The sales of traditional 4S stores are that one person is responsible for all the car purchase processes of a customer. We divide the work in this way for a more focused customer experience. To put it bluntly, it means that the owner can find someone at any time and know that someone is paying attention to him." Li Meng, product consultant of Weilai Center, told the reporter.
At present, the practice of traditional 4S stores is that the sales consultant is only responsible for the shopping guide, car booking, payment and delivery of the user "in the store", and when the user leaves the store, it does not belong to the service scope, and it is not the personal consultant of the user, which also leads to after-sales problems, and the 4S stores and manufacturers kick the ball.
The service of Weilai Center has also extended to the level of potential customers. Netease Intelligent made an appointment for a test drive in Weilai APP, which did not support the appointment day, but it was quickly resolved after contacting customer service, and the service was simple and efficient. Everyone has a Weilai consultant, which is the first case in the automobile sales industry.
Someone has calculated an account for Weilai Center in Beijing Oriental Plaza. Wangfujing business district is one of the most expensive commercial properties in China. The rent of Beijing Oriental Xintiandi is 105 yuan/square meter/day. If this is calculated, Weilai needs to pay more than 110 million yuan for the lot every year.
Spending a lot of money in many cities, Li Bin naturally has his own abacus. He thinks that he can sell thousands of cars in one year in Shanghai. The traditional 4S store model may need five or six stores, which is much more expensive than Weilai Center. "Weilai’s approach can provide services that traditional 4S stores can’t match."
For this kind of service, the owner of Weilai commented, "I bought this ES8 as a VIP." She said that Weilai staff always tried their best to leave her convenience, and her exclusive Weilai Fellow also prepared a birthday party for her, which was "full of surprises, feelings and happiness."
Most car owners praised Weilai’s service, especially "Service Worry-Free WeChat Group".Most of Weilai’s first users have decent jobs and received a good education. Many users buy Weilai to try new things and pay for its high-end positioning, so as to show their taste and be different. The premise here is also to recognize Weilai’s endurance level and charging system.
At the same time, the crash of ES8 system didn’t make Yang Bing completely deny Weilai. He thought Weilai’s modeling, interior and atmosphere were worthy of its high-end positioning, and the first experience would give the driver a very good driving experience. A Weilai owner commented that ES8 had a very strong sense of pushing back, and the speed increased instantly, and there was no setback at 40-160, depending on who was in the second.
Judging from Netease’s intelligent test drive experience, such praise is not exaggerated.
Such an ultimate service system naturally costs a lot of money.The data shows that the sales cost of vehicles in Weilai in 2018 totaled 4.93 billion yuan. If the average number of vehicles delivered is 11,348, the sales cost of each vehicle is about 430,000 yuan.The sales revenue from selling so many cars is less than the cost, which is 4.852 billion yuan.
Four, "savior" ES6 and shutdown ET7
At the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show, Weilai made a special appearance in the preview version of Weilai ET, the first car product series.It has been circled in the exhibition stand from a distance, and the media and audience have paid great attention to it, but there is no more information except that the production version is expected to be released at the end of the year and put into production in 2020.
Netease Intelligence learned exclusively from multiple sources that, in fact, due to various reasons, Weilai’s first car project has been stopped internally, and Weilai has put more energy into the existing ES8 and ES6 models.
In August last year, when the delivery of ES8 was in full swing, Li Bin shouted to Xpeng Motors He Xiaopeng about the delivery target of 10,000 vehicles in Shenzhen. "I want to make a bet with him, bet on him a Tucki G3 and bet on me an ES8." Then He Xiaopeng should bet.
Despite the continuous extension, Jianghuai OEM did not drop the chain for Li Bin. On March 6, 2019, Weilai Automobile released the unaudited financial report for the fourth quarter and year of 2018. According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2018, Weilai Automobile produced 8,069 ES8 vehicles and delivered 7,980 vehicles, an increase of 144.2% compared with the third quarter. In 2018, a total of 11,348 vehicles were delivered.
He Xiaopeng exports to a Tucki G3.
The ES6, which was born later, was highly anticipated. According to Li Bin’s plan, the annual sales target of Weilai Automobile in 2019 is 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles, and the ES8 will have a successor, but the pressure on the ES6 is not too great.
Weilai ES6 is a model used to benchmark Tesla Model 3, and its cost performance and relatively high endurance performance are its important labels. According to the subsidy standard, all ES6 departments enjoy a subsidy of 45,000 yuan, plus local subsidies, and the cumulative subsidy is 67,500 yuan. After the subsidy, the price has dropped to the range of 29.05-48.05. Some people are thinking that now they can take ES6 home by paying 190,000 yuan.
The overall pricing range of ES8 and ES6 is between 350,000 yuan and 600,000 yuan, positioning the high-end of new car-making forces, Liu Xing told Netease Intelligence."New forces such as Weilai take Tesla as the standard", but in fact, more people have referred to the newly emerging China automobile enterprises as "Tesla of China".
Tesla is naturally a topic that can’t be avoided. In March this year, Tesla announced a global price cut, with the Model X model dropping by 174,300-341,100 yuan, the Model 3 dropping by 26,000-44,000 yuan, and the Model S dropping by 11,400-277,500 yuan.
Li Xiang, CEO of Chehejia and director of Weilai Automobile, shouted that "the good days will soon be over", which was regarded as the beginning of Tesla’s story of "Wolf Coming" in the China market—in fact, Tesla also had a bad life, closing stores, reducing prices, laying off employees, and being lowered by RBC’s delivery estimate and future stock target price.
Tesla has a dilemma, and Wei Lai’s dilemma is equally obvious. After 30 years of deep cultivation in the traditional automobile industry, Guo Lifeng’s judgment is that Weilai’s success or failure is at stake. "When the ES6 goes on the market in summer, it depends on whether this car can break out. If it becomes an explosion, Weilai will have little problem. If it is unsalable, it may show more problems."
In Q1, 2019, the delivery schedule of ES8 stepped on the "brake pedal", with a sharp drop of 50.56% from the previous month. Wei Lai said that due to the wait-and-see of the subsidy policy for electric vehicles in 2019 and the macroeconomic trend, it is expected that the delivery volume in the second quarter of 2019 will still be low. ES6 will be full of challenges this summer.
In March of this year, Li Bin admitted that "Weilai does have some departments with repetitive settings, unclear tasks and unclear responsibilities, so it optimizes the number of personnel by about 3% and controls the total number of people within 9,500." People close to Weilai Automobile exclusively revealed to Netease Intelligent that the optimization is mainly aimed at Weilai Center all over the country, and the compensation scheme is N+2.
In addition, Weilai was accused of internal cliques and R&D routes, but overall, the dual-drive R&D strategy of Shanghai headquarters and North American branch is running at full speed and constantly adjusting with fault tolerance.
Perhaps even more difficult is the financial problem.As of December 31, 2018, the total amount of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments held by Weilai Automobile was RMB 8,345.6 million..
Its first financial report shows that in 2018, Weilai’s total revenue was 4,951.2 million yuan, with total sales of 4,852.5 million yuan; The annual operating loss was RMB 9,595.6 million, and the annual net loss was RMB 9,639.0 million, a year-on-year increase of 92.0%. The net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was 23.3279 billion yuan, up 208.5% year-on-year; Gross profit margin -5.2%.
Li Bin knows that car-making is a capital-intensive industry, and has built a luxurious investor lineup from the very beginning. Chairman Ma Huateng of Tencent, Chairman Lei Jun of Xiaomi, Chairman Liu Qiangdong of JD.COM, Shen Nanpeng, global managing partner of Sequoia Capital, founder Li Xiang of Chehejia and Zhang Lei, CEO of Gaoyao Capital all entered the company.
According to the data, up to now, Li Bin holds 14.4% of Class A and Class C shares of Weilai, with a voting right of 48%; Tencent holds 13.3% of Class A, Class B and Class C shares, with voting rights of 21.6%; Baillie Gifford, a British investment institution, holds 9.7% of Class A shares with a voting right of 4.1%; Gaoyan Capital holds 6.2 Class A shares with a voting right of 2.6%.
According to Frost& Sullivan’s forecast, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China will reach 2.124 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach 3.591 million in 2022, and the five-year compound annual growth rate from 2017 to 2022 will reach 37.1%.
As far as China’s new forces are concerned, it’s still far away to climb the best-selling list-Weilai will occupy about 2% of China’s PEV market in 2018, and Weilai still needs to face many tests such as fierce competition and reduced subsidies. However, Li Bin is still much more optimistic. "Competitors have cut prices many times, perhaps because of competitive pressure. In fact, cutting prices all the time has done great harm to the loyalty of brands and consumers.".
Behind the optimism, Li Bin still "lost" the self-built factory in Shanghai, and Tesla was an important trigger for his planned abortion.
The environment for new forces to build cars is changing rapidly. There are powerful enemies outside and traditional main engine factories that turn the bow inside, and the living space for Weilai people is being compressed.According to data from Bloomberg, there are as many as 486 electric vehicle manufacturers registered in China.
The change in policy is also merciless.New energy vehicles rely on subsidies to continuously promote the China market to run in small steps.
This month, the relevant ministries and commissions of the state issued the Notice to determine that the subsidy standards for new energy passenger cars, new energy buses and new energy trucks will be further reduced, and the average slope will be about 50% on the basis of 2018. The subsidy threshold has also been further improved. Pure electric new energy vehicles with cruising range between 250km and 400km can enjoy a subsidy of 18,000 yuan; Pure electric new energy vehicles with a cruising range of more than 400km can enjoy a subsidy of 25,000 yuan.
Until the end of 2019, new energy subsidies will become history, and the "tangible hand" will shrink back. No one knows how the industry will change.
Weilai is a super-running company, which once set a new lap time record for several tracks with the attitude of king. But on the way to the "new record", ridicule and praise go hand in hand.
But Li Bin often faced the skeptics with confidence.
"Talk less and do more, the world doesn’t owe us an understanding".
