On May 8, the recruitment of hengchi automobile's first round authorized agent under Evergrande group ended. Hengchi automobile said that since the issuance of the recruitment order for authorized agents on April 30, enterprises and individuals across the country have enthusiastically signed up and showed full confidence in the prospect of hengchi automobile. However, a number of auto dealers told the Red Star capital bureau that they did not participate in the first round of recruitment of authorized agents of hengchi and took a wait-and-see attitude towards hengchi brand.
"The brand power is insufficient, and there have been a lot of negative information before. Even in the asset light mode, dealers are not optimistic about profitable sales."
As for the specific situation of agent recruitment, as of press time, Evergrande motor (00708. HK) did not give a response.
In addition, according to the upstream news, there are online rumors that hengchi 5, the first pure electric SUV of Evergrande, has opened pre-sale during May Day. Within 10 hours after the blind order was opened, the order of hengchi 5 reached 50000 units. However, the official customer service of hengchi automobile told the Red Star capital bureau that the pre-sale has not been opened yet.
Low threshold of authorized agent
On April 30, hengchi automobile official announced the recruitment of authorized agents, and introduced in detail the sales channel model, store building standards, investment promotion policies, qualification requirements and franchise process. The investment promotion cities are 18 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, which are basically first-line, new first-line and provincial capital cities.
Hengchi requires the agent to have independent legal personality and legal business certificate, the registered capital shall not be less than 5 million yuan, and a qualified business team shall be established for hengchi automobile.
In terms of site requirements, the sales center should be established in the automobile business district. The area of the exhibition hall should reach 200-300 square meters, the area of the exhibition area should be more than 150 square meters, and the clearance height should reach 3.5 meters.
In terms of sales mode, hengchi said it would adopt the mode of order sales and asset light operation, that is, arrange the factory for production according to the order quantity, so as to reduce inventory pressure and reduce operating costs.
Hengchi specially pointed out that it introduced the "independent account of the third-party notary office supervised by the government" to avoid frequent capital disputes at the channel end; 100% of the channel construction cost is supported, and no deposit is charged.
Some people in the automobile distribution industry pointed out to the Red Star capital bureau that the above conditions are not high. First, the registered capital does not need to be paid in immediately; Secondly, what hengchi requires is an automobile business district, not an automobile supermarket. A few hundred square meters of exhibition hall only needs one or two million yuan, while the traditional 4S store needs tens of millions of yuan; Order sales and asset light mode are more friendly, and there is no need to spend tens of millions of dollars on inventory, which allows weak dealers to try agency sales.
Hengchi automobile agent recruitment person in charge told the Red Star capital Bureau, "companies or individuals, whether they have previous automobile sales experience or not, can apply for an authorized agent." At present, the applicant only needs to fill in the name and address of hengchi and Xinchi brand through the procedures of hengchi and Xinchi brand authorization. Compared with other procedures, the applicant only needs to fill in the name and address of hengchi brand.
Who is acting for hengchi
One week after the official announcement of recruitment, on May 8, hengchi automobile announced the deadline for the first round of authorized agent recruitment. According to the official wechat of hengchi, enterprises and individuals across the country enthusiastically signed up and showed full confidence in the prospect of hengchi automobile.
The person in charge of recruitment of hengchi automobile agents told the Red Star capital bureau that in the first round, a number of authorized agents were recruited in 18 cities such as Beijing and Shanghai according to different conditions, and other cities will be opened later. Taking Chengdu as an example, the authorized agents of hengchi automobile are several large local automobile dealers.
However, several large auto dealers in Chengdu denied the above information to the Red Star capital Bureau.
The relevant person in charge of Jianguo automobile said that it was not clear about the brand agent, and it could not be determined without the official information. Both Qiyang automobile and Sanhe automobile have made it clear that they have not applied for an agent for hengchi automobile brand.
Some dealers pointed out that the time of hengchi's first round recruitment is too short and the publicity is limited. The company even has no time to conduct docking and research, let alone apply for agency.
Even the dealers who pay attention to hengchi automobile also said that they only pay attention to hengchi brand based on the transformation and upgrading of new energy, which does not mean they are optimistic about hengchi. "Now first establish contact and maintain communication. As for cooperation, it is based on the premise that the resources of both sides match each other."
As for the rumor of "hengchi 5 blind ordering 50000 units", the Red Star capital bureau did not find the official source or the entrance to book the car. The official customer service of hengchi automobile told the Red Star capital bureau that hengchi has not yet opened the pre-sale. Please pay attention to hengchi's official wechat.
Red Star capital Bureau noted that many people in the industry are not optimistic about hengchi, "Even if the threshold for agents to join is relatively low, hengchi 5 has no advantages in terms of appearance design, automatic assisted driving and other hard strength. A questionnaire released earlier suggested that the pricing range of hengchi 5 may be in the range of 150000-240000 yuan, which is the most competitive area. In addition, Hengda group is in trouble and lacks financial support, whether hengchi can continue to operate is also questioned."
"Everyone is waiting and watching. Hengchi needs to come up with more news to boost confidence". An automobile dealer told the Red Star capital bureau that the industry is cautious about hengchi at present. "The brand power is insufficient, and there have been a lot of negative information before. Even if it is the asset light mode, the sales volume that dealers want to make a profit is not optimistic."
For the specific situation of hengchi's first round recruitment, red star capital bureau sent an interview outline to Evergrande, and no specific reply has been received as of press time.
Evergrande's life-saving straw is about to be mass produced
In April 2021, hengchi automobile appeared at the Shanghai International Auto Show. Due to the prohibition of contact and the exposure of the chassis, it was questioned by the media that it was only an empty shell car. For a time, the news of Evergrande car counterfeiting was rampant.
Now, hengchi has become Evergrande's life-saving straw. On April 21, Xu Jiayin led the management team to Guangzhou Evergrande center and praised hengchi for five times, saying "beautiful! So beautiful!"
At the Evergrande automobile Strategic Partner Conference in October 2021, Liu yongzhuo, President of hengchi automobile, said that Hengda automobile has launched a three-month vehicle manufacturing battle to ensure that the first mass-produced vehicle "hengchi 5" will be offline at the beginning of 2022.
In 2022, the good news of hengchi continues.
On January 12, hengchi announced on its official microblog that hengchi 5, the first mass-produced model, had completed its offline production in Tianjin factory. A month later, hengchi 5 appeared in the publicity information of the 353rd batch of automobile declaration published by the Ministry of industry and information technology.
On the evening of March 29, Evergrande automobile announced that the company has been trying to promote the mass production of hengchi series products, with the goal of realizing the mass production of "hengchi 5" on June 22, 2022.
On March 24 and April 20, hengchi Guorui new energy vehicle sales (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which is wholly owned by hengchi new energy, was successively established. Its business scope includes online taxi booking service, which indicates that hengchi can sell cars in the b-end market through online taxi booking.
During the May Day holiday, hengchi held new car appreciation meetings in the experience centers in Tianjin and Guangzhou. The experience center was launched in March, and the news of hengchi 5 arriving at the store came out.
With the completion of the first round of recruitment of authorized agents and the availability of vehicles and channels, hengchi's mass production and sales are close at hand.
However, the problem of capital is still a sharp blade hanging over hengchi. From 2018 to 2020, Evergrande motor lost 1.428 billion yuan, 4.947 billion yuan and 7.665 billion yuan respectively. By the first half of 2021, Evergrande motor had accumulated a loss of 18.83 billion yuan. Evergrande automobile has not disclosed its performance in 2021 and has been suspended.
Reporter Wu danruo editor Yu Dongmei