The genius boy left the scene "freely", has Li Yinan's dream of building a car been shattered under the halo?

It is not new for new energy vehicle showrooms to "enter" shopping malls, but companies that "refuse to accept customers" and plan to close their stores as soon as possible are rarely heard of. While shopping a few days ago, the author accidentally discovered that the NIUTRON exhibition hall located in a large shopping mall in Beijing was in a state of almost zero operation despite being in the "C position" of passenger flow. Is this a sign that the talented young man Li Yinan is about to leave?

(Li Yinan, the picture comes from the Internet)

Let’s first talk about who is Li Yinan, the founder of Ziyoujia NIUTRON. This is just his single identity. He was once the vice president of Huawei and was known as the successor of Ren Zhengfei, CTO of Baidu, and founder of Maverick Electric. With the blessing of halo and Mavericks Electric Technology in the past, NIUTRON, once the "top student" that was once favored by everyone, found itself in trouble and how did Li Yinan's dream of building a car come to an end?

From daily sales of over 100 million to a net loss of nearly 50 million, Maverick Electric is “no longer awesome”

From daily sales of the first model, Maverick Electric NQi, to over 100 million Now with a net loss of nearly 50 million, Mavericks is no longer good. The popularity of the NQi series has set off a boom in the entire electric bicycle industry, and is regarded as the "Tesla" of the two-wheeled field. But the good times did not last long. Shortly after the launch of the Mavericks n1s, it was classified as an over-standard electric vehicle or electric motorcycle because it did not meet the new national standards. Many places were unable to license the Mavericks n1s electric vehicle, so the Mavericks n1s was removed from the shelves. Subsequently, the launch of multiple series of electric bicycles such as MQi, UQi, RQi, TQi, SQi, etc. failed to create the "myth" again, and boosting sales gradually became a false proposition.

(Maverick Electric NQi, picture from Maverick Electric official website)

According to financial report data, Maverick Electric’s revenue in 2022 dropped by 14.5% year-on-year, with a net loss of RMB 49.46 million. , turning from profit to loss year-on-year (net profit recorded in the previous year was 225.8 million yuan). The net loss ratio was 1.6, compared with a net profit margin of 6.1 in 2021. The company's electric vehicle sales for the whole year were 831,600 units, a decrease of 200,000 units from the previous year and a year-on-year decrease of 19.9%.

In 2022, Ziyoujia Automobile released its first SUV model, Ziyoujia NV, and planned to deliver it to users one after another in December of that year. The car has a pure electric version and an extended-range version, priced at 27.88 Ten thousand to 318,800 yuan. Since the birth of Youjia, to some extent, it has relied on the "myth" and technical confidence created by Niu Electric Technology (Maverick Electric) in the field of electric bicycles. Now, Maverick Electric's "harem fire" will undoubtedly bring huge pressure to the Freejia moving forward. .

(Ziyoujia NV, the picture comes from the Ziyoujia official website)

The official service has been suspended, the store is deserted, and the exhibition cars "do not touch"

The sales of Niu Electric are declining, and the sales of Niutron are even worse. As of now, the official APP of Ziyoujia NIUTRON cannot be downloaded, the official website cannot be searched, and all official Weibo contents have been cleared. Does this mean that Ziyoujia NIUTRON is ready to leave?

(Since Youjia Weibo no longer displays any content)

The author visited the store again and found that, as a final "sense of presence", although the offline exhibition hall was brightly lit, the business was very It was deserted, and the exhibition cars were surrounded and pasted with "Do Not Touch" signs, which were even printed perfunctorily on A4 paper. Although it was peak shopping time when we arrived at the store, there was no one on duty in the store. According to a staff member of the store next door, "The store has reduced its original 8 sales staff to 4 people. The current 4 people who go out to eat may not come back until later. I heard It was said that other car brands would replace the store in the future. ”

Ziyoujia sales said, “It is not possible to order now and there are no other discounts.” As for whether the store will be closed, the sales representative said that the store has not yet arrived. period, it was not disclosed whether the lease would be renewed later.

There are early signs of "leaving the market", and the core qualifications and funding issues cannot be solved

As early as December last year, an article was exposed on the Internet that "Li Yinan decided to dissolve the company and go home alone." Will go bankrupt" news, followed by a "Letter to NV users", which stated, "However, due to its own reasons, NV cannot deliver in the short term, and Ziyoujia will provide a full refund within 48 hours. As promised, the car owner will be provided with an NV car model and a compensation of 200 yuan in Starbucks consumption cards. Regarding the news of the bankruptcy and the planned employee layoffs, Ziyoujia’s vice president Lu Haochen said, “Ziyoujia is not going to close down, nor is it closing down everything. The store is just streamlining some teams, giving the boss some time to solve related problems, and strive to hand over the car in the first half of next year."

(A letter to NV users)

Why. Temporarily unable to deliver? The core lies in qualifications, which comes from Dacheng Motors, the manufacturer of Youjia Automobile. Since 2019, Dacheng Motors has continued to hear news of work and production suspensions, and is also burdened with huge debt problems. This company has the production qualifications for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and new energy vehicles. However, according to the regulations issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2020, new energy vehicle companies that have stopped production for more than 24 months need to be verified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and cannot maintain access conditions. For those that have gone bankrupt, Enterprises may also have their original qualifications revoked. Qichacha data shows that the total amount of executions against Dacheng Motors is about 2.2 billion yuan. As an OEM, it is facing bankruptcy with huge debts.

(Picture from Hexun.com)

In terms of funding, Ziyoujia has only received US$500 million in Series A financing in 2021. For the "cash-burning" car manufacturing industry Of course, this cannot support a series of cost expenses such as R&D and marketing. Moreover, due to the negative impact of qualification issues, subsequent investors will inevitably be more cautious. As a result, Ziyoujia has also fallen into a vicious cycle, and the problem of finding a "financier" has become a dead end.

Li Yinan once said, "Use the best materials and the most cutting-edge technology to build the best electric car in China." But in the extremely "involved" new energy track, it is difficult to His chances seemed slim. The difficult-to-solve production qualifications and limited funds cannot support the delivery of Ziyoujia, and the compensation faced by users and employees will also be "worse". Perhaps Ziyoujia will follow in the footsteps of Weima and become another new car-making force that has fallen.

From the electric bicycle market’s rapid growth to its decline, from the new energy vehicle market’s entry into the market to the exit from the market. Although the new energy car-making cake is "tempting", it is not something that the genius boy Li Yinan can control. Under fierce competition, sales that cannot be boosted are accompanied by a double blow of continuous huge losses. Who will be forced to leave the market in the future?

Text/Xi Baihui

Editor/Xi Baihui

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