In the past year of 2024, the word "volley" is not enough to describe the automotive industry, and bloody storm may be more appropriate.
Smart cabin, smart driving, hybrid route; playing cards, flipping tables, sudden changes in fate. No matter from which level, the automotive industry in 2024 will be the most competitive year in memory.
In this life-or-death game of car manufacturing, people in the same industry have different fates. On one hand, HiPhi, which collapsed at the beginning of the year, reportedly paid "settlement money" to its resigned employees at the end of the year; and Jiyue, which was disbanded at the end of the year, did not forget to take the initiative to fire a public relations director when it collapsed. On the other hand, three "national teams" successively announced news of financing, with a total amount of more than 30 billion yuan.
On December 17, Avita Technology announced the completion of its C round of financing, raising more than 11 billion yuan; on December 24, BAIC BluePark issued an announcement that its subsidiary Beijing New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. completed its capital increase and share expansion, introducing 11 external strategic investors and Beijing Auto in one fell swoop, with a total capital increase of 10.15 billion yuan; on December 25, Zhiji Auto announced the completion of its B1 round of equity financing, and the overall B round of financing raised a total of 9.4 billion yuan.
In addition to the collective announcement of financing by the "national team" at the end of the year, earlier in September 2024, NIO announced that it had received 3.3 billion yuan in financing; in May, Ideal received another 530 million US dollars in financing.
The industry generally believes that the internal competition in the automotive industry, with smart electric vehicles as the main battlefield, will enter the "final round", and this final will last for at most 2-3 years.
Whether it is the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeding 50% or the popularization of end-to-end intelligent driving, the 2024 final has already begun.
The duck knows first when the river water warms in spring. The bigwigs fighting on the front line of car manufacturing have already smelled the smell of gunpowder, and some are even the makers of gunpowder. For example, He Xiaopeng said, "2024 is the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the 'bloody' competition, and the first year of the elimination round." Li Bin said, "Let everyone roll up first, and we will turn the table over at the end." Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, feels that "90% of the new forces in car manufacturing have died, and I don't think it's the end yet." Chery, the "dark horse" in the new energy field in 2024, has repeatedly said "you're welcome."
The words have been spoken, the flag has been raised, and now it’s time to really fight. To prepare for the finals, you must first stock up on supplies, on the one hand to show the market your military strength; on the other hand, the technical competition does require a lot of money.
BAIC New Energy: Born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you still need someone to lead you into the world
Among the three national teams that have recently received large-scale capital increases, BAIC New Energy can be said to have the most unfortunate fate.
In 2009, BAIC Group responded to the national "10 Cities, 1,000 Vehicles" demonstration project and established BAIC New Energy, which became the first independent company in China and the first to obtain new energy vehicle production qualifications. In 2015, it launched the time-sharing leasing business, opening up the new energy vehicle leasing market. In 2017, it became the first pure electric vehicle company in China to produce and sell more than 100,000 vehicles per year, and ranked first in domestic new energy vehicle sales for the fifth consecutive year; in 2018, it went public under the name of BAIC Blue Valley and became the "first stock of new energy vehicles."
Beijing BAIC New Energy Headquarters
But since then, neither the original BAIC New Energy vehicle series, which was renamed the BEIJING brand, nor the newly planned mid-to-high-end brand Arcfox, has become a mainstream brand in the era of the comprehensive rise of smart electric vehicles.
According to the production and sales report released by BAIC BluePark, BAIC New Energy's sales in November 2024 were about 15,200 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 58.48%; the cumulative sales from January to November were 71,400 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 36.57%. Although the growth rate is high, in the context of monthly sales of 20,000 vehicles to become mainstream, annual sales of 70,000 vehicles are far from enough.
In terms of performance, as of the end of June 2024, BAIC New Energy's total liabilities were 22.724 billion yuan. In 2023 and the first half of 2024, the company achieved net profits of -2.184 billion yuan and -1.124 billion yuan, respectively. In the first three quarters of 2024, BAIC Blue Valley's operating income was 9.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%; its net loss was 4.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.2%.
Objectively speaking, BAIC is not a first-tier player in the current new energy track. Therefore, the financing obtained this time is of even greater significance.
The shareholders who increased their capital in BAIC New Energy this time include three major types of institutions: state-owned assets, financial asset investment companies and industrial capital.
In terms of state-owned assets, there are Beijing State-owned Capital Operation Management Co., Ltd., Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co., Ltd., Beijing Holdings Group Co., Ltd., Beijing Yizhuang International Emerging Industries Investment Center (Limited Partnership), etc.; financial asset investment companies include Bocom Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., CCB Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., etc.; industrial capital includes Ningbo Meishan Free Trade Port Area Wendi Investment Co., Ltd., Beijing Xiaoma Yixing Technology Co., Ltd., etc.
With so many institutional investments, BAIC New Energy has a strong backer.
Since 2024, new energy vehicles have become one of the main forces for Beijing's industrial economic growth. Data shows that from January to October, Beijing produced 935,000 vehicles, an increase of 11.4% over the same period last year. Among them, 217,000 were new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 2.1 times.
At present, the actions of BAIC and Huawei jointly creating the Xiangjie and co-developing new cars based on the CATL skateboard chassis all require more financial support. According to the performance figures mentioned above, the current "blood-making ability" of BAIC New Energy itself is far from enough to support the advancement of these projects.
However, once these technologies are successfully implemented, the rewards will be relatively generous.
Zhiji: Winning in internal competition and supporting reverse joint ventures
The 9.4 billion yuan in financing obtained by Zhiji also covers three major types of institutions.
For example, Lingang Group and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park are state-owned assets; CCB Investment, ICBC Investment, ABC Investment, Bocom Investment, etc. are financial asset investment companies; SAIC Investment, CATL, Qingtao Energy, Momenta, etc. are industrial investment institutions.
Roughly speaking, the tasks undertaken by Zhiji and BAIC New Energy are similar - both are expected to play a leading role in the development of intelligent connected and new energy vehicles in the local area.
On November 15, 2024, in Guangzhou, Zhiji Auto will shine at the 2024 Guangzhou International Auto Show with the new Zhiji LS6 and L6.
SAIC Group originally owned two "second-generation" companies, Feifan Auto and Zhiji Auto, but with the resource integration trend in 2024, the former returned to the Roewe brand under SAIC Passenger Vehicles, while the latter continued to compete in the market as a separate entity.
According to the announcement, Zhiji Auto plans to invest in the research and development of core technologies such as digital intelligent chassis, wire-controlled steering, and intelligent driving. It is expected to launch two pure electric and two extended-range new products in 2025. These are cutting-edge technologies that conform to market trends. Digital chassis and wire-controlled steering are the inevitable direction after the level of intelligent driving is upgraded. By then, there will be no need for physical steering connection mechanisms, and all will rely on signal transmission. Zhiji's launch of new extended-range products also conforms to the current trend that the growth rate of the extended-range and plug-in hybrid markets is much higher than that of pure electric vehicles.
Compared with BAIC New Energy, SAIC, the company behind Zhiji, has a stronger technical reserve. In the "Advanced Digitized Platform" jointly developed by SAIC and Audi, Chinese technology will provide a large amount of intelligent and electrified technical support, which is a typical example of a joint venture feeding back to the foreign party. To some extent, Zhiji has helped SAIC realize a reverse joint venture and ushered in the "Joint Venture 2.0 Era".
Avita: Huawei is strong, and so is the company
Avita's Series C financing totaled 11.1 billion yuan, of which Changan Automobile and Chongqing Municipal Government's industrial investment fund Anyu Fund were the main forces in this round of capital increase, increasing capital by 4.551 billion and 2.8 billion yuan respectively.
Previously, Changan Automobile purchased 10% of the equity of Yinwang, the new parent company of Huawei's automotive BU, through Avita, with a transaction amount of 11.5 billion yuan. On October 16, 2024, Avita completed the payment of the first equity investment of 2.3 billion yuan, and the remaining 9.2 billion yuan is to be paid. In addition to providing financial support for the company's development, Avita's financing is also for investment in Yinwang. In addition, Avita plans to hit the IPO in 2026.
On December 24, 2024, in Shanghai, Chen Zhuo, President of Avita Technology, attended the event where CATL released the Rock Chassis.
According to the financial data of Avita disclosed by Changan Automobile as of August 31, 2024, Avita's undistributed profits were -8.313 billion yuan, and its performance pressure was not small.
However, with the launch of the extended-range model, Avita's sales exceeded 10,000 units in November, and sales entered a new stage.
On January 1, 2025, Yinwang has started its independent operation mode, and Huawei's automotive BU will be fully integrated into Yinwang. According to sources, Yinwang's staff size is expected to expand to several thousand people. Employees currently affiliated with Huawei's automotive BU will be officially transferred to Yinwang's establishment.
Avita, which is increasingly tied to Huawei's automotive business unit, and with the investment of tens of billions of yuan, can be said to be stable in the short term. However, to truly gain a foothold in the market, it must take its own profitability as a benchmark. From this point of view, almost no new car companies have achieved their goals.
Another detail worth noting is that Huawei expects to be profitable by 2025. Such an optimistic forecast for a newly established company is obviously backed by the car companies that cooperate with it. From another perspective, Huawei, as a new-era supplier that "builds good cars for car companies", has a much higher voice and profitability than traditional parts suppliers.
Among the three companies that received financing this time, BAIC and Changan have already "merged their souls" with Huawei, and SAIC, which was once reluctant to hand over its soul, will also use Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving on its SAIC Audi A5L.
It is foreseeable that in the upcoming finals, no matter how many mainstream car companies are left, Huawei is already one of the undisputed winners.
