AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/25 Report--

Zhongtai Automobile announced that the board of directors decided to postpone the disclosure of the 2019 annual report to June 23. Zhongtai Motor also disclosed its main operating results in 2019, with operating income of 3.204 billion yuan in 2019, down 78.3% from 14.764 billion yuan in 2018, and net profit of-9.294 billion yuan, down 1261.96% from 800 million yuan in the same period in 2018. In view of the reasons for the sharp decline in operating income and net profit, Zhongtai Automobile has said that mainly due to the macroeconomic situation, the overall prosperity of the automobile industry is not high, and car sales have dropped sharply, falling short of expectations.

Zhongtai Automobile is an independent car company that starts by imitation, and its products are sought after by consumers in a short period of time by virtue of "high-end reference". In particular, Zhongtai SR9, as a high-end model imitating Porsche MACAN, quickly became an "online celebrity" after its launch because of its low price and "high-end". And the facts have also proved that Zhongtai Motors' imitation road is successful. In the early development, Zhongtai Automobile has quickly become an online celebrity brand in the domestic automobile market, with sales of 220000, 330000 and 320000 respectively from 2015 to 2017, entering the top 10 of domestic independent brand sales. At this time, Zhongtai Motor's tape measure has become a "sharp blade" for sales growth.

However, since the Zhongtai T700 was exposed to the "steering wheel" incident in July 2018, Zhongtai Automobile has been at the top of the complaint list. Of course, the Zhongtai T700 is only a microcosm of Zhongtai Motors. The model with the most complaints is the T600. The problems complained about include window failure, engine flameout, engine oil leakage, abnormal gearbox noise, gearbox oil leakage, abnormal body noise, and so on. Zhongtai Automobile accounts for all the big and small old and new problems.

Zhongtai's sales also began to decline sharply in 2018, with a cumulative decline of 26.23% to 234000 vehicles. After entering 2019, Zhongtai's performance was even worse, with cumulative sales falling 40.1 per cent to 153000 vehicles.

Only focus on plagiarism, but do not pay attention to the overall quality control, only have their appearance but no quality Zhongtai quickly went to a dead end. Although Zhongtai Motor has achieved good sales by imitating the best-selling models of domestic automakers, sales of these models have fallen sharply after they were launched for a period of time. The models imitated by Zhongtai Motors sell well quickly, but they do not have mature technical support like other car companies, so that these models are full of problems soon after they are bought. In addition, consumers have to bear a high depreciation rate when they sell their cars as second-hand cars, and not all second-hand car dealers will buy them, because they really can't sell them.

As sales continued to plummet, Zhongtai Motor began to get into operational difficulties. In early October last year, Zhongtai Motor was exposed to bankruptcy liquidation at the end of the year. Although Zhongtai Automobile finally issued an announcement to clarify, there are indeed many problems in its operation. CCTV visited Zhongtai Motor and found that the factory was in a state of semi-shutdown, and many of its stores had no cars to sell or even closed. Another employee revealed that since November last year, due to the factory shutdown, the employee's salary arrears have been paid, and the report to the relevant departments has not been properly dealt with.

In 2020, due to the impact of the car market recession and the epidemic, a number of car companies, including Zhongtai Motors, were not optimistic in the first half of the year. By contrast, smaller carmakers, such as Zhongtai Motors, will find it difficult to tide over the impact of the epidemic if they do not have enough money to maintain it.

Facts have proved that this is indeed the case, the departure of senior executives, the chairman of the board to become a "rogue" has become a hot spot of Zhongtai Automobile. Deng Xiaoming, vice president of Zhongtai Automobile, resigned as vice president of the company in March this year. In April, Gao Jiangtao, general manager of Zhongtai Damai and sales general manager of Zhongtai Jiangnan Division, also left Zhongtai Automobile to join Swai Motor. In addition, Jin Zheyong, chairman of Zhongtai Automobile, was restricted from high consumption due to a dispute over the sale and purchase contract.

Under the dual influence of the epidemic and the downturn of the car market, any car company can not be left alone, but can only resist to the death. At present, although the situation of the domestic automobile market has improved, it is still not optimistic from the point of view of the development of the whole year. Car companies that can survive this year need a lot of funds to maintain their operation. Obviously, the loss-making Zhongtai Motor already has a big problem in terms of capital, and it is uncertain whether it will be able to survive 2020 safely.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat