AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/23 Report--

For the new forces of car building, 2020 is undoubtedly a year for big waves to clean up the sand. Many new power brands, such as Sailin, Future, Boxun and so on, have fallen into operational difficulties, even Baiteng, which was once regarded by the outside world as "the most likely to be successful", ran out of funds and shut down. CCTV commented that "burning up 8.4 billion yuan can not produce mass cars."

Recently, the news of Baiteng car has been coming out continuously. On December 31, 2020, Baiteng sent a "China suspension and production extension notice" to employees, informing all companies in China (excluding Hong Kong) that they still do not have the conditions to resume work and production. According to the study, starting from January 1, 2021, the company will extend the shutdown period for six months until June 30, 2021.

Just four days after the release of the "notice", that is, January 4, Baiteng signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Foxconn Technology Group and Nanjing Economic and technological Development Zone. The three parties will work together to promote mass production of Baiteng new energy products and strive to achieve mass production of M-Byte by the first quarter of 2022.

On January 22, Liu Yangwei, chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Let Baiteng win" by teleconference. This means that the cooperation between Baiteng Motor and Foxconn has entered a substantive stage.

In the conference call, Liu Yangwei mainly talked about three aspects around the "winning formula": first, Baiteng's big-screen digital cockpit experience and brand foundation; second, Baiteng's shareholder FAW Group knows how to build cars; third, Foxconn knows best about supply chain and the combination of software and hardware.

Some Baiteng employees said that Foxconn has sent more than 100 engineers to its Nanjing plant to help Baiteng speed up mass production, and some of them have already entered Baiteng. Mass production was originally planned for the first quarter of 2022, but with Foxconn, mass production is expected to be advanced to the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Why did Foxconn choose Baiteng? Harmonious Automobile signed a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement on "Internet Intelligent Electric vehicle" with Foxconn and Tencent in Zhengzhou in March 2015. Foxconn, Tencent and Harmony Automobile contributed 1 billion US dollars at 3:3:4, thus "Harmony Futeng" was born. Because of some differences, Foxconn quickly withdrew its funding to launch Harmony Futeng, but the FMC project hatched by Harmony Futeng eventually developed into Baiteng Automobile, driven by Harmony cars. Therefore, Foxconn chose to invest in Baiteng cars, which can be regarded as a "continuation of the past." In addition, although Baiteng has burned up 8.4 billion yuan, its first model is only one foot short of mass production, so investing in Baiteng is a good choice for Foxconn.

According to the data, Baiteng Motor was founded in 2017, with a total financing amount of 8.4 billion yuan. Baiteng was once seen as one of the most promising new car-building forces, with former CEO Bi Fukang serving as vice president of BMW Group and COO Dai Lei as general manager of Infiniti China. The M-Byte, the first mass-produced model of Baiteng in 2019, is said to be put into production in mid-2020. However, those who come earlier than mass production are unpaid wages and suspension of production for work.

In June 2020, Baiteng Beijing and Shanghai office rent withdrawal, factory water and power outages, layoffs and arrears of wages occurred one after another. In desperation, Baiteng Motor issued an internal email to all its employees. After communication between shareholders and management, the company suspended its mainland business operations in China from July 1, with all staff waiting for work and production suspension for half a year. Baiteng car thunderstorm after another, CCTV commented that "burning up 8.4 billion yuan can not produce a mass production car."

In contrast to Baiteng Automobile, the stock market value of car brands such as NIO, Xiaopeng and ideal soared in the second half of the year, and sales also reached record highs. Although Baiteng has announced that everyone is waiting for duty, work and production have been suspended, the story of Baiteng is not over. Baiteng later set up a new company and named it "Shengteng". The new company and Baiteng were independent of each other to avoid Baiteng debt, and then announced that the M-Byte, the first production car, was still moving forward.

Can Foxconn save Baiteng? From the perspective of the current new power market, the development has gradually become stable, and the car-building brands based on Lai, Xiaopeng and ideal are in the first echelon. After the weakness of brands such as Boxun and Sailin, the market is not optimistic about other brands except the first echelon, which increases the financing difficulty of Baiteng Automobile.

Secondly, including SAIC, Changan Automobile Group, BAIC and Dongfeng Group have also launched high-end car brands one after another, relying on large automobile enterprises. These new car brands do not have to worry about the crisis caused by capital, coupled with a mature supply chain. Can obtain higher product competitiveness at lower cost. From this point of view, when Baiteng's first mass production model was launched, the high-end models of the above traditional car companies almost landed, which was a big blow to Baiteng Automobile.

In addition, with the launch of new cars of Tesla, Lulai, ideal, Xiaopeng and other brands, the space left for Baiteng cars in the future will be smaller and smaller. Foxconn's investment in Baiteng may give it more room for survival, but at the same time, as other car brands and traditional car companies squeeze the market, the pressure on the survival of Baiteng will also be expanded. As for what will happen to Baiteng after receiving Foxconn's investment, the market will give the final answer.

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