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According to media reports, Daimler wants to end the momentum project and no longer invest in the project.

At present, it is not clear whether the news is true or false, but Daimler CEO Kang Linsong has said publicly, "the success of the new Tengli X will determine the future of the brand. Daimler's cash investment in Tencent has been completed, and we will continue to monitor its development before making a decision."

The booming brand was born and grew up with the golden key. Data show that DENZA Tengli is a new energy vehicle brand under Shenzhen Teng Teng New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Teng Teng New Energy"). The company was first established in 2010, jointly funded by BYD and Daimler, each holding 50 per cent of the company. At the beginning of the brand's birth, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said: "as the child of Daimler and BYD, Tengli is a brand born on the shoulders of giants."

In 2014, the first product of the brand, Tengli 300, was officially launched, targeting high-end commercial electric vehicles, which sold for as much as 36.9-399000 yuan before subsidies. Later, after upgrading, it launched the Tengli 400 in 2017 and Tengli 500 in 2018, with an increase in mileage, but its sales remained low due to low brand awareness and non-recognition of products.

According to the data, the cumulative sales from 2015 to 2019 were 2800, 2287, 4713, 1974 and 2089 respectively, and the cumulative sales in four years were 13863. The continued downturn in sales has led to continued losses for the Tengli brand, which lost 1.3 billion, 477 million and 888 million respectively from 2016 to 2018, and has lost more than 3.5 billion yuan in the past five years.

In this context, BYD and Daimler have increased their capital many times. Public data show that in May 2017, May 2018, February 2019, May 2019 and January 2020, BYD and Daimler increased their capital by 1 billion yuan, 800 million yuan, 400 million yuan, 300 million yuan and 350 million yuan respectively to Tengli Motor. Tengli received a cumulative capital increase of more than 5 billion yuan from both shareholders.

From the brand point of view, the momentum brand was established earlier than NIO, Xiaopeng and other car brands, and the brand is directly positioned at the high end, supported by BYD, a new energy leader, and Daimler, a German car company for a century. However, from the performance of the momentum, its current development has lagged far behind the car brands on the market.

In order to reverse this trend, Daimler and BYD decided in 2019 that Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales and Service Co., Ltd. would be directly responsible for the operation of the brand, including sales, marketing and brand communication, customer service, etc., while BYD is in charge of manufacturing. At the 2019 Guangzhou Auto Show, Tengli X, the second model of the Tengli brand, was officially launched. The new car is based on BYD Tang EV600. The price of the pure electric model is 31.98-357800 yuan, and the price of the mixed model is 28.98-319800 yuan. Tengli X integrates a lot of Mercedes-Benz design into its design and sells it directly to Mercedes-Benz dealers to improve brand awareness. However, even if it is operated directly by Mercedes-Benz, it has failed to reverse the disadvantage of the booming brand. According to the data, the sales of the Tengli brand was 4175 vehicles in 2020.

BYD and Daimler made a lot of money to increase the input of momentum brands, but the results were very dismal. As global car companies begin to speed up the layout of new energy vehicle products, Daimler will obviously not focus on momentum brands. Earlier, Daimler Greater China business Tang Shikai said: "Daimler new energy products will adhere to the two-track development path, BAIC and BYD are two parallel lines." But our biggest partner in China is still BAIC, and we have invested 5 billion euros to develop new energy products under the Mercedes-Benz brand.

Mercedes-Benz will begin the "first year of EQ" in 2021. In addition to the previously listed EQC, Mercedes-Benz plans to launch three pure electric models, the EQA, the EQB and the EQE, which will be put into production at the Beijing factory in 2021. These actions confirm Tang Shikai's remarks from the side, Daimler will speed up cooperation with BAIC.

As for BYD, as the leader of domestic new energy vehicles, BYD has a certain position in the field of new energy vehicles, with a total sales of 189689 vehicles in 2020, ranking first in domestic sales of new energy vehicles. BYD Han launched this year has achieved relatively good results. It is worth mentioning that BYD plans to launch a high-end brand within two years, the first model will be based on EV2.0, the first model will be a new model line, dolphins. In this context, it is assumed that BYD will not focus on the booming brand.

At present, the competition in the new energy vehicle market has entered a white-hot stage, traditional car companies have accelerated to invest in new energy vehicles, a large number of technology companies have entered the bureau to build cars, and BYD and Daimler have been facing greater development pressure. it is difficult to distract from large-scale investment in booming brands. In other words, momentum may have to rely on its own development in the future.

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