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The Shanghai headquarters of Weima Automobile, a new car maker, has started layoffs, while outsourcing companies are leaving on a large scale, the IT Times reported. Reported that multiple sources also show that Weimar Motor Shanghai a number of stores closed, from about 20 to about 12. A salesperson who once worked in Weimar said: "most of the stores in the Shanghai shopping mall are closed, and now many of them are inventory cars." another Weima franchisee revealed: "Weimar used to have about 20 stores in Shanghai, but now there are only about 12, of which there are only five or six 4S stores with the integration of pre-sale and post-sale. Some stores have been closed recently, and the official website has not taken down the list in time.

Weima Automobile, founded in 2015, was also one of the new power head car companies, founded by Shen Hui, former vice president of Geely Holdings Group, and headquartered in Shanghai. With the expansion of business, the number of employees of Weima Automobile has been increasing in recent years. Relevant data show that from 2019 to 2021, the number of Weima Automobile employees are 2639, 2899 and 3952 respectively; in terms of stores, "Automotive Industry concern" learned from Weima Automobile's official website. at present, Weima Automobile network inquiry shows that a total of 17 are open and 1 is about to open, of which there are only 8 user centers and Xingchuang centers responsible for sales delivery, while the others only provide display, after-sales and other services.

As of press time, Weimar did not respond to the layoffs and store closures at Weima Automotive's Shanghai headquarters.

As one of the leading car companies of the new power, unlike the founder of Wei Xiaoli, who was born in the Internet industry, Wei Ma founder Shen Hui has deep attainments in the field of car building. Before founding Weimar, Shen Hui successively held management positions in core automotive parts and vehicle companies such as BergWarner, Fiat, Volvo and Geely, so he accumulated a lot of experience in automobile manufacturing. however, these experiences have not brought actual benefit growth for Weimar.

At present, Weimar is under serious financial pressure. According to the prospectus, Weima's revenue from 2019 to 2021 was 1.7621 billion yuan, 2.6717 billion yuan and 4.7425 billion yuan respectively. The net losses are 4.145 billion yuan, 5.084 billion yuan and 8.206 billion yuan respectively. According to this calculation, the cumulative loss of Weima Automobile over the past three years is as high as 17.435 billion yuan. The net losses of NIO, Xiaopeng and ideal, which are also new forces in car building, are 4.016 billion yuan, 4.863 billion yuan and 322 million yuan respectively in 2021. According to the data, although these new car-making forces are all in a state of loss, the sales volume of Weima is only half of that of NIO and Xiaopeng. The loss is twice as high.

In response to financial pressure, Weimar has taken a pay cut to withstand losses. On November 21st, a ditch communication "working together to tide over the difficulties" sent by Weimar CEO Shen Hui showed that 2022 was full of challenges and difficulties. Affected by the epidemic, Weima Motor Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and other places are facing great challenges in the supply chain, sharp rise in raw material costs, untimely supply and other problems, seriously affecting Weima's production and operation. In response to the financial pressure, the company's management took the lead in taking the initiative to cut salary by half, and the company will reduce operating costs through a series of financial measures. These include managers at the level of M4 and above who take the initiative to cut their salaries and pay 50% of the basic salary; other employees pay 70% of the basic salary; adjust the payday of the company, abolish bonuses such as year-end bonuses, and suspend car subsidies. In response to the pay cut, Weima people told the media: "supply chain problems, capital market winter and other unfavorable factors continue to haunt the automobile industry this year. It is not easy for the development of new brands that have been created. Weima is still trying to get through the cold winter. However, it is no longer allowed to sell cars through 'burning money' to compete with other manufacturers for ranking on the list."

In addition, Weimar Motor is also not as good as expected in terms of capital operation. On June 1, 2022, Weimar submitted its application for listing of Hong Kong shares, with Haitong International, China Bank International and Bank of China International as sponsors, but so far there has been no progress in Weima Motor's listing in Hong Kong. It should be noted that this is the second time that Weimar has submitted an application for listing. As early as September 2020, Weimar began to prepare to enter the "first share of Science and Technology Innovation Board's new forces". On January 29th, 2021, the Shanghai Bureau of Supervision issued an announcement that Weimar Smart Travel Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. already had the conditions for tutoring and acceptance and Science and Technology Innovation Board listing application, but before long, Weima Automobile was exposed to suspend its application in Science and Technology Innovation Board's listing, because many problems were found in the examination of Weima's listing materials. In response, Shen Hui responded: "rumors", while Weimar responded: "the listing work is carried out in an orderly manner, and the time is uncertain." However, the listing plan of Science and Technology Innovation Board ended in failure and eventually switched to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. From the current development of Weima Motor, listing or Weima Motor continues to go through the only way, as for Weima Automobile listing follow-up waiting for further news.

According to the official website, Weimar currently has four models on sale: EX5, W6, E.5 and M7, of which EX5 is the first model under Weimar, which was delivered on September 28th, 2018, taking the lead in breaking PPT. Weima EX5 positioning compact pure electric SUV, the price range is 14.68-198800 yuan, compared with NIO, ideal and other car companies, Weima car's first model positioning is relatively low-end, lower product price means better access to the market, but in fact, the current sales volume of Weima has obviously lagged behind Weimar and ideal. For comparison, the price of ES8, the first model of Ulai, is 448000 yuan, while the ideal ONE price of the first model of ideal car is 328000 yuan.

Data show that in 2019, Weimar delivered 16900 vehicles, Ulai delivered 20600 vehicles, and Xiaopeng delivered 16700 vehicles, ranking second in the new power car company, but the good times did not last long, and this excellent performance lasted only one year; in 2020, Weimar delivered 22500 vehicles, Ulai delivered 43700 vehicles, Xiaopeng delivered 27000 vehicles, ideal delivery 32600 vehicles, Weima fell out of the top three. By 2021, Xiaopeng will deliver 98200 vehicles, NIO will deliver 91400, ideal delivery will be 90500, Nahu will deliver 69700, while Weimar will deliver only 44200, which is a huge gap with Wei Xiaoli. After entering 2022, Weima continued to lag behind Wei Xiaoli, with sales of only 1117 vehicles in October 2022, down 77.8% from the same period last year, including 501 Weima E5, 221 Weima EX5 and 395 Weima W6. For comparison, sales of Xilai and ideal cars were 10059 and 10052 respectively, equivalent to nine times the sales of Weimar in October. From January to October 2022, Weimar delivered a total of 29200 vehicles, while Nezha, Xiaopeng, ideal, Zero and NIO were 129200, 103600, 96900, 94600 and 9.24 respectively. The gap between Weimar and the current mainstream car-building new forces continues to widen. According to the Weima prospectus, the M7 was launched in the second half of 2022, but only a month before the end of 2022, and the M7 has not yet been delivered. Weima employees have told the media: "the M7 has been tested at extremely cold and high temperatures." however, due to the company's cash flow problems, delivery is very difficult this year and may be postponed until official notice. "

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