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According to the number of new car compulsory insurance purchases, the cumulative sales of Reading cars from January to October in 2022 were 6878, up 3.34% from a year earlier, of which only 196 were sold in October and 2625 in the same period in 2021, plunging 92.53% from the same period last year.

A few days ago, Reading completed round A financing, with an overall financing scale of 3.2 billion yuan. The data show that the financing is led by Weifang Weicheng West Investment and Development Group, and the funds will be mainly used for vehicle product research and development, marketing investment, channel support and expansion, production capacity construction and other matters related to the main business operation and expansion of Reading. According to SkyEye, Reading has completed only two rounds of financing since its inception, the last in 2012.

Who is the Reading car? Data show that Reading Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was established in October 2012, formerly known as "Shandong Maillard Energy Power Technology Co., Ltd.", with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. It is understood that the company's main business is low-speed three-wheeled and four-wheeled electric vehicles. Although it does not involve the automobile market, Reading electric vehicles reached 150000, 210000 and 2.89 million respectively from 2016 to 2018, ranking first in low-speed electric vehicle sales for three consecutive years.

With the surge of low-speed electric vehicles, the traffic order has been seriously disrupted. Since 2018, six ministries and commissions have issued a notice on strengthening the management of low-speed electric vehicles, requiring all localities to carry out rectification and reform of low-speed electric vehicles, while also clearly pointing out that it is forbidden to increase the production capacity of low-speed electric vehicles. Faced with an uncertain future, Reading began to transform and enter the auto market directly.

In April 2018, Reading acquired Shaanxi Qinxing Automobile Co., Ltd. and obtained the qualification for the production of new energy commercial vehicles and special vehicles. In January 2019, Reading acquired Sichuan Auto Mustang for 1.45 billion yuan and obtained the production qualification of new energy vehicles, traditional oil passenger cars and passenger cars. It is understood that Reading inspected Red Star and Lifan at that time, but finally chose the Mustang because the Mustang had a complete production and R & D system. However, to the outside world, Reading does not have enough technology reserves in the new energy car market, while Mustang is a deteriorating marginal car company. In this way, Reading and the Mustang are more like brothers.

After obtaining the passenger car production qualification, Reading launched three models in 2019, namely, the i3, i5 and i9. Pure electric mini car reading i3, mileage 100km/160km, guidance price 4.98-62800 yuan. Pure electric small car reading i5, mileage 225km, subsidized price of 75800 yuan. Pure electric small SUV reading i9, mileage 400km/470km, subsidized price of 115800 yuan. With unaffordable prices and a continuation of the "old man's happy" design, the road to Redding's car transformation has become particularly difficult. Figures show that only 3387 Reading cars were sold in 2019.

After the collapse of the I-series, Reading did not sit back and set its sights on the mini-car market. In July 2020, SAIC GM Wuling launched a new micro electric car Hongguang MINIEV, which is positioned as the people's scooter, with an official guiding price of 28800 yuan. Unlike Reading, as a Sino-US joint venture, Hongguang MINIEV is not only cheap, but its cute design has also captured the hearts of many consumers. Sales have skyrocketed after listing, winning the title of new energy vehicles for many times. More importantly, the launch of Hongguang MINIEV led to the development of the entire minicar market, and then minicars such as Naxi V, Zero running T03, Changan Mercedes-Benz E-Star, Chery QQ Ice Cream, Dongfeng scenery MINIEV, Changan waxy Corn, BAIC Yuanbao emerged in a pile, while Reading also brought a brand-new minicar called "Reading Mango" to join the battlefield.

In May 2021, Reading Mango officially launched, located in the five-door four-seat pure electric minicar, the new car launched 130km, 185km and 300km three mileage, the price of 2.98-54900 yuan, a direct standard Hongguang MINIEV. In March 2022, Reading launched the mango Pro. The new car offers 130km and 200km mileage with a price of 3.98-56900 yuan. It is a direct counterpart to the Hongguang MINIEV macaron version. With its high performance-to-price ratio, the mango series has indeed achieved certain results in a short period of time. According to the retail data of the Federation of passengers, 30467 read mangoes were sold in 2021, making it into the top 15 of the list of new energy cars. However, after entering 2022, the mini-car market has been greatly challenged by factors such as rising material prices, and many car companies have encountered the problems of delayed delivery, rising prices and stopping the sale of models. In September this year, Reading announced a price increase, ranging from 1000 yuan to 3000 yuan for its models. At present, it seems that Reading Mango is almost Redding's last chance in the new energy vehicle market.

It should be noted that Reading is not doing well at the moment. According to a previous report in the Automotive Business Review, some dealers sought help online because Redding failed to fulfill its delivery promise for a long time after receiving the payment, with a total debt of more than 20 million yuan, and questioned that there was a serious problem with the Reading capital chain and even went bankrupt. According to the China referee Writing Network, Reading has so far been ordered to freeze funds several times because of a dispute over the sale and purchase contract. It was also revealed that the middle and senior management of Reading Motor began to apply for a voluntary pay cut in May, with a pay cut of 50% for middle-level cadres and 60% for vice ministers and ministers to tide over the crisis.

New energy vehicles are still a big tuyere in today's market, and many new forces have eaten up the early market dividends, but so far they have not made a real profit. at the same time, they have to face the huge competitive pressure brought about by the transformation of traditional car companies.

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