AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/07 Report--

The ramshackle Weimar is still releasing "good news".

Weima Automobile, a newly powerful carmaker, once again posted a message on its official Weibo on March 7: "Weima Automobile is making every effort to resume work and production." Weima Automobile said: "up to now, in view of the after-sales inconvenience of some users caused by the tension in the supply chain, Weima, with the support of relevant government units, has contacted production departments, distribution departments, after-sales spare parts outsourcing storage and distribution companies, and so on. Emergency allocation of relevant parts to meet the needs of users as soon as possible. In the near future, more than 100 dealers and stores across the country will gradually resume normal services to solve all kinds of car purchase and use problems for users. "

However, industry insiders close to Weima revealed to the media that Weima's response was mainly aimed at a warning issued by the Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission not long ago. Weimar car or abnormal operation, consumers are cautious to buy | consumption tips "message. Auto Industry concern noted that at present, the official Wechat account of Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission can no longer view this article, and the tweet has been deleted.

As of press time, Weimar officials did not respond to the news.

On February 18, the Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission issued a consumer warning through its official Wechat official account, reminding consumers to be cautious in buying Weima cars. The Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission said in the article that since October 2022, the Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission has received complaints from nearly 90 consumers against Weima Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weima Automobile"), reflecting the abnormal operation of the company. store closure, inability to provide auto parts, stagnation of after-sales service, absence of manual customer service, etc. As a result, they are unable to carry out normal maintenance after buying Weima cars, the car can not be repaired in time after failure, the signed battery replacement agreement can not be fulfilled, the customer service hotline has been in a busy state, and so on, the rights and interests of consumers have been damaged.

Therefore, the Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission believes that the company's abnormal operation and lack of after-sales have seriously affected the normal use of consumers and damaged the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, which is a breach of trust, and issued a consumption warning to remind consumers to spend cautiously.

The night before the "Qingpu District Consumer Protection Commission" released the news, Weima Automobile also responded to and clarified three rumors: "Weima Automobile Finance Department set up a project without authorization", "10 million-level projects in which enterprises rely on scalpers to brush their orders", and a Weima Automobile former employee said that "the company's management gave the green light for their own projects." Shen Hui then forwarded the Weibo to his personal social platform with an article saying that he told everyone to wait for "good news" from Weimar. Shen Hui said: "Weimar did encounter some difficulties in the past year because of the objective impact of the epidemic and the market environment. We are adjusting through a series of measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency, to ensure the resumption of work and production, and to ensure the experience of end users. Learn from the bitter experience before you can pack up and start again! Thank you for your concern, and please do not believe the rumors and wait for our good news. "

Recently, Weimar Motor has had a lot of negative news. On February 24, due to a sharp pay cut in Weimar, unknown whereabouts of social security funds and a delay in salary payment, some employees went to Weima Huanggang factory to pull banners to protect their rights. On the same day, Weimar issued an internal communication acknowledging that Weimar had encountered difficulties and informing employees and management of its decision. Weimar said in the letter that in view of the current situation of the company, various departments determine the list of personnel who return to work first and the actual work arrangements according to business arrangements, and the company will try its best to guarantee the salary and treatment of those who return to work and production. The rest of the staff will arrange unpaid leave and gradually return to work and production according to the business development. The communication time of the release ditch coincides with the payday of Weima Motor in February, and most of the employees have not received their wages and directly entered the state of unpaid leave. Very few employees are on the list of people who return to work and get paid in February.

Weima Motor has also been investigated by the labor supervision department due to a sharp pay cut, unknown whereabouts of social security funds and a delay in the payment of wages. On February 27, the staff of the Labor Security Supervision Bureau of the Huanggang Municipal people's Bureau said that at present, the Municipal Labor and Social Security Supervision Bureau and the Municipal people's Society Department have set up a special class to intervene in this matter and are accepting matters relating to the protection of the rights of Weima employees.

Since the beginning of 2023, news such as suspension of pay, factory shutdowns, store closures, arrears of rent and property fees in the headquarters building continue to appear frequently in the public eye. The industry believes that behind a series of negative news is the tight capital chain of Weimar Automobile.

At the beginning of the year, Weimar announced that it had received about 2.01 billion yuan in a new round of financing, which was originally scheduled to arrive in February, but as of February 15, the financing had not yet arrived, which directly led Weimar back into a tight capital chain. Under this blow, Weimar plans to cut the budgets of all its departments by 25 per cent to ensure that the company will complete its listing in Hong Kong within the second quarter of this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Compared with other new car-building powers, Weimar is one of the car companies with the most financing. Tianyan check information shows that since its inception, Weimar has announced a cumulative amount of financing of 35 billion yuan, but in spite of this, Weimar is still stuck in a "financial tight" problem. According to the prospectus, Weima Motor has suffered huge losses for three consecutive years. From 2019 to 2021, Weima Motor achieved revenue of 1.7621 billion yuan, 2.6717 billion yuan and 4.7425 billion yuan respectively, and net losses of 4.145 billion yuan, 5.084 billion yuan and 8.206 billion yuan respectively. Weima Automobile's cumulative loss over the past three years is as high as 17.435 billion yuan.

At present, Weimar has a total layout of four models: EX5, W6, E.5 and M7, and the insurance figures show that Weima sold only 34600 vehicles in 2022. For comparison, the sales volume of "Wei Xiaoli" in China is 122000, 120000 and 133000 respectively. As one of the earliest new power car companies in China, Weimar used to be as famous as Wei Xiaoli, but now its sales are only a fraction of their sales. At present, Weimar Motor urgently needs to solve the problem, in addition to financial constraints, but also includes the lack of competitiveness of its products in the auto market and other problems.

Shen Hui said bluntly in an interview with the media: "Weima can continue to fight as long as he still has a breath." At present, the biggest challenge is how to get through the darkness before dawn. " It should be noted that in the highly competitive new energy car market, now the iterative speed of car companies is extremely fast, can the ramshackle Weimar really come back to life? The answer may come to the surface soon.

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