AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/21 Report--

After failing to pay wages for two months in a row, Aichi Automobile, a new car maker, has not been able to extricate itself from the financial crisis.

On May 18, Aichi Automobile Company issued a notice saying that, first, the company is working hard to solve the problem of social security provident fund payment in April, which will be notified separately when it is clear. Second, in order to ensure that there is no interruption of social security provident fund for employees with rigid demand in May and after, a channel for payment of social security provident fund at one's own expense has been opened, and the agreed employee labor contract has been changed to Shanghai Yiwei Home Company. It is also required to transfer money to the relevant account before May 25, and employees who do not agree have to wait for the company's capital situation to ease.

The full name of Shanghai Yiwei Home Automobile sales Co., Ltd. is Shanghai Yiwei Home Automobile sales Co., Ltd., which was established in 2017 and is wholly owned by Shanghai Aichi Yiwei Automobile sales Co., Ltd., according to Tianyan check.

As of press time, Aichi officials have not responded to the above news.

Prior to this, Aichi has twice been exposed that wages have been delayed. On April 10, the Human Resources Department of Aichi Automobile issued a notice on the delay in the payment of wages in March, saying that the company had to make a decision to delay the payment of wages for three months due to objective reasons. Social security and public provident fund will be paid normally in March. At the time, Aichi responded that wages were delayed and the company was operating normally. On May 10, Aichi's Human Resources Department issued a notice on the delay in April, saying: "in view of the current financial challenges, the company has to make the decision to delay the payment of wages in April again." The management of the company is actively raising funds, and once the funds are in place, all delayed wages and benefits will be made up. "

The re-emergence of the situation that "employees are advised to advance the social security provident fund at their own expense", to some extent, also shows that Aichi may have fallen into operational difficulties, and the financial situation has further deteriorated.

In view of the unpaid wages of Aichi cars, social security is facing suspension of payment, and the relevant labor departments have already intervened in this matter. On May 17, Aichi employees received a text message from the labor security supervision brigade of Yangpu District, Shanghai. The text message shows that the law enforcement brigade of Yangpu District people's and Social Affairs Bureau is investigating and dealing with Aichi Automobile (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Aichi Yiwei Automobile sales Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Yiwei Automobile sales Co., Ltd. the situation of arrears of wages in April 2023, and will be in accordance with legal procedures to deal with wage arrears in a unified manner.

Data show that Aichi Automobile Co., Ltd. was established in February 2017. it was once known as Jiangxi Aichi Yiwei Industrial Co., Ltd., with a registered and paid-in capital of 868 million yuan. It is one of the earliest new car-building brands in China. Founder Fu Qiang once served as head of Skoda Division of Shanghai Volkswagen, Executive Vice President of sales and Marketing of Beijing Mercedes-Benz, President and CEO of Volvo Automobile China. Has rich experience in the automotive industry.

Fu Qiang left Volvo in 2016, founded Aichi the following year and invited Gu Feng, then SAIC's chief financial officer, to join him. Aichi Motor was established not too late and the brand is not bad, it has a factory in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province with an annual production capacity of 150000 vehicles. In addition, Tianyan check shows that since its establishment, Aichi has experienced nine rounds of financing, and there is no lack of well-known investors, such as Ningde Times, DiDi, Tencent Investment, and so on. According to the publicly disclosed capital quota, the total amount of financing has reached nearly 10 billion yuan, but its sense of existence is far inferior to that of NIO, ideal, Xiaopeng and other brands.

In December 2019, Aichi U5, the first mass-produced model of Aichi, was put on the market. The new car is positioned as a pure electric medium-sized SUV with a price of 19.79-292100 yuan. It is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum power of 190hp, a maximum torque of 315N ·m and a mileage of 503km under NEDC conditions, but the market performance of the car is not good. According to the data, from 2020 to 2021, Aichi sold 2600 and 3011 cars, respectively. In April 2021, Aichi released its second production model, U6, which is located in the pure electric intelligent sedan SUV, which was originally scheduled to be delivered in October of the same year, but it was postponed to October 2022 due to financial problems, with a price range of 19.79-292100 yuan. However, the new car launch still failed to recover the decline of Aichi car sales, with a cumulative sales volume of 753 in 2022 and only 111in the first April of 2023.

According to the industry, Aichi's inability to open the domestic market is not only related to the rectangle of its products and low recognition, but also to its market layout in the past two years. Aichi focuses more on overseas markets. In March 2021, Aichi announced on its website: "with the goal of exporting 10000 vehicles in 2021, we are determined to promote the brand from a pioneer in the globalization of Chinese new energy vehicles to a leader at a 10-fold growth rate." Since then, it has been exported to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and other countries, covering northern and southern European markets, becoming the first Chinese start-up company to sell new energy vehicles in Europe, but overseas delivery performance is also poor. Data show that Aichi has delivered no more than 2000 cars since it began overseas delivery in June 2020.

The sudden financial difficulties of Aichi may also be related to the change of senior executives within Aichi. In January 2022, Aichi received hundreds of millions of dollars in strategic financing from Chen Xuanlin and his holding company Dongbai Group, followed by a change in Aichi's top management. In July of the same year, Aichi founder Fu Qiang stepped down from the post of legal representative and chairman, and Chen Xuanlin took over the post. In short, Aichi founder Fu Qiang officially "exited" the post of chairman and was taken over by investors. In addition, the company's CEO was also changed to Zhang Yang.

In November 2022, Aichi's management team changed again. Chen Xuanlin stepped down as chairman of the board, and the legal representative of Aichi Automobile Co., Ltd. was changed from Chen Xuanlin to Zhang Yang. at the same time, Chen Xuanlin resigned as chairman of the company and continued to serve as a director, with Zhang Yang as chairman. In view of this change, an online fund company announcement disclosed: "due to Chen Xuanlin's personal reasons, there is uncertainty in the operation and management of the financing side, and the principal and interest of some products have not been paid on schedule." According to media reports, Chen Xuanlin himself was also stranded overseas, his shares in Aichi car were frozen, and the tight capital chain of Aichi car also appeared.

Up to now, the employees of Aichi Automobile headquarters in Yangpu, Shanghai are still working from home, while the Jiading Park is a combination of home work and shift work. The time Weekly reported that the Aichi intranet server had also been disabled due to arrears.

In 2023, the new energy vehicle industry will officially enter the "knockout stage". Before Aichi, Skyline Automobile and Weimar Automobile and other car companies have been exposed factory shutdowns, store closures and other problems. The industry believes that Aichi's financial problem may only be a short-term problem, but the single product recognition is not high, unable to open the domestic market is the real problem.

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