AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/27 Report--

Wages in arrears, social security payments, Aichi car has been "unable to open the pot."

On May 25, a reporter from the International Finance News exclusively obtained information from Aichi's internal communication group, showing that middle and high-level employees headed by Chief Financial Officer Wu Lei launched a "forced palace" to President Fu Qiang on the examination and approval of social security provident fund.

According to the group chat message, Chief Financial Officer Wu Lei @ everyone in the group, saying that all the employees of the company had applied for payment of social security provident fund finance in April. As of 15:00 today, CEO Qiu Xiaochuan and Chairman Zhang Yang had signed and approved it, but the president could not pay until Qiu Xiaochuan and Chairman Zhang Yang had approved it. If they do not pay, the payment will be cut off across months.

As a result, a number of employees in the group asked to pay for approval to ensure that all employees paid social security continuously, but Fu Qiang never replied publicly. At the request of more and more employees, Fu Qiang finally responded. @ Wu Lei said he was "throwing the pot". "I have already signed the social security, and more than once, it has nothing to do with me, everyone is still looking for a leader who can be responsible." to this, Wu Lei retorted that Fu Qiang never signed and approved the April social security provident fund and asked Fu Qiang to provide a signature attachment. Until the end, the problem of social security payment for Aichi automobile employees has not been solved.

As one of the new forces in car building, the operating situation of Aichi Automobile is not optimistic. At present, Aichi auto employees have not received their wages for two months in a row, and failed to pay social security for their employees on schedule in April, which may eventually lead to the termination of their social security payments. In order to meet the rigid demand of employees without interruption of social security provident fund, Aichi opened a payment channel for advance payment of social security provident fund at its own expense, and the agreed employee labor contract was changed to Shanghai Yiwei Home Company from May 1. The company is required to transfer money to the relevant account before May 25, and the company will return it to the employee later. In addition, the Shanghai headquarters of Aichi Automobile has returned the lease, and its unpaid rent has reached 1.1509 million yuan. The property in the park has taken power outage measures to the Aichi Automobile Office, and employees are eventually forced to work from home.

Due to unpaid wages and social security payments, more and more employees choose to leave. Some employees think that the company does not care about employees' social security and wages, does not give any explanation or time for payment, or even does not guarantee that wages will be paid and turned over to social security. "instead of spending time here, it is better to find a next home as soon as possible."

The development process of Aichi is similar to that of Weimar. Founder Fu Qiang once served as head of Skoda of Volkswagen in Shanghai, executive vice president of sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz in Beijing, president and CEO of Volvo Motor China. After leaving Volvo, he founded Aichi in 2017, acquired Jiangling Holdings and became the largest shareholder in July 2019, and listed the first volume production car, the Aichi U5, in December of the same year.

Different from other new forces, Aichi is not well-known in the domestic market. Since mass production, it has begun to make efforts in overseas markets, successively landing in 20 countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, and so on. But the final result is "both domestic and overseas mistakes." According to statistics on the official website of Aichi Automobile, since its official export in May 2020, Aichi has sold a total of 6464 units overseas by November 2022, with a cumulative overseas sales of less than 10,000 vehicles for more than two years. In the domestic market, the domestic sales from 2020 to 2022 were 2143, 2635 and 753 respectively, and only 111from January to April 2023.

It is understood that Aichi President Fu Qiang has not updated Weibo for a year, opening any Weibo is full of employee salary information.

Industry insiders generally believe that from 2023 as the starting point, China's auto market will usher in a new wave of elimination of car companies, and some of the current head car-making new power car companies may also be eliminated. Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said at the 2022 performance communication meeting that China's auto market is undergoing a reshuffle, with both opportunities and challenges. He points out that 75 car brands have been shut down and merged in the past three years, and 60 to 70 per cent of brands are conservatively expected to face closure and merger in the next two to three years. He believes that only the head enterprises with good products, strong technology, large scale and fast output can survive and develop in the fierce market competition.

Due to the broken capital chain, Weima factory has long been shut down, terminal retail stores closed in a large area, most dealers choose to withdraw from the network. In addition to Weimar, Skyline has stopped production, and employees will pay living expenses in accordance with the minimum wage; Aichi has not been paid wages for two months in a row; Reading has filed for bankruptcy review.

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