AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/16 Report--

On December 14, Xilai held a media communication meeting, which mainly made a series of answers to the recent situation of Xilai Motors. Among them, related to the recent market layoffs, second brand planning, power exchange cooperation, access to production qualifications and Wei to lose money and so on.

Li Bin, CEO of Xilai Motor, released an internal letter on November 3, announcing the start of 10 per cent layoffs, which will be completed in November. Li Bin pointed out in the letter that the main reason for the layoffs is that the next two years will be the most competitive stage in the automobile industry, and the external environment is full of uncertainty, so layoffs have to be made.

It is worth noting that after the official announcement of 10% layoffs, the bad news on the market for Lulai has become more and more intense. In the face of rumors in the market, Qin Lihong, president of Lulai, responded at the Guangzhou auto show in November: "Lulai will not fail, and there is absolutely no possibility of collapse." please feel free to experience and buy Weilai cars. "

However, Qin Lihong's response did not stop the rumors, and in early December, media reported that Lulai was considering further layoffs to reduce costs and increase efficiency, according to people familiar with the matter. Some departments have been asked to prepare standby layoffs, the proportion of layoffs may be expanded to 20% to 30%. At that time, in response to this rumor, Weilai internal staff responded: no additional layoffs have been made, and the company will continue to make "dynamic adjustments" according to market conditions.

This time, at the media communication meeting, Li Bin responded positively to the layoffs, pointing out that the personnel adjustment has come to an end, there is no rumored new round of layoffs, and the follow-up will continue to optimize organization and efficiency, and there will be no sports layoffs. At the same time, it is pointed out that the earlier layoffs were mainly concentrated in the battery manufacturing department, completed the merger of some departments, and the company as a whole was not affected.

With regard to the recent concern of the second brand "Alps", Li Bin revealed at the meeting that the second product "Alps" is only a project code name, the real name has been registered, very approachable. With regard to brand positioning, it is mainly to enter the "family market". In terms of product planning, only three cars are planned. It said that the market of 200000 yuan to 300000 yuan will indeed become more and more competitive, so the second brand will not be in a hurry to launch, and the first model will be launched next year. Li Bin was very optimistic about the sales forecast of the second brand, responding at the meeting: "the household market has the opportunity to produce models with monthly sales of 50, 000 to 60, 000 vehicles, which has been confirmed by Model Y."

It is understood that the Alpine brand was exposed in 2021. Officials have revealed that the pricing range of the brand is between 200000 yuan and 300000 yuan, and the brand model is expected to be mass produced in 2024. Last year, Li Bin also revealed that Xilai is speeding up the research and development of more than 200,000 models and will launch a new car brand for the mass market, which will be comparable to Standard Tesla Model Y and Model 3, but the price is about 10% cheaper than Tesla. With regard to the third brand of the project codenamed Firefly Project, Li Bin also revealed at the meeting that the research and development of the third brand is making good progress and is already under trial production. It is understood that the third brand positioning is lower than the second brand, focusing on the market of 10-200000 yuan. As for the Weilai brand, it will not release new models next year and will focus on selling good cars.

Recently, it has been rumored that changing electricity is a drag on the financial situation of Weilai Automobile. Li Bin responded that changing electricity is not a burden for Weilai, and its loss is limited. In addition, an example is given: the annual amortization depreciation expense of a single exchange power station is about 30 to 400000 yuan. A single exchange of power stations can make a profit as long as 60 units a day. If you look at the data in Shanghai, the average volume of a single exchange of power stations has reached 80, which has already made a profit.

With regard to the cooperation with Changan and Geely in early December, many netizens speculated whether it was related to the tight financial situation of Lulai Automobile. Li Bin also responded that the opening of power exchange is not because of financial constraints, but because our next generation of models is 800V platform, which needs to give external partners time to develop as soon as possible. At the same time, he said that Weilai has been considering opening up since the first day of the power exchange business. At present, the amortization cost of building a replacement power station is not high, and the exchange power station can also participate in the energy storage business in some areas. from this point of view, the power exchange business is not a burden.

It is worth noting that since 2023, the performance of Lulai Motor in the market is not satisfactory. According to the data, Lulai sold 15959 vehicles in November and a total of 142026 from January to November. At the same time, the financial situation of Xilai Motor is also optimistic. According to the data, the net loss of Weilai in the third quarter was 4.557 billion yuan, an increase of 10.8% over the same period last year. The gross profit margin of the whole vehicle of Lulai in the third quarter was 11%, down 5.4% from the same period last year. In this regard, Li Bin said: I hope that Weilai's losses will narrow next year and will continue to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

For the recent acquisition of Jianghuai Automobile assets to obtain independent production qualification, the tail bid will be changed to Weilai. Li Bin responded that the change in the tail bid has no impact on operation and product planning, and can mainly be better publicized. At the same time, it is also pointed out that using its own factory production will reduce the "manufacturing cost" by 10% and slightly increase the gross profit margin. With regard to the follow-up relationship with Jianghuai Automobile, it said that there are still many in-depth cooperation between Weilai and Jianghuai.

Or thanks to Li Bin's personal response, relieved the market concerns, yesterday Lulai secondary market has also been improved. As of December 14, it closed at HK $57.9, up 2.48%.

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