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A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Road Motor vehicle production Enterprises and products announcement" (batch 378). It is proposed to release a list of new vehicle production enterprises, "Automotive Industry concern" found that there are two new automobile manufacturers, "Beam Automobile Co., Ltd." and "Weilai Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd.". Remarks are "new pure electric passenger car production enterprises", this disclosure means that the two companies have obtained independent production qualifications.

Beam Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beam Automobile") was established on December 27th, 2019. the registration and production address is No. 888 Caihong Road, Yangshe Town, Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, and the legal representative is Zhao Guoqing, Deputy General Manager and Vice Chairman of Great Wall Motors. The registered capital is 1.7 billion yuan, and the business period is from December 27, 2019 to December 26, 2034. Equity penetration shows that Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. and BMW (Holland) Holdings each own 50% of the joint venture, of which BMW (Holland) Holdings is the actual controller.

Beam Automobile is the first joint venture project of Great Wall Motor, and it is also the first pure electric vehicle joint venture project of BMW in Germany. The cooperation mode of the two sides adopts the mode of "joint venture without joint venture" for the first time, that is, to jointly develop and produce automobiles. However, the products will be sold in the respective service networks of BMW Group and Great Wall Motor respectively by brand.

On Oct. 14, the new domestic all-electric MIN model was officially launched at the Beams Automobile Factory, a joint venture between BMW and Great Wall, and will be available for the global market in 2024. According to previous reports, the beam factory will successively put into production the new MINI COOPER and MINI Aceman pure electric compact cross-border models, and the beam car will become its first producing area and main export base in the world.

In terms of appearance, the new MINI COOPER as a whole continues the classic shape of the current MINI, with round headlights and oval front grille, white suspended roof and blue body complement each other, with exquisite new rims, very recognizable. On the side, the new car is still a classic two-door design, and it does not directly cancel the two-door version like the domestic smart. In the rear part of the car, instead of using a capsule-shaped half-British flag taillight, the new car uses a triangular taillight design, which is connected by a through strip in the middle, which looks sharper.

In terms of interior decoration, the new MINI COOPER cancels the dashboard, and the HUD head-up display system will replace the dashboard. The central control screen still continues the iconic design of MINI, but it is no longer a rectangle cut out of the circle, but a real round screen. In addition, the button area under the central control screen also uses circular design elements, which still has a certain inheritance with the current model. The steering wheel also uses a new style, while abandoning the classic circular air conditioning outlet, but using the current popular through air outlet.

In the power section, the new MINI will offer two models. The entry-level MINI COOPER E will be equipped with a 135kW (184hp) motor and matched with a 40.7kWh battery pack. The high-end version of the MINI COOPER SE is equipped with a 160kW (218 horsepower) motor and uses a 54.2kWh battery pack with a maximum range of 402km in WLTP and an acceleration of 6.7s from 0 to 100km/h.

Weilai Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. was established on August 19, 2020. the registered address is Building F, Hengchuang Intelligent Science and Technology Park, No. 3963 Susong Road, Economic and technological Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province. the production address is No. 299 Baita Road, Economic and technological Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province. The legal representative is Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of Weilai, with a registered capital of 6 billion yuan. Equity penetration shows that Weilai Holdings Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned controlling shareholder.

On the same day, in the "Road Motor vehicle production Enterprises and products announcement" (batch 378) published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, "Automobile Industry concern" found that all the models of Weilai had been changed. The rear of the car has been changed from "Jianghuai Automobile" to "Weilai", and the name of the production enterprise has also changed from "Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd." to "Weilai Automotive Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd." This means that Weilai has achieved independent production, no longer relying on Jianghuai Motor to achieve mass production and sales.

New power car companies initially achieved mass production and listing of their products through contract manufacturing, mainly because of the problem of funds, but contract manufacturing also has many disadvantages, in addition to the high cost of contract manufacturing every year. OEM by traditional car companies will also face production and quality control problems. For the new power car companies, getting rid of contract manufacturing and building cars independently will not only facilitate the rapid iteration of vehicle models, but also improve efficiency if major and deep-seated reforms are carried out in the future.

According to previous reports, Weilai paid 3.158 billion yuan for two factories that originally belonged to Jianghuai Automobile, of which the transaction price of one package of assets was 1.666 billion yuan, and the transaction price of three guarantees of assets was 1.492 billion yuan. Jianghuai Automobile transferred one package of assets, that is, Jianghuai Lulai F1 factory / F2 factory, both factories were built by Wei, but the production qualification comes from JAC Automobile. For Xilai, it will have more say when negotiating with partners in the future, while for car owners, the brand awareness and sense of belonging will be enhanced after buying Ulay models.

From the point of view of product strength, service level or corporate culture, Weilai can indeed be regarded as the target luxury brand with BBA, but from the point of view of enterprise management, Weilai always seems to be wavering. At present, although Xilai has achieved mass production and listing of eight models, it does not have much advantage over its competitors in terms of delivery volume, and it has suffered huge losses every quarter. Even though it has 45.2 billion yuan in cash flow, it has lost more than 80 billion in the past five years, and Weilai still needs an unburned salary.

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