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Recently, according to media reports, Zeng Lintang, assistant chairman of Zero, left Zero in December last year.

Relevant data show that Zeng Lintang has more than 30 years of experience in the automotive industry and worked in Bennett-Dunlop Ford sales Company of Canada for 14 years. In 1994, he joined Crown Motor Co., Ltd. for 9 years as general manager of the sales department. In 2003, he joined Toyota Motor (China) Co., Ltd. as a director of LEXUS Lexus Department. In 2005, Zeng Lintang was appointed Deputy General Manager of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., where he was mainly responsible for the marketing department and import business department. During his tenure, he established dealer training and service, as well as dealer entry standards and procedures, which contributed to the rapid increase of Lexus sales in China.

In 2011, Zeng Lintang left. In July last year, he came out of the mountain in a low profile and joined Zero Automobile as an assistant to the chairman of Zhu Jiangming. The main responsibility is to provide suggestions and opinions on strategic layout, brand marketing operation and product research and development for Zero. At the same time, help to open up overseas markets, improve the company's daily operating efficiency, service level and brand awareness. It has been only 7 months since Zeng Lintang joined the zero-running car and left. At present, the official has not yet responded to the news.

It is worth noting that Wu Baojun, president of Zero Motor, was also reported to have resigned last month. Subsequently, in response to Wu Baojun's departure, Zero official responded: Wu Baojun's labor contract expired on January 8, 2024, and the company will not renew its employment after a resolution of the board of directors. Wu Baojun himself responded on Weibo: it is a pity that the company offered not to renew the labor contract due to the expiration of the labor contract, so he had to leave the zero-running car that he was involved in.

For more than a month, executives have left one after another, which may have something to do with the poor sales of zero-running cars last year. According to the data, the cumulative sales of zero-running cars last year was 144155, an increase of 29.67 percent over the same period last year, but it did not meet the annual sales target of 200000 vehicles, and the annual sales target completion rate was only 72.08 percent.

At the same time, zero-running cars have been losing money in recent years. The data show that the operating losses of zero running cars from 2019 to 2022 are 730 million yuan, 869 million yuan, 2.868 billion yuan and 5.109 billion yuan respectively, with a total loss of 9.576 billion yuan in four years. The latest financial data show that zero-running cars posted a net loss of 986 million yuan in the third quarter of last year.

As we all know, car building requires a steady stream of capital investment. To that end, Zero is also looking for outside funding. On Oct. 26, Maserati's parent company, Stellantis, invested 1.5 billion euros (11.5 billion yuan) to acquire a 20% stake in Zero, winning two seats on its board of directors. In January, Zero Motor announced that it had received more than 600 million Hong Kong dollars in strategic investment from the Jinhua Industrial Fund and Wuyi County Gold Investment. With the integration of these external funds, the pressure on zero-running cars has been reduced a lot.

For the performance of zero-running cars last year, zero-running Zhu Jiangming said a few days ago: the deficiency of zero-running cars in 2023 is that sales fall short of expectations. The most important reason, it said, was that it did not do well in the first quarter and did not rise until the second quarter. Zhu Jiangming pointed out that tens of thousands of units were missing in the first quarter, which is the main dark spot. Zhu Jiangming's goal this year is to sell 30,000 vehicles a month, with a gross profit margin of 5% and 10%. In the end, it remains to be seen whether zero-running cars can meet Zhu Jiangming's expectations in 2024.

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