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Another new force explodes!

On April 9, Youyao posted a letter to shareholders on the social platform, in which employees exposed the current operating crisis and a series of recent serious problems in thousands of words. Ludi, chairman of Youyao Automobile, and he Jianghao, chief financial officer (hereinafter referred to as management) are suspected of falsifying sales, concealing the truth, wrong decision-making and management confusion in the operation and management of the company, according to the shareholder letter.

According to the notice to shareholders, there are five major problems in Youyao Motor: the company's strategy is chaotic and its goal is not clear; the sales business is developing well but is forced to stop production and sales; the financing is not ideal and it is suspected of fabricating sales to support finance; financial management is chaotic, stopping payment across the board leads to a run on suppliers; stop paying all staff salaries for no reason, and force Shanghai to cut off the company violently.

Employees said that the company had never made clear goals and plans that were in line with the laws of the market, resulting in huge fluctuations in production and sales, resulting in a lot of waste of resources, and the company's cash flow was close to breaking by the end of 2023. The letter to shareholders shows that at present, the overall external debt of Youyao Motor is more than 300 million, the value of assets is less than 100 million, and it is seriously insolvent.

What is even more shocking is that in order to achieve the sales target, the management fabricates sales data that do not conform to the actual market rules, and deceives investors and shareholders for the purpose of financing. In fact, the management did not confirm the sales target with the sales team, resulting in the overall abolition of the global sales team, the total suspension of production on the grounds of "tight cash flow" and the cessation of payments to suppliers. At a time when the company is facing a survival crisis, management did not start to solve the problem, but began to lay off staff and stop pay, and employees did not receive any financial compensation. Now, Youyao has come to a dead end, not only can not pay wages, but also can not afford to pay office rent, while management is only focused on how to cash in existing inventory cars, all the business has been forced to shut down.

The handprints and signatures of the employees are also attached at the end of the lawsuit against shareholders. "We are very sorry about the current state of the company, and all employees think that shareholders have a right to know the truth," the employee wrote. "

Who is Youyao car? Data show that Youyao Automobile is an electric vehicle brand of Shanghai Youyao Technology Co., Ltd., which was founded in July 2018. Lu Bin, a former senior executive of Weimar, also joined the company as a co-founder. In terms of development time, Youyao Automobile is also a member of China's new power, but unlike the mainstream new power brands, Youyao Automobile Development Center is mainly concentrated in overseas markets, especially in Europe.

It is understood that the management of Youyao Motor almost comes from traditional automobile companies. Founder and chairman Rudi helped Jianghuai Motors build a design center in Italy. At that time, he was also well-known in the design industry. He left after 12 years and founded XEV Youyao Technology, a new energy vehicle technology company. Co-founder Lu Bin has worked in SAIC GM Chevrolet, Geely and Chery. Before entering Youyao Automobile, he was the co-founder, senior vice president and chief travel officer of Weima Motor.

Unlike Xiaopeng and Weilai, Youyao's mass production time is particularly fast, and it has achieved good results in a short period of time. In the same year that Youyao Technology was founded, the YOYO, the first model of Youyao Motors, was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show and mass production was achieved the following year.

Why can Youyao achieve such a fast speed of mass production? First of all, the YOYO is a pure electric small car, the door, front face and rear wings can be realized by 3D printing, but also can print the vehicle interior according to the needs of users to achieve a high degree of customization. Secondly, with the support of the government, XEV Youyao Technology set up a joint venture with the Hefei government in 2020 to fully carry out R & D, production and vehicle export business.

In May 2021, YOYO exports into European cars with a retail price of 1.39-15900 euros. Although the mileage of the YOYO is only 150km, and the top speed is only 80km, it does not have any competitiveness at the moment, but it does have an advantage over the price of the same Fiat 500 and Renault Clio,YOYO, coupled with the fact that it has many configurations that are not available in the same price models, such as frameless doors, skylights, and interconnection between cars and machines, YOYO has become popular in the European market in a short period of time. It is understood that YOYO sold 10,000 vehicles that year, making it the best-selling new energy vehicle brand in Europe that year.

Made at home and sold abroad, sales are good. Youyao Technology seems to have found a way different from China's new forces, but behind a number of prosperity, the company has fabricated sales, chaotic management and other situations, so step by step to the end.

After January 2024, the management stopped factory production on the grounds of tight cash flow and completely stopped supporting the development of overseas channels, resulting in the loss of a large number of customers. Subsequently, the company carried out several rounds of layoffs and laid off employees without compensation, which sparked strong dissatisfaction among employees, and employees in Shanghai and Hefei have begun to protect their rights in accordance with the law. Up to now, the management has not appeared to communicate with the employees and explain the situation.

As a member of "traditional car company executives start-up and build cars", there is another case of failure. It is understood that the official Weibo update of XEV Youyao Motors stagnated a year ago. There are many netizens asking when to return to China, but it is unlikely to come back now.

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