AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/05 Report--

On 5 September, the Ministry of Justice issued an update on the case of # Weilai declaring bankruptcy and # false information. In the article "the person involved in creating malicious rumors was arrested by the police", the legal department of Weilai said that today, Weilai received a reply from the police that the party suspected of creating and publishing related rumors had been arrested. Weilai expressed his heartfelt thanks to the police for their cooperation, rapid response and efficient law enforcement. Next, Weilai will continue to cooperate with the police and relevant departments to dig deep into the organizers behind the rumors.

First of all, let's briefly review the cause of the whole incident. On August 30, false information about # Weilai declaring bankruptcy appeared on the Internet, and then it was spread maliciously. The next day, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement on malicious rumors, saying that it had noticed the sudden appearance of false information about "Weilai declaring bankruptcy" on the Internet, which was untrue and suspected of breaking the law seriously. In this regard, Weilai immediately called the police and will take other legal measures to investigate the legal responsibility of the lawbreakers who planned, manufactured and spread the rumor. In response to this false news, Weilai also stressed: "the Internet is not a place outside the law, and the development of the automobile industry needs healthy competition. For such acts that have no bottom line, insult intelligence and maliciously slander their reputation, Weilai will actively take legal action to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests and legal dignity."

In the latest statement, Weilai said that this rumor had a serious impact on its reputation and normal operation. Weilai immediately called the police to defend its rights and interests by legal means. At the same time, Weilai once again solicited from the public acts suspected of infringement, or even suspected of accepting the interests of others or infringing upon Weilai or its users for its own illegal interests, including, but not limited to: (1) accepting the interests of others; producing or publishing false or malicious smear information aimed at the company and users; (2) accepting the interests of others and maliciously attacking the company and users in various social media content review areas. 3. Organize media, self-media, marketing accounts and water army to release negative information of the company; 4. Organize and use the algorithm mechanism of the platform to maliciously create negative hot searches.

In November 2014, Weilai Automobile was officially established. The founder was Li Bin, headquartered in Shanghai, and became one of the representatives of the new forces of car building. Xiaopeng Automobile was also established in the same year, and the ideal car was also announced the following year. As the three car companies have performed equally well in the end market for a long time, the market has been called "Wei Xiaoli", but now "Wei Xiaoli" has gone its separate ways since 2024. Ideal car has long been in the first place in terms of sales.

Now, about 10 years have passed since the establishment of Weilai Automobile, and the product matrix includes ES8, ES7, ES6, EC7, EC6, ET7, ET5, ET5T, EP9, EVE and other models, covering medium and large SUV, medium-sized SUV, medium-sized cars and medium-sized cars with prices above 300000 yuan, pointing directly to traditional first-tier luxury brand markets such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Data show that in the first eight months of this year, Xilai delivered a total of 128100 new cars, an increase of 35.77 percent over the same period last year, of which sales from May to August were 20544, 21209, 20498 and 20176, respectively, exceeding 20, 000 for four consecutive months. but it still lags significantly behind the ideal car (288103 for the year).

Today, Ulai released its results for the second quarter of this year. According to the financial report, the total revenue in the second quarter was 17.446 billion yuan, an increase of 98.9% over the same period last year, of which automobile sales were 15.68 billion yuan, up 118.2% over the same period last year; the quarterly net loss was 5.046 billion yuan, an increase of 16.7% over the same period last year; during the reporting period, the gross profit margin was 9.7%, 1.0% in the same period. In terms of new car delivery, Xilai delivered a total of 57400 new cars in the second quarter, an increase of 143.9% over the same period last year, achieving a new high in revenue and delivery volume of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. By the end of the second quarter, Lulai had a cash reserve of 41.6 billion yuan.

Like most new car-building powers, Xilai is still losing money. According to statistics, from 2018 to 2023, Xilai lost a total of 86.63 billion yuan in the six years. It is understood that the reason for the huge loss of Weilai is mainly due to the poor profitability of the automobile business and the high fees. In November last year, Li Bin made it clear in a letter from all the employees of Lulai that he would lose about 10% of his jobs. at that time, Li Bin said that the next two years would be the fiercest period of competition in the automotive industry, and the external environment was full of great uncertainty. It is a difficult decision that Ulai has to make in the face of fierce market competition to cut about 10% of its jobs.

Today, the global car market has an unprecedented reshuffle. In this context, some weak brands with small sales and tight capital chain are facing the test of life and death. Going back to the topic of Weilai, as a member of the new power of car building, although it is not enough for ideal cars in terms of sales, the performance of selling more than 20,000 vehicles for four consecutive months is commendable. At the level of financial reporting, at present, Weilai is still in a state of "blood loss", but Li Bin has made it clear that he will not do the thing of "selling one car to lose one car" and has to consider "earning money to support his family." It is widely believed that the Ledao L60, the first model of the Ledao brand, which will go on sale this month, will take on the task of boosting the sales and market share of Weilai cars. For sales and revenue forecasts for the third quarter, Weilai gave an all-time high forecast of 61000 to 63000 vehicles for the third quarter and 19.11 billion to 19.67 billion yuan for the third quarter.

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