AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/18 Report--

On November 17, according to several media reports, Hechuang Motor was reported to have disbanded its Shanghai branch, laid off all its staff and owed employee compensation. According to the report, a number of former employees revealed that the Never1 compensation promised by Hechuang was overdue, and some car owners reported that the Shanghai sales channel of Hechuang was almost completely shut down.

As of press time, Hechuang officials have not yet responded to the news.

Heavenly Eye check information shows that on September 10 this year, because the registered residence or place of business could not be contacted, the Shanghai branch of Hechuang Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. was listed on the list of abnormal operations by the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration.

As a member of the new power, the life of Co-Chuang Automobile has not been easy since 2024. In March this year, due to poor sales performance, Synergy forced employees to participate in car sales and linked sales performance to personal performance appraisal. In April, some employees posted online, and Co-Chuang only paid basic salary in March. The original performance pay was cancelled, and the salary was 1/3 lower than before. In June, because the capital chain has been broken, Hechuang Motor was exposed to implement layoffs. Since then, in July and August, Cochuang also increased the number of shares and froze the information.

Hechuang Motor, headquartered in ‌‌, Nansha District, Guangzhou, formerly known as GAC Weilai, was established in April 2018. it was an early joint venture between GAC GROUP and Xilai Motor, each with a 45 per cent stake and a 10 per cent stake held by the senior management team. In August 2022, Weilai Automobile withdrew from the ranks of shareholders of the company, and then Guang Qi Wei Lai changed its name to Hechuang Automobile.

Reviewing the release rhythm of Hechuang's automotive products, as early as December 2019, GAC Weilai launched the new new energy vehicle brand "Co-Chuang HYCAN". In May 2020, Hechuang's first volume production car Co-created 007 was listed, but the sales performance after listing was hardly satisfactory, with only 508 vehicles sold in 2020, which is far from the expected annual sales target of 15000 vehicles. With the help of Hechuang Z03, the second production car of Hechuang, which was launched in August 2021, the sales of Hechuang increased in 2022, from 2907 in 2021 to 18941. Since then, Hechuang has launched its A06 and V09 models, but there has been no significant improvement in sales, with sales of 18559 in 2023, with an average monthly sales of about 1500.

So far, Hechuang has successively launched 007, Z03, A06 and V09, covering the three mainstream markets of SUV, sedan and MPV, but it is a pity that it has not been highly recognized by consumers. At the end of 2023, Hechuang made a major personnel adjustment and appointed Zhang Yuesai as president of Hechuang Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., fully responsible for the production, operation and management of the company, but unfortunately, Zhang Yuesai's entry failed to reverse the decline of Hechuang Automobile. On the contrary, it fell into a more bleak situation. Retail data show that in the first 10 months of this year, Hechuang sold only 4488 vehicles, of which the highest sales volume was 2264 for the Z03, 1500 for the A06, and 713 for the V09 and 11 for the 007. According to GAC GROUP's production and marketing KuaiBao, Guangzhou Automobile Hino and Hechuang, which were classified as "other" by GAC GROUP's sales volume by KuaiBao, sold only 110vehicles in October, down 82.37% from a year earlier.

As a new car-building force that once relied on GAC GROUP and Lai Automobile, Co-Chuang Automobile was founded neither late nor poorly qualified. It can be said that it was born with a "golden spoon", and the action of product layout was not slow. But it is difficult to improve on the sales side, and now it is facing a serious cash flow crisis, and its position in the auto market has been gradually marginalized.

Industry insiders believe that the reason why Hechuang does not have a high sense of presence in the auto market is related to its unclear brand positioning, lack of product strength and frequent changes in senior management. Excluding its own reasons, the situation faced by Hechuang Automobile is also related to the further intensification of competition in the car market. With the new energy vehicles entering the stock market, the weak car companies that lack hematopoietic capacity and do not have competitive products in the car market are doomed not to go too far.

At present, Hechuang urgently needs to make substantial changes to cope with the situation of sales pressure, and whether the trend of Hechuang Automobile can usher in a new turnaround, "Automotive Industry concern" will also continue to pay attention.

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