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Seahorse car sales announced that new car sales in May were 2981, down 62.4% from the same period last year, and the cumulative sales in the previous month were 10723, down 70% from the same period last year. Sales of seahorse cars have fallen 52% in 2018 compared with the same period last year, and the decline has widened further as the situation has not improved in 2019.

In May this year, in order to save the seahorse and reverse its declining performance, Jingzhu became chairman of Haima Automobile again. Jing Zhu, the founder and actual controller, has been re-elected as chairman of the company, Haima Motors announced. Jingzhu joined Haima Motor in 1988. Jingzhu began to serve as chairman and party secretary of Haima Automobile Group at the end of 2004. Jingzhu resigned as chairman of the board in July 2013 for personal reasons. After being re-elected as chairman, Jingzhu said he was "determined to return to the front line, recreate seahorses and lead employees to start a business for the fourth time."

Sales plummeted, performance losses, many independent car brands in the overall car market environment under the adverse situation stalled, a sigh. Can Jingzhu save the seahorse in dire straits? According to the performance report, Haima lost 1 billion yuan in 2017, losing the profits of the previous five years alone. The seahorse continued to deteriorate in 2018, with a loss of 1.637 billion yuan that year, a year-on-year increase of 65 per cent. The seahorse lost more than 2.6 billion in total over the past two years, losing the cumulative profits of the seahorse in the previous 16 years. Due to the negative net profit for two consecutive fiscal years, the name of the company's stock has also been changed from "Haima Motor" to "* ST seahorse", which is at risk of delisting at any time.

In order to ease the financial pressure, Haima Motor also sold the property twice. In April, Haima sold 36 idle properties in Shanghai and 81 idle properties in Haikou, Hainan Province, valued at 33.8617 million yuan. In May, Haima Motors sold its properties in Haikou Jinpan Industrial Development Zone, including 269 residential units and 15 shops, valued at 30.9 million yuan.

The two sales notices totaled 401 suites with a total value of 64.76 million yuan. The seahorse, which "sold houses for cash", was called by netizens as "a car brand focused on real estate speculation!" .

However, compared with a huge loss of 2.6 billion in two years, it is difficult to make up for the big hole even by selling 401 apartments, which is still a small amount compared with the sale of car assets.

After breaking up with Mazda, Haima has also been brilliant as an independent car brand, the two star models are Fumilai and Haima S5, which used to sell ten thousand cars a month. With the weakening of the brand, the lack of core technology and the decline of the overall automobile environment, the seahorse is in a dilapidated situation. Netizens said: "what other products can be produced by seahorse now?" I don't want to make progress.

Riding on the tuyere of the rapid development of new energy vehicles, Haima is also looking for a transformation to develop a pure electric route. At present, there are only three new energy products on sale in Haima, Aisan EV, Haima @ 3 and Prima EV, and has signed a contract with Xiaopeng Automobile, a new car maker, to produce pure electric models of Xiaopeng car.

The seahorse had planned to promote the hybrid route, but an announcement in December 2018 blocked the route. According to Ke Liyuan, due to changes in external uncontrollable factors in the progress of the cooperation project with Haima Automobile Co., Ltd., the two sides agreed to terminate the cooperation agreement through consultation. It means that the development of Haima's planned M6 hybrid model has come to an end.

In fact, state subsidies for new energy vehicles are also being slashed. This year's subsidies have fallen by more than 50% from 2018, and subsidies are expected to be abolished in 2020. Therefore, for the major independent brands that are still in a difficult period of transformation, the road ahead is even more uncertain.

China's automobile market has entered a period of stock competition, survival of the fittest is an inevitable process. However, can independent brands like Haima survive the cold winter? Or how long can it last? The new chairman, Jing Zhu, has great confidence in the future. "he is determined to return to the front line, rebuild the seahorse and lead the employees to start their own business for the fourth time," he said. "

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