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In recent years, shared cars have developed from scratch and continued to develop. As the competition becomes more and more serious and financing becomes more and more difficult, a car sharing company gradually collapses and withdraws. A few days ago, some netizens revealed through the platform that the deposit could not be refunded, or even the car was gone.

A netizen reflected on the complaint platform, saying that he applied for a deposit on August 27 and had no record of violation, and that he could not return it until recently. He called customer service many times, and each time he replied that he was already dealing with it, but did not return the deposit for too long.

Panda car is a new energy vehicle intelligent travel platform invested by Lifan Holdings, which provides timeshare leasing, chauffeured car leasing and long-term leasing of enterprises and institutions. It was officially put into operation in November 2015.

I learned through the Internet that complaints like the above are no longer rare. Mr. Ye, one of the netizens in Guangzhou, said that recently, as usual, he had planned to go out with his children on weekends, but opened the Panda car APP only to find that there were no cars available around. Mr. Ye also said that what could still be used a few days ago, suddenly there was no car.

Another netizen, Mr. Jia, who was the same as Mr. Ye, also had the same experience. Mr. Jia said that as early as half a year ago, he found that the Panda parking spot downstairs had suddenly disappeared and the car had to run to another parking spot 3 kilometers away.

As the experience was getting worse, Mr. Jia decided to apply for a refund deposit. However, more than four months have passed and a deposit of 1000 yuan has still not been received. Every time you call the customer service, wait at least 5 minutes before someone answers the phone. When asked about the deposit, the customer service will only answer "deal with it as soon as possible, please wait patiently".

According to public data, Panda cars have been operated in cities including Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou and Nanjing. There are also cases in other cities, such as the deposit has not been refunded and there are no operating vehicles.

In September this year, some media wrote to Panda car headquarters to know that the deposit was difficult to return, but it did not wait for a reply. A few days later, we waited for a reply from Hangzhou Panda and promised that within 30 working days from now on, the user's "violation guarantee money" will be returned in turn, but there is no more information below.

At present, the proportion of users who choose illegal deposit for Panda cars is only 2%. Even so, this is not a small sum. According to public information, Panda has more than 4 million users. According to a rough calculation, there is about 80 million yuan in the deposit fund pool of Wanda car.

As a matter of fact, the root cause of the problems with shared cars lies in the "crowding up" of enterprises. If it were not for poor management and weak profits, ordinary enterprises would not have the bad situation that the deposit is difficult to refund. Since the year before last, many enterprises have been out one after another, leaving basically a mess in which the deposit has not been refunded.

Some shared car brands, such as Youyou car, Muggle Travel, Zhongguan shared car, Bago Travel, and EZZY, have long disappeared. Not long ago, Tuge also suffered from non-refundable funds, unable to access the website, and negative information such as arrears of deposits, arrears of employees' wages and suppliers' payments.

Car sharing is expanded at a loss by a steady stream of blood transfusions and capital investment, which is compared to whose capital strength is stronger and who has more long-term background strength. With the current market penetration ranking among the top three GoFun Travel, EVCARD and Panda cars, the GoFun Travel of Shouqi Group and the EVCARD of SAIC have strong support.

While Lifan Motor, the parent company of Panda car, makes huge losses all the year round, it is very difficult for Panda car to obtain continuous capital investment and capital transfusion, which reasonably explains why the deposit of Panda car is so difficult to refund.

According to the production and sales data of KuaiBao of Lifan shares in September, the business of Lifan passenger cars and motorcycles declined across the board. In the first nine months of this year, Lifan's cumulative sales of traditional passenger cars were about 22000, down 72.25% from the same period last year; new energy vehicles sold 2035, down 65.67% from the same period last year; motorcycle sales were about 443800, down 13.97% from the same period last year; cumulative sales of motorcycle engines were about 601500, down 30.59% from the same period last year; and GM gasoline engine sales were about 237700, down 27.05% from the same period last year.

In the first half of this year, Lifan's operating income was about 5.178 billion yuan, down 13.39% from the same period last year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was about-947 million yuan, compared with about 125 million yuan in the same period last year. We have already lost so much in the first half of the year. How can we find the money to repay the deposit?

In the face of profits and losses, Lifan also adjusted the focus of business development, put the development of motorcycle business in an important position, and combed the existing new energy industry. This can explain why there is no car available for Panda.

In this context, shared cars, which are already lack of sustainable profitability, will inevitably face merger, reorganization or reshuffle once they are "abandoned" by capital. In addition, Lifan is difficult to protect itself, how to save the unprofitable plate?

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