An editor/poet
(Photo: vision china)
Zero run crazy "satellite flying": the more you sell, the worse you lose.
After Tucki, Ideality and Weilai went public in Hong Kong, the new second-tier car-making forces began to sit still. Zero-run cars are trying to become the fourth listed company in the new domestic car-making forces.
According to the website of HKEx, on the evening of March 17, Zhejiang Zero Run Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zero Run Car") submitted a listing application to HKEx, and the co-sponsors were CICC, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and CCB International.
Although Zero Run CEO Zhu has always stressed that Zero Run is a "low-key and pragmatic" car-making enterprise, driven by the listing target, Zero Run suddenly became high-profile. According to the prospectus, in the shareholding structure of Zero Run, CEO Zhu directly holds 9. 1.5%, but through concerted action, Zhu holds the equity of Zero Run 3 1.0 1%.
In fact, the news about the zero-run listing was reported as early as the beginning of this year. At the end of June 5438+ 10 this year, the registered capital of zero-run cars changed from 908 million yuan to 2.908 billion yuan, an increase of more than 220%. At that time, it was widely speculated that this was preparing for listing, and there was a high probability that it would choose to land in the Hong Kong stock market. A few days later, on June 27th, 65438, the CSRC announced the progress of the Examination and Approval of Overseas Initial Public Offerings (including Common Stock, Preferred Stock and Other Stock Derivatives), saying that it had reached the stage of receiving materials.
But in fact, Hong Kong stocks are not the first choice for zero running.
As early as two years ago, Wu Baojun, co-founder and president of Zero Run Automobile, revealed that Zero Run intends to go public in science and technology innovation board. "We should strengthen the connection with the capital market like Weilai Automobile and Li in China." It can be seen that Zero Run has a very strong desire to land in the capital market very early. At that time, Wu Baojun said that Zero Run would submit IPO documents in the second half of 20021year, and be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board at the end of 20021year or early 2022. He also stressed that there will be another round of financing before IPO.
And the stronger peers have rushed to the beach for scientific and technological innovation board, losing one after another, and it seems that zero running can't wait for the scientific and technological innovation board.
In 2020, Geely Automobile put forward a listing plan on the science and technology innovation board, and it was revealed that it had withdrawn its IPO application on the science and technology innovation board. In the same year, Weimar also chose the science and technology innovation board with the intention of becoming "the first new energy source of science and technology innovation board". However, only two months after the application was accepted, the media reported that the listing process of Weimar Science and Technology Innovation Board was suspended, which may be related to the tightening of the requirements of the listing Committee of Science and Technology Innovation Board for the review of scientific and technological attributes of enterprises. In the case of stricter supervision of domestic science and technology innovation boards, listing in Hong Kong may be the safest way.
Zero-run, which is ready to go public, began to frantically "put satellites" on corporate goals.
Zhu, CEO of Zero Run 2020, said that the company plans to officially launch IPO in 20021year. At the same time, Zero Run will enter the domestic new power TOP3 in 2023, and gain a market share of 10% in the domestic new energy vehicle market in 2025.
By 202 1, the goal of zero running became more radical. At the 20021zero-run car 2.0 strategy conference, Zhu shouted the slogans of "surpassing Tesla in three years", "pushing eight new cars in four years" and "selling 800,000 vehicles in 2025", in order to realize Tesla's overtaking and leading in intelligent driving technology.
According to the official sales data released by Zero Run, 43,000 vehicles were delivered in 202 1 year, including 38,000 vehicles delivered by Zero Run T03 and 402 1 vehicle delivered by Zero Run C1. In the delivery ranking of 202 1 new car-making forces, the zero-run ranking is ranked sixth after Anya and Weimar. Compared with previous years, the sales volume of Zero Run 202 1 has indeed improved significantly.
But in fact, the sales scale of zero-run only rushed up last year. In 2020, its annual cumulative sales volume is only about 8,000 vehicles.
After the sales volume of 202 1 increased significantly, the revenue of zero-run also showed an upward trend. In 202 1 year, the retail income was 365,438+32 million yuan, while in 20 19 and 2020, this figure was only1/kloc-0.7 million yuan and 63 10 million yuan respectively. At the same time, the loss of gross profit margin was further reduced. From 20 19 to 202 1, the gross profit margin of zero run is -95.7%, -50.6% and -44.3% respectively.
Increased revenue does not mean that zero running has the ability of self-hematopoiesis. On the contrary, due to the low Mao Lijiao of bicycles, this kind of loss is gradually increasing. The net losses of the retail run in 20 19, 2020 and 20021year were 865.438+0 billion yuan, 935 million yuan and 2.629 billion yuan respectively. 202 1, the best year of sales, the most serious loss of zero run.
During the period of1-February this year, the delivery of zero-running cars has reached 1. 1.5 million, exceeding the annual delivery of zero-running cars in 2020. However, in order to be recognized by the capital market, the sales performance and profitability of Zero Run are not convincing enough, and it needs to show more potential in sales and revenue.
(Photo: vision china)
Financing10 billion yuan, and R&D investment is only 654.38+0.4 billion yuan.
According to the listing application submitted by Zero Run, from 20 19 to 200213, the loss of Zero Run was 4.374 billion yuan, which was the smallest among the known new car manufacturers.
According to the weekly report of Caijing Tianxia, Zero Run started the Pre-A round of financing in June 20 18, and reached the C2 round in August, 2 12 10. In the seven rounds of financing, the zero-run * * * financing118.66 million yuan. Compared with the loss of 4.3 billion in the three years from 20 19 to 202 1, it seems that there is no shortage of money for zero running.
The zero run of "saving money" sacrificed the most important R&D investment of the new car-making forces. According to the prospectus, from 20 19 to 202 13, the retail R&D expenditure was 358 million yuan, 289 million yuan and 740 million yuan respectively, and the total R&D investment in three years was1387 million yuan.
In contrast, in the first three quarters of 20021,Tucki, Weilai and Ideality invested 2.663 billion yuan, 2.073 billion yuan and 2.057 billion yuan respectively in R&D, and the accumulated R&D expenditure after three years of zero operation was only a little more than half of that invested by Tucki in the last nine months.
Behind the low investment in research and development, small cars are the main force of this company's "impulse". In order to achieve the goal of listing faster, Zero Run has to launch more models to increase sales.
In May 2020, Zero Run launched the second mass production model T03. Looking back now, T03 truly and accurately cut into the A00 pure electric vehicle market, and soon became the main sales model of zero running. In 202 1 year sales, T03 accounts for 88% of the total sales.
This is different from the previous zero-run positioning. In fact, the first car on the market, S0 1, is aimed at Tesla. In the marketing promotion, the official said that the intelligent driver assistance system of S0 1 is comparable to Tesla. Zhu said that S0 1 "users have enough confidence to order more than 3,000 units and sell more than 1 10,000 units". However, the monthly sales volume in that year was only double digits, and the annual sales volume in 2020 was only 65,438+0,000 vehicles. Last year, the sales volume was Waterloo, with only 634 vehicles.
It is worth noting that T03 is positioned as a long-life intelligent pure electric vehicle, with a price of 60,000-80,000 yuan, and the income contributed by zero running is extremely limited. Not to mention Nezha, traditional car companies and other small electric vehicles at the same level, which further weakens the competitiveness of zero running.
Earlier, an industry analyst said in an interview with Caijing Tianxia that although the sales of micro-electric vehicles are considerable, the more they are sold, the ceiling for the growth of consumer groups is also very obvious. If car companies only rely on mini-cars to achieve profitability, it is very difficult.
In order to further enrich the product matrix and break the label of "small car" with zero running, in 202 1 year, the medium-sized SUV with zero running C 1 1 was introduced. In terms of sales volume, this car has been unable to support the heavy responsibility of the zero-run brand. 202 1 year, and its annual delivery volume is 3964. Compared with similar models of other new forces, it barely reached the passing line.
According to Zhu's plan for zero running, four new models will be released this year. In the next five years, new cars, including cars, SUVs and MPVs, will be launched at the rate of 2-3 models per year, covering pure electric and extended-range power systems, and strive to achieve the goal of selling 800,000 vehicles in 2025. This means that in order to support the research and development of new cars and technologies, Zero Run must have sufficient funds, and listing is almost its only option.
(Photo: vision china)
Second-line car-making forces, "fighting for listing"?
Among the new forces of the second echelon, Zero Run is not the first player who wants to land in the capital market. Its competitors, Nezha and Weimar, have better market sales than zero, and they were ready to go public several years ago.
In 20021year, the cumulative sales volume in Nezha was close to 70,000, ranking fourth in the sales volume of new cars. However, compared with zero running, Nezha cars are relatively low-key. Zhang Yong, CEO, said, "It doesn't make any sense to surpass for a short time. The user groups in Nezha are more popular. According to this logic, only three times the ideal can be said to be better than him. "
On February 2 1 day, He Zhong New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., the parent company of Nezha Automobile, once again obtained the D++ round of financing exceeding 2 billion yuan, which was participated by CRRC Fund and Shenzhen Venture Capital. After the completion of this round of financing, the valuation of Nezha Automobile exceeds RMB 25 billion. It is reported that Nezha has launched the Pre-IPO round, with a target valuation of about 45 billion yuan, and plans to launch an IPO in Hong Kong this year.
When talking about why Nezha was chosen, Zhou, the manager of automobile products in Nezha, said, "Weilai, Ideal are listed, so I have little choice." Zhou said he would rather choose a startup like Nezha. This has also been widely interpreted by the outside world as Nezha's intention to go public in the end.
The strength of Weimar, another opponent, should not be underestimated. Wei Ma and Wei Xiaoli, once the new frontline troops, were neck and neck, but now they have gradually retreated to the second line and even been overtaken by Nezha. Last year, Weimar's annual sales volume was the closest to zero, with 44,000 vehicles, with a difference of less than 500 vehicles.
Judging from the scale of financing, Weimar has obtained financing of 654.38+0 billion RMB, exceeding 450 million USD since 2020. At present, the total amount of financing has exceeded Wei Xiaoli before listing. However, Weimar failed to go public even after 1 1 rounds of financing. In 2020, Weimar began to prepare for listing on the science and technology innovation board, and determined to become the "first car of science and technology innovation board". At that time, new forces such as Zero Run and Aichi also issued the signal of listing on the science and technology innovation board. However, due to regulatory reasons, it was not successfully listed. Since then, Weimar began to seek the Hong Kong stock market.
Nowadays, with the submission of the prospectus by Zero Run, the outside world once again focuses on the new forces of second-line car-making to get together and go public in Hong Kong. But the question is, why does the capital market take a fancy to these second-line car-making forces? In the current capital market environment, can HKEx still approve the listing applications of so many new forces?
According to the data of the Federation, the penetration rate of the domestic new energy vehicle market has reached 14.8% in 20021year. It took only one year to rise from 5% to close to 15%. In order to seize the market share faster, the second-tier new forces can only seek more funds to support the follow-up product research and development through listing, so as to survive in the electric vehicle market with many competitors.