"Save your son or your daughter?"
In the movie "Tangshan Earthquake", the issue of life and death in this century also happened in Shanghai recently, but in the face of the problem of "choosing Weilai or Tesla", the Shanghai municipal government did not hesitate to choose the latter.
In the 20 18 financial report released by Weilai Automobile on March 6, in addition to the information of the net loss of 9.6 billion for the whole year, the information about "canceling the Shanghai Jiading plant construction plan signed in 20 17" is actually more exciting.
Passive termination or active termination?
At the subsequent annual financial meeting of Weilai, Li Bin confirmed the truth of this news. He said that in October 20 18 165438 10, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China issued Document No.50, which made the joint manufacturing cooperation mode between NIO and JAC (Jianghuai Factory) a model for China government departments to try to innovate. The existing Hefei Jianghuai Weilai base can meet the production demand in the next two to three years.
On the other hand, Chen Mingbo, Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Municipal Government, revealed information during the two sessions on March 6 that the Tesla pure electric vehicle project is progressing smoothly. It is estimated that the assembly workshop will be completed in May, and some production lines will be officially put into production by the end of the year. He also said that Tesla is the largest foreign manufacturing investment in Shanghai. 20 18 took only half a year from signing the contract, taking the land and starting construction, which fully reflected the speed of Shanghai.
At present, there are two voices about the cancellation of Weilai Jiading factory plan: Weilai was pushed out of Shanghai by Tesla after the publication of Qiu Yan Finance and Economics and the new version of the Regulations on Investment Management in Automobile Industry; Some media believe that Weilai's net loss last year exceeded 9.6 billion yuan. At present, the capital chain is not enough to support huge expenses, so I decided to stop building factories in Shanghai.
According to Weilai's previous planning, its third model, the first model, has been named ET7, which was originally expected to be produced in Weilai Shanghai factory and will be unveiled at NIO Day this year. Now with the termination of the Shanghai factory, ET7 will continue to be contracted by Jianghuai factory or other partners.
Let's review the timeline from Wei Zi's construction of the factory to the termination of this plan.
20 18,18 In June, Shanghai Jiading District Administrative Service Center published an article entitled "Environmental Protection Bureau window fully promotes the environmental impact assessment of Weilai Automobile's major projects", stating that "the two sides have fully communicated on plant construction, scheme design, preparation and approval of environmental impact assessment, and strive to fully promote the project construction in the shortest time and at the fastest speed". This is the first time in the industry that Weilai will build its own factory in Shanghai. In fact, Weilai signed the relevant framework agreement with Jiading District Government at the end of 20 17.
Prior to this, Li Bin was a staunch supporter of OEM mode. However, as the OEM of JAC Weilai is constantly questioned by the market, and according to the relevant regulations, it is necessary to build its own factory to obtain the qualification of new energy production, Li Bin's attitude towards the outside world has gradually changed. In an interview, he was frank and cooperated with Jianghuai, which will pose no small challenge to Weilai's high-end brand positioning.
Weilai officially confirmed that Jiading Factory is not only Weilai No.2 Factory, but also a key project led by Shanghai Municipal Government. Weilai's participation in this project is based on the company's strategic deployment and the preparation of the company's third and fourth models.
20 18,181On October 27th, the Shanghai Municipal Government held a signing ceremony for large foreign-funded projects, and 12 projects were signed, with a total investment of over 10 billion, of which the largest project increased its capital by166.6 billion, which was signed by Weilai Automobile. At that time, when talking about the fit between Shanghai and Weilai Automobile, Zheng Xiancong, the co-founder of Weilai Automobile, said: "To keep the manufacturing industry in Shanghai, we must add the two keywords of' intelligence' and' research and development' to become the benchmark of high-end manufacturing."
Obviously, from one leg of OEM to two legs of self-built factory, Weilai has realized that building a core factory and running the whole manufacturing process can master the ability of all manufacturing links, so that he can have more initiative in the OEM process. If you only rely on OEM to produce cars, in a sense, you can't completely control your own destiny.
In addition, Weilai said before the IPO that the Jiading factory will be officially completed in 2020, and the funds needed for construction and equipment procurement costs will reach 650 million US dollars (about 4.5 billion yuan). Us IPO, equity financing and vehicle sales revenue will provide half of the funds, and the other half will come from local low-interest or interest-free loans in Shanghai.
From this point of view, from the news of self-built factory to the end of last year 10, Weilai Automobile and Shanghai Municipal Government have been actively promoting the project. What happened after that?
Tesla enjoyed the "Shanghai Speed"
In fact, in the process of promoting the project between Weilai and Shanghai Jiading, on the other hand, Shanghai Lingang is also in close talks with Tesla. And on July 8, 20 18, Tesla officially signed an investment agreement with Shanghai Lingang, and will set up a wholly-owned factory in Lingang area, with an annual output of 500,000 vehicles. This is the largest foreign-made project in Shanghai history.
Obviously, Shanghai's obsession with Tesla's local settlement has lasted for four years. As early as 20 14, Ding Lei, then deputy head of Pudong New Area in Shanghai, negotiated with Musk to implement the project of introducing Tesla to invest and build a factory in Shanghai during his term of office. Although it is said that the conditions offered at that time were also very generous, it was eventually rejected by Musk.
Since last year, Tesla's desire to build a factory in China has become stronger and stronger, and Shanghai's enthusiasm for introducing Tesla has never changed. In addition, in April last year, the state deployed to speed up the cancellation of the restrictions on foreign-funded shares in the automobile manufacturing industry. At the same time, last year, Shanghai issued the action plan of "opening wider to the outside world 100", which mentioned "encouraging foreign investors to invest in advanced manufacturing industries and striving for the landing of foreign new energy vehicle projects."
Tesla's benefits don't stop there.
Recently, Tesla confirmed that it has reached agreements with many banks including China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and obtained a loan of 52 1 10,000 US dollars (about 3.5 billion yuan) in order to establish a car and battery factory in Shanghai, China, and quickly realize the production of Model 3 cars. If nothing happens, the interest rate may be 3.9% as previously rumored, which is lower than the benchmark lending rate of 4.35% of the People's Bank of China.
Such "super national treatment" will inevitably cause some controversy in the industry.
All the conditions are developing in favor of Tesla's settlement in Shanghai.
According to the new version of "Regulations on Investment Management of Automobile Industry", it is proposed to strictly control the production qualification of new pure electric vehicles, and the application can only be made after the planned production capacity of existing electric vehicle projects in the province is completed. In other words, if Tesla gets the production qualification first, then Weilai Automobile needs to wait for the completion of Tesla's Shanghai factory to achieve the mass production goal of 654.38+10,000 vehicles.
Judging from the results of the competition, Shanghai's choice is clear at a glance.
Perhaps no foreign brand has been given such a big green light like Tesla. For a group of new local car-making forces, this is about to face huge competitive pressure, especially when the postpartum pricing of Model 3 countries falls below 300,000 yuan, how big the blow will be to enterprises like Weilai, which really worries local automakers.
In any case, it is meaningful to accelerate the introduction of rivals like Tesla in the year before the national new energy subsidies fell.
Since 1994, the state has supported the local automobile industry with the policy of "50: 50 joint stock ratio". Today, the attitude has changed, especially under the background that the new energy industry relies heavily on subsidies, trying to gradually liberalize protection, accelerate market-oriented transformation, and let enterprises participate in more intense competition to cultivate competitiveness.
However, Tesla may not be a catfish, but a shark. Its accelerated occupation of the China market will inevitably mean that a major reshuffle in blood shed is about to begin.
Text/five horses