Recently, Zhang Hailiang, which was originally in financial difficulties, found a new backer. As the chairman and CEO of Skycar, a new car-making force, Zhang Hailiang finally ushered in a new capital blessing of 5 billion yuan, and then shouted the slogan of listing.
Zhang Hailiang was born in 1970. Unlike most automobile business leaders, Zhang Hailiang's automobile road is "both new and old". After he left the traditional automobile enterprises and entered the Internet enterprises, he began to learn the concept of building cars on the Internet. He doesn't like the market being divided by new forces and old forces. "It doesn't matter if the car is built sooner or later, and the power is meaningless." Zhang Hailiang, 50 years old, hopes to establish political power with strength.
The idea is beautiful, but it can't be realized. After all, Zhang Hailiang is just the "traditional" boss of a new car company, who only wants to make money. It is rumored that before finding new capital to enter, Skycar almost stagnated, and was in charge of "relatives", owing fees to advertising agencies, public relations activities and suppliers such as parts and logistics.
For the highly competitive automobile market, Zhang Canliang Hai only used a sum of money to "raise the flag"?
Zhang Hailiang's resume can be described as "outstanding".
When I was young, I was recommended to Tongji University as a senior engineer and doctor. Zhang Hailiang is a well-trained person. From the day he learned to walk, he was destined to be tied to a car all his life. After graduating from graduate school, Zhang Hailiang joined SAIC. SAIC is an important stage of Zhang Hailiang's deep cultivation of automobiles. After more than 20 years' experience, SAIC has accumulated more and more Zhang Hailiang. From a humble employee to the vice president of SAIC. At that time, he was the youngest vice president in SAIC history.
Zhang Hailiang really gained a foothold in the automobile industry because of SAIC's continuous promotion experience. Of course, there are also remarkable achievements behind this. According to the information consulted by Lv Fei Automobile, this is also the period when the joint venture developed fastest during its tenure as the general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen. During his work in Shanghai Volkswagen, Zhang Hailiang led Shanghai Volkswagen to win the sales champion for many times. After serving as the vice president of SAIC, he began to be mainly responsible for a series of new automotive technology fields such as car networking. This is probably the embryonic form of this traditional autobot entering a new force.
Zhang Hailiang's name really entered the market because of this "new" seed. 20 16, Zhang Hailiang joined letv. Perhaps it was years of accumulated experience that made LeTV take a fancy to Zhang Hailiang at that time, or perhaps Zhang Hailiang chose LeTV for "innovation". That year, Zhang Hailiang came to the Internet car with the "worth" saved in the traditional automobile industry. In April of that year, LeTV publicly announced that Zhang Hailiang was the president and chief operating officer of LeTV.
Zhang Hailiang, of course, didn't expect that the perfect ending drawn by Shanghai Volkswagen became the peak of his life.
Everyone is familiar with Letv's later stories. As the "predecessor" of Internet car-making, the development of LeTV seems to be out of Zhang Hailiang's imagination and control. With the break of the company's capital chain, LeTV has gradually entered a situation where it cannot turn around.
2065438+In August 2007, Zhang Hailiang became the vice chairman and CEO of LeTV. Without the mire of mismanagement behind, Zhang Hailiang's automobile road will be infinite. However, it happened that LeTV was not beautiful, and Zhang Hailiang had to take a big adventure with new forces.
There is no turning back for him. From 20 17 to 10, Zhang Hailiang switched to the electric coffee car, which is the predecessor of Sky Car. The electric coffee car was founded on 20 15 and was originally a subsidiary of letv. At that time, probably in order to better cater to technology, Zhang Hailiang also changed from a suit to a T-shirt and jeans printed with the brand of electric coffee.
Zhang worked in LeTV for a year and a half. He learned about the operation mode of Internet startups and completed the transformation from a traditional autobot to an Internet car entrepreneur. However, he also experienced the failure of his first venture and started his second venture-fully operating the electric coffee car project.
Many people say that this time it decided Zhang Hailiang's "life and death". But Zhang Hailiang said that he was no longer uneasy, but more confident.
Zhang Hailiang first took over the electric coffee with one word-"more suitable".
During his stay in LeTV, Zhang Hailiang was already the chairman of the Internet cafe. "After more than a year of observation, I feel that this team is very good, with better motivation and more in line with the corporate philosophy. Finding a well-paid, mature and developed company may not meet my expectations for the development track of entrepreneurs. E coffee may be more suitable for me. "
This may also be the reason why he is confident that he can succeed in his business. But "suitability" and "self-confidence" are not enough to support a helmsman to plan an enterprise. At that time, there was a controversy, that is, Zhang Hailiang didn't fully realize the reality of making cars on the Internet and plunged into it.
Zhang Hailiang obviously thinks that he is ready for success. At the beginning, he led LeTV 100 people to join the sky. Later, the composition of this team became the proud capital of Zhang Hailiang. He said: "The team members mainly come from the traditional automobile industry, and have worked in multinational automobile companies such as Volkswagen, Porsche, BMW and General Motors, as well as domestic mainstream independent brand automobile companies such as Geely and Chery. Therefore, the products created by this R&D team not only meet the quality requirements of German automobile enterprises, but also meet the car habits of China consumers, so I was right.
2017 165438+1October16 the first electric coffee EV 10 was officially listed. After half a year, the sales volume exceeded 1000, and public opinion once turned it into a temporary scenery. The market thought that Zhang Hailiang was finally a blockbuster, but the road behind it became more and more difficult. Before the sales stopped, the sales volume had dropped to single digits.
Now it has been upgraded to Skycar's first production car, ME? 7 has gone to the market. The production plant in Zhang Hailiang has also been built. The listing of ME7 marks a substantial step forward for Skycar. According to reports, Sky ME7 is based on the iMA intelligent digital architecture independently developed, equipped with 5+X screen instant interconnection, AI intelligent assistant and face? My face recognition, me? 84 intelligent technology configurations such as pilot intelligent driving system. Since the brand was officially released, Skycar has made innovative development in product research and development, business model innovation and strategic business ecological layout.
According to Lv Fei Automobile Company, the second model of Skycar is also under development. Zhang Hailiang also plans to launch one or two models every year by 2023, covering mainstream market segments.
But in fact, before the financing came in, Skycar's life was already very ugly. The tight capital chain, salary reduction and layoffs may be affected by the uncertainty of the epidemic situation, or there may be differences in the cognitive development of the company. Previously, leaders of key parts such as financing, procurement, marketing and sales resigned, including Dongping, chief marketing officer, and Yang, vice president in charge of public relations communication and digital marketing and vice president in charge of sales, also chose to leave.
Zhang Hailiang will not lose heart or give up.
Looking for a backer-this became Zhang Hailiang's survival plan. At the previous Beijing Auto Show, Zhang Hailiang revealed that "the new round of financing has made great progress, and we also adhere to the timely and moderately open financing strategy. Through the efficient and reasonable use of funds, it will not cause too much pressure on funds. We plan to go public next year, and it is no problem to support the listing now. "
The "backer" soon appeared. 5438+ 10 In June, Sky Motor announced the completion of a new round of financing of more than 5 billion yuan. It is said that this round of financing is led by the local government industrial guidance fund and large state-owned banks, and the funds will be used for subsequent new model research and development, intelligent manufacturing, sales channels and service system construction, brand marketing and promotion.
5 billion, for a car-making enterprise, may only give temporary "stability". And shouting the slogan of listing is just a form that Zhang Hailiang wants to show his strength and influence. Of course, it does not rule out that it is for money.
In fact, Skycar is still facing the problem of survival. As a car-making enterprise, products should be the first. At present, it is inconclusive whether Skycar ME7 can successfully stand on the market, but it is the key to the successful listing of Skycar next year.
Among the "friends", Weilai Automobile, Li and Xpeng, the top three new forces, have all been successfully listed. If Skycar wants to enter the first echelon, it needs more capital costs, such as establishing a mature service model and sales model, which all need funds first.
Unfortunately, compared with many new forces making cars, Zhang Hailiang has no advantage. For Zhang Hailiang, 5 billion yuan is not only the lifeline, but also the key to healthy development. I have to admit that the market has left little room for Zhang Hailiang to rise. 5 billion life-saving money may not be much.
According to public information, after obtaining a new round of financing, Sky Auto will speed up the construction of offline sales and service networks such as Sky Center, Smart Choice Space, Anxin Workshop and Su Jie Station, so as to meet all-round needs of users' brand experience, test drive and pre-sales and after-sales services. It is estimated that the goal of 30 stores in 20 cities will be completed by the end of 2020, and all first-tier cities, second-tier cities and some third-tier cities will be covered by 2025, when more than 200 stores will provide services to users.
At the same time, Sky Auto will build a three-dimensional charging service system, including fast charging stations, exclusive charging piles for outlets and public charging, and join hands with head charging service providers such as State Grid and Star Charging to build an all-round charging system covering communities, business hotspots and expressway to eliminate charging anxiety.
Now, with the "backing" of 5 billion yuan, Zhang Hailiang has begun to prepare for next year's IPO, and a new round of Pre-IPO financing has also started.
"It doesn't matter if the car is built sooner or later, and the power is meaningless." Zhang Hailiang said that as long as its products are competitive enough, they are strong. This is true, mainly because the competitiveness of products needs to be questioned.
It is understood that the second product of Sky Auto, ME5, will be listed next year. Zhang Hai's expectation for next year is to strive for 20,000-30,000 vehicles and challenge 40,000 vehicles. This is also Zhang Hailiang's ambition.
In fact, for an automobile company, IPO should not be a pursuit, or it should not be a "good medicine" for "saving lives". Building a car is the first step of the Long March. Whether a product can gain a foothold in the market competition is the most difficult thing, and it is also the problem that Skycar has to solve.
Mount Tai can be relied on, but the iceberg is hard to rely on. Zhang Hailiang also elusive, oneself now find what mountain. But he should know that capital blessing is good, but his fate is still in his control.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.