On the evening of October 27th, netizens posted on their blog that a Weimar electric car caught fire and exploded at the North Fourth Ring Mechanics Institute in Haidian District, Beijing. The surrounding residents felt a strong shock and a tingling sensation. Nose smell.
Weimaran spontaneous combustion occurs frequently
Weimaran responded on Weibo today. At about 21:00 on October 27th, an EX5 was driven in Beijing. A fire broke out inside the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on Beisihuan West Road, Haidian District, the city. The incident has been reported to the competent authorities as soon as possible and professionals have been dispatched to the scene to assist with the incident. We are now fully cooperating with the public security, fire protection and relevant regulatory authorities to carry out the accident investigation, and the subsequent results will be announced as soon as possible.
Subsequently, CRRC called the relevant person in charge of WM Motor, who responded that judging from the scene, the car's tires were intact, the rear door was not badly damaged, and the rear seats were not excessive. Signs of going too far. He said, "We are still waiting for the fire identification results. Yesterday's incident was an unexpected incident."
Public information shows that WM Motor was founded in January 2015 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China. It is an emerging new energy vehicle company and travel solution provider in China. The founder is the former vice president of Geely Holding Group and Volvo Shen Hui, Global Senior Vice President and Chairman of Volvo China.
As we all know, this is no longer an isolated case of spontaneous combustion of WM cars. On October 5 this year, the WM EX5 electric vehicle that had just been put into operation for five days in Shaowu City, Fujian Province spontaneously ignited on the roadside while it was parked, and the entire vehicle was eventually scrapped. A week later, in the early morning of October 13, another Weimar electric vehicle spontaneously ignited and caught fire while charging, and the entire vehicle was severely burned. Subsequently, WM Motor said in response to two spontaneous combustion cases of WM electric taxis that it had initially investigated the system battery problem and proposed a plan to replace high-quality CATL batteries.
In addition, some netizens recently exposed on social media platforms that a Weimar EX5 with the "Su M" license plate in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province was suspected of catching fire and spontaneous combustion. In the video, something emerged from the bottom of the vehicle. There was thick smoke and the cause of the fire was unknown.
It is reported that the earlier spontaneous combustion incident of Weimar also attracted widespread attention. On August 25, 2018, a WM EX5 parked in the Chengdu WM Automobile Research Institute spontaneously ignited. Officials stated that it was an early trial vehicle that had undergone multiple destructive tests and had entered the scrapping stage waiting to be dismantled. On September 23, 2019, a WM EX5 pure electric vehicle in Wenzhou spontaneously ignited. Fortunately, the battery pack loaded in the vehicle did not catch fire or explode.
Yesterday’s WM electric car spontaneously ignited, once again pushing the “Weima electric car” to the forefront. Obviously, spontaneous combustion is no longer an accident for Weimar.
Recall of self-igniting vehicles, will the road to IPO be tested?
At 14:00 this afternoon, WM Motor announced on Weibo that it will voluntarily recall a total of 1,282 WM Motors produced from June 8, 2020 to September 23, 2020 to users. Power battery packs of other battery cell brands will be replaced free of charge for the recalled vehicles.
In addition, according to the Black Cat Complaint and Jucomplaint platforms, the total number of complaints about WM Motor now exceeds 100, among which "quality issues" and "refunds" are the focus of the complaints. According to the Black Cat complaint platform, after customers reported problems, WM Motor only received the problem, but most of them did not follow up on the follow-up situation.
Due to the recent frequent spontaneous combustion incidents of WM Motors and the fact that consumers’ complaints on the platform have not been resolved in a timely manner, consumers have become rational about purchasing WM Motors.
It is reported that WM Motor sold 2,107 vehicles in September, and its cumulative sales in the third quarter were 6,200 vehicles. Among them, the sales champion was WM EX5-Z. Compared with NIO’s 4,708 units, Ideal’s 3,504 units, and Xpeng’s 3,478 units, WM Motor’s sales are at the bottom among new domestic car manufacturers.
As we all know, Weimar has started financing since its establishment. Tianyancha shows that in October 2015, WM Motor conducted angel round financing, and the investor was Amoeba Capital. Subsequently, 7 rounds of financing were conducted, large and small. The 10 billion D round of financing completed on September 22 this year is known as the largest single round of financing so far for a new car-making force. According to media reports, on September 30, the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau website disclosed that WM Motor received listing guidance from CITIC Construction Investment Corporation to prepare for the launch of the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
As for the specific launch time of WM Motor, the person in charge told CRRC that "we have no comment."
It is worth mentioning that Tianyancha shows that in WM Motor Among the statistics of 79 cases, 51 were patent ownership disputes, and WM Motor was the defendant in 73 civil first-instance cases. The latest court announcement shows that WM Motor still appears as a defendant in the intellectual property dispute case between Geely and WM Motor.
Industry insiders pointed out that if it loses the lawsuit, WM Motor may face huge compensation, and it will also shake WM's future development and cash-out ability for investors and institutions. It is reported that in 2019, Geely sued WM Motor and claimed 2.1 billion in compensation for disputes over the infringement of trade secrets in the automobile industry.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.