2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 980 The New Forces' Listing Wave

"Boss, we've compiled the statistics for September. I'll deliver it to you right now. Are you home?"

"I'm home, come over here."

The National Day in 2020 was very different from previous years, except that it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, creating a rare double celebration.

This is also the first extended holiday since the special event, lasting eight days. How well tourism data has recovered is a matter of great concern across the country.

The flag-raising ceremony at dawn attracted tens of thousands of tourists, and it seemed to be no different from previous years.

Even Weilai's factories across the country have seen significant exposure due to continuous live streaming throughout the year, resulting in numerous reservations for visits during this holiday period.

In the transition from strict control to normalization, everything seems to remain largely unchanged, but in reality, changes are quietly taking place.

Lotus Jiangcheng Factory was the industrial base with the most reservations among all factories during this National Day holiday.

"Jiangcheng's convenient transportation environment, although it was questioned at the beginning of the year, has improved a lot in the later stages. Tourists' enthusiasm for visiting Jiangcheng has increased a lot, regardless of their mood."

The modern tourism model has been greatly influenced by short videos. Netizens are easily swayed by certain emotions. A steamed bun stall might become a popular spot for netizens to check in because of some hot news.

Besides these objective factors, the Lotus Jiangcheng plant is itself very attractive as the only industrial base in China that produces sports cars.

In addition, Lotus's performance at the Jiangcheng plant was also quite remarkable, not only ensuring the stability of employees' lives and emotions, but also taking the lead in social responsibility.

In particular, the young CEO Li Xiang stayed in Jiangcheng until it was fully opened up before leaving to return to his hometown to visit his family, which earned him a lot of goodwill.

As a globally renowned sports car brand that is under the control of Weilai Holdings and is able to operate normally, Lotus's brand awareness in China is rapidly increasing.

One unexpected event is worth more than all of Lotus's previous brand marketing efforts.

"A sports car brand needs not only the approval of those who buy it, but also the approval of consumers who can't afford it. This incident is a good boost to your brand image."

Li Xiang came to Ningbo again during the National Day holiday. In addition to reporting on his work, he also had another very important matter to discuss.

That means Lotus's sales in China will see a major surge this year, benefiting from the strong sales of luxury brands and the increased brand awareness brought about by this special event.

"That's true. Besides performance, people buy sports cars mostly to show off. If only a few people recognize you on the street, then it's really not that interesting."

The saying may be crude, but the principle is sound: the reason why brands like Porsche and Ferrari sell so well is largely due to their high brand recognition.

Driving on the road, its exaggerated design and iconic logo are sure to attract the attention of passersby.

Lotus's appearance is comparable to that of luxury sports car brands such as Ferrari and Porsche, but it lacks brand recognition.

"Yes, overall marketing should still target those who can't afford it. You need to put more effort into this aspect in the future."

Lotus's products are sold in Europe, North America, East Asia and all over the world. It may seem that it only sells a few thousand cars a year, but it is a truly global company.

However, due to various reasons, its sales share in China has never been high before, which can be simply put, it is because domestic consumers do not recognize it.

However, the number of domestic users in this year's order volume is rising rapidly.

"Based on the current order volume, Lotus's overall sales this year should be around 7000 vehicles, of which domestic users will account for about 25%, which is a good sign."

"From an economic perspective, whether it is a country or a corporate group, development boils down to three aspects."

"That is consumption, investment and exports. Lotus is a global car company. We have done well in terms of exports and our investment is not bad either. The rest is the consumer market."

As the world's largest consumer market, Lotus's ability to increase its market share in China is itself a landmark event signifying the company's positive development.

Reasonable consumption, avoiding blind investment, and having export advantages are the three core foundations for a company's development.

The reason why Weilai has developed so well in recent years is that it has grasped these three core points. Lotus is also developing along this path and has made up for the last shortcoming.

"Is Lotus planning an IPO?"

Lotus's sales this year have significantly exceeded expectations, mainly because electric vehicles account for 50% of total deliveries. The trend toward electrification is much faster than that of Elantra.

"Yes, Lotus's orders are manageable, so our revenue can be roughly calculated."

Based on the average selling price of orders, Lotus's global revenue this year is roughly $7 million. With the acceleration of electrification, Lotus urgently needs more funds to support its development.

It's worth noting that Lotus currently owes its controlling shareholder 50 billion yuan in debt, which still needs to be repaid.

In addition to paying off its controlling shareholder's debts, Lotus also needs more funds to develop next-generation automotive technologies, accelerate product innovation, and expand its global distribution network.

Therefore, although Lotus has developed rapidly this year, it also faces a particularly large funding gap.

"Alright, then let's proceed according to your plan and carry out the preliminary preparations for the share reform and IPO."

Tan Jincheng had no other opinion on Lotus's IPO. As a global company, although ByteDance holds a controlling stake, it only holds 51% of the shares. The major shareholder has a responsibility to provide financial and resource assistance for the company's development, but Lotus still needs to rely more on its own ability to generate revenue.

An IPO is the best way for Lotus to raise funds.

“Go list on the US stock market. Lotus may not be a large company, but it is a global car company after all. Listing on the US stock market would be much better.”

Lotus sells nearly 2000 cars a year in North America, accounting for about 20% of its global sales revenue, making it a significant market.

Therefore, listing in North America was a very wise choice. In addition to these corporate strategy factors, another important reason was that Lotus was losing money.

In this year's situation, the more cars you sell, the more you lose.

"We've almost finished the preliminary preparations. If we move quickly, we might be able to go public by the end of the year."

Li Xiang was clearly well-prepared, having made ample preparations for Lotus's initial listing plan. In fact, the process of listing on the US stock market is simpler than that of listing on the A-share market.

Xiaopeng Motors officially listed on the US stock market on August 27 this year. Although it had been preparing for nearly a year, it only took 19 days from submitting the IPO documents to the official listing and trading.

In China, this process is not so fast; FlashTech's acquisition of Leichi New Energy has been delayed for a long time.

Just look at WM Motor. It launched its IPO around the same time as XPeng, but WM Motor chose the domestic STAR Market, which is still a long way off.

"Okay, speaking of which, this year really is the year for new players to go public. It would definitely be beneficial for us to go public during this window of opportunity."

Wenjie secured 70 billion yuan in investment from an investment team led by the Luzhou government, which, for Li Bing, was tantamount to a second IPO.

Xiaopeng successfully went public, while other emerging brands such as WM Motor, Nezha, Enovate, and Aiways all have IPO plans.

After being criticized for their "PPT car manufacturing" approach, emerging electric vehicle companies have also experienced the reduction of subsidies, and the first batch, such as Byton, has already been eliminated.

Correspondingly, many promising companies have also emerged. In the original timeline, Wei Xiaoli, apart from Wei, all went public through IPOs this year.

Today, apart from He Xiaopeng's fate remaining largely unchanged, Li Bing is still working on his battery swapping model. Apart from the company changing its name, there haven't been any major changes.

Li Xiang underwent the most significant changes, but fate seemed to possess some kind of magic, propelling him to leverage Lotus's IPO plan.

Speaking of which, Xiaopeng's performance on the US stock market has been quite good, with a pre-IPO valuation of $108.2 billion.

During the IPO process, the original plan was to issue 8500 million ADS shares, but the actual number was expanded to 1.7 million, demonstrating the enthusiasm of the capital market.

The company performed quite well on its first day of trading, with its stock price soaring 41.47%. Currently, Xiaopeng Motors' market capitalization remains around US$132 billion.

After multiple rounds of dilution and the IPO, Tan Jincheng's stake in Xiaopeng Motors, held through his personal account and ByteDance's advertising platform, has decreased to 6.2%, with a market value of approximately US$8.2 million. The return on investment is still quite good.

However, the most dramatic stock performance was that of Wenjie. Wenjie's stock price stabilized at the end of the first quarter, closing at $2.75.

By the last trading day of September, Wenjie's stock price had soared to $22.31, almost ten times its initial value in two quarters.

With the soaring stock price and rising sales, Li Bing has truly turned his life around. Although Wenjie's losses are still very serious, they are not important in the short term.

"Then hurry up and get to work. Besides this, there's something else I need to talk to you about."

Taking advantage of the capital market's enthusiasm for new energy vehicles, going public would at least raise more funds.

Currently, Wenjie's market value has surpassed that of traditional automakers such as Fiat and Chrysler, and is only about 10 billion US dollars away from Ferrari's market value.

Xiaopeng Motors' market value has also soared rapidly, and the gap between it and Ford Motor's market value is also around tens of billions of US dollars.

Tesla, Weilai Technology, BYD, and other companies with strong sales of new energy vehicles have also seen their market capitalization soar.

Clearly, the capital market's enthusiasm for new energy vehicles far exceeds that for traditional automakers, a trend particularly evident in Great Wall Motors.

Great Wall Motors has lagged behind in its new energy vehicle strategy, and its management has repeatedly expressed a lack of confidence in the new energy sector. As a result, it has been defined as a traditional automaker in the capital market.

Once a car company is labeled as a traditional automaker, its stock price performance naturally suffers. Great Wall Motors is one of the few mainstream automakers whose stock price has fallen this year.

Zhao Xinyi brought over the sales data for September. Seeing that the boss and Li Xiang were having a conversation, Zhao Xinyi left the study and went to the living room to chat with Gu Qingqing.

"have a look."

After glancing at the sales figures for September, Tan Jincheng handed the document to Li Xiang.

Li Xiang was a little confused. His boss told him that he had other things to talk about. Could it be this so-called sales data?

Throughout September, the passenger vehicle market saw a significant rebound, especially in the new energy vehicle sector. In September, sales of new energy passenger vehicles alone reached 12.5 units, representing a year-on-year increase of 99.6% and a month-on-month increase of 24.1%. Among them, pure electric vehicles sold 10.2 units, a year-on-year increase of 105%, demonstrating exceptionally strong performance.

"The brands under Weilai are all performing very well."

Li Xiang, who has been closely following the new energy vehicle market, was relatively optimistic about September's sales figures, but was still somewhat surprised when he saw the official data.

Weilai's data collection model has always been relatively conservative, and its credibility in the market is even higher than that of statistics from several official institutions such as the China Passenger Car Association.

This data was compiled by Weilai based on its own sales and weekly market changes, so its credibility is absolutely guaranteed.

The Aion series has two models: the Aion S sold 5548 units in a single month, and the Aion Y sold 3183 units.

The Weilai brand is even more remarkable. The monthly sales of Weilai L1 were somewhat different from before, with only 5947 units sold, falling short of the expected 6000 units.

However, don't underestimate these 5947 units sold. In addition to being a new monthly sales record for the Weilai L1, it also accounts for more than 27% of the market share of hybrid vehicle sales.

With one model capturing 27% of the entire market share, the performance of the Weilai L1 can be described as dazzling.

The ES6, whose sales have rebounded, also performed very well, with 3226 units sold, ranking second in pure electric SUV sales.

As for the first place, it also comes from Weilai's own product, namely the lower-priced ES3.

Similarly, the ES8 and the main ET5 also performed well, with ES8 sales rebounding to over 1600 units per month.

This model, with an average price of over 400,000 yuan, can maintain sales of around 20,000 units per year, which is quite impressive.

The ET5 is even more impressive, with its global sales exceeding 9000 units in a single month for the first time, second only to the Model 3's global sales.

The Model 3 remains as impressive as ever, maintaining its position as the top-selling single model globally in September, with domestic sales exceeding 10,000 units in China alone.

There's no way around it; these days, it's the foreign monks who know how to chant the sutras better. Tesla is playing the price-cutting and promotion game, and it also has the genes of a high-end brand.

In terms of individual models, it really can't beat the Model 3, but the ET5 is becoming more and more competitive, with sales of nearly 7000 units in China, which is also very impressive.

"Although our market share has further declined to 27.64%, we sold 2.76 new energy vehicles in a single month, most of which were pure electric models, which shows that our competitiveness is getting stronger and stronger."

After reviewing the detailed data, Li Xiang was also impressed by Weilai's advantages in the new energy vehicle industry.

One striking statistic is that the ET5 is becoming increasingly competitive in Europe. In the first nine months alone, the ET5 sold over 5000 units in the Netherlands, making it the top-selling electric vehicle brand in the country with a market share of 13.83%.

In Nordic markets like Norway and Sweden, the ET5 also tops the electric vehicle sales charts. Although the gap with Tesla is very small, number one is number one.

Besides the Nordic market, Weilai has also climbed to the top three in sales in Germany, the market with the deepest European presence.

With the help of Lotus's channels, Weilai has also developed rapidly in the UK market.

"I'm not just listening to your bragging, what are your thoughts?"

Showing Li Xiang the sales data from Wei Lai was what Tan Jincheng was about to talk about next.

"What do you think?"

Li Xiang was a little confused, unsure if it was as he had thought.

"Yes, that's exactly what you think. You need to be prepared."

At the end of last year, Tan Jincheng hinted to Li Xiang that he would take over as CEO of Weilai at the right time.

Now, the opportunity has come.

On the last day of September, Zhang Yong revealed to Tan Jincheng that he was considering leaving the company. Zhang Yong's role in the company remains very important.

However, it is undeniable that, apart from Wang Fengying's joining the team, Zhang Yong's role has indeed undergone a significant change.

Therefore, when faced with invitations from other car companies, Zhang Yong clearly had new plans for his career.

"Is Mr. Zhang leaving his job? Which company will he go to?"

Faced with the sudden news, Li Xiang was clearly unprepared. Although he had some guesses, he was still very shocked.

Regardless, Zhang Yong's departure is news that could cause upheaval in the automotive industry, both for Wei Lai and the entire automotive sector.

Tan Jincheng laughed and said, "Go to Hezhong, which is Nezha."

Although it was two years late, Zhang Yong still managed to team up with Fang Yunzhou, the founder of Hozon Auto. Nezha is doing quite well this year, with full-year sales expected to be around 1.5 units.

In terms of product portfolio, Nezha focuses on the cost-effective market, and adopts a hybrid model of direct sales and distributors in terms of channels.

In addition to targeting the consumer market, Nezha also collaborates with government agencies and ride-hailing platforms, striving to fully promote the business market.

The competition among new energy vehicle manufacturers that focus on cost-effectiveness is fierce, with companies like BYD, Aion, Leapmotor, and Geely all having relevant models.

Not to mention that Weilai also has a sub-brand, Exeed, which is also planning to enter this market, so the competition will only become more and more intense in the future.

Fang Yunzhou clearly realized this, and developing the B-end market was the only way for Nezha to quickly increase sales.

Although models like the Aion and BYD Qin don't sound very appealing as ride-hailing vehicles, they are undeniably selling well.

"For Nezha to survive, the B2B market is their breakthrough point, but if they delve too deeply into the B2B market, it will also cause great damage to the brand."

As an industry insider, Li Xiang immediately saw Fang Yunzhou's purpose in inviting Zhang Yong to join the company, as Zhang Yong had extensive experience in the B2B market.

In addition, Zhang Yong has made great progress in business management and marketing during his years in charge of Weilai.

"Yes, Mr. Zhang does indeed play a very important role for Nezha. Of course, what you mentioned also exists, but it depends on their specific business strategy."

Some things seem unchanged, but they have changed. Nezha wants to vigorously develop the B-end market and enter the ride-hailing market, which has begun its second boom this year. Zhang Yong's abilities are obviously much stronger than Fang Yunzhou's.

It's not impossible that after joining the company, Zhang Yong might imitate Wei Lai's model and launch a sub-brand to operate in the B2B market.

"Yes, but this is a challenge for Mr. Zhang."

"It's normal. We're not short of money, and our careers are almost perfect. It's normal to accept some new challenges."

In fact, Zhang Yong's invitation had started at the end of last year, but Tan Jincheng was unaware of it.

After ten months of consideration, coupled with the generous terms, Zhang Yong officially made his decision.

Another reason that facilitated this merger was 360's investment in Hozon New Energy. According to Zhang Yong, 360 will invest 29 billion yuan in Hozon New Energy in October.

The involvement of new capital was also a major reason for Zhang Yong's joining the company, as Tan Jincheng and Zhou Hongyi did not have much interaction.

However, if we're talking about offending him, it could be attributed to the 3Q War back then. Tan Jincheng unethically took advantage of the fact that the Red-Clothed Cult Leader was preoccupied with his own problems and poached many of their security experts.

Later in the mobile phone market, whether it was Xiaomi or Meizu, Tan Jincheng did not personally come forward, but he was in competition with 360's mobile phone business.

It's hard to guarantee that Zhou Hongyi wasn't behind Zhang Yong's departure this time; that guy actually holds a grudge quite a bit.

Li Xiang sighed, "Alright, I respect Mr. Zhang's decision, but I'm not ready to say it yet."

He was completely unprepared. His main purpose in coming here was to push forward Lotus's IPO, which was one of his major goals while working at Lotus.

"No rush, Mr. Zhang won't be leaving so soon. You can continue to push forward with Lotus's IPO. If it's really too late, I can fill in for a few months."

Pushing Lotus's IPO can be seen as a promise Tan Jincheng made to Li Xiang, allowing him to make up for the regret of not being able to lead the company to an IPO.

In fact, Zhang Yong joined Hezhong with the task of promoting Nezha's IPO. Having followed Tan Jincheng for so many years, Zhang Yong has witnessed several major IPOs.

Unlike Zhou Hongyi, who privatized 360, although it received some hype at the beginning of its A-share listing, 360's stock price is not doing well at present.

As one of the earliest internet moguls, the "Red-Clothed Master" who once stood up to Pony Ma has now been left behind in terms of both personal wealth and company size.

"What's the specific time?"

This news is something Li Xiang still needs to process carefully.

"Let's wait until after New Year's Day. The news hasn't been announced yet, so don't tell anyone else."

Tan Jincheng didn't create any obstacles for Zhang Yong's departure; it was normal personnel turnover, and there was no need to make things worse.

Just like when Sun Tongyu left Orange, it's simply that the cooperation between the two parties has reached a bottleneck and needs new stimulation.

"I definitely won't be able to make it by New Year's Day. I'll have to ask you to step in then. Also, have you thought about who should be the CEO of Lotus?"

Joining Wei Lai as CEO was a tacit understanding between the two parties, and Li Xiang had no objection to it. Moreover, the boss gave him ample time.

"What's your opinion? After all, you're more familiar with Lotus."

Tan Jincheng gave a wry smile. Zhang Yong's departure was a consideration for Wei Lai due to the entry of new players.

The departure of a company's CEO can lead to changes in the entire management team and even cause stock price fluctuations.

(End of this chapter)