How should WM Motor "evolve" forward as spring has not yet arrived?

Over the past two years, WM Motor has been walking down-to-earth among the new car-making forces, but the problems that every new car-making force will encounter are not few and are getting closer and closer.

On April 12, 2019, on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, accompanied by the passionate symphony of the Philharmonic Orchestra, the magnificent night view of the Bund was stunningly presented behind the slowly opened curtain, and it also became the highlight moment of the WM Motor Brand Night with the theme of "Always On Evolution".

In this press conference with "Game of Thrones" running through it, from the bleak first space, to the "unceasing evolution" second space, and finally, accompanied by a thrilling "A Song of Ice and Fire", we finally entered the suddenly bright third space.

At the press conference, WM Motor officially announced its core technology matrix consisting of the Living Motion three-electric energy system, the Living Pilot intelligent driving assistance system, and the Living Engine full-vehicle interactive intelligent engine, and also unveiled a powerful product matrix consisting of the Intelligent Driving 2.0 version of the WM EX5, the WM EX5 Pro, the WM EX6 Limited, and the WM's new concept car EVOLVE CONCEPT.

At the same time, the WM EX5 Intelligent Driving 2.0 version was officially launched on the market, with an official price ranging from 174,800 to 259,800 yuan, and a price of 129,800 to 209,800 yuan after comprehensive subsidies.

Spring is not here yet

For WM Motor, which has just completed a C round of financing totaling RMB 3 billion, hosting a grand press conference is not a problem at all. But perhaps what WM Motor wants more is to use this to express its thoughts and expectations.

"I personally feel that the first half of next year will not be a good year."

In August last year, He Xiaopeng, founder of Xpeng Motors, said so. He Xiaopeng's prediction was correct. Although spring has already arrived, the new car brand has not yet felt the warmth of the sun.

In January this year, Tesla's Shanghai Lingang factory started construction; in February, Tesla adjusted prices across the board, and the cheap Model 3 was about to arrive; in March, the Model Y was released ahead of schedule, and Tesla's "SEXY" territory was completed. At the same time, the leader of the emerging forces, NIO, was no longer happy after winning the "10,000 vehicle delivery" bet. After a dismal quarterly report, NIO's stock price, which insisted on not cutting prices, was halved within a month.

At this time, the investment community also frequently published articles saying that no new car-making force is worth investing in, and 2019 will be the year of bankruptcy for new car-making forces. Finally, the new round of new energy vehicle subsidy reduction policy shows that the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in 2019 will be reduced by an average of 50% from 2018.

These fledgling new car brands may have anticipated all these situations, but when things really come together, they may still be somewhat nervous.

This is especially true for WM Motor, which has already set a goal of selling 10,000 vehicles a year.

At the WM Motor EX5 product delivery conference last September, Shen Hui said: "We will deliver 10,000 vehicles by the end of this year, which is a small goal for WM Motor, and we will strive to deliver 100,000 vehicles next year." At the end of 2018, WM Motor had achieved less than 40% of its small goal of 10,000 vehicles. In an interview with the media, Shen Hui said that the failure to complete the 10,000 vehicle delivery plan was not because of insufficient production capacity, but because the delivery process was too complicated.

However, Shen Hui and WM Motor rarely mention the "100,000 vehicles" target. In an interview, Shen Hui changed his tone and said that this number is an internal goal, and a more conservative target number will be announced this year based on the actual situation. But he also said that WM Motor is already the fastest delivery and mass production company among new car manufacturers, and is expected to win the delivery championship among new car manufacturers within the year even if subsidies are reduced.

Become a reliable new car brand

"Be the most reliable new car brand." This is the slogan shouted by Weimar. Different from other new car brands, Weimar insists on doing more and saying less.

About two years ago, in September 2016, Shen Hui first appeared as the CEO of WM Motor. At that time, WM Motor had just completed a $1 billion Series A financing and officially announced its future development plan.

Founded in 2015, WM Motor was one of the earliest new car-making forces. However, at that time, all kinds of PPTs were popular for car-making. Amid the noise, WM Motor was incredibly quiet. Therefore, WM Motor was not very eye-catching at that time.

In this new wave of car manufacturing, Shen Hui is one of the few founders with many years of experience in the automotive industry. Therefore, unlike entrepreneurs in the IT industry, he does not always talk about "disruption". As a veteran who has been working in the automotive industry for more than 20 years, Shen Hui has a calm and accurate understanding of the future development of automobile manufacturing.

So, in order to "sleep well at night", Shen Hui decided to let WM Motor build its own factory. In 2018, WM Motor failed to achieve the "small goal" of 10,000 vehicles, but it delivered nearly 4,000 EX5s through the first phase of its self-built factory in Wenzhou at a cost of 6.7 billion yuan. This is the best result among the new domestic car manufacturers, second only to Weilai.

At the press conference that night, WM Motor announced that in the first quarter, WM Motor delivered 4,085 vehicles, ranking first in the delivery volume among new car manufacturers. It also said that in 2019, WM Motor will rapidly expand its store layout with the dual-line model of "official direct sales + intelligent driving partners" to achieve the goal of 100 stores across the country, covering the eastern coastal areas, west to Gansu, south to Hainan, and north to Heilongjiang. At the same time, the WM Motor Asia flagship store, which covers an area of ​​8,800 square meters, will be officially put into operation in Shanghai this year.

In addition, WM Motor also conducted in-depth research on "how to evolve?"

"Weltmeister is evolving into a data-driven smart hardware company." At the press conference, Shen Hui explained the meaning of Weltmeister's "unceasing evolution". The continuous evolution relies on Weltmeister's three core technology matrices of Living, which are also the most important technical grasps in Weltmeister's process of moving from "popularizer of smart electric vehicles" to "data-driven smart hardware company".

However, WM Motor, which focuses on self-production and technology outsourcing, did not use smart cars and autonomous driving as its main selling points in the early stages.

Unlike most new car-making companies with an Internet background, Weimar is more "traditional" in nature, which is of course closely related to the experience of its founder Shen Hui. Previously, more than 70% of Weimar's core team were automotive talents, and Internet talents accounted for less than 30%. But this did not prevent Shen Hui from accelerating Weimar's intelligent construction.

On March 27 this year, WM Motor released its Level 2 advanced driver assistance system Living Pilot in China's Science and Technology City - Mianyang, Sichuan. This Living Pilot system, custom-developed by WM Motor and Bosch, was put into mass production on the new WM EX5, which was officially launched on the same day.

Living Pilot is an advanced intelligent driving assistance system customized and developed for the actual driving environment on Chinese roads, with Chinese consumers' car usage habits and scenarios as the center. This is a further acceleration of the implementation of intelligent driving by WM Motor, and also marks a new step for WM Motor to evolve into a "data-driven intelligent hardware company".

Since its inception, Weimar Motor has benefited from the fact that its founders and executives have been involved in the capital and financial circles for many years, and its investors have been relatively strong. However, capital is only a prerequisite for the survival of new car-making forces, and product strength is the foundation for survival. Perhaps Weimar Motor, which has a stronger gene in the automotive industry, has the deepest understanding of this point.

Therefore, how to make users willing to buy such a new brand of car when subsidies are reduced or there are no subsidies is probably a difficult problem that WM Motor will face if it plans to take the popular product route.

"Don't talk about craftsmanship, don't talk about feelings." For more than two years, WM Motor has been walking down-to-earth among the new car-making forces. However, every new car-making force will encounter many problems in front of WM Motor, and they are getting closer and closer. Perhaps how to "continue to evolve" is the key to solving this problem.