The closed doors of car-making qualifications are changing the expected competitive landscape. Up to now, the approval of investment projects for new energy vehicles has been suspended for more than a year, and in order to seize the window period before subsidy withdrawal and joint venture brands enter the market, new car companies can't wait to queue up after the restart. While cooperating with traditional car companies for OEM production, while acquiring qualified "shell" companies, while applying for qualifications by themselves, it is becoming the first choice for new car companies. The traditional car companies have let go of their hands and started to take the initiative to seize new opportunities by taking advantage of the manufacturing links.

“We will have car sales at the end of the year, but we don’t know how long it will take after the qualifications we apply for.” Singularity Automotive CEO Shen Haiyin said in April this year, the electric vehicle startup Singularity Automotive and BAIC New Energy Shen Haiyin does not shy away from reaching cooperation. The focus of the cooperation is to borrow BAIC's qualifications and produce Singularity models through BAIC OEMs. The latest move by BAIC seems to be more proactive. After the establishment of a joint venture with global auto parts giant Magna on June 18 this year, this joint venture is considered to become the "Foxconn" in the automotive industry. Lian Qingfeng, deputy secretary of the party committee and press spokesperson of BAIC New Energy, said in an interview with the media that some Chinese auto companies need high-quality production services, and "they may all become potential customers of joint ventures."

In sync with Singularity, Byton also announced that it has received investment from FAW Group, and signed an agreement on in-depth industrial chain cooperation with FAW Group in July. Prior to this, a number of electric vehicle start-up companies have reached OEM agreements with traditional car companies, and even the star of the new car company-Weilai's new car tail has also been affixed with the word "Jianghuai Weilai" manufacturer. At the same time, as a result of the first round of elimination in the new energy market, the acquisition of qualified companies has also become another path for new car companies to obtain birth permits. In early July this year, Dianjia Automobile announced that it had obtained SUV production qualifications through the acquisition of West Tiger Motors. . More potential acquisitions in the industry are also in progress.

From this perspective, the official intention to suspend the approval of investment projects is also being realized. "Cooperate if you can cooperate," a professional close to the National Development and Reform Commission stated that the auto project authority welcomes cooperation between new car manufacturers and traditional car companies, encourages the merger and reorganization of outdated production capacity, and strictly controls the construction of new production capacity that cannot increase industry benefits. . This is also reflected in the new industrial policy.

However, the new car manufacturers have not given up the "ambition" of owning their own production bases. At present, at least a dozen mainstream new car manufacturers have built or are building production bases, and there are reportedly as many as 60 or 70 new energy companies. Among the auto start-up companies, only 6 have obtained approval for investment projects from the Development and Reform Commission.

The reporter was informed that the "Automobile Industry Investment Management Regulations (Draft for Comment)" is going through the final approval process. Once the regulations are officially implemented, the approval of investment projects for new energy vehicles will be restarted.

The Development and Reform Commission accelerates qualification approval, and production capacity projects that have not been approved are illegal

Qualification "chase war" for new car companies

In mid-July, rumors are flying all over the sky. Tianjin FAW, which has been lingering for many years, announced the transfer of 100% of FAW Huali's equity. Then, the electric vehicle start-up company Byton, which has just become a partner of FAW, topped the list. The joint venture between BAIC and global parts giant Magna has triggered speculation that the joint venture is likely to produce vehicles for Singularity and ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, and then start the "Foxconn" model in the automotive industry.

As for the speculation that Byton Motors will take over FAW Huali, FAW Xiali (3.760, 0.06, 1.62%) subsequently denied it. Regarding the establishment of a joint venture foundry factory by BAIC, BAIC responded to the Economic Observer report that there is no final conclusion yet. However, "BAIC, as a leader in the new energy vehicle industry, will not change its goal of supporting the rapid development of the industry with the concept of'open and shared'."

The so-called rumors are not groundless. From the signing of a strategic cooperation investment framework agreement between Byton Motors and FAW Group in April this year, to the participation of the FAW Group in the B round financing of Byton Motors in June, and the signing of a strategic cooperation framework agreement on July 3rd. . The two parties have determined that they will carry out in-depth cooperation in the fields of platform technology, investment and shareholding, parts procurement, and the development, production, sales and service of intelligent networked automobile products. In this package of cooperation, helping Byton to obtain production qualifications is the most important topic.

Compared with Byton becoming a "receiver", BAIC's joint venture foundry plan seems to have more background support. A few days ago, Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Group, personally announced that starting from July 31 this year, the sale of BAIC Group fuel vehicles in Beijing will be stopped. BAIC's own brands have been at a disadvantage, so this decision did not disappoint the industry. As the first step of BAIC Group to start the transition to the new energy vehicle field, it can also be said that it has seized the opportunity of the industry by using the excess capacity of its own brand to OEM for newly created car companies. After all, BAIC New Energy, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, has become a mature sector and firmly ranks as the industry leader. After BAIC completely stops the production of fuel vehicles, there will be more excess capacity, and there are also many new energy vehicle start-ups that have not obtained production qualifications.

If the investment project is not approved, it means that it cannot be produced or sold. After the first high-profile collective appearance at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year, new car companies have begun to enter the stage of new car production and listing. The implementation of the new subsidy policy in June this year has also increased the sense of crisis of new energy car manufacturers. Ten billion yuan of funds have been invested in the early stage, but the production qualifications are far away. This is like preparing the ingredients for cooking, but there is no fire for a long time.

On the other hand, new industrial clusters created by the influx of a large amount of capital have also made traditional car companies realize that opening up is an inevitable trend. Prior to this, Weilai found Jianghuai foundry, Weimar found Southeast foundry, and Xiaopeng found Haima foundry. They have become the first batch of "new and old forces cooperation" representatives after the National Development and Reform Commission announced the suspension of new energy production qualification approval. At the beginning of July, the "Regulations on the Investment Management of the Automobile Industry (Draft for Comment)" was released, which clearly conveyed the policy attitude of encouraging further close contacts between new car manufacturers and traditional car companies, and also for the next more "new and old forces" cooperation model Endorsed the birth of.

But the sense of safety and accomplishment of new car companies is not all that traditional car companies can satisfy. Therefore, in addition to borrowing the qualifications of traditional car companies, the acquisition of qualified car companies has become another shortcut. On July 6, Dianka Automobile, which is in the first echelon of new car manufacturers, signed a technical improvement project with Quanzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone and Xihu Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., and obtained SUV production qualification through the acquisition of Xihu Automobile. As a peer of electric coffee cars, Weimar Motors acquired 100% equity of Dalian Huanghai Automobile Co., Ltd. through its wholly-owned subsidiary Dalian Xinminya Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. as early as February 2017. The "curve" got SUV and Production qualification of MPV products.

Some industry views believe that the industry exit mechanism initiated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the “eliminated persons” brought about by the aggravation of the survival of the fittest have also provided new “prey” for the qualification “chase” of new car companies. Since the beginning of this year, due to the worrying profit situation, the sale of equity by qualified new energy car companies and the overall sale of old car companies have continued to occur, and the mergers and acquisitions of the auto industry have been more frequent than in previous years. After all, "curve" is not as attractive as "straight line". For a new car company, not having its own factory is equivalent to just a R&D and sales company. The image and quality of the brand will be largely determined by the foundry factory. Therefore, the production base, as the most important part of the auto industry for new car manufacturers, has not been terminated with the suspension of qualification approval. With the support of large amounts of funds and land from the local government, more than a dozen mainstream start-up companies have started the construction of production bases.

"We will use our factory in Tongling, Anhui to apply for qualification, but we are not in a hurry." Shen Haiyin said that since Singularity Motors will have cars on sale at the end of this year, qualification has become the top priority, and foundry is the most effective means of emergency relief. The construction of the Tongling base with an investment of 8 billion yuan by Singularity started at the end of 2017, and the first phase of construction is planned to be completed in 2018 with an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles. For new car manufacturers, such as Weimar and Dianjia, which have both foundry and acquisition, while laying out production bases, foundry is just a transition. Dianka has used this strategic combination more familiarly. Through Southeast Motor's foundry, Dianka's first A0-class electric vehicle has been on the market at the end of last year, and its sales have exceeded 2,000 in the first half of this year. At the time of the acquisition, Dianjia already had three bases, and said that it was applying for qualification through self-built bases at the same time.

Qingxing Automobile, which belongs to the "Tsinghua Series", chose to develop on the mature platform of FAW Group. Its Qingxing Jingke 400 even directly marked the FAW Group's logo. "We use FAW's factories and production qualifications, and use FAW's supporting facilities, which allows us to minimize the cost." Qingxing Motor COO Li Linguo told reporters.

Production capacity projects that have not been approved are all violations

“Currently, the production capacity of the entire automobile industry is sufficient. It is not necessary for every company to build new production capacity,” said the above-mentioned professional close to the National Development and Reform Commission. As the competent authority responsible for the approval of new energy vehicle production capacity, the National Development and Reform Commission treats both traditional car companies and new car companies. Of cooperation agrees, and believes that "cooperate if possible." The person believes that the advantages of new car companies are not in the production link, and any product must first undergo market tests. These new products still have many shortcomings. Whether they can be accepted by the market in the end is uncertain, and whether the capital and brand can keep up. There are also risks. Therefore, it is not recommended to invest heavily in capacity construction at the initial stage. Once it fails, it will only cause greater waste. The reporter learned that the Energy Administration also expressed the hope that the new energy car companies will increase cooperation with traditional car companies.

In the next direction of the new energy vehicle production qualification approval that the whole industry is concerned about, a person from the Development and Reform Commission previously told reporters that logically, the production access of new energy vehicles will follow the new regulations. The “new regulations” refer to the “Regulations on the Investment Management of the Automobile Industry (Draft for Comment)” issued in early July. The draft for comments strengthened the requirements for the review responsibilities of local governments, and at the same time increased the environmental conditions for the implementation of new production capacity, including the The requirements for the consumption and supporting capacity of new energy vehicles where the production capacity is located. This is aimed at curbing the chaos of using new energy vehicles to make blind investments and trapping money. At present, the draft opinion is still going through the approval process, and if nothing happens, it will be implemented within the year.

"Theoretically, these capacity construction projects are illegal and cannot be invested before they are approved." The above-mentioned person close to the Development and Reform Commission said that at present, new car companies are blooming everywhere to invest in production bases, in addition to the interests of local governments. There are also factors of imperfect law enforcement.

"The normal process is to first apply for the approval of the investment project (new enterprise), start construction after the approval, and apply for the announcement (product license) after completion." The person said that the term "qualification" is inaccurate and is an industry common saying, and the accurate term is "investment project review." "The application for approval of an investment project is submitted by the provincial government to the state. It must have a certain fixed asset investment project code, investment content, construction site, land procedures and construction plan, proof of source of funds, and other necessary materials."

In the current automotive industry, it is generally believed that only a factory can be established before the NDRC production qualification can be obtained (the official statement is "investment project approval"). From this point of view, this statement is wrong. It is reported that there is a mixture of projects under construction in the new energy automobile industry. In addition to the unapproved production capacity of most new car manufacturers, some are borrowed from auto parts projects, which are beyond the scope of construction; some are just borrowed from the so-called industrial park (factory) Projects exaggerate the impact, and some are just project planning, without the construction conditions, they are used to enclose money and land. Most of these projects are supported by local governments.

Regarding the industry rumors that there are currently a large number of companies waiting for the approval of new energy production qualifications, the National Development and Reform Commission denied it, saying that after the suspension of the approval of new energy vehicle investment projects was announced in June last year, no new information was received. Project approval application. The Economic Observer reporter learned that most of the new car companies that claim to be applying for project approval have not formally submitted their applications and are still in preparation.

The industry view is that the new "Automobile Industry Investment Management Regulations (Draft for Comment)" can be seen that the National Development and Reform Commission is striving to achieve a balance between market development and policy supervision in the approval of new energy production projects. According to the above-mentioned professionals close to the Development and Reform Commission, for any industry, the focus of government supervision should be on the front end, but for a new field such as new energy vehicles, it is inevitable that there are some inaccuracies and inaccurate grasps. The NDRC really intends to listen to industry opinions to reduce front-end intervention in the call to relax the threshold and allow capital to "freely fight".

However, any industry must have rules, otherwise chaos such as "swindling, kidnapping, and kidnapping" related to industrial safety can easily breed. Therefore, the new "Automobile Industry Investment Management Regulations (Draft for Comment)" has strengthened the assessment of the market environment and local government responsibilities in all aspects, and established a more reasonable entry assessment for the investment approval of new energy vehicle projects. "Most people have underestimated the impact of this document. We have been able to feel the changes in the capital market, and a deeper impact will soon appear." A new car company executive said.