M7 rear-end collision, WENJIE, Bosch respond contradictory Sales nearly 300,000 units, battery maintains 0 self-ignition record On April 26, a WENJIE M7 vehicle in Yuncheng, Shanxi province was involved in a traffic accident, resulting in the deaths of 3 people. According to online videos, a WENJIE M7 rear-ended a road maintenance vehicle on the highway, causing the WENJIE M7’s front end to catch fire. Rescuers attempted to break the car windows to save people but were unsuccessful. The accident has attracted widespread attention, with the focus on whether the intelligent driving system of major car companies is as smart as advertised. Some family members of the victims questioned why the AEB and GAEB, which were promoted by the vehicle, did not automatically apply emergency braking. Despite good protection, why did the battery still catch fire? Why did the airbags not provide adequate protection? On April 28, WENJIE officials responded that the vehicle was traveling at a speed of 115 kilometers per hour at the time of the accident, the airbags deployed correctly, and the characteristics of the power battery pack were normal. Specific investigation results will be provided by the traffic police department in the future.
The statement said that all possible support will be provided to the families, and the vehicle involved was the non-smart driving version, not equipped with Huawei’s advanced smart driving assistance system, but with Bosch’s non-smart driving version AEB, with a working range of 4-85km/h, while the collision speed of 115km/h far exceeded the AEB trigger range. On the same day, Bosch stated that the vehicle involved in the Wanjie M7 accident in Yuncheng, Shanxi, did not have Bosch’s smart driving system. It is worth noting that subsequent reports revised the response given by Wanjie, deleting the reference to the “Bosch solution” used. AITO Automotive’s Wanjie brand is a smart selection model jointly developed by Huawei and Sales. The Chairman of Huawei’s Intelligent Car Solution BU, Yu Chengdong, called it the “biggest beneficiary of the smart selection car mode.” On April 1, according to data released by AITO, 31,727 new cars were delivered in March, once again leading the monthly sales of new Chinese market brands, and winning the sales champion of new Chinese market brands for three consecutive months with a leading advantage. AITO Automotive stated that the sales of the new M7 from Wanjie continue to grow steadily, with 24,598 new cars delivered in March and a cumulative delivery of over 120,000 units since its launch. It is known that safety has always been a focus of concern for the Sales AITO Wanjie series. Recently at the Beijing Auto Show, Sailes launched the Sailes Magic Square platform, which focuses on “panoramic safety” and can achieve over 200 safety functions covering more than 150 safety scenarios. According to official propaganda, AITO’s sales volume is close to 300,000 units, with no record of spontaneous combustion in the battery. The cause of the recent fire incident is still uncertain, but some industry insiders suggest that the possibility of the range extender catching fire cannot be ruled out based on the initial location of the fire. Zhou Hongyi’s Maibach was auctioned off for 990 million, bringing in top traffic, but the owner turned out to be his ex-wife’s company. On the evening of April 28th, the auction with the theme “Sell Maibach, Embrace Domestic New Energy” was held at the 360 headquarters in Beijing, with a starting price of 600 yuan (80$). Zhou Hongyi stated that after the auction of the Maibach S600, he will not keep a penny and will donate the full amount to the Wang Xuan Foundation in the name of both himself and the buyer after deducting taxes. Additionally, Zhou Hongyi will provide the opportunity for the buyer to dine with him three times in three years, similar to “Buffett’s lunch.” It is understood that the bidders at the auction came from all over the country, especially from Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan, and other places, mainly concentrated in the second-hand car platform, car export, and other online platforms. The number of viewers online reached nearly 800,000. In the end, the auction was sold for 9.9 million yuan, a far cry from the starting price of 600 yuan (80$), with an increase of over 10,000 times and a premium of 10 times the market valuation.
According to reports, the buyer of the car is Chu Zhenliang, the founder of Tianan Used Cars. Tianan Used Cars, established in 2002, is one of the top 100 companies in the industry, operating various used cars with over 500 vehicles in stock and a workshop of over 3000 square meters. The buyer on site mentioned that he was there to ride on the popularity of Zhou Hongyi. If the car is not sold that day, the man will increase his followers by 290,000. However, an auction agreement signed with the bidder shows that the owner of the Maybach auctioned by Zhou Hongyi is Beijing Dajue Investment Consultant Co., Ltd., whose actual controller is Zhou Hongyi’s ex-wife Hu Huan, holding 100% of the shares. In April 2023, according to an announcement by 360, Zhou Hongyi divorced Hu Huan, with a “divorce fee” of approximately 8.967 billion yuan worth of company shares. Undeniably, this 9-year-old Maybach has brought Zhou Hongyi great popularity and attention. Previously, Zhou Hongyi had posted a video stating that he wanted to sell the Maybach S600 and switch to a domestically produced new energy intelligent connected vehicle. He called on domestic car manufacturers to “provide experience vehicles, with no refusal to visitors.” He said, “This is because I need to experience the feeling of the new generation of cars. The ancients said to ‘break the cauldrons and sink the boats,’ so I will sell this car, give up the traditional luxury car, and switch to a domestically produced new energy intelligent connected vehicle.” Upon hearing this news, nearly 20 domestic new energy automobile brands, including NIO, Huawei’s Wenshi, Xiaopeng, Jike, Avita, and Yangwang, volunteered. On the day of the auction, half of the car circle attended: at the scene of the 360 Building, various cars such as Ideal, Xiaopeng, Great Wall, Xiaomi, Nezha, etc. were displayed. Recently, Zhou Hongyi’s popularity peaked on the first day of the Beijing Auto Show on the 25th. He visited the booths of Nezha Auto, NIO, Ideal, and Jike, and interacted with the founders of many car brands on site. Zhou Hongyi even climbed onto the roof of an off-road vehicle, which was photographed and spread on the internet, and netizens jokingly called him the “oldest car model at the auto show.” As of now, Zhou Hongyi has 11.517 million followers on Weibo and nearly 6 million fans on Douyin. In contrast to the crazy increase in followers, the company’s market value continues to shrink. As of the time of publication, 360’s stock price closed at 8.67 yuan (10$)/share, with a total market value of 61.95 billion yuan, evaporating nearly 400 billion yuan from its peak. According to the financial report, in 2023, 360’s revenue was 9.055 billion yuan, a decrease of 4.89% year-on-year; with a net loss of 492 million yuan. Less than 3 years after taking office, Moutai suddenly needs to change its leader. Exceeded the task, currently in the front line before being reassigned. On April 27, according to the Beijing Business Daily, Moutai Group’s Party Secretary and Chairman, Ding Xiongjun, may be transferred to the Director of the Guizhou Provincial Market Supervision Administration, and Xijiu Chairman Zhang Deqin may be transferred to the Chairman of Moutai Group. In response to this, Moutai stated, “Official information should be relied upon.” It is reported that Ding Xiongjun took over as Chairman of Guizhou Moutai on August 30, 2021, previously serving as the Party Secretary and Director of the Guizhou Provincial Energy Bureau.
Financial report shows that from 2021 to 2023 under the leadership of Ding Xiongjun, Guizhou Maotai’s revenue increased by 413.96 billion yuan, and profit increased by 222.74 billion yuan. In the first quarter of this year, revenue was 464.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.04%; net profit was 240.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.73%, both exceeding the target tasks. As of the close on April 29th, Maotai’s market value was 2.14 trillion yuan, higher than Guizhou Province’s GDP of 2.09 trillion yuan in 2023. In 2022, Ding Xiongjun was named “Top 10 Economic Figures of the Year” by the China Economic Media Association for launching the Maotai APP, introducing Maotai 1935, Maotai ice cream, and Xunfeng digital world, significantly promoting Maotai’s all-round development. It is reported that the retail price of Maotai 1935 is 1188 yuan (160$), filling the gap in Maotai’s product matrix for the lack of a thousand yuan price range. In 2023, Maotai 1935 achieved revenue of 11 billion yuan, becoming a super single product outside of Maotai’s Feitian brand with over ten billion in revenue. In 2023, iMaotai achieved sales revenue of 223.74 billion yuan, an 88.29% year-on-year increase, leading to Guizhou Maotai’s direct sales ratio rising to 45.67%, compared to less than 10% in 2019. Despite the outstanding performance, news of a transfer suddenly emerged. According to Maotai Group’s official website, Ding Xiongjun led a team to conduct on-site inspections on April 24th to 25th. However, Ding Xiongjun’s transfer to the director of the Guizhou Provincial Market Supervision Bureau also seems to be “well-founded.” After December 2023, the position of director of the Guizhou Provincial Market Supervision Administration has been vacant. Zhang Deqin, who is rumored to be the ninth leader, joined Guizhou Maotai in 1995. Zhang Deqin took over as chairman of Xijiu under Maotai in 2010. According to public information, Xijiu’s sales revenue in 2023 was 22 billion yuan. Can Zhang Deqin, who has only managed Xijiu with a market value of over 10 billion, control Maotai with a market value of over 1 trillion and revenue of over 100 billion? The market is watching closely. An ideal employee was punished for discussing sensitive issues. After the car lock incident, Lei Jun was politely declined when he offered an ideal car. The former “Weibo King” in the car circle has not posted on Weibo for 57 days, but Li Xiang and his ideal car have not been idle. On April 29, it was rumored online that Ideal Car punished sales staff for commenting on sensitive issues in their circle of friends. In response, Ideal Car exclusively told Titanium Media App that the situation was true. According to the leaked image online, the employee’s actions violated Ideal Car’s “Retail Store Management System” red line clause: using official social media accounts to post content that does not align with the brand’s tone and damages the brand image. The employee was given a red line warning, with penalties including public notification, human resource record entry, deduction of 100% performance for the month, and demotion with reduced salary. Store managers also need to bear joint management responsibility and were criticized in a public notification. The image content shows that Ideal Car emphasized to store employees to eliminate behaviors that defame and attack competitors, participate in negative discussions about competitors, and other actions that damage the brand image.
On April 27, during the opening of the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, it was rumored online that Xiaomi founder Lei Jun was locked in a car for ten minutes by Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto. On the first day of the Beijing Auto Show, in the Ideal Auto exhibition area, Li Xiang invited Lei Jun to experience the new family five-seater luxury SUV – Ideal L6. The camera showed Li Xiang introducing the car’s features to Lei Jun outside the car, and even closing the door, sparking discussion among netizens. Xiaomi’s car department jokingly commented, “Let our boss out.” On April 27, Xu Jieyun, special assistant to the chairman of Xiaomi Group, reposted relevant Weibo posts and denied the rumors: “Fake, I was right next to Li Xiang. The actual situation was that Mr. Lei sat in the L6 to experience it, and at the time was saying that the armrests on the left and right were very comfortable, which was very reasonable from a design perspective. Jokes are jokes, don’t take them seriously.” Wang Hua from Xiaomi’s public relations department also said, “Netizens have been too imaginative these days. Seeing the interaction between Mr. Lei and Li Xiang, whether at the Xiaomi booth or the Ideal booth, the two bosses had a good conversation. Let’s not take the jokes seriously.” On April 28, after 57 days of no updates, Li Xiang expressed his gratitude to Lei Jun on Weibo and decided to give him an Ideal L6 Max as a token of appreciation for his support and recognition. He mentioned, “During the time when our Ideal MEGA faced a public relations crisis, Mr. Lei’s team also proactively came to help us solve the problem. For Mr. Lei and friends from Xiaomi, our team has two keywords: gratitude + learning.” Subsequently, Lei Jun expressed his gratitude for Li Xiang’s gesture but decided to buy one to show support, saying, “I think buying one myself shows more support.” He also live-streamed the process of buying the Ideal L6 Max for his fans, mentioning that he saw the Ideal sales staff using Xiaomi phones. Musk rushes to China, meeting with the Prime Minister 6 times Tesla gets the data security card, no more restricted areas? According to @Chang Yan CY on April 29, the plane of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has taken off from the capital airport in China after a visit of only about 24 hours. But the benefits are profound.
“Tesla’s development in China is a successful example of Sino-US economic and trade cooperation,” he said. China’s huge market will always be open to foreign companies and will continue to work on expanding market access and strengthening service guarantees to allow enterprises from all countries to invest in China. This is Musk’s second visit to China within a year. Analyst Daniel Ives from Wedbush called this a “watershed moment” for Tesla. On the same day Musk arrived in Beijing, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released a report on the testing of four safety requirements for car data processing. Tesla was among the six companies and the only foreign company that met the requirements. According to Yicai, Tesla stated that with its inclusion in the first batch of companies to pass the four safety requirements for car data processing, restrictions on smart cars like Tesla have been gradually lifted in various places. On April 29, Bloomberg reported that Tesla will clear key obstacles to launching advanced driver assistance features in China through cooperation with Baidu in mapping and navigation functions. Following this news, Baidu’s Hong Kong stocks rose more than 5% in the afternoon. However, as of the time of writing, Baidu has not responded to the news. In the first quarter, Tesla’s car deliveries and revenue decreased year-on-year, while net profit was halved, indicating the company is facing a new crisis. Of course, Tesla still has the option of “price cuts,” such as the price reduction plan announced for the Chinese market last week, with the maximum reduction reaching 15,000 yuan (2070$). However, this price cut may not replicate past successes of immediately gaining tens of thousands of orders, so Musk may have to rely on the successful launch of FSD to attract more potential customers. Many believe that Musk’s lightning-fast visit, meetings with high-level Chinese officials, and clear legal permissions indicate that he has cleared the way for FSD to be launched in China in just half a day. However, the issues of “access to the Chinese market,” “data security,” and “FSD entry into China” are independent events that present a series of challenges for Musk, which cannot be solved with just one quick visit to China.