The new automobile field is in turmoil, and 36Kr has great curiosity and attention to this. However, the automobile industry seems a bit complicated and difficult. 36Kr hopes to understand this extraordinary industry and the extraordinary people in this industry from a more "human" perspective through the "36 people in the Automobile" column.
EVCARD is currently one of the largest companies in China's time-sharing leasing market, incubated by SAIC Holdings 51%, Shanghai International Automobile City. Rong Wenwei is the chairman of Motor City and EVCARD. Because of time-sharing rental, the Auto City walked from behind to the front stage. In addition to EVCARD, the startup car company NIO is also a resident of the Auto City.
oral description | Rong Wenwei
interview | Wang Hailu
editor | Yang Xuan
In 2012, we communicated with Europe and the United States, and saw others doing time-sharing rentals. We thought China should have it, so we found Yi Hi, Hertz, I hope they can recommend it and we will support the government. They don't do it.
They said: First, they know this, but they don’t make money. Second, they use electric cars to make them, and they don’t do them, which is unreliable.
So far today, no time-sharing leasing company can overcome the break-even point, and there is no one in the world. so their judgment is correct. We have been in EVCARD for more than 4 years, and now we can see where the breakeven point is, but we can't see it even when we look at it. But we believe that we can get out of it. This is not a matter of just burning money in it, but it depends on whether it is a long or a short one.
development time-sharing rental is our "task". In 2010, at the G20 Energy Ministers Conference, Minister Wan Gang attended the conference, and said at the conference that it would establish an "International Demonstration City for Electric Vehicles". What is the concept? These ministers saw that electric cars were about to come out, so how could they run in the city? There are many problems. There are issues of charging, subsidies, acceptance of the people, and business model.
EVCARD originated from China's "electric vehicle demonstration city", which is our mission. In 2012, the Ministry of Science and Technology organized us to exchange in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and France. During the process, we saw the foreign "car sharing", which was translated into Chinese as "car sharing". But in fact, Didi and Kuaidi were all car sharing at that time. How to distinguish it? We found 4 words in Chinese - time-sharing rental. Now it is called these four words in China.
in the United States, time-sharing leasing is more about leasing companies, France and Paris are being promoted by the government, and Germany are being promoted by the car companies. Back to China, we want to use the government-added enterprise model to promote it. Without a demonstration city, we would not touch time-sharing rentals. If someone does it, we won’t be involved in the competitive field. This is the origin of our founding of the EVCARD brand.
EVCARD was just started, and there were very few cars, so you can buy whatever cars you have. We first bought SAIC Roewe E50. In 2015, SAIC felt that this model was also in line with SAIC's strategy and began to do time-sharing leasing. Later, the city government leaders said: I hope you can join forces, because parking space resources are limited. If your outlets cannot be returned, this public resource is a waste and will not benefit urban management. The two companies are state-owned enterprises, so there is no need to fight around, so they merged.
merge is a good thing, not a bad thing. hits, no one makes money. We didn't make money at first, and we could only lose more in the end. SAIC Holdings is reasonable in terms of large financial support in the future, and can ensure that this matter can be continued. SAIC makes tens of billions of profits every year, loses 1 billion or 2 billion, and can hold on. If you change to a small company, you will definitely not be able to stand it.
Auto City originally set up a stage, not a performer. Electric cars started and we were involved in some opera singing. We think it should be performed, but no one acts, so we rush up and act. Our group of people think that if we don’t do it and China is 5 years and 10 years behind, then will you do it or not?
Auto City was established in 2001, and I participated in the planning. When I came, I looked around and saw only farmland. We built the bridge and we built the road. At that time, more than a dozen subjects (developed together), and I was the general manager of one of them. Later we merged these companies and invested more than 10 billion yuan each year. By 2006, the industrial chain was basically complete.Tongji University, racing stadiums, testing centers, automobile trade, museums, exhibition centers... Of course, there are many complete vehicle and parts manufacturing companies.
We are actually a piece of automotive innovation here. What does the entire industrial chain mean? Ecology. These people, who live here, know cars better than others, and are more interested in cars. NIO is in our car city.
3 years ago, Li Bin came to me to talk about it. He didn't ask for any government resources or talk about taxes of 1 cent. He felt that the soil in this place was good and could allow him to quickly accumulate a large number of people and make cars. They have been in our Motor City since 3 people, and now there are more than 3,000 people.
You said that 3 years ago, three people wanted to build cars. What do we think? At least, we recognize their philosophy. We support this direction, and as for whether he has the ability, we have to see.
I have been in the Auto City for more than ten years, and I think the automotive industry needs changes. People in the automotive industry are not short of money, and all vehicle manufacturers are very rich. Why hasn’t automobile capital produced good products and leading things? It may be necessary to indeed have a group of people joining the industry and develop Chinese cars from another dimension from a completely different perspective. The idea of the independent brand of
has always been to find a mid-range car in a series of foreign brands. I will replace it and do such a thing. But you are just replacing one of its products, and it may not be replaced. You are in the process of replacing it, and it reduces the price of the previous one and beats you up. This way of playing makes us very tired and we can never get out of it.
Tesla's philosophy is to surpass vehicle manufacturers and replace functional machines. Do you think Tesla's products are better than Mercedes-Benz and BMW? No. Tesla's failure rate and repair rate are far higher than BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and its maturity is not as high as Mercedes-Benz or BMW. But society is tolerant, and Americans do have this mentality. The reason why is inclusive is that it is challenging the limits of humanity.
I think Chinese consumers should also have this mentality. You are not perfect now, and you can improve it in 3 or 5 years. Our consumers are more important, what you give me must be the best and the highest quality. As for me, I will not do this obligation to promote this industry and this product.
China released a batch of (Internet artificial cars) at that time, and Li Bin was one of them. I have driven Li Xiang’s car, and I don’t think it’s easy. I really hope that Chinese consumers can see them pushing the industry forward.
At the end of 2017, BMW time-sharing rental brand ReachNow entered China and cooperated with EVCARD to be responsible for the joint operation of the local market. The picture shows Rong Wenwei
When we were promoting time-sharing rental, I went to Wei to see it. Li Bin said he also did another project, which is Mobike. shared bicycles have a great impact on us. Although there are criticisms and praises and criticisms now. But indeed, the first is the big trend. Second, it turns out that in the bicycle industry, everyone cares about the brand. Now what we care about is whether the car is yellow or blue, no matter which factory it is built. I think if time-sharing rental goes to the end, it will also go between users and car manufacturers and play a very important role.
time-sharing rental, we do it ourselves, and we can see it clearly. Your future competitors may be large vehicle manufacturers and Internet platforms. Everyone thinks they have advantages, like Meituan, it thinks they have customers. Some people think I have a system. We have a deeper understanding of cities than others and can take fewer detours than others. If you don’t have core competitiveness, you will definitely be eliminated in the end.
will not have only one company in the future, but there should be several. I think they (Internet platform) are just fast, but there are still many internal rules. This is not a matter of taking out a pattern in one day or two days. The system you build is consistent with the future development laws and you can go long. What is the rule of
? Everyone is exploring. The reason why we have not reached the breakeven point is because we have not reached it yet and have already figured things out to this level.
Everyone comes in, which means that it is right and can promote social progress.Follow the rules, who will come out in the end depends on who is closer to the rules of this matter.
