On New Year's Eve, a meeting was held and the notice was as follows: year-end bonuses were cancelled, wages were delayed, and the company was considering reducing salaries for all employees. This is not a joke, this is a new development that has just been exposed by Gaohe, a new car-making force that focuses on luxury. The big theme is clear:We have no money and we have to save ourselves.
Some Gaohe employees even revealed that they also "encourage employees to save themselves", that is, they take the initiative to resign, and the company will provide help with the resignation process.
The car park is like a battlefield, but this wave of changes is coming too fast.
Because it focuses on luxury, Gaoheyi has always spent generously. When the product was unveiled that year, car critics from all walks of life showed off the Shanghai Peace Hotel.
In June last year, Gao Hecai signed a contract worth 40.1 billion yuan with a Middle Eastern tycoon.
Today, I am standing on the edge of the cliff.
The new luxury force can no longer pay wages
Less than two days before New Year’s Eve, Gaohe held a staff meeting in the evening. Judging from the information exposed on the Internet, the meeting mainly talked about three things:
First of all, January’s wages are scheduled to be postponed until the end of February, and only social security and provident funds will be paid for that month.
at the same time,The 2023 year-end bonus is cancelled.
Finally, it was announced that the company would take salary cuts or layoffs to save itself, and specific plans are still under discussion. If there are subsequent large-scale layoffs, severance compensation is currently unclear.
The company also "encourages employees to actively save themselves", that is, to go out to find a job and resign voluntarily. Gaohe "will provide maximum support in the resignation process."
After the meeting,All members of the company have been banned from posting.
Some employees immediately expressed their decision to start looking for jobs. He expressed distrust in the statement that "wages are planned to be paid by the end of February", saying that it is likely that they will not be paid by the end of February.
After all, the company has also informed me that I will go to work as normal on the ninth day of the new year, and I am worried that my whole day's work will be in vain.
Gaohe has financial problems, and there have been signs before.
Employees have been forced to work from home a few days ago, but they are not allowed to take away company computers.
Earlier, on last month's payday, many employees were anxiously waiting for their wages to be paid. As a result, suppliers blocked the door the next day and held up banners demanding repayment.
Many people may be confused about Gaohe's current predicament due to arrears with suppliers and the inability to pay wages:
Can’t the Middle Eastern tycoon’s 40 billion save a new force?
On June 11 last year, the Saudi Ministry of Investment and Chinese Horizons (the parent company of Gaohe Automobile) signed a contract worth 20.1 billion Saudi riyals, equivalent to approximately 40.1 billion yuan.
It was previously reported that the actual amount of the 40.1 billion yuan investment is conditional and depends on Gaohe's sales.
Gaohe's sales have been sluggish for a long time and it has long stopped announcing it to the public. There have been reports recently that Saudi Arabia’s huge investment has fallen through.
It’s no wonder that since the beginning of the new year, there has been constant bad news about Gaohe. Some netizens even said:
The mighty horse beckons to you (Gaohe).
This new luxury brand, which has been controversial because of Jia Yueting since its inception, is in crisis.
Who is Gaohe Automobile?
Gaohe Automobile is a brand of Chinese Horizons. Its founder, Ding Lei, worked at SAIC for a long time in his early years, rising from a quality inspection engineer to vice president of SAIC.
Ding Lei accumulated experience in founding, operating and managing an automobile brand at SAIC. He left SAIC in 2011 and later did a major event that affected the Chinese automobile industry:
Responsible for introducing Tesla to invest and build a factory in Shanghai.
Perhaps it was Ding Lei who took the lead in introducing Tesla in 2014 and came into contact with Tesla's products, and he returned to car manufacturing the following year.
Then I met the man named Jia Yueting.
△On the left is Jia Yueting, on the right is Ding Lei
In September 2015, Jia Yueting officially announced that Ding Lei had joined LeTV as co-founder of LeTV Super Cars and other positions, and was responsible for the specific business of LeTV's car manufacturing.
Fortunately, before the LeTV crisis, in March 2017, Ding Lei got out in time and resigned from LeTV.
Human Horizons was founded that year, and the Gaohe Automobile brand was later released at the end of July 2019.
In September of the following year, it released its first pure electric SUV, HiPhiX, priced at 570,000-800,000 yuan.
As soon as HiPhiX debuted, some netizens thought it was "Farifaqi":
△The top is HiPhiX, the bottom is Faraday Future FF91
Apart from the eye-catching shape and the door design that combines Rolls-Royce bi-fold doors, Model
Therefore, after three years on the market, the official sales volume is only more than 7,000 units. The HiPhiZ and Y models launched later also had high prices and mediocre sales.
As early as last year, Gaohe stopped announcing sales to the outside world.
The product did not sell well, and there was no accumulation of technology. HiPhiX, which starts at 570,000 yuan, does not have lidar and is still a 400V platform.
It is said that smart driving has also considered cooperating with a major manufacturer to adopt the same solution for cars priced at more than 100,000 yuan.
With no technical barriers, no product capabilities, and no ability to roll cars, Gaohe has never been able to make blood, and has been exposed to operating difficulties many times.
As early as October last year, some suppliers came to ask for outstanding debts. At the same time, there was news that 20% of employees would be laid off.
Since the beginning of the new year, there has been even more negativity:
On January 2, a forum revealed the news that "all work at Gaohe was suspended." Gaohe later responded in the name of an insider that "everything is normal."
At the end of January, netizens in Chengdu and Guangzhou photographed the closure of local Gaohe stores. The responses from shopping malls in both places were:
Due to internal reasons of the brand, it is no longer able to continue operating in this mall.
Regarding the closure of stores in Guangzhou, Gaohe's response was "strategic adjustment and store relocation", while Chengdu did not provide an explanation:
So far, Gaohe Automobile has not responded to the news exposed by employees about delayed payment of wages and cancellation of year-end bonuses.
Various incidents show thatGaohe Automobile stepped into danger.
Coincidentally, Gaohe is another new force whose founder is from a traditional car company, following WM, Byton and AIWAYS, and is in crisis.
In 2023, the car industry will engage in price wars offline and "war of words" online, and hot models in each segment of the track will usher in challengers one after another.
Some new force founders have said that 2024-2026 will be a brutal three years, while other new force bosses predict that the industry will enter the "finals" in 2025.
Judging from the intensive personnel changes among car companies in January, each company's reinforcements are sprinting for tickets to the finals. The brutal involution in 2023 will continue or even intensify.
Now, Gaohe's employees and car owners should all feel this cruelty.