Shanghai has emerged from the coldest moment of this unusual winter, but Gaohe Automobile has not. The whirlpool came from a community screenshot about Gaohe Automobile being stopped by its supplier. It was mixed with the good news on the sales posters of many car companies. It can be called "a little green in the midst of all the red". The content of the picture shows: "All work at Gaohe is suspended, including stopping shipments and stopping the development of new projects. Be prepared for prosecution."
Gaohe's public relations response was very fast, and the response was still the familiar formula-"everything is normal." Even the source of the community revelations was reportedly deleted.
However, when Automobile Commune reporters went to Gaohe Automobile headquarters for on-the-spot investigation, the complete story was only a part of the rumor. When this corner is smoothed out as "normal," then the huge iceberg is not far from surfacing.
From the "anger of suppliers" to the "difficulty of beating workers", all show the "confusion of new car manufacturing". And this picture also reflects the picture of the Automobile Commune's annual inventory "Blood 2023".
supplier wrath
"Gaohe Automobile is about to die." This extreme statement is not approved by the Automobile Commune. However, the official explanation of "everything is normal" seems to be more like a diplomatic "normal" in the eyes of Gaohe Automobile employees, which is not the same standard as the "normal" understood in daily life.
After all, “even the owner of the supermarket downstairs heard about the supplier and became afraid that our company would not be able to pay.” Li Ming (pseudonym) from the R&D department sat across from me, his face full of helplessness.
"Originally, the company would send X hundred yuan to our meal cards every month, which was equivalent to meal subsidies. After New Year's Day, the company said it would cancel it. We were scared to death at the time. Fortunately, the news was withdrawn later."
Considering that the specific amount of meal subsidy may reveal his identity, we can only say that X is a number "larger than several hundred".
This meal card could have been used directly at the convenience store and supermarket under the Gaohe office building. "We used to be able to swipe our meal cards there, but now Lawson's boss is afraid that our company won't be able to get the money, so he won't let us swipe our cards. Because when we swipe our meal cards, the money goes to the company's account, which is equivalent to a corporate transfer."
Therefore, the rumors of meal card-convenience store-supplier cutting off supplies, which were originally unrelated, have now formed a rather strange chain.
Picture | Inside the Gaohe Automobile Operations Center
So, is the rumored entanglement between Gaohe Automobile, or the entire parent company of Chinese Horizon, and its suppliers a fact or a market rumor?
At the beginning, the Automobile Commune reporter did not rule out the possibility of rumors out of a neutral starting point. Some Gaohe insiders who came into contact with the company for the first time said that "there are disputes with suppliers, but they are not as serious as the rumors online."
However, Li Ming, Zhang Kai and Lin Kun (all pseudonyms), who are also insiders, gave different accounts.
"Whether the company will collapse or not, I won't answer you. Don't easily believe that such a big company collapses arbitrarily. My identity and status cannot confirm or falsify the rumors that the online supplier has stopped." Lin Kun is still a little aware, "But I am already preparing my resume to apply for a job, and there are many such people among my colleagues. Especially after this revelation, the speed of submitting resumes has been much faster."
It's not that Lin Kun and others didn't want to keep Gao He's secret, but the pressure of their personal careers made their tightly sealed mouths open a little, revealing Gao He's current situation.
"Now the company does owe money to its suppliers." Li Ming is very sure. After all, he has first-hand information through his acquaintances and friends at Bosch.
It is reported that Bosch "will no longer work for us because Gaohe owes too much money, and has also laid off all the outsourced employees responsible for our work."
Of course, Bosch is not the only creditor of Gaohe.
In the past two days, when Zhang Kai went to play basketball on the roof of the office building, he overheard colleagues in the company's supply chain department talking about "owing 20 million to the supplier."
As for "whether it owes 20 million to all suppliers or 20 million to one of the suppliers," Zhang Kai said it was not clear. However, given the size of the automobile industry, if a supplier owes a total of 20 million yuan, it is not a serious matter at all.
Due to arrears in payment, some suppliers, including Bosch, have refused to provide Gaohefa with auto parts. This is consistent with online rumors.
The payment dispute between Gaohe Automobile and its suppliers has made outsourced employees the main sufferers. It can be said that a fire in the city gate affects the fish in the pond.
Plight of workers
Just after community screenshots revealed that the supplier had stopped the Gaohe project, another netizen broke the news that Gaohe Auto issued an announcement on Feishu on the first night of the New Year holiday, announcing the cancellation of employee meal subsidies, transportation subsidies, company shuttles and other benefits.
During this investigation, we heard from the parties involved.
According to Li Ming and Zhang Kai, what chilled them more than the various rumors was that there had been no news about expense reimbursements for several months, and the promotions the company had promised had turned out to be empty promises.
Li Ming admitted that he was "extremely panicked" at the moment, fearing that his company would become the next WeChat brand. "The boss took the money and ran away, and he was laid off and couldn't get compensation, which is particularly scary."
He has been thinking about whether he should go to graduate school again if he is really unemployed. After all, the current employment situation is too severe. But occasionally, a fantasy comes to his mind. Maybe the investment from the wealthy people in the Middle East has been obtained. "It is said that the process of the money is still being negotiated." "Last year, a photo of the wealthy people in the Middle East and the company's senior executives was posted in the work group."
Therefore, both Li Ming and Zhang Kai were particularly envious of NIO. "They both get their money from rich people in the Middle East. Why did NIO get the money immediately, but we were left hanging there?" Zhang Kai was indignant, "Our cars are more high-end than NIO."
Zhang Kai revealed that according to the promotion process of Gaohe's R&D department, R&D assistant engineers can be promoted to R&D engineers after working for one year, and their salaries can be increased significantly. "But now, although this upward path is not said to be blocked, it has not been implemented for a long time."
Even the patents applied by many engineers have been delayed in paying the related fees.
"Even S-class patents are not immune. The company said it will be postponed until February 14th. Do you think it is a red envelope for Valentine's Day?" Zhang Kai felt that the experience of his colleagues was not worth it. "I am so worried that I spent so much effort to write a patent, but in the end I don't know if the money will be paid."
“People in the company are panicking right now” and “recently everyone is optimizing their resumes and preparing to find a new job.” Li Ming, Zhang Kai and Lin Kun said similar things to us in conversations on different occasions and at different times.
On the way back to "Auto Commune", Didi driver Master Li talked about what he had just seen: "I just hired three people from Gaohe in my previous order, and they said they couldn't even reimburse the travel expenses for their business trip. One of them said he didn't reimburse more than 20,000 yuan, and he applied for it in October last year."
At this point, Master Li clicked his tongue: "This kind of company probably won't last long, because its products, to be honest, have no product power at all, and it can't raise capital now." "Its cars can't be sold, and it started late, so it doesn't have the upper hand, unlike Weilai and Xiaopeng."
It’s a pity that most of the founder’s business mistakes have to be paid for by employees in the end.
Confusion about new cars
The Automobile Co., Ltd. does not agree to directly judge that "Gaohe is dead" because of a rumor, but it is an indisputable fact that Gaohe is in danger and under pressure.
If the experiences of Gaohe Automobile employees and the whirlpool of suppliers are still internal disputes, then the externally related automobile products will inevitably be affected.
Picture | HiPhiA sports car, reportedly stalled
"I originally had the HiPhiA sports car, and I expected it to boost the brand," Zhang Kai said, "but now that the supplier is making such a fuss, there is no chance." In particular, HiPhiA is positioned as a high-end car, has a high price, and cannot make a significant contribution to sales like HiPhiY. Therefore, in Zhang Kai's view, even if the supplier does not make trouble, the project may not be able to survive. "I feel that the car is used to attract investors."
Li Ming also confirmed this. Due to arrears in payments, some suppliers, including Bosch, have refused to provide Gaohefa with auto parts. Therefore, "the HiPhiA project has been stopped, but the software has not."
We don’t know whether Gaohe will “refute the rumor” that HiPhiA has not stopped after this article was published. After all, the software work is still continuing, but the truth does not depend on the definition of “stop”, but also depends on whether Gaohe Auto’s subsequent sales performance improves.
According to the statistics of compulsory traffic insurance data from the Automobile Society and the sales data of the Passenger Association, the cumulative number of Gaohe Automobile insured in the first November of 2023 is 7,295, while the retail sales in November 2023 are 696, which is significantly lower than the approximately 1,800 in September and October.
The data submitted by Gaohe Automobile to associations such as the Passenger Car Association and platforms such as Understanding Cars shows a very strange distribution.
For example, in the Qianchedi retail sales column (which should correspond to the retail sales of the Passenger Car Association), we found that September and October were the results of HiphiY's increase in sales, and Gaohe's monthly sales exceeded 1,000 for the first time. However, in August and the previous period, there was no sales data of the Gaohe brand at all.
The opaqueness of the data directly leads to various Gaohe sales data given online. It is also said that the cumulative sales volume of Gaohe Automobile in 2021 will be 4,237 units, the full-year sales volume of Gaohe Automobile in 2022 will be 4,520 units, and the sales volume in the first November of 2023 will be 4,265 units. Looking at it this way, the number of insured vehicles given by the Automobile Corporation of China, 7,295, is more favorable to Gaohe.
From the establishment of Human Horizons to the rollout of Gaohe HiphiX at the Yancheng factory, the Automobile Commune has witnessed Gaohe's growth all the way. The reporter also personally stood in the renovated Gaohe factory workshop of Yueda Kia Factory 1 and listened to Ding Lei passionately talk about HiphiX's black technology and car-making ambitions. He also lamented that "even a veteran in the car industry like Mo Fei was hired by Gaohe."
The current situation is cold and cruel. Technology, talent, and ambition are necessary conditions for new car-making forces, but they are not sufficient conditions. How to assess the situation and find the correct positioning, accurately seize the opportunities, and respect the rules of the industry while walking on thin ice and never forget the original intention are the factors behind the ambition of technical talents, and many new car-making forces have forgotten these factors that are not obvious enough.
Since 2023, the changes in the silence of Gaohe employees are also a reflection of the environment in which this car company is located.
At the beginning of last year, someone held a banner saying "Pay back debts, it is natural" at the gate of Gaohe to defend rights. The company's capital chain was already tight at that time, Li Ming said.
In the second half of last year, "the Yancheng factory was suspended for a period of time," which made Li Ming and his colleagues anxious for many days.
At about the same time, the company announced another layoff. "The boss gave a 20% layoff target. The team leader gave the layoff list one level at a time, and finally gave it to HR. Those who were laid off can get N+1 compensation."
Until recently, Li Ming would glance at the number of people in his work group from time to time and found that colleagues were leaving almost every day. "Around New Year's Day, there were more than 30 people missing from the large group. At its peak, there were more than 4,900 people in the group. After the layoffs, there were only more than 4,300 people left." In a few days, this number is likely to continue to decrease.
It is difficult to raise a building, but it is easy for a tall building to fall. It cannot be denied that Gaohe Automobile and Human Horizons have made huge investments and efforts. However, whether their persistent sincerity and market-appropriate positioning can abandon the speculative mentality will be a more lasting test.
I still remember that in September 2020, Gaohe Automobile shouted to Tesla, Porsche and other brands from a distance on multiple outdoor LED screens in New York, London, Tokyo, Beijing and other places:
HiTesla,yousaidit'sgoodfortheworldifsomeonemadeabetterEV.That'swhywe'rehere.
(Hey Tesla, you said you'd love it if someone made a better electric car. That's why we're here.)
HiPorsche,yousaidyoucouldn'tfindthecarofyourdreams,soyoubuiltityourself.Weknowhowthatfeels.
(Hey Porsche, you said you couldn't find your dream car, so you built your own. We feel the same way.)
Three years later, Tesla and Porsche were swaying in the whirlpool but not falling. BYD and the leading new forces burst out with new brilliance when they were under pressure; while Gaohe was gradually showing signs of weakness in the face of the wave.
Those once beautiful stories are all old things, but what we are facing now is a harsh war. Gaohe Automobile, what will the next news from you be?
Author丨Fan Shuqi, Shi Jie
Editor in charge丨Cui Liwen
Editor丨Jin Penghui