After Ji Yue falls, who will be the next?

Cars come and go, people come and go. In the tide of China's rapid development of new energy vehicles, many people and things have already secretly marked their prices, just waiting for a certain point in time to collectively pay the bill.

For example, Jiyue’s founding process went through many twists and turns, and its sales performance continued to be sluggish. Too many foreshadowings had already clearly indicated its ending.

Take sales as an example. Jiyue has released data intermittently. Roughly speaking, until the news broke, the cumulative sales were just over 10,000 units. With an investment of nearly 10 billion yuan, anyone who sees this data will cry. So at the Chengdu Auto Show in August, Xia Yiping cried and said, "We sold more than 200 units in January and more than 100 units in February. I feel bad too."

The continued lagging behind in sales eventually became Jiyue's Achilles' heel.

What is even more disturbing is that after Jiyue’s collapse, even with the support of Baidu and Geely, what will happen to its thousands of employees, suppliers, and consumers in the future is still a question mark.

The fall of Jiyue is by no means an isolated case. There are many new energy vehicle brands whose sales volume does not meet the passing line. Who will be the next one?

The sales ranking list in November shows that the sales of many car companies are even lower than those of Jiyue. For example, Nezha Auto, unsurprisingly, comes into view. Its sales are much lower than Jiyue, which makes it hard not to worry about its future.

Nezha has not actively announced its delivery volume for two consecutive months. According to data released by the China Passenger Car Association, Nezha Auto's domestic retail volume in November was 1,500 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 85.10% and a month-on-month decrease of 75.00%.

At a time of life and death, Nezha Auto made major personnel changes in December. Nezha Auto officially announced that due to the company's strategic adjustment, Zhang Yong would no longer serve as CEO and would become a company consultant. Nezha Auto founder and chairman Fang Yunzhou would concurrently serve as the company's CEO and step forward to personally steer the company's reform.

According to an internal open letter, Fang Yunzhou proposed three major goals: drastic reforms to expand the global market; setting IPO as the top priority; striving to turn the overall gross profit margin positive in 2025 and achieve overall profitability in 2026.

However, Nezha Auto has long lost its past "highlights", with sales falling again and again, and problems such as layoffs, arrears, and production suspension have not yet been resolved. This first requires a large amount of money for blood transfusions, and then for blood circulation. Moreover, these are not things that can be easily solved by the chairman himself.

Jishi Auto, which started out as a manufacturer of Roborock sweepers, has also been hit by bad news. In November, it delivered 650 vehicles, up 322% year-on-year; in the first 11 months, Jishi delivered a total of 4,127 vehicles, up 1,726% year-on-year. The seemingly good growth data only shows that its base is low and cannot cover up the fact that overall sales are too low.

From its establishment in 2021 to the present, JISHI Auto has won 7 rounds of financing and launched a JISHI 01 car with "one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom" for 299,900 yuan in just a few years.

What is more worrying is that from March last year to June this year, Jishishi’s founder Chang Jing continued to reduce his holdings, and his shareholding ratio in Stone Technology dropped from 23.15% to 21.09%, with a total cash out of about 888 million yuan.

In early December, the topic "Stone Technology Chairman Chang Jing cashed out nearly 900 million yuan but advised investors to be patient" became a hot search, and one netizen commented that "buying your Stone Technology stock makes me depressed."

The thin product line, high pricing, and the share reduction operation of JIS Auto's founder make it difficult to be reassured by this new entrant into the market.

Chang Jing said that after the company went public, it needed a new dream, so it entered the new energy vehicle market. He is an in-depth self-driving tour enthusiast, understands user needs, and can build good cars.

However, if Jishishi also fails, the founder will at most have a dream shattered, but the consumers who bought the car and the company's employees will lose their youth and money.

China's new energy vehicle market is a "big cake", and new forces, traditional car companies, and even joint venture brands all hope to get a larger share. However, in the middle of the game, the current situation is becoming more and more like what Yu Chengdong predicted - in the future, there will be no more than five mainstream car companies.

Jiyue is not the first to fall, but it will definitely not be the last. Who will be the next Jiyue?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.