The sales volume of Yinlong New Energy Bus has fallen off a cliff, and Dong Mingzhu’s dream of building a car has fallen？

Recently, the information of Tianyancha and Qixinbao showed that many directors and supervisors of Yinlong New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yinlong New Energy") withdrew, including Dong Mingzhu, the chairman of Zhuhai Gree Electric Co., Ltd. At present, the main personnel of Yinlong New Energy are only Lu Chunquan and Lai Xinhua, and the chairman is Lu Chunquan and Lai Xinhua. At the same time, Lai Xinhua also holds the position of general manager.

Previously, the chairman of Yinlong New Energy was Lu Chunquan and the general manager Lai Xinhua; Directors are Dong Mingzhu, Deng Xiaobo, Peng Jihai, Sun Guohua, Wei Guohua and Wei Yincang; The supervisors are Yao Kejie, Hu Zhaowei and Zhang Wei respectively. Although Yinlong New Energy denied the withdrawal of many directors and supervisors, the information of Tianyancha and Kaixinbao changed.

However, Dong Mingzhu is still the second largest shareholder of Yinlong, holding 17.46%. The largest shareholder of the company is Zhuhai Yinlong Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., holding 25.99% of the shares; Sunshine Life Insurance Co., Ltd. is the third largest shareholder, holding 11.60%.

Investment logic

Dong Mingzhu once looked at BOC Long’s lithium titanate battery and new energy vehicle business, and pushed Gree Electric to acquire Yinlong through private placement financing, but he was frustrated. Since then, Dong Mingzhu invested in Zhuhai Yinlong in his personal capacity, spending about 1 billion yuan and taking 17.46% of the shares in Yinlong, becoming the second largest shareholder of Yinlong. She also brought Wang Jianlin and Liu Qiangdong. She said at that time that the decision to invest in Zhuhai Yinlong was not aimed at profit, but hoped to support the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry.

At present, Yinlong’s main business is mainly new energy commercial vehicles. According to the latest data from China Bus Statistics Information Network, the sales volume of Yinlong New Energy Bus reached 2,708 in 2019, down by 62.8% year-on-year. It is worth noting that Yinlong New Energy relies too much on state subsidies. On April 25, 2019, Yinlong New Energy revealed on its WeChat WeChat official account that the former senior executives of Yinlong New Energy were suspected of defrauding the national financial subsidies for new energy vehicles, amounting to 112 million yuan.

Soon after Dong Mingzhu entered Zhuhai Yinlong, he began to expand rapidly and planned to go public. According to public information, Zhuhai Yinlong has signed nine industrial parks including Shijiazhuang and Luoyang, with a total investment of over 80 billion. The rapid expansion caused Yinlong to have overcapacity immediately. On the one hand, orders fell in a cliff-like manner, and a large number of finished vehicles in the factory were parked idle. On the other hand, it was constantly exposed that it was in arrears with suppliers’ payment. Yinlong was also terminated in 2018. IPO counseling. In addition, Yinlong New Energy has been listed as the executor for many times, and the contradiction between internal shareholders and management is constantly a magic weapon. In particular, the contradiction between Dong Mingzhu and Wei Yincang, the founder of Yinlong, intensified.

"The rapid expansion strategy and management turmoil aggravate the risks of L Yinlong New Energy, especially the changes in management, which will have a great impact on the company’s strategy and development rhythm." An industry person told reporters. Luo Lei, Deputy Secretary-General of china automobile dealers association, also said in an interview with CBN: "Yinlong mainly deals in passenger cars, but it is ok to concentrate on it. With the intervention of Dong Mingzhu, the degree of attention has become higher. However, buses are niche products, and the total supply is limited. Yinlong’s crazy expansion in the past two years has problems, and the development of enterprises should be steady growth to remain healthy. Expansion is based on the integrity of the whole system, which is closely related to scale, parts procurement and supply, production line, logistics and after-sales service. Once a link goes wrong, it will be fatal. "

Dong Mingzhu, who has always dreamed of building a car, has encountered many challenges due to the high threshold of the automobile industry, but she still insists that Yinlong’s battery can just become an indispensable and important role in Gree Electric’s smart home in the future.

Marginalization of lithium titanate battery

The most obvious label of Yinlong is lithium titanate battery technology. Official website of Yinlong New Energy shows that on September 20, 2010, Yinlong New Energy signed an acquisition agreement with American Aoti Nanotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aoti"), and on July 22, 2011, it strategically controlled Aoti. After that, Yinlong New Energy began to vigorously develop lithium titanate batteries in China with the help of Austrian titanium.

Compared with other battery technology routes, lithium titanate battery has advantages in safety and charging time. However, Wei Yincang also mentioned in public that when Aoti was acquired, the cost of lithium titanate was 12 times that of the current battery. Compared with BYD, the cost is 50%~60% higher, and the gap will be further narrowed with the expansion of production capacity.

In recent two years, the phenomenon that lithium titanate is marginalized is more obvious. According to the latest data of installed power batteries in 2019, the installed power batteries in China reached 62.2GWh, up 9.2% year-on-year. Ternary materials and Ferrous lithium phosphate occupied the main market share, while the installed capacity of lithium titanate battery only reached 0.38GWh, down 23.6% year-on-year.

"In fact, lithium titanate batteries were discovered earlier than ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries. If possible, everyone has already made a choice." Fang Jianhua, senior consultant of Power Battery Application Branch of China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, said in an interview that lithium titanate battery has a fatal weakness: low energy density, which is directly related to the length of cruising range, but the density of lithium titanate battery can’t meet this requirement now. In addition, with the decline of subsidies, lithium titanate batteries are mainly used in new energy buses, and their capacity is relatively limited, which will bring greater challenges.

"Lithium titanate battery is a niche route, which can be used in some specific markets and cannot digest large-scale product production. For example, in a mountain city like Chongqing, it is used in the electric bus market and some power grid energy storage markets. Therefore, it is possible for the application of lithium titanate battery to grow moderately, and it is doomed to be difficult to explode quickly. The rapid expansion of Yinlong does not conform to the development law of lithium titanate battery itself, and the outcome can be imagined. " Mo Ke, founder and president of Real Lithium Research, told the First Financial Reporter that if we find the right market and then take it slowly, I believe that lithium titanate batteries will also have a place.

"Market choice determines the technical route. Especially after the cancellation of subsidies, the market is mainly private cars and short-distance cars, and it is estimated that it will still be dominated by three yuan. " Cao Guoqing, deputy secretary general of China Battery Industry Association, told reporters.

However, Dong Mingzhu, who was frustrated by Yinlong’s new energy, did not give up her enthusiasm for the automobile industry. Now she has chosen a relatively lightweight way to enter the automobile industry. On August 28th, 2019, Gree Electric’s subsidiaries Zhuhai Gree Energy Environment Technology Co., Ltd., Huatai Huineng (Beijing) Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and Yinlong New Energy jointly registered Zhuhai Hengqin Gree Huati Energy Development Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 30 million yuan, and the main management was held by relevant personnel in Gree Electric. In September 2019, Gree Electric joined forces with five enterprises including Zhuzhou CRRC and Yinlong New Energy to jointly establish Guochuang Energy Internet Innovation Center (Guangdong) Co., Ltd.. Among them, Gree Electric holds 75% of the shares, Zhuzhou CRRC holds 8%, Yinlong New Energy holds 5%, and Dong Mingzhu serves as the chairman.