Hengda car drama has come to an end, I didn’t expect the sequel to be over. At the Chongqing Auto Show this year, Hengchi 5 appeared on the booth of the auto show. Although it is not a very tall booth, at least people came with a real car, and it was a real car sale. During the auto show, Hengchi also gave a deposit of 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan in car booking promotions, and enjoyed 15-day car returns, three-year 60% off repurchase and other rights.
Why is it surprising to see Hengchi 5 now? Not only because since the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Hengda’s high-profile release of 9 cars has become the focus, but it has quickly fallen silent. It has not appeared in the A-class auto show since then. It is also necessary to review how vigorous and dramatic Hengda was before the car was built.
In November 2019, at the Global Strategic Partner Summit of New Energy Vehicles, Xu Jiayin summarized Evergrande’s car-making path with five keywords: the first: buy, buy, buy; the second: close and close; the third, circle; the fourth, big and big; the fifth, good and good. At the same time, Xu Jiayin also said that Evergrande Automobile will become the largest and most powerful new energy vehicle group in the world within 3-5 years, and achieve annual production and sales of over 1 million vehicles by 2025 and over 5 million vehicles by 2035.
In August 2020, Hengchi Automobile released 6 models in one go, and then expanded to 9 models, covering multiple sub-segments such as medium-sized sedans (two models), medium and large coupes, medium and large sedans, compact SUVs, compact coupe SUVs, medium-sized SUVs, medium and large SUVs, and seven-seat MPVs. Hengda’s car manufacturing factory is not exploring the way with one car, but anxiously launching a comprehensive, multi-point expansion, in order to quickly catch up and make achievements.
Such a large-scale pattern once dispelled the doubts about Hengda’s car manufacturing outside. Under the impetus of the industrial trend and corporate strategy at that time, optimists have begun to expect Hengda to use its strong confidence at that time to quickly enter the new energy vehicle market in a high-profile manner, and then shake the domestic and foreign markets.
But the development of Hengda after manufacturing has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Due to the adjustment of the economic and industrial model in its main business, Hengda is burdened with debt, so how can it still have the funds and minds to continue building cars? Fortunately, Hengchi Automobile’s Tianjin factory has fully resumed production on May 23, at least it has not gone bankrupt. And the Chongqing Auto Show continues to sell cars, which also sends a signal to the outside world that at least Hengda Automobile is still alive. But the question is, under such circumstances, even if there is a discount, will anyone really buy Hengchi 5?