WM Motor officially announced its "resurrection" and is even aiming to sell one million vehicles. Who gave them the courage?

The WM Motor, which once had debts exceeding 20 billion yuan and declared bankruptcy, has actually been "resurrected"!

Moreover, it has set goals:

Produce 100,000 vehicles in mass production next year; start preparations for an IPO from 2027 - 2028; challenge an annual production of 1 million vehicles and a revenue of 120 billion yuan from 2029 - 2030.

I'm really stunned by these goals. What on earth is going on?

01

Do you still remember WM Motor? Although it has been dormant for two and a half years, WM Motor was once known as one of the "Four Little Dragons of New Energy Vehicle Start - ups" along with NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng.

At the beginning of this month, WM Motor released a white paper titled "To Suppliers", officially announcing its return.

Moreover, it directly announced that WM Motor will resume the production of EX5 and E.5 models this month, ensuring an annual production and sales volume of 10,000 vehicles and striving for 20,000 vehicles. At the same time, it will break into overseas markets, layout a KD factory in Thailand, and explore the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

It seems that WM Motor is making a comeback with high ambitions.

Without discussing how reliable the goal of achieving a revenue of 120 billion yuan in five years is, let's first review WM Motor's foundation.

WM Motor was founded in 2015 and was once a benchmark enterprise among new energy vehicle start - ups.

At its peak in 2019, WM Motor delivered 16,900 vehicles, ranking second among new energy vehicle start - ups, only after NIO.

At that time, WM Motor's valuation was as high as 47 billion yuan.

WM Motor built its own factories, so it has certain advantages in quality and supply chain.

In the second half of 2022, news about WM Motor's production suspension and arrears to suppliers began to spread.

Soon, after the release of financial data, WM Motor's difficult situation was confirmed:

From 2019 to 2021, WM Motor's net losses were 4.145 billion yuan, 5.084 billion yuan, and 8.206 billion yuan respectively, with a total loss of 17.435 billion yuan in three years.

In 2023, WM Motor couldn't hold on and applied for bankruptcy. The publicly available data at that time showed:

WM Motor had debts of 20.367 billion yuan, and the available assets on its books were only 3.988 billion yuan.

It should be noted that WM Motor attempted to go public three times but failed each time, which also increased its financial pressure.

02

So in the past two years, WM Motor almost disappeared from the public eye.

Who would have thought that a company called Shenzhen Xiangfei Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. would pull this company with debts exceeding 20 billion yuan back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Public information shows that Xiangfei Automobile was founded in 2023, and among the companies it has invested in is Kunshan Baoneng Automobile Co., Ltd.

Therefore, the automotive industry believes that behind Xiangfei Automobile, the "Baoneng Group" is providing financial support to WM Motor.

The key is that Baoneng Group itself seems to be in a difficult situation. Some data shows that its accumulated amount of enforced execution exceeds 45 billion yuan?

So, the resurrection of WM Motor and its goal of achieving a revenue of 120 billion yuan in five years are really questionable.

However, WM Motor's comeback and resumption of production have received support from relevant departments in Shanghai and Wenzhou.

For example, they are considering giving priority to including the new WM Motor vehicles in public procurement and providing subsidy support for WM Motor's resumption of production and production line technological transformation.

Overall, it's really hard to say how WM Motor will fare in the next five years.

Looking at the industry, in the past two years when WM Motor was out of operation, the new energy vehicle market has actually undergone earth - shattering changes.

In addition to "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto", HarmonyOS Smart Mobility, Xiaomi and other players have entered the market, making the automotive industry more competitive than ever in just two years.

WM Motor resumed production this month, starting with the EX5 and E5 models. The key is that the market has changed so much this year that it's hard to say whether it can quickly gain market trust.

Even if WM Motor adheres to a low - price strategy this time to increase sales volume and get the company running again, it still urgently needs to solve the generation gap of these two models.

No matter how you look at it, it seems that WM Motor still has a very difficult road ahead.

However, Xiangfei, which was founded two years ago with a registered capital of 100 million yuan, can support WM Motor to quickly resume operations, including building a team and recruiting workers.

Moreover, WM Motor is also simultaneously seeking overseas market orders, and the reconstruction of its dealer network can gradually resume.

But these are minor issues. The reborn WM Motor is now in a full - fledged race against time.

The question is, do you have confidence in the reborn WM Motor?

Reference materials: WM Motor official website, Tianyancha, Sina Weibo and other online information

This article is from the WeChat official account "TechFox", written by Fox Mei, and is published by 36Kr with permission.