Recently, due to many negative news such as employees' salary arrears for one and a half years and suppliers' application for bankruptcy and reorganization, Singularity Automobile once again stood at the forefront of public opinion.
Shen, the founder of Singularity Automobile, claimed to be a man with a dream of building a car. He shouted the slogan "China Tesla" with Internet thinking and successfully attracted a large number of star capitals. The accumulated financing amount of the company exceeds 654.38+07 billion yuan.
However, the "unicorn" once favored by the outside world has gradually become a "golden beast". In the long five years, only 1 car was built. When the financing of1700 million is exhausted, what will happen to the singular car of "PTT car"?
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Due to the employee's collective salary-seeking incident, Singularity Automobile has once again become the focus of public opinion.
According to several employees, Singularity Auto has been in arrears with employees' wages for a long time, with the longest arrears reaching one and a half years. Some employees are owed nearly 200,000 yuan in wages. In other words, since the beginning of last year, employees of Singularity have not been paid.
In order to protect their legitimate rights and interests, some employees choose to ask for wages from Singularity Automobile through labor arbitration. At present, more than 150 employees have applied for labor arbitration, and more than 300 employees have been owed wages. Even if the lawsuit reached the court, Singularity Automobile still delayed the payment of employees' wages, and it is still unknown when the owed wages will arrive.
However, due to the pressure of public opinion, Singularity Motors adopted a "slow plan". Some resigned employees received a SMS from Singularity, saying that the company is prepared to pay 10000 yuan in advance in the coming week. 50% of the unpaid wages that should have been paid on June 30, 2022 will be paid after a new round of financing, and the other 50% will be paid in 2022.
In fact, this is not the first time that Singularity has defaulted on employees' wages. As early as 20 18, 10, many employees received an email from the HR of the company, with the general content that "the salary can only be paid after a series of approvals, and it will take some time. Please understand. "
Most employees didn't think too much at that time. After all, many companies have delayed the payment of wages before, and everyone is advancing the work progress normally. Surprisingly, however, the salary delay was delayed for three months at once, and it was not until June 65438+February of that year that Singularity Automobile issued the salary payment rules.
According to the rules, the salaries of many employees of Singularity Automobile in September of that year were regarded as loans from the company to employees, which were repaid at an annualized interest rate of about 10% and paid at about 20 19 1. 10 monthly salary, paid before the middle of the month; 1 1 is paid at the end of the month.
However, these unpaid wages did not arrive until February 2065438+2009. Although it's no big deal, many employees don't trust Singularity as before. Because after the incident of wage arrears, Shen personally responded: "Singularity Auto has accumulated more than 7 billion yuan in financing, and it is false news that employees are in arrears."
By 2020, there will be problems with wages again. Starting from 2020, Singularity began to implement a half-pay system for employees' salaries. Simply put, only half of the salary is paid every month, and the other half is deducted as an option. At that time, it coincided with the outbreak of the epidemic and many companies had a hard time. Most employees understand this.
However, the singularity once again disappointed employees, not only defaulting on wages indefinitely, but also breaking the news of defaulting on suppliers' payment. In June this year, China Automobile Research Institute and Singularity Automobile related party Zhiche Youxing Beijing Branch issued a verdict on the technical dispute case, and the first-instance civil judgment ruled that Zhiche Youxing Beijing Branch paid more than 649,000 yuan of service fee and related liquidated damages to China Automobile Research Institute.
A wave of unrest, another wave. At the beginning of July, You Xiang Branch of Smart Car added a news of forced bankruptcy and reorganization, and the applicant was Di Wei Automobile Company. It is understood that Di Wei Automobile Co., Ltd. is one of the suppliers of Singularity Automobile Co., Ltd., and the high probability is that it applied for compulsory bankruptcy and reorganization from Singularity Automobile because of its default in payment.
This pile all shows one thing-Singularity is really out of money. Some employees said: "After suddenly defaulting on wages and seeing the news of defaulting on suppliers, I suddenly realized that the high probability is that Singularity is really short of money, and then Singularity is6 can't be made and can't be listed."
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Singularity cars, which are now in deep trouble, used to be the forefront trend leader in domestic car making.
Singularity automobile was founded on 20 14. In the same year, other new energy automobile manufacturers were Weilai, Ideality and Tucki. Singularity automobile and the new domestic car-making forces stand on the same starting line.
Shen, the founder of Singularity Automobile, was once the vice president of 360 Company and the vice president of Jinshan Software Group. He has more than ten years of experience in the Internet industry. The opportunity for Shen to create Singularity Automobile originated from Tesla, the leader of new energy automobile industry.
According to Shen's memory, when he first drove Tesla, he felt an electric shock. Shen, who was still working in 360 at that time, was eager to try. He expressed his idea of building a car to Zhou, hoping to build a car project in 360.
However, Zhou thinks that building a car is far from the main business of 360, so he rejects Shen. If the boss doesn't agree, do it yourself, and singularity car was born. Shen named his car brand "Singularity", which is also the dream of science and engineering men. "Singularity is considered to be the beginning of BIGBANG in physics and the point where the universe grows from scratch."
Shen has been immersed in the Internet industry for many years, tying Internet thinking with building cars. He also took a fancy to Xiaomi Group's money-making model and shouted the slogan of "Building China Tesla with Xiaomi's model". It is imperative for Shen to build a car. He once claimed that he dreamed of building a car.
It is worth mentioning that Singularity did a good job in the early stage. In 20 16, the company released the first model is6, which was earlier than the first model of "Wei Xiaoli" established in the same year, and earned enough attention from the outside world.
While the iron is hot, Shen speaks everywhere with a PPT that carries his dream of building a car. Singularity cars have become famous ever since. With the rise of the industry's heat, various capitals have come one after another, and Singularity Automobile once took financing soft.
From 20 15 to 2020, Singularity has completed 1 1 round of financing, and the investment team has a strong cosmetic surgery, including Lenovo Star, 360 Security, Intel Capital, Netpower and many other well-known enterprises and capitals. Although the total amount of financing has not been announced, according to people familiar with the matter, as early as 20 19, the total amount of financing of Singularity Automobile has exceeded1700 million yuan.
With the arrival of funds, the scale of Singularity Automobile business has expanded rapidly, with the peak exceeding 1.5 million employees. It is solemnly announced that is6 will be delivered in mass production on 20 18, and strive to realize small batch production on 20 17.
However, in reality, the mass production of 20 17 directly turned into abortion. On 20 18, Shen continued to "draw cakes" for everyone, and later said that is6 would be listed in the Spring Festival on 20 19, but until now, the mass production of is6 is still a "blank check", and so is Shen.
In the long five years, Singularity only produced 1 car. When "Wei Xiaoli" released new cars one after another and put them into mass production, Singularity still stayed in the stage of "PPT-style car building". There is a saying in the circle that only FF and Singularity cars in Jia Yueting can be called "PPT cars" masters.
It is worth noting that since May 2020, Singularity has not raised funds for two years, but it has exposed negative news such as arrears of employees' wages and arrears of suppliers' payment. Lei Jun once said that the investment of 65.438+0 billion yuan is only the lowest threshold for the car-making industry, and the financing of 65.438+0.7 billion yuan has burned out the singular car, so it is difficult to continue to promote the mass production progress of is6.
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Singularity car has reached this point, and is6 continues to be "difficult to produce", which is inseparable from its founder Shen.
Singularity cars were mainly self-built factories at first. Shen once said, "OEM mode means that many things are not completely controllable, and these adjustments will affect our progress."
Hearing this news, many cities have extended an olive branch to Singularity. Tongling, Anhui Province first appeared. The local government made it clear that as long as Singularity settled in the local area, it would give full support in investment, loans and policies.
On October 20 1 1 16 10, Singular Motor announced that it had obtained financing of 600 million US dollars and reached a strategic cooperation with Tongling Municipal Government. It plans to move its headquarters to Tongling and build a factory. The total investment of the factory is expected to reach 8 billion yuan, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles.
However, the Tongling factory has not yet been put into production, and Suzhou, Jiangsu and Zhuzhou, Hunan have also come. At the end of March, 2065438+2008, Singularity Automobile announced that it planned to invest/kloc-0.5 billion yuan in the next five years to build Singularity Automobile Global R&D Center in Suzhou.
Six months later, Shen went to Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, and announced that the total investment of Singularity Automobile Zhuzhou Base was 5 billion yuan, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2020. The total investment of the three major projects is as high as 28 billion yuan, which is equivalent to hollowing out the "home" of Singularity Automobile.
The outside world thought that Singularity Auto's self-built factory could speed up the mass production of is6, but the reality is that all the above three projects have been launched in Shui Piao, and none of them have borne fruit. Singularity Auto is not qualified to build cars at all.
While the Big Three, a new force in car making, are busy launching their second new car, Singularity is still looking for foundries around the world to "put out the fire". It is reported that is6 will be produced by BAIC New Energy, so this OEM cooperation has also been lost. Some people broke the news that the main reason was that the funds were not in place.
It took a lot of money to toss around, and the singularity car seemed to be spinning in the same place. When "Wei Xiaoli" rushed to the market and sought a second listing, Singularity Auto also planned to raise funds through IPO.
According to the report of car home, Singularity announced its landing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in July 20 19. Zhao Qiang, then the chief brand and strategic development vice president of Singularity Automobile, confirmed the plan and said that "the specific progress depends on the (CSRC) review process."
In addition to listing financing, Singularity Auto also thought about financing "blood supplement". At the beginning of 20021,Singularity Automobile contacted 360,360 to send relevant senior officials to Singularity Automobile for inspection, and visited and inquired about its technical code, vehicle networking architecture and automobile engine system. Capital injection has reached a substantive stage.
Previously, 360 has participated in the B round of financing of Singularity Automobile. At that time, many employees of Singularity were very optimistic about the re-injection of 360. It turned out to be counterproductive. 360 finally gave up singularity and invested the money in Nezha Auto, which is in the same new energy car-making track with it. However, Singularity did not follow up on the listing of science and technology innovation board, and the company's financial difficulties intensified.
Its own "blood trough" has been empty, and it has failed to "replenish blood" many times, and the singular car has further moved into the abyss. Since 20021,on the one hand, large-scale arrears of employees' wages have led to most employees leaving their jobs and collective arbitration for wages; On the other hand, the supplier sued for debt collection, which led to Singularity being listed as the executor for many times, and Shen was also restricted from high consumption for many times.
It is said that at present, the total number of employees of Singularity Automobile is only double digits, about 50 people, which is far from the peak of 1500 people.
At present, Singularity Motors and salaried employees are expecting a new round of financing as soon as possible. This will not only pay the wages owed to employees, but also inject new vitality into Singularity and support the company to continue.
However, no money, no one, no production car, can Singularity car wait for its own white knight?
This article comes from investors.