Weltmeister (Chinese: 威马汽车) is a Chinese electric car brand owned by WM Motor Technology Co Ltd, a Shanghai-based automotive company which specialises in the creation of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). It launched its first production car, the EX5 in May 2018 at the Beijing Auto Show, with deliveries starting in September 2018. WM investors include Chinese technology companies Baidu and Tencent.[1] Weltmeister vehicles are manufactured at WM Motor's manufacturing facility in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, which has an annual capacity of 100,000 units.[2] WM Motor also maintains R&D facilities in China, Germany and the United States. In October 2023, WM Motor filed for pre-restructuring bankruptcy as the company struggled for cash.[3]
 | |
| Company type | company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founder | Shen Hui, Du Ligang, Lu Bin |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Shen Hui (Chairman, President) Du Ligang (Executive Vice Chairman) Lu Bin (Senior Vice President) |
| Website | www.wm-motor.com |
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History
edit
Beginnings
editIn January 2015, Freeman Shen, former manager of Geely Automobile and former president of the Chinese branch of Volvo,[4] founded startup WM Motor Technology.[5] His goal was to put on sale self-built electric cars competitive with similar, short-lived Chinese startups working on vehicles with new propulsion sources.[6] The startup's investors included Chinese technology giants such as Baidu and Tencent.[7] In November 2016, WM Motor launched its first production plant in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province,[8] in turn, in January 2018, before the premiere of the first vehicle, A Chinese company has started building a second factory in the city of Huanggang in Hubei province.[9]
Brand Weltmeister
editOfficial premiere of the first car, along with the announcement of the "Weltmeister" brand, under which WM Motor products will be offered, took place in May 2018. The EX5 model took the form of an SUV with an electric drive,[10] going into production and sale on the internal Chinese market at the end of 2018.[11] In May 2019, during the Shanghai Auto Show, the manufacturer presented a study announcement of the next flagship model in the form of the Evolve Concept,[12] as well as the second, this time production model - an electric SUV larger than the EX5 EX6.[13]
In spring 2021, Weltmeister began the next stage of expanding its offer. The model range has been enriched with the mid-size SUV-a W6,[14] and, moreover, WM Motor also announced plans to start the production of classic passenger vehicles. After the Maven prototype[15] production sedan called E5 was presented.[16] In November 2021, the offer was expanded by another classic sedan in the form of the M7.[17]
Bankruptcy
editIn the second half of 2022, WM Motors found itself in a bad financial situation, which was caused by growing debt and losses recorded despite attempts to increase sales and product portfolio. As a result, the company was unable to put the flagship M7 model on sale, and moreover - it ended the production of all its existing models at the end of 2022, laid off staff and closed most sales points.[18] The following year, the president of WM Motor started looking for new sources of financing and implemented a savings plan.[19] These actions were unsuccessful, and as a result, in mid-October 2023, WM Motor announced bankruptcy.[20] Freeman Shen indicated that the factors preventing the company from remaining on the market were the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, stagnation of the capital market and the increase in raw material prices.[21] The bankruptcy of the company led to radical difficulties for the current owners of Weltmeister. A day after the bankruptcy application was accepted by the Shanghai court, drivers lost access to the WM Motor mobile application, the website stopped working and contact with the support center disappeared, leaving after-sales and service support in question.[22]
In January 2024, WM Motor announced that the court had accepted the company's application for pre-reorganization to reorganization.[23]
Manufacturing
editWenzhou Plant
edit
Wenzhou Plant has a site area of 650,000 sqm, and is currently operational. The plant currently has an operating capacity of 100,000 units per annum. Construction of the facility began in September 2016, and mass production commenced on 28 September 2018.[24]
Huanggang Plant
editWM Motor's second manufacturing facility in Huanggang, Hubei Province, was scheduled for completion in early 2020. Due the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it only produced 10,000 vehicles of its planned 2022 production capacity of 150,000.[25]
Mobile App - GETnGO
editWM Motor operates a proprietary app called GETnGO (Chinese: 即客行), which is primarily aimed at offering search, navigation and payment options for public chargers in China. As of October 2019, the GETnGO app had registered 200,000 public chargers to the service through its partnerships with public charging providers, including the State Grid.
Models
edit- Weltmeister E5 (2021–2022), an electric compact sedan
- Weltmeister EX5 (2018–2022), an electric compact SUV
- Weltmeister M7 (2022), an electric mid-size sedan
- Weltmeister EX6 (2019–2022), an electric mid-size SUV
- Weltmeister W6 (2021–2022), an electric compact SUV
-
Weltmeister E5 -
Weltmeister EX5 -
Weltmeister EX5 Pro -
Weltmeister EX6 Limited -
Weltmeister W6 -
Weltmeister Evolve Concept -
Weltmeister Maven Concept
Sales
edit| Year | Total |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 12,799 |
| 2020 | 21,937 |
| 2021 | 44,152 |
| 2022 | 29,450 |
| 2023 | 0 |
References
edit- ^ "Chinese EV startup WM Motor raising at least $288 million from Baidu, others: sources". Reuters. 25 October 2018. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
- ^ Newby, Jack (29 March 2018). "Weltmeister's Smart SUV Rolls Off 'Record-Breaking' Production Line". Retrieved 24 June 2019.
- ^ "Chinese EV startup WM Motor files for pre-restructuring". Reuters. 10 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "Freeman Shen". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Major shakeout in Chinese electric cars seen by top startup". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Weltmeister brand". 18 December 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Chinese EV startup WM Motor raising at least $288 million from Baidu, others: sources". Reuters. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "WM Motor Manufacturing Facility". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Weltmeister Motor Technology Group Co., Ltd. [China]". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Weltmeister EX5 Electric SUV Launched On The Chinese Car Market". 23 April 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "WELTMEISTER EX5 CHINA AUTO SALES FIGURES". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "WM Motor Debuts EX5 Pro at Auto Shanghai EX6 and EVOLVE CONCEPT Introduced". Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "WM EX6 Limited Unveiled on 2019 Shanghai Auto Show, The 2nd All-Electric SUV from WELTMEISTER Motor". 9 May 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
- ^ "Weltmeister W6 SUV EV hits production in China". Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- ^ "Weltmeister Maven EV Concept Does 800 KM (500 Miles) Only in Conceptland (Yet)". 11 May 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- ^ "Sedan Weltmeister E5 will help the brand to conquer Europe – DRIVE". Archived from the original on 9 August 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Weltmeister M7 Is A New High Tech Chinese Electric Car". 13 November 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ "Big Read – How Niutron failed to build its car". 19 February 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ "WM Motor files for bankruptcy". 11 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ "Chinese electric vehicle maker WM Motor files for bankruptcy". Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ "WM Motor's bankruptcy highlights challenges faced by EV startups in China". 11 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ "EV maker WM Motor suspends in-car services, files for bankruptcy: report". 12 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ^ 陈镜安 (3 January 2024). "威马汽车"自救"新进展！法院受理预重整转重整的申请" [New progress in WM Motor's "self-rescue"! The court accepted the application for pre-reorganization to reorganization]. 南方都市报. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ^ "WM Motor delivers first batch of EX5, to hand over 100,000 EX5 cars next year". Gasgoo. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- ^ "探访威马黄冈基地：老实造车的"冰与火"". www.guancha.cn. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ "不放弃治疗，威马汽车还有救？投资人"排队"入场". m.qctt.cn. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
- ^ sina_mobile (10 June 2022). "威马港股递表，新能源投资迎来"纵横四海"时代". finance.sina.cn. Retrieved 5 January 2024.