Image Source: Live broadcast of Zhi Ji L6 launch event
Afterward, it sparked intense discussions online, especially among automotive industry insiders. Many people shared posts saying, "Buying one less Zhi Ji means one less child being neglected," and some even dubbed the L6 as the "abandoning family car."
However, according to information gathered from various internal sources, it turns out that the parent who neglected their child is none other than Liu Tao himself, the founder of Zhi Ji. Undoubtedly, he might be harboring a lot of grievances and unspoken bitterness.
Nowadays, the intensity of work in the automotive industry, especially the overtime culture, extends beyond just Zhi Ji.
Some car companies even blatantly send out emails notifying all employees that Saturday is a regular workday and advising relevant personnel to mitigate legal risks. Later, this move trended on Weibo.
I spoke with three friends working in the automotive industry, each responsible for marketing, product planning, and sales in their respective brands. Looking from their perspectives, perhaps there are deeper insights: even after making significant personal/family sacrifices, can one really create a good car? Will sales skyrocket?
Real stories are far more brutal and hit closer to home than a few remarks made at a Zhi Ji launch event.
People from different car companies share the same fate
James: PR for a New EV Brand
James' job, simply put, is to package the selling points of a car model and present it to the outside world through short videos or live streams. It sounds fun, but after over two years, he found it extremely painful: "There's not much budget, but they want to dominate on platforms like Bilibili, Douyin, and Weibo, while also generating a lot of exposure and sales leads. Wanting everything but having nothing, the classic three-way dilemma."
The leaders are never satisfied with his creativity, so the PowerPoint presentations are never-ending. The long hours of overtime have left James feeling physically and mentally drained. Despite being born in the 90s, he now jokingly refers to himself as an "old dog."
He joked with me, saying, "Among the team, those born in the mid-90s and 2000s leave almost every six months. No one can bear this injustice except for this 'old dog' of mine, sandwiched between seniority and juniors."
But even though he endured so much, due to dismal sales, James was laid off by the car company earlier this year, coupled with his wife filing for divorce six months ago. He summed up his life as, "Lost my health, lost my job, lost my marriage."
Now, he has found a new job, focusing on cultivating overseas markets. "Switching jobs within the country is all the same. Currently working in marketing for a car company, 50% depends on luck, 30% on groveling to the leaders, and the remaining 20% on ineffective overtime. That's reality."
James concluded by saying, "People from the internet and 3C industries, after entering the electric vehicle industry in droves, brought in all kinds of 'overtime methods' like OKRs, weekly reports, monthly reports. Everyone's workload multiplied, but sales showed no improvement. In the end, more and more people leaving the company led to the complete collapse of the entire business line."
Oh, by the way, after his divorce, he left his child with his grandparents. It took months for father and son to meet.
Youlanda: Product Planning at a Domestic Brand
Youlanda told me that she too is swept up by her leaders every day, conducting countless benchmarks, benchmarking all the models in the niche market, and finally presenting to the management: how their own models will crush the German luxury brands, kick Porsche, and effortlessly dethrone the four German luxury brands.
"But in reality, anyone with common sense knows that in terms of R&D investment or technological reserves, this domestic brand is no match for the German luxury brands or Porsche." The product definition lacks highlights, the brand image is in tatters, and the configuration is highly homogenized compared to competitors. "Air suspension, zero-gravity seats, AI cockpit, 800V high-voltage platform, you have these configurations, so do the competitors. What are you using to compete?"
She has always insisted, "The current price war is beneficial to no one. The more features piled on, the lower the price gets. In the end, many car companies are completely overwhelmed, and after-sales service for car owners becomes difficult to resolve. Higher and WM Motor are examples, and the elimination rounds will continue."
Many car companies are playing this game, enduring temporary losses to force other car companies out of the market. Once they have pricing power, the prices might not be as low anymore. "Just like the subsidy war in the online ride-hailing market years ago, it's just replaying the tactics of the internet industry in the electric vehicle arena."
Source: Provided by Youlanda
Overtime is inevitable for Youlanda, but she's preparing to resign. The reason? Recently, while at work, she saw an ambulance parked downstairs from her company, with a colleague being rushed into it. She told the interviewer: "This indigenous brand sees a turnover of old colleagues almost every six months. Shortly after, a new batch of employees is hired, and the cycle repeats itself."
This kind of "sustainable exploitation" leaves one speechless.
Carven: Former store manager at an indigenous brand, previously worked at Tesla
Carven used to work at Tesla, and due to outstanding sales performance, he was poached by a new force in car manufacturing with a high salary three years later. However, in the following two years, he switched sales positions among four electric car brands.
He believes that for electric car brands today, the main reason sales positions are in turmoil is because the potential customer base has decreased, and the market has also shrunk relatively.
At his current brand, actual orders in March were only 3,000 to 4,000 units. But the management wanted to achieve deliveries of over 10,000, which was simply impossible. "The company insisted on increasing sales efforts, adding 10 outbound call centers, even though there weren't that many potential customers. Still, many salespeople pretended to make calls every day just to please their superiors."
Carven told me: "In order to make the sales figures look good, the headquarters even started secretly wholesaling to secondary network dealers and engaging in parallel exports."
His former colleagues at Tesla are also caught up in the turmoil, with daily KPIs of 80 outbound follow-ups, 2 test drives with customers, and a target of selling 8 cars per week. Working 6 days a week, conducting 12 test drives, and aiming to close 8 deals. Carven says this is an impossible task, and everyone is struggling to meet it.
Image Source: Taken by the author at Xiaomi Shanghai Wanda Plaza store.
When discussing overtime and overwork, he believes that the current situation in electric vehicle (EV) dealership sales is not just overwork, but rather inefficient internal consumption. The leadership at headquarters mostly consists of people born in the 1970s, who have fully enjoyed the benefits of rapid era development, mistakenly believing that all problems can be solved simply through "hard work". However, this approach and problem-solving mindset are no longer applicable to those born in the 1990s, 1995s, and 2000s.
During every meeting, the headquarters' leadership advises Carven and the team to consider the bigger picture. However, Carven knows that he and his team, as the younger forces, are never really part of this "picture". What can they consider when they are mostly just expendable resources, Carven adds.
Carven concludes: China's market has achieved such a high penetration rate for electric vehicles in such a short time. Indeed, it benefits from our fast pace. But does running fast necessarily mean running far?
No good cars can be made without a good life.
Ever since the terms "smart" and "electric" were added to automobiles, it seems that car manufacturers have been constantly borrowing various management methods from the internet industry and Tesla.
Research and development cycles need to be shortened, marketing needs to accelerate, and sales need to close deals quickly.
In Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu Hustle", the character, Evil Lord, has a line: "All martial arts in the world are unstoppable, only speed cannot be broken." And this line seems to have gradually become the motto of the ancient industry of automobiles.
But what we need to understand is that cars are different from 3C products and internet products: no matter how many large screens you put in the car or how powerful the auxiliary driving functions are, it does not change the fact that it is primarily a car.
The unit price of automobiles and the transaction cycle cannot achieve the same level of affordability and speed as smartphones or subscription apps.
This also means that the frantic management methods and work styles may not necessarily apply to the industrial gem: the automotive industry.
Back then, Henry Ford II, in order to retain workers, raised wages from $2.5 per day to $5 per day and reduced working hours from 12 to 8 hours. He further reformed in 1926, allowing employees to work 5 days and receive pay for 6 days. The "8 hours * 5 days" work system came from this.
This was not charity; he understood that while making cars, Ford also needed to create countless middle-class families. Allowing them time to enjoy life and consume, both manufacturing products and contributing to sales, maximizes overall social benefits.
People who don't have time to experience life are destined not to understand real user needs and are less likely to create good cars.
Sometimes, family matters are more important than working tirelessly to make cars. Whether it's Liu Tao, the wise CEO, or other automotive professionals, we're all the same.
Give civilization to time, give dignity to life.
