On July 26, the Weibo account of Nezha Automobile’s legal affairs department released its first Weibo content, which was mainly about a handwritten letter of apology from a Xiaohongshu user.
The official said: In March this year, this user released a series of videos about spreading rumors that Nezha Automobile’s “factory shutdown” and “can’t survive until June this year”. These related videos were widely forwarded and caused the public’s social evaluation of Nezha Automobile to decrease. Nezha Automobile safeguarded its good reputation through legal means. Now, under the condition of realizing his own mistakes, Zhang XX actively deleted the relevant infringing content and officially apologized to Nezha Automobile on July 12, 2024.
At the same time, the official also pointed out that Nezha Automobile actively responded to the call of the national “Clear and Bright” campaign, defended the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise, respected the public opinion supervision and suggestions from all walks of life and cherished the objective evaluation given by the public. For the slander and illegal acts of smearing Nezha Automobile’s reputation by fabricating and distorting facts, Nezha Automobile will take legal means to safeguard its own legitimate interests. Thanks to all sectors of society for the continuous attention and deep love for Nezha Automobile all the time. I hope to move forward hand in hand with everyone and jointly create a civilized and healthy online environment. Regarding the posting of the Nezha Automobile legal affairs department, the vice president of marketing of Nezha Automobile commented and said: Adults should be responsible for their words and deeds.
It is worth mentioning that in March this year, the media 36Kr reported that Nezha Automobile’s Nanning factory had been shut down for more than half a month, and the park was desolate, leaving only the security guards at the gate and the unsold inventory cars. At that time, this news attracted a lot of attention from people inside and outside the industry. However, the next day, Nezha Automobile CEO Zhang Yong refuted the rumor in the Weibo comment area. He said: “The Nanning factory is an export base, and there will be an export task of 50,000 to 60,000 sets of KD parts this year”. In addition, he also pointed out about the article published by 36Kr: “The article mentioned that there are very cheap cars to be disposed of, and the price is so attractive. For such cheap cars, please give me 10,000 units.” This indirectly refuted the content of this article. At that time, Zhang Yong’s clarification also received the support of many netizens, and many netizens said that the rumors were self-defeating.
Of course, the appearance of these rumors at that time was somewhat related to the decline in sales of Nezha Automobile in recent years.
As we all know, in 2022, Nezha Automobile was the dark horse of the new car-building forces, and its cumulative sales ranked first. However, after entering 2023, sales declined. The data shows that in 2023, the cumulative sales of Nezha Automobile were 127,496 units, a year-on-year decline of 16.16%, only half of the annual target sales of 250,000 units. Entering 2024, due to the outbreak of the price war and the fierce competition among domestic new car-building forces and other factors, the sales of Nezha Automobile have not improved either. The data shows that from January to February this year, Nezha Automobile delivered a cumulative of 16,117 units, of which the sales in February were 6,085 units, a month-on-month decline of 39%. At that time, there were a lot of unfavorable news about Nezha Automobile on the market. In addition to the factory shutdown, in February, Nezha Automobile was also rumored that the year-end bonus was delayed and the provident fund was not paid, etc. These news also made many netizens worry about the situation of Nezha Automobile.
Although Zhang Yong, as the leader of Nezha Automobile, also posted this year to summarize the sales performance of last year and pointed out the problems existing in the operation of Nezha Automobile in 2023, it still failed to cover the rumors on the market. Fortunately, every time these unfavorable rumors appeared, Nezha Automobile CEO Zhang Yong responded very timely. Regarding the delay of Nezha Automobile’s year-end bonus payment, Zhang Yong responded and said: Last year’s employee bonuses were related to performance assessment. The employee’s annual performance payment coefficient and amount were in the final review and confirmation, and the payment would be completed in March. This information was also internally informed to the employees. In addition, it also indicated that since 2016, the employees’ wages/bonuses/social security have never been a day late. Last year was so difficult, and there was no thought of salary reduction/layoffs. Regarding the provident fund matter, he said that the provident fund in January was not paid because the provident fund was actively deducted and collected by the government provident fund center. Due to the delay of the collection time during the Spring Festival, this payment will be uniformly deducted and collected by the government provident fund center on February 26, and some cities have already been collected to the personal accounts before February 23.
According to the official plan, Nezha Automobile’s sales target this year is 200,000 units in the domestic market. Referring to the cumulative sales of Nezha Automobile in the first half of the year of 53,770 units, it is certain that there is a certain difficulty in completing the annual target of 200,000 units.
Returning to the incident of the Nezha Automobile legal affairs department’s posting this time, it is not difficult to see the official’s attention to online public opinion. In the Internet era, online public opinion cannot be ignored for the brand influence of auto companies. Through the posting of the legal affairs department, the truth of the matter becomes transparent, which is also conducive to maintaining its own brand image.
