After staying in the United States for a week, Zhou Fangyuan left the mainland of the United States by plane.

But instead of rushing home, he went straight to the Netherlands.

In fact, as early as the end of last year, he began to acquire Shijue.

In his previous life, Shijue's final fate was to be acquired, and now Zhou Fangyuan is just advancing this time a little.

People have the impression that the sports car company has always been relatively low-key: it neither boasts that its car is "the fastest in the world", nor does it compete for "the most expensive car in the world". However, the niche car company, which has long regarded its products as works of art, suddenly declared bankruptcy one day in the future. From 2000 to 2014, what made it finally close its doors?

The Dutch brand can be traced back to 1898. At that time, two brothers, carriage builders Jacobus and Spike, built the first car in Amsterdam to run on a Mercedes-Benz engine. It is said that the car was extremely luxurious, made of gold, and was used as a special car by the Dutch royal family at the time, and was also known as the "Rolls-Royce of Europe", which was the first impression given by Sjuker. Since then, Sjuker has been making niche models, which have also been all the rage among the Royal Dutch family, and have launched several well-known race cars. But it eventually declared bankruptcy in 1925 due to poor management. For a long time after that, Sjuker was in a state of disappearance, missing out on the rapid development of high-end sports cars in the 60s and 90s.

In 2000, Victor Müller became the founder and CEO of Centale and began a formal revival of the brand. In the previous life, between 2004 and 2013, Sjuker successively launched the representative Sage C8, Sage C12 and Sage B6 series of models. It is still aimed at niche and customized product positioning, and the output is scarce. Sjuker's performance in traditional automotive markets such as Europe and the United States is also inactive, and the main focus is on regions such as the Middle East.

Before declaring bankruptcy, Spyker had invested so much in the latest B6 Venator model that it was difficult to recover its high development costs. According to media reports, the company was even unable to pay the rent of the factory at that time, and was evicted at the court's compulsion after failing to reach an agreement on the rent.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Sjue is its successful acquisition of Saab in 2010, which was a sensation.

At that time, the Swedish Saab brand was under the umbrella of General Motors and was facing an unprecedented crisis. Although it belongs to General Motors, the proportion of resources shared by Saab's product line and General Motors products does not meet the requirements of cost reduction, resulting in serious losses for Saab.

In 1990, GM acquired a 50% stake in Saab and began to operate it in the GM system, injecting many GM technologies. Although by 2000, GM had completely acquired Saab, Saab had not really caught fire in sales. GM has been working hard for Saab for 20 years and can no longer support the brand to continue to grow under the group. It stands to reason that a powerful automobile group like GM has failed to introduce Saab into the road of normal profitability, and a relatively independent company with insufficient reserves in the technology of key auto parts and components has incorporated it into its subsidiary, which is quite a "snake swallowing an elephant".

In 2010, Saab was sold from General Motors to Sjuker.

Different from BAIC's acquisition of Saab's intellectual property rights in 2009, Shijue's acquisition includes the Saab brand and all intellectual property rights. Saab used a total of $74 million in cash and $326 million worth of shares in the new Saab-Sage company to complete the acquisition from GM.

But Sjuker's time with the Saab brand was extremely short-lived. In 2011, Saab officially declared bankruptcy, and in 2012, the Swedish national electric vehicle company NEVS acquired Saab from Sage.

It was also this "upside down" that greatly damaged Shijue's vitality.

On the one hand, during this period, Sjuker was experiencing a period of replacement and development of models from C8 to B6 Venator, and needed a lot of funds to support the development of new models. At this time, the acquired Saab brand also urgently needs to make efforts in products, and the demand for funds is greater. Saab, which came out of GM, could not survive without strong financial support in any case. As a small niche sports car company, it is clear that it cannot withstand this double pressure.

Victor Müller, CEO of Sjue, also said that Sage has always faced many major difficulties and challenges, but this is mainly due to the acquisition of Saab.

On December 2, the Dutch District Court ended the moratorium on the repayment of Spyker's debts and ruled that Spyker and its joint venture subsidiaries, Spyker Automobilen and Spyker Events and Branding, were bankrupt. Bankruptcy here is close to the definition of Article 11 of the Bankruptcy Law of the United States, that is, bankruptcy reorganization and protection.

From a brilliant and legendary sports car brand to its eventual bankruptcy, the road Sjuker has traveled has been extremely bumpy and dramatic. In the final analysis, the direct trigger for its bankruptcy was the overly hasty acquisition of Saab and the lack of operational capacity after the acquisition.

Zhou Fangyuan wouldn't have done that.

First of all, the finances of the Yuanfang Group are very healthy, far from being comparable to the Shijue before the bankruptcy in the previous life.

Secondly, Yuanfang Group is backed by the mainland and has a broad enough market, and no one knows better than Zhou Fangyuan what the status of a domestic high-end car in the hearts of the people is in the true sense.

These are the advantages of Zhou Fangyuan and Yuanfang Group, but then again, they are not without disadvantages, and the biggest disadvantage is that they entered the game too late.

Don't even talk about foreign countries, just talk about domestic, and the entry time of the distant group is much later than others.

In fact, as early as the 50s of the last century, China began to establish its own automobile industry. Looking back on the history of 50 years, Huaxia automobile industry has experienced three historical stages from scratch, from small to large, creation, growth and all-round development, and has made remarkable achievements.

The earliest is the establishment stage.

At the beginning of the founding of the Republic, the state leaders paid great attention to and personally participated in the major decision of establishing the Huaxia automobile industry, and included the construction of a modern truck factory in a number of key industrial projects in the former Soviet Union's assistance to China, and began the preparatory work for the establishment of the Machinery Industry Bureau under the Ministry of Heavy Industry.

On July 15, 53, the first automobile factory named by the leader himself started construction in the old industrial base in Northeast China, and with the hard work of the leaders mobilized, supported by the whole country and participated in the construction of the builders, the goal of "striving to build an automobile plant in three years and produce automobiles, talents, and experience", the first domestic liberation brand truck drove off the assembly line on July 13, 1956, which ended the history of China's own inability to manufacture automobiles, and fulfilled the dream of the Chinese people to produce domestic automobiles.

In May '57, FAW began to design its own car based on foreign prototypes; in '58, it successfully trial-produced the CA71 Dongfeng brand car and the CA72 Hongqi brand luxury car, and the state leaders personally took a test ride of the Dongfeng brand car, and praised it very happily: "I got on the car I made"; after that, the Hongqi brand luxury car was listed as a state protocol car and was used as a celebration review car for the state leaders.

After entering the 60s, the national economy implemented the policy of "adjustment, consolidation, enrichment, and improvement", and with the support of the state, provinces and cities, a number of automobile manufacturing plants, automobile parts factories and modified car factories were formed. The multi-variety production cooperation supporting system has formed a preliminary foundation.

At this historical stage, in an effort to explore the reform of the management of the automobile industry, the state decided to set up an automobile industry trust on a trial basis, and implemented a number of measures to promote the development of the automobile industry, and the industrial trust was discontinued in the mid-60s. At the same time, the automobile modification industry and the motorcycle manufacturing industry started, focusing on the development of a number of military modified vehicles, civilian fire trucks, ambulances, dump trucks and tractors have come out one after another, and for social and economic development to provide three types of buses: urban, long-distance and group. The first trial production of two-wheeled motorcycles in Beijing for military use, and then Jinling and Quancheng and other places successively trial-produced three-wheeled motorcycles and machine bicycles, which were mainly used for military, post and telecommunications, sports and urban short-distance transportation at that time, the motorcycle industry was in its infancy, and the automobile industry was closely related to the creation of the automobile scientific research cause and professional education system was initially formed.

Before 1966, the automobile industry invested a total of 1.1 billion yuan, forming five automobile factories, with an annual production capacity of nearly 60,000 vehicles and 9 models. At the end of 1965, there were nearly 290,000 civilian automobiles in the country, including 170,000 domestic automobiles.

Then comes the growth phase.

At this historical stage, it is mainly to implement the spirit of the high-level construction of third-tier automobile factories, mainly medium and heavy-duty trucks and off-road vehicles, and at the same time develop mining dump trucks.

In 1964, the state decided to build the second automobile factory and the automobile manufacturing plants in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces on the third line, mainly for the production of off-road vehicles. The second automobile is a factory designed and supplied by China with equipment in China, and has adopted the methods of "contract construction" and "treasure", and at the same time arranged the construction and expansion of 26 key cooperative supporting factories inside and outside Hubei Province. A new large-scale automobile factory was built and put into operation, which at that time mainly produced medium-duty trucks and off-road vehicles. At the same time, Sichuan Automobile, Shaanxi Automobile and Shaanxi Automobile Gear Factory, which is supporting the production of Shaanxi Automobile, were built and put into operation respectively, mainly producing heavy-duty trucks and off-road vehicles.

In the mid-to-late 60s, the country put forward the decision of "fighting the battle of mines", mining dump trucks became its key equipment, after the successful trial production of 32 tons in Shanghai, 15 tons in Tianjin, 15 tons in Longcheng, 20 tons in Beijing, 60 tons in FAW and 42 tons in Tongcheng electric wheel mining dump trucks have also been successfully put into trial production, alleviating the needs of mining production equipment in the metallurgical industry.

In order to meet the demand for heavy-duty trucks for the development of the national economy, Quancheng Automobile Factory has expanded the production capacity of 8-ton heavy-duty trucks of the Yellow River brand, and many other cities and other local automobiles have also been put into the production of similar models.

During this period, the five old factories of FAW, Nanqi, SAIC, BAIC, and Jinan Automobile respectively undertook the task of contracting and supporting the construction of third-tier automobile plants, and invested in technological transformation to expand their production capacity; the local development of the automobile industry led to the repeated production of almost all imitation domestic models; according to rough statistics, there were more than 20 Jiefang brand models, more than 20 130 models, nearly 20 Yuejin models, and nearly 10 off-road vehicles; In 1980, 13,400 large, medium and light passenger cars were produced, including more than 6,000 long-distance buses, the number of auto parts increased to 2,100, and the motorcycle industry was initially formed, with 24 manufacturers producing 49,000 vehicles in 1980.

In the growth stage of the automobile industry, the production in 1980 was 222,000 units, which was 5.48 times that of the output in 1965; in 1966~1980, the total number of various types of automobiles was 1.639 million; in 1980, the number of civilian vehicles in the country was 1.69 million, including 1.48 million cargo vehicles.

Then, there is the stage of comprehensive development before the 21st century.

Under the guidance of the policy of reform and opening up, the automobile industry has entered a stage of comprehensive development, which is mainly reflected in the following: upgrading old automobile products and ending the 30-year history of the consistent system; adjusting the product structure of commercial vehicles and changing the production pattern of "lacking heavy and less light"; building a car industry, introducing technology and capital, and producing domestically produced cars to form a production scale; reforming the industry management system and enterprise management mechanism, and greatly increasing the variety, quality, and production capacity of automobile and motorcycle models.

In 1981~1998, the country produced a total of 14.52 million vehicles of various types, including 2.6 million cars, with a cumulative investment of nearly 150 billion yuan. By the end of 1998, preliminary statistics showed that more than 600 foreign-invested enterprises had been established in China in more than 20 countries and regions, with a registered capital of more than $10 billion.

The output of automobiles and motorcycles has grown steadily, and the economic benefits have improved. In 1992, the annual output of automobiles in China exceeded 1 million for the first time, and in 1998, it produced 1.628 million vehicles, ranking 10th in the world. In 1997, the annual output of motorcycles in China exceeded 10 million, and in 1998, it produced 8.79 million units, becoming the world's largest motorcycle producer, ranking first. In 1998, the sales revenue of China's automobile industry products was 250.47 billion yuan, and the total industrial output value was 2527.8 yuan.

The variety of products has increased, and the development capacity has been enhanced. There are more than 120 kinds of basic automobile models in 6 categories, more than 750 kinds of modified cars and special vehicles, and more than 1,000 kinds of motorcycles with 15 displacements. The investment of major enterprise groups for research and development is generally 1~2% of the annual sales revenue, and some enterprises are 3~5%, except for car products, they have certain independent development capabilities.

The concentration of production has increased significantly, and the scale of the economy has begun to take shape. In 1998, 14 automobile enterprise groups (companies) produced 1.485 million vehicles in the country, accounting for 91.21% of the country's annual output. In 1998, 507,000 cars were produced in the country, accounting for 31.14% of the country's total automobile output. In 1998, among the 8.79 million motorcycles produced in the country, 11 had an annual output of more than 200,000 motorcycles, and their production concentration accounted for 60% of the country's annual output.

The market structure and product structure tend to be reasonable, and the product quality is further improved.

In 1998, the ratio of light, medium and heavy vehicles in the national commercial vehicle production was 78.5:17.8:3.7, the ratio of light, medium and heavy vehicles in the national production of trucks was 67:27.7:5.3, and the ratio of the output of trucks to passenger cars was 40.6:59.4. In 1991, there were 960,000 private automobiles in the country, accounting for 15.8 percent of the 6.06 million civilian automobiles in that year, and in 1998, there were 4,237,000 private automobiles, accounting for 32.1 percent of the 13.19 million civilian automobiles in the country that year. The number of cars per 1,000 people in the country increased from 5.2 in 1991 to 10.7 in 1998.

After 50 years of development, especially the development of reform and opening up in the past 20 years, China's automobile industry has made great progress.

There are many state-owned and private enterprises, which have already taken root in this land, and the Yuanfang Group only entered at this time, of course, it has a great disadvantage. But fortunately, this market is still developing, and it is not too late for Yuanfang Group to enter at this time, if it is another ten years, it will really be no chance for him.