After Baidu, Foxconn, and Xiaomi, another "big guy" announced his entry into the automotive industry.
On December 15, Niu Chuangxin Energy released its new car brand "NIUTRON" and announced its Chinese name as "Self-Traveling Home". According to the official description, NIUTRON symbolizes the spirit of exploring the world, the brand core advocates exploration, refinement and pleasure, Chinese named "self-traveling home", hoping to provide users with a free driving and easy travel experience.
It is understood that Niu Innovative Energy Car was founded by Li Yinan and was established in November 2018. It is worth mentioning that the founder Li Yinan has worked in a number of institutions and previously founded Maverick Electric. Li Yinan entered Huawei after graduating at the age of 23, became the youngest vice president at the age of 27, and was once identified as Huawei's successor. In 2000, Li Yinan resigned from Huawei and set up his own company " Harbor Network " on his own; in 2008, he jumped to Baidu as chief technology officer; and then he jumped to China Mobile, GSR Venture Capital and other well-known enterprises and institutions.
In the past three years, Niuchuang has identified the parallel direction of the two technical routes of pure electric BEV and extended-range electric EREV, focused on product research and development, and developed the Gemini twin platform.
"High-end positioning", delivered in September next year
According to the plan, the self-touring product layout adopts pure electric and extended range parallel, and the Gemini twin platform has been developed. The first product launched based on the platform, the Youjia NV, is positioned as a medium-sized high-end SUV, which is expected to be launched and accepted for booking in the first half of 2022, and will start delivery in September of the same year.
In terms of brand positioning, Li Yinan said that "it must be high-end". However, for the target group of the first product, product price, etc., the senior management team of Ziyoujia has not yet given a clear definition, but it is clear that "it will not benchmark a certain model of the existing brand in the market" to meet the market demand.
From the design point of view, this new car has a pair of personality round hole headlights, the body line is tough, the overall design style is called Urban Exploring.
Urban+Exploring, from the rangers, would love to define it as a crossover. According to insiders, the new car is priced at more than 300,000 yuan, and the ideal ONE focuses on the dad family user, Lantu FREE focuses on the business elite, and the self-touring NV focuses on the young people.
The cockpit part does not have exaggerated multi-screen, and the main entertainment functions are concentrated on the 15.6-inch central control screen.
Ideal ONE (first from left), Niuchuang trial car (second from left)
According to reports, since the Tour NV has carried out three rounds of engineering trial production, R & D test mileage of more than one million kilometers, the first round of winter and summer tests has been completed, is undergoing the second round of winter testing. With the completion of the transformation of the manufacturing base, The NV is expected to be produced in small batches in March 2022 and will be delivered to the first users in September.
Funds, team, production qualifications are ready
According to media reports, Niu Chuangxin Energy has completed a $500 million Series A financing, led by IDG and COATUE.
In terms of car-making team, Ziyoujia Automobile currently has nearly 1,000 core R&D personnel, all from mainstream first-line automobile companies at home and abroad, with an average working experience of more than 10 years.
In terms of factory qualification, the brand headquarters is located in Beijing, Shanghai set up a research and development center, and has a modern intelligent manufacturing base covering an area of 770,000 square meters in Changzhou, with an overall design capacity of 180,000 units / year, and the factory is currently undergoing pre-mass production transformation and calibration, which will be put into use in March 2022.
Late entry, can Niu Chuang catch up later?
Since the beginning of this year, cross-border car manufacturing has long been nothing new.
On January 11, Baidu and Geely Holdings joined forces to officially announce the establishment of a smart car company, and Baidu will also officially enter the automotive industry as a vehicle manufacturer. Subsequently, Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established on March 2;
On March 30, Lei Jun officially announced Xiaomi's entry into intelligent electric vehicles, according to the plan, xiaomi car's first model will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024;
On October 18, Foxconn released three electric vehicles, including the electric bus Model T, SUV Model C, and business luxury driving Model E;
In addition to the above, including Evergrande, Alibaba, Ningde Times, 360, etc. are involved in car building.
When electrification and intelligence become the future development trend of automobiles, more and more enterprises enter the market to build cars, and traditional car companies are also accelerating the layout of this market.
Recently, Toyota Akio, who has shelled electric vehicles on many occasions, held a Toyota electric vehicle strategy conference, Toyota Akio announced that he will invest 35 billion US dollars in electric vehicle research by 2030, and will launch 30 electric vehicles before that, and the Lexus brand will also be fully transformed into a pure electric brand.
It can be said that the situation of the new car track is now very fierce, and there are more people than the enterprises with large capital investment and high-tech team technology of Niuchuang, and for Niuchuang, who can only be delivered in September next year, it will be a big challenge waiting for him.
Of course, some people seize the opportunity, and some people catch up later. For example, Nezha Automobile, which has recently successfully ranked among the new car leaders. Therefore, in the end, what kind of brand positioning Niuchuang will have, and what kind of achievements it will make, we will wait and see.
Source: All cars, auto industry concerns, investment community, Blue Whale Finance