Produced the "New Horizons" in-depth reporting team Phoenix Network Technology
Author | Wang Xin
Edit | Zhao Ze
Core Tips: 1. Li Yinan, who started a business for the third time, is very cautious about the market goal of car manufacturing: "The car has not yet been built (mass production), and it is not qualified to say the market goal now." 2. The first car released by NIUTRON is positioned as a high-end route, priced at more than 300,000. The track at this price point is already very crowded, and NIUTRON will compete directly with Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other models. 3. Li Yinan introduced that NIUTRON currently has a round of financing of 500 million US dollars, and there is no plan for a second round of financing. There is still a gap between the current financing amount and the "Wei Xiaoli" ratio, which may also be a drop in the bucket for building high-end cars.
On December 15, Li Yinan, the founder of Xiaoniu Electric Vehicle, announced the construction of the car and released the new brand NIUTRON (Chinese name: Self-Travel Car).
On the day of the brand release, Li Yinan said that the new car began to be developed in November 2018, and is now in the commissioning and installation stages, and it is planned to be produced in small batches in March next year and officially launched in September.
Li Yinan has too many labels on him: genius teenager, Ren Zhengfei successor, Baidu CTO, founder of Maverick Electric Vehicle...
The Maverick electric car can be said to be a relatively successful entrepreneurial venture of Li Yinan. At present, his Weibo certification is still the founder and CEO of Niudian Technology. This time the car brand NIUTRON also still uses NIU (cow) as the beginning, which shows the weight of the calf electric car in Li Yinan's heart.
Founding NIUTRON is Li Yinan's third venture. Judging from the information released so far, NIUTRON's first model is a medium-sized SUV with a five-seater car as standard. For pricing, Li Yinan did not disclose, but he said to be "high-end".
A NIUTRON staff member revealed to Phoenix Network Technology that the new car price will be more than 300,000, because it is a five-seat design, and the main targeting user will be the "90" initial crowd of about 32 years old.
At present, new energy vehicles are growing rapidly, but the track of about 300,000 is already very crowded, and NIUTRON's new cars will compete directly with Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other models.
Zhang Xiang, an independent automotive analyst, told Phoenix.com That NIUTRON, as a newly entrant car manufacturer, needs to work hard in product innovation, brand marketing, new retail, and capital investment if it wants to win the market.
Car building is a very capital-consuming thing, before there was a Weilai due to the break of the capital chain, almost bankrupt; after Jia Yueting became "lao Lai" because of FF, NIUTRON This new brand must face the problem of funds.
However, Li Yinan, who was interviewed by the media, did not have much "desire to express", and when asked about product competitiveness, capital investment, direct store layout, etc., he repeatedly refused to answer with a euphemism that he could not disclose it now.
Li Yinan once said at the 2015 Maverick Electric Vehicle Conference that his life "has ups and downs, like a roller coaster." ”
Born in 1970, Li Yinan entered the junior class of Huazhong University of Science and Technology at the age of 15, is a "genius teenager" in the mouth of teachers and classmates, entered the Huawei internship in the second stage of research, and was promoted to chief engineer after officially joining Huawei for two years, and served as the executive vice president of Huawei at the age of 26, and was even rumored to be "Huawei Prince" and "Ren Zhengfei's successor".
But he did not choose to continue working at Huawei, but began his first venture at the age of 30.
In 2000, Li Yinan founded Harbor Network, a communications network company. 6 years after the establishment of the company, because the business has direct competition with Huawei, it caused Huawei to fight back, and was eventually acquired by Huawei for 200 million yuan, so Li Yinan returned to Huawei again as vice president.
Li Yinan, who entered Huawei for the second time, was in a relatively awkward situation. Two years later, the 38-year-old Li Yinan left Huawei again and successively moved to Baidu as CTO (Chief Technology Officer), GSR Venture Capital and other investment companies as partners.
Seven years after leaving Huawei for the second time, 45-year-old Li Yinan once again germinated the idea of starting a business.
In 2015, Li Yinan founded the Maverick Electric Vehicle, and when he was just starting a business, fate played a "joke" with him. In June of that year, Li Yinan was arrested on suspicion of insider trading and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and his life fell into a trough again.
When Li Yinan was investigated, the company's co-founder Hu Yilin took over as CEO of Niudian Technology, and the company issued an announcement that Li Yinan could still participate in the decision-making and operation of the company's major matters in an appropriate manner.
At the end of 2017, Li Yinan was released from prison after completing his sentence, but three months later, he resigned from all positions of Niudian Technology, did not participate in the board of directors and any internal discussions, and only as a shareholder of Niudian Technology.
Judging from the situation revealed by Li Yinan this time, he began the research and development of NIUTRON's new car six months after he resigned from the position of Niudian Technology.
(Pictured: Niutron new car model.) ）
When asked by the media about whether there is any special feeling about this venture compared with the establishment of The Maverick Electric Vehicle, Li Yinan only simply replied ten words: "In fact, no, there really is not, thank you." ”
In the interview, Li Yinan laughed and said that his IQ is average, just like ordinary people.
He is very cautious about the market goal of building cars: "The car has not been built (mass production), and it is not qualified to say the market goal." He also mentioned many times that he decided to build a car, mainly to try it and explore it.
Unlike the grounding gas of the Maverick electric car, the first car released by NIUTRON is positioned as a high-end route.
"We definitely do high-end, this is beyond doubt." Li Yinan said that NIUTRON hopes to bring happiness to customers and make customers proud to have self-traveling products.
But NIUTRON's first new car will not be equipped with lidar, which means that the performance of autonomous driving may be relatively reduced.
Lidar is being applied to new models by car companies such as Weilai and Xiaopeng, and can act as the "eyes" of self-driving cars, measuring parameters such as the distance of the target.
Li Yinan believes that autonomous driving is a revolutionary technology, but it also takes a long time to evolve, and it must be based on improving user experience and absolute safety. At this stage, lidar is not suitable for NIUTRON's new car.
However, in today's new energy vehicle consumer market, the level and performance of automatic driving can measure the high-end capabilities of automobiles to a certain extent. If the new car released by NIUTRON does not reach the L2 level or above the level of autonomous driving capabilities, it will lose some potential customers and even affect the brand competitiveness.
At present, NIUTRON's team has 1,000 people, most of the executives joined in 2019, in addition to R & D and factory in Changzhou, there are two office locations in Beijing and Shanghai, Beijing is responsible for autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit research and development, and Shanghai is responsible for car design.
It is understood that NIUTRON's factory in Changzhou is the acquisition of Jiangsu Jintan Mahayana Automobile Science and Technology Industrial Park, covering an area of 770,000 square meters, which can achieve a production capacity of 180,000 vehicles per year.
(Photo: NIUTRON Changzhou plant.) ）
Changzhou factory staff told Phoenix.com That NIUTRON reused some of the factory equipment of the previous Mahayana automobile, and at the same time made some modifications as needed, which can save certain costs.
Li Yinan said in an interview with the media that he chose Changzhou as a factory because the factory of the two-wheeled Calf electric vehicle is in Changzhou, and he is more familiar with Changzhou.
(Pictured: The NIUTRON plant uses ABB's flexible production solution.) ）
Another factory ideal for new car-making forces is also located in Changzhou. Li Yinan said that before he started to build cars, the ideal founder Li wanted to share a lot with him, which can be said to be self-explanatory, but since he decided to build a car, he did not communicate with Li, because it is not appropriate to communicate again.
At present, the new energy vehicle market is growing rapidly, and the delivery volume of the new car-making forces represented by "Wei Xiaoli" this year has almost doubled.
According to the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of new energy vehicles from January to October 2021 have exceeded 2.5 million units.
Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association (hereinafter referred to as the "100 Talents Association"), expects that the delivery of new energy vehicles in China will reach about 3.3 million this year, and will continue to grow to 5 million units next year, and the market share of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market next year will be more than 20%.
Although the market prospects are promising, NIUTRON is undoubtedly a "latecomer". Li Yinan also admitted that the timing of the release of the new car is definitely late. "People think we're slow, and I don't think we're fast enough."
Looking at the market, the new car-making force "Wei Xiaoli", which was established around 2015, has an annual sales volume of nearly 100,000 vehicles and has accumulated a certain user reputation. Tesla, as the most valuable company in the field of new energy vehicles, can sell 1 million cars a year.
Therefore, Zhang Xiang believes that latecomers such as NIUTRON must make efforts in product innovation, brand marketing, new retail, capital investment and so on.
Information about NIUTRON's product innovation, brand marketing, retail channels and other information is not yet visible, but from the perspective of funds, NIUTRON may face some pressure.
Judging from the experience of the predecessors, the financing amount of "Wei Xiaoli" has exceeded 10 billion, and it is currently in the loss stage. Among them, WEILAI has raised more than 70 billion yuan, invested more than 10 billion yuan in research and development in the past three years, and Xiaopeng has a total financing amount of nearly 20 billion yuan and a research and development amount of more than 5 billion yuan.
At the same time, Xiaomi, Baidu and other Internet companies have announced the construction of cars, and shouted to come up with huge funds. Jidu said that it will invest about 50 billion yuan in the next 5 years, while Xiaomi also announced that it will invest 10 billion US dollars in ten years and invest 10 billion yuan in the first phase.
According to Li Yinan, NIUTRON currently has a round of 500 million US dollars in A round financing, and there is no plan for a second round of financing. Obviously, there is still a gap between the current financing amount and the "Wei Xiaoli" ratio, which may also be a drop in the bucket for creating high-end cars.
Talking about the expectation of the success or failure of this business, Li Yinan said that the car was built with an exploratory attitude, "If a company can't do it, you can't always jump off the building, you can only say that at least the employee severance pay should be guaranteed." ”