It may not be too late to enter the game at any time, but it is not easy to survive.
On December 15, the long-rumored car project Niu Innovation Energy of Li Yinan, the founder of Xiaoniu Electric, was officially announced, and the car brand name was set as "Niutron" and the Chinese name was set as "Self-Traveling", and the first mass production model will be delivered in September 2022.
On the same day, a company that was previously engaged in car design, Box Car, also released two models, and said that it was committed to focusing on the "new car-making force" focusing on the B-end track, and the first model for the online car and taxi markets will be mass-produced in 2023.
In fact, more than a month ago, on November 9, a company that had just been established for less than half a year, Light Orange Times, also held a brand launch conference, and released the first model Vc at the Guangzhou Auto Show 10 days later, while planning mass production in the second half of 2022.
In the early days, nearly a hundred new car-making forces emerged, and now almost less than 10 have survived, and when the market pattern is almost laid, it seems unimaginable that in the past month or so, there have been three new car-making forces.
The continuous growth of the global new energy vehicle market, including China, is an indisputable fact, and the sales of new energy vehicles in the first 11 months of this year in the domestic market reached 2.99 million units, an increase of 166.7% year-on-year, and the market penetration rate reached 12.7%, and the revolution of new energy continued.
However, when the new forces at the head have gained a foothold and technology companies have also gone down, a new batch of car-making forces have chosen to enter the game at this time, which does not seem to have much advantage, and as a new round of car-making, it seems that many things are not ready.
▍ Niu Innovative Energy: Doers who don't tell stories, or latecomers who can't tell new stories
In another round of new car-making forces, the most concerned is Niu Chuangxin Energy, founder Li Yinan's deep Huawei background, as well as rich career and entrepreneurial experience seem to be the capital of this company.
Li Yinan, 51 years old this year, graduated from the Junior Class of Huazhong Science and Technology and joined Huawei at the age of 23, and achieved outstanding results in the research and development of Huawei's digital switches, and was promoted to Huawei's chief engineer at the age of 25, and became Huawei's executive vice president at the age of 27.
Later, after leaving Huawei, founding the harbor network and being acquired by Huawei, and then joining Baidu and GSR Ventures, Li Yinan is widely known in the industry.
Before entering the electric car, Li Yinan's last entrepreneurial experience was the same much-watched Maverick Electric, an electric two-wheeler company founded in 2014 that landed on the NASDAQ in four years to become a rookie in the field of electric vehicles.
Perhaps due to the deep Huawei background, Li Yinan and the Niu Innovative Energy he founded have a strong do-hardism.
Before the official announcement of the brand, there was only a little news in the industry at the beginning of this year that "Li Yinan entered the market to build a car", and after the brand was released on the 15th, it said that the first model would be delivered in the next 9 months.
At the same time, at the brand conference, Li Yinan did not depict the story of the sky for this company, neither defining the target group of the brand, nor promoting the grand concept and vision like most companies, which seems to be particularly down-to-earth in the new car group based on "Internet car manufacturing".
There is no target group, but the basic product information given by the self-traveler can also give us a basic understanding of the development direction of the company.
It is reported that the technical route of the self-tourer currently adopts a pure electric vehicle and a range extender car in parallel, and the pure electric/extended range car delivered in September next year will be a 5-seat medium and large SUV.
Self-touring home currently two technical routes
At the same time, Niu Chuangxin Energy has completed a $500 million Series A financing with the participation of IDG Capital, COATUE and other institutions to support the intelligent cockpit research and development team in Beijing, the vehicle design team in Shanghai, and the engineering and manufacturing team and factory construction in Changzhou.
However, in addition, Li Yinan did not disclose too much other information, and at the same time, for the key layout of technical advantages, charging networks, offline operating networks and other key layouts that will support the long-term development of the company in the future, Self-Traveler does not seem to have a clearer plan.
This makes the self-traveler have some doubts in addition to the practical work. Because according to Li Yinan's introduction, he had the idea of entering electric vehicles as early as 2014, but the time to really start the layout was the end of 2018.
2014 is the time when the first batch of new car-making forces such as Weilai and Xiaopeng were lined up, and it was also the time of the establishment of Li Yinan's two-wheeled vehicle company, Xiaoniu Electric.
In this way, the establishment of Ziyoujia seems to have been planned for a long time, but it seems that it is already a little late when it really enters the game, because at the end of 2018, the first batch of new cars of Weilai and Xiaopeng have been delivered.
At the same time, although Ziyoujia did not set a target user, Li Yinan said that his products will be luxury brands. At present, the main car-making new forces Weilai, the ideal main model is also a high-end SUV model, the ideal car itself is still a range extender model, and now it is late to enter the game since the tour, if you can not show your own advantages in the later stage, it seems difficult to ensure a breakthrough in the competition.
▍ Box Car: Is it a good track to focus on the B-side?
Box cars do not have the support of glamorous founders, but the different paths from many new car-making forces are still eye-catching.
In the previous new car team, whether positioning high-end or low-end, the target group of car companies is basically C-end users.
On the one hand, as a private car, the C-end has a larger market than B-end users such as online car-hailing and taxis; at the same time, the vast majority of B-end operation of automobile products are considered low-end models, which seems to contradict electric vehicles that integrate high-end technologies such as intelligent networking and automatic driving.
But the box car seems to want to make a breakthrough on this road that no one has tried.
On December 15, Box Auto launched two models focusing on the B-end track at a press conference held in Beijing, namely the BM-400, which focuses on the private car, online car and taxi markets, and plans to achieve mass production in 2023; and the BM-600 for the mid-to-high-end rental market, which is expected to be mass-produced and listed in 2024.
Although there is no founder who has attracted much attention like Niu Chuangxin Energy, the team of Box Auto itself has more experience in the automotive industry, and its parent company is Beijing Box Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd., founded in 2013, is an automotive design company that has provided design and development of vehicles and parts for many customers in the industry such as China FAW Research Institute, BAIC, JIANGHUAI and so on.
Its current two founders, also have a deep background in the automotive industry, founder Zhang Shuguang once served in Hyundai Motor, and later founded the automotive design company Broad & Bright Automobile, another founder Wang Zhe, which also has an automotive electronics company Yousen Technology.
According to Zhang Shuguang's introduction, box cars have made many innovative designs for its products in response to the scene needs of B-end online ride-hailing cars, such as canceling the passenger seat and trunk, allowing large luggage to be directly on the car, and using a two-door structure of door + side sliding door to facilitate passengers to get on and off the car.
At the same time, in the future planned models, Box Car also plans to place vending machines in the interior space of the car, provide hot and cold drinks, snacks, rain ponchos and other goods that are in immediate demand, or provide services such as seat massage, car KTV, somatosensory games, as well as a variety of ways such as advertising implantation inside and outside the car, streaming media information push, etc., to develop a more flexible profit model for the operation end.
The design and idea is good, but as a B-side operating vehicle, whether these needs are really necessary seems to be yet to be verified.
Previously, although there were no special car-making forces to launch models for the B-side, in November last year, Didi released a D1 oem by BYD and oriented to the online car scene.
At that time, the design of the D1 and the online ride-hailing car of the box car did have a lot in common, but the current operation and development of Didi D1 did not seem to be as fast as expected, and its previously planned model of sharing the industrial chain such as manufacturers and drivers according to the operating mileage was not effectively implemented.
This seems to indicate that in the B-end of the low-end model with higher demand, creating a new model of new energy models, there is currently a lack of effective business paths.
▍Light Orange Age: Another PTT car?
Compared with Wagyu Innovative Energy and Box Car, which has been in preparation for two or three years, the light orange era seems to be more indeed called the "second round of new car-making forces", because it has been established for less than half a year.
On June 25 this year, Light Orange Times (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd. was just established, and on November 9, a brand launch conference was held in Beijing.
Unlike Li Yinan's niu innovative energy, the light orange era is like the first round of new car-making forces.
The first is the founder team, mainly from the capital circle and the Internet industry. Founder and chairman Bian Biao, who once served China Merchants Securities; CEO Mu Lu was the main policykeeper of Tencent's Tianmei Art Tour, leading the planning and research and development of games such as "Everyday Love Elimination" and "Everyday Cool Run".
Then there is the innovative model of its propaganda. According to The Light Orange Era, its products will take "fusion innovation" as the core, integrate the genes and characteristics of automobile manufacturing, intelligent technology, mobile Internet and other aspects, and create a new paradigm of intelligent mobility that fully integrates technology, design, ecology, cross-border resources and business models.
At the same time, the light orange era also wants to create a "modular, entertaining, personalized" product DNA, making it the first domestic mass production model that truly realizes customization at will, the body structure and components can be replaced, and the vehicle custom parts are purchased and selected through the APP; with detachable and customized coverings, supporting the simple disassembly and assembly of the body, users can reassemble the shell of their own car according to their preferences.
"Ecology", "cross-border" and "integration", which is somewhat "PPT car", compared with LeTV's super car ecology, Evergrande Automobile's whole industry chain car, the model of the light orange era does not seem to be so reliable.
In addition, the operation mode of creating Internet products such as "customized mass production models" is obviously not suitable for the automotive industry.
The automobile industry is an industry with scale effect, and the production line investment of a key component will be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan, and only by achieving large-scale mass production can the cost be diluted, and it is by no means an Internet product that can be customized according to the needs of users.
However, the light orange era does not seem to be the same as most PPT cars before, because at the Guangzhou Auto Show ten days after the conference, the first model Vc, which is scheduled to be mass-produced in the second half of 2022, was displayed.
At the same time, although the main founder of the team is not from the automotive industry, it is reported that the co-founders of the light orange era also include Li Gang, former vice president of the GAC Group Research Institute. Previously, Li Gang was one of the core leaders of GAC BJEV, and at present, GAC BJEV has become an independent GAC Eian and has become a strong brand in China's new energy market.
With the addition of sample car models and industry leaders, the light orange era seems to be more reliable than the previous PPT car, but there seems to be no small doubt about the success of its customized personalized car model.
▍ Conclusion
The tide of new energy continues, the potential of new energy vehicles is still very large, and the new round of car-making forces does have the opportunity to catch up, but if there is a lack of clear goals and a clear business model, it may only be like the players in the previous round of new forces, most of them fell in the big waves.
Original | Zhoukun
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