Abstract: Another member of the new car
The tide of new energy vehicles has swept in, there are always new players to join, and there is always no shortage of other people who are looking for opportunities in the market segments that are still blank.
On the same day (December 15), the founder of Xiaoniu Electric and former Huawei executive Li Yinan announced the car brand "NIUTRON" (Chinese name: Ziyoujia), a new car-making force called "Box Car" also held a brand conference and officially announced the car.
Unlike Li Yinan and the NIUTRON team, who are still exploring the future target customer group, Box Auto positions itself very clearly: it does not compete with other new car-making forces for C-end share, but focuses on the B-end travel field such as special cars, online car-hailing, and taxi markets. As its founder Zhang Shuguang said, "We are building cars for the scene, cars for market demand, and cars for the pain points of the industry."
Box Cars' first production car, the BM-400, is scheduled to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2023, and the BM-600 is aimed at the mid-to-high-end leasing market and is expected to be mass-produced in the third quarter of 2024. In terms of manufacturing methods, the initial use of OEM production, the later maturity of the conditions will be built by their own production base. In terms of price, the price of the first car will not be higher than that of the operating vehicle on the market.
"The biggest temptation of the car-making track is that there is too much money and too much market, and in this context, we know better that the characteristics of the B-end travel market are just in line with the advantages of the current team of box cars." In Zhang Shuguang's view, the box car should be "B-end Tesla" and become the king of the B-end track.
"Phoenix WEEKLY Auto" learned that Zhang Deguang has nearly 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and has participated in the product design and research and development of many automotive OEMs. He called his car-making behavior "rejuvenation" and was confident in the future of box cars.
Of course, confidence and market performance don't necessarily equate.
Before the box car, Didi and BYD cooperation D1, FAW Besturn NAT, WM E.5 and other models have entered the field of travel under the slogan of B-end customized cars. And the box car that was only listed for the first product at the end of 2023, is it too late to occupy the market? In addition, there are many car companies with a good development momentum of travel platforms, and inherit the strategy of self-production and self-sales, how to compete with box cars? Under the OEM production mode, how will the cost, efficiency and quality be guaranteed?
These are the real problems that box cars will face.
It starts with the pain points of the travel market
Judging from the content of the conference, whether it is from the strategic direction, product planning, or business model, the box car is obviously prepared. "Solving the existing pain points and problems in the B-end travel market is the original intention of the establishment of the box car brand." Zhang Shuguang said.
What are the problems in the B-end market?
On the driver side, box cars believe that high cost, high maintenance, long-term consumption, and low income are the major problems they are currently facing; on the passenger side, it is difficult for existing taxis and online ride-hailing cars to meet their needs for space, driving experience, and personalization.
To this end, Zhang Shuguang believes that the B-end products must be significantly different from the traditional cars on the road now, and should have the following basic characteristics: a changeable space, a changeable body, a modular wire control chassis of "self-driving" and "self-control", and real-time data online.
Zhang Saidguang said that a good company must have some focus and some trade-offs. Box Car has always pursued subtraction logic when customizing business plans and product planning. For example, they have drastically optimized product features that are rarely used by consumers on the go.
In his view, C-end products need to be large and complete, while the B-end market can be more focused, and the definition of products will become simpler and easier to choose. Therefore, the B-end travel market is more likely to make explosive products. "As long as you create a blockbuster product, you have the opportunity to win the favor of most of the market."
Starting from the product, how to define the box car as a "blockbuster"?
Judging from its first mass-produced model, the BM-400, it pioneered the L-shaped seat layout for the operation and use of B-end online ride-hailing vehicles, abolished the passenger seat and trunk, and adopted a "1+1+3" seat distribution, so that large luggage and even wheelchairs can be directly on the bus. At the same time, based on the low utilization rate of the left rear door of the travel vehicle, the box car adopts the "two-door structure" of driving door + side sliding door, abandoning the left door. The right door uses a spaceless sliding form to facilitate passengers to get on and off the bus.
For the pain point of the high cost of maintaining operating vehicles, the Box Car team incorporated "low-cost consumable replacement" into the product definition. Under the premise of doing a good job of standard parts and standard interfaces, 75%-80% of the slight scratches of the box car can replace the cover parts such as front and rear bumpers by themselves, and this process can be completed independently by the driver, which is conducive to reducing maintenance costs.
In terms of specific configuration, the wheelbase of the BM-400 and BM-600 reaches 2850mm and 3100mm respectively. Among them, the BM-400 is divided into two versions: 420km and 530km. The BM-600 has a range of 600km, focusing on the mid-to-high-end rental market, and will continue to explore the high-end rental and Robotaxi markets in the future.
In addition to the release of the new car, the box car also disclosed its car-making platform - the modular chassis of "Octopus" 1.0. With up to 95% of the chassis components in common, the chassis provides the flexibility to customize different bodywork, adapt to different spaces, and be compatible with battery modules of different capacities. Both models are based on the platform, and in the future, Box Cars will also launch a 2.0 platform for the driverless market.
"We want to do A B-end Tesla and make a lot of profits by back-end operations." Zhang Shuguang revealed that the car built by the box car can also be placed inside the vending machine, according to the season to provide hot and cold drinks, snacks, rain poncho and other immediate demand of goods, or to provide seat massage, car KTV, somatosensory games and other services, supplemented by in the car inside and outside the screen advertising implantation, streaming media information push and other ways, for the operation side to open up a more flexible profit model.
"Our philosophy is to make the car into a new intelligent mobile third space, which is our simplest business logic." Zhang Shuguang said that from the perspective of the function of mass production vehicles, urban publicity and wheelchair access to the car can reflect its social value; and the multi-faceted profit model mentioned above reflects the commercial value of box cars.
What is the strength of the "veteran"?
"Box Car is both a new enterprise and an old enterprise, 'new' represents new projects and new products, and 'old' represents veterans of the automotive industry." In Zhang's view, although the team of box cars began to enter the car market, it is different from other new car manufacturers, and it has many years of experience in automobile design and research and development.
According to the Tianyancha App, box cars, formerly known as Beijing Broad & Bright Apocalypse Industrial Equipment Co., Ltd., were established in March 2013, and have provided vehicle and parts design and development for China FAW R&D Institute, China FAW Besturn Research Institute, FAW-Volkswagen, BAIC Group, Jianghuai Automobile and other car companies.
In January 2019, the company changed its name to Beijing Broad & Bright Technology Co., Ltd., and established an electric vehicle division in the same year, and began to build a new electric vehicle platform suitable for B-end travel to attack the core technology of new energy vehicles. In 2020, Bris technology began to lay out intelligent networking and established a HIGH DO system research and development center.
In September last year, Briss Technology established a wholly-owned subsidiary, the business scope includes the manufacture of new energy intelligent vehicles. In September this year, Briss Technology officially changed its name to Box Zhixing Technology and increased the company's registered capital to 200 million yuan. On November 4, Box Auto posted a poster on its official Weibo posted "For Future Travel" and wrote that "look up at the stars and be down-to-earth."
After making sufficient preparations, the box car began to "show its face" in public.
In Zhang's view, Box Auto has more than 10 years of experience as a new energy vehicle "design and engineering" service provider, as well as a complete body design and chassis engineering development and process capabilities. In terms of R&D team, it has more than 200 professional automotive design engineers, and the core team members are from well-known international and domestic automobile design, research and development and vehicle manufacturing enterprises.
But the number of patents owned by box cars is not dominant in the industry. According to the Tianyancha App, there are only 50 patent information for box cars at present, including 4 invention patents and 46 utility model patents, including patents related to new energy vehicles such as "electric vehicle battery packs" and "new energy vehicle battery pack brackets", but more patents such as "car interior", "armrest box" and "luggage rack".
Still, box cars have "allies" to fill the patent void. According to the content of the press conference, Box Auto currently has at least 11 strategic partners, including Di Rui Technology, Fu Neng Technology, Fiss, Guihang Hongtu, Linkage, NavInfo, Yousen Technology and other enterprises.
Among them, as the co-founder of Box Car, Wang Zhe's other identity is the founder of Yousen Technology. At present, Yousensense Technology has a wireless charging system for electric vehicles covering different power levels (3.3-30kW), which can meet the blank space of box cars in the field of wireless charging. Fu Neng Technology, which has a comprehensive strategic cooperation with box cars, has 800VTC overcharge and overpressure technology, which can enable box cars to achieve the effect of fast charging. In addition, in vehicle solutions, NavInfo is its current supplier partner.
The blessing of strategic partners makes box cars with less prominent patents more confident to negotiate with customers. Zhang Deguang revealed at the press conference that as of December 10, 2021, the intended pre-sale orders for BM-400 models reached 42,000 units. At the previous media communication meeting, Zhang Shuguang also revealed that local governments such as Luoyang and Wuhan have reached cooperation agreements with them.
"We've been honing the B-end track for two or three years, and now I think the box car has chosen the right direction." Zhang Saidguang said.
What are the odds?
It is not difficult to find that the products launched by box cars are indeed solving various pain points in the B-end travel market, but it is not so easy to quickly occupy the market. Many new forces C-end players, and even traditional car companies are also coveting the B-end market.
For example, Nezha Automobile, the "dark horse" of the new car-making forces this year, "made a fortune" in the B-end market. It is reported that when its first car, Nezha N01, was not yet listed, it had already received more than 50,000 orders, and customers mainly included a number of shared travel companies such as Tomato Travel and Xiaoer Car Rental. The second car, Nezha U, also won a large number of purchase orders for online ride-hailing cars and official cars.
In the second half of this year, the proportion of Nezha automobile product sales has shifted to the C-end market, but Daniel Zhang, founder and CEO of Nezha Automobile, also said that the B-end market has enough volume, and Nezha has no reason to give up the B-end market and will insist on walking on two legs (B-end + C-end).
At the same time, WM Motors has also implemented the "dual-brand LOGO strategy" of B-end and C-end separate actions. Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, has publicly stated that the travel market will become a growth point for new car-making forces. To this end, WM Motor launched the EX5 as early as 2018, which took into account both B and C markets.
WM's latest first sedan, the E.5, is also built for the B-end market; the car was launched in September this year, reducing the cost of car purchase for drivers, canceling the central control suspension screen, sunroof, and improving endurance; in order to bring comfort to passengers, the platform in the back row is almost flat. According to official feedback, after the E.5 is put on the market, sales can exceed four figures every month.
Of course, the competitors of box cars are not only new car-making forces, but also traditional players.
During the period when Didi App was taken down, its market share is being "swallowed up" by the online ride-hailing platforms built by traditional car companies such as Cao Cao Chuxing, T3 Travel, and Ruqi Travel.
According to the "Mobile Internet Industry Data Research Report in the Third Quarter of 2021" released by Aurora Big Data, in the third quarter of 2021, the user scale growth of CaoCao Travel has been greatly improved, and as of the end of the third quarter, Cao Cao Travel's MAU (number of monthly active users) has surpassed Hua Xiao pig, reaching 11.015 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 62.5%, ranking second in online ride-hailing. The monthly active users of T3 Travel were 9.867 million, an increase of 5.607 million over the end of 2020.
As a travel platform under Geely, Cao Cao Chuxing mainly digests its own models, mainly based on new energy models such as Emgrand EV series, Maple Leaf 80V tram, and geometry. Among them, Cao Cao Chuxing digested half of the sales of geometric brands; while the taxi market digested 30% of geometric sales. T3 Travel, jointly established by Changan Automobile, China FAW and Dongfeng Motor, together with Tencent, Alibaba, Suning and other enterprises, is also the main source of the platform models of the above three car companies.
It is worth mentioning that these traditional players are also quite favored by capital. In September, CaoCao Travel announced the completion of a B round of financing totaling 3.8 billion yuan, which is not only a new round of financing obtained by Cao Cao Travel after more than three years, but also the first equity investment obtained by domestic online ride-hailing companies in 2021. T3 also followed, announcing on October 26 that it had completed a Series A financing of 7.7 billion yuan, which is also the largest single financing obtained by the online ride-hailing brand in China since 2018.
And the box car that was only listed in the fourth quarter of 2023, will the market leave a place for it?
In this regard, Zhang Shuguang does not seem to be worried, and even full of confidence. He believes that box cars have no conflict of interest with existing travel platforms, and these platforms will also be potential customers of box cars in the future, "If a product is cheap, easy to use and can make more money, I believe that from a business point of view, there is no reason to say that we do not have orders, this is the simplest logic."
The replacement and withdrawal of fuel vehicles by local governments may also be one of the opportunities for box cars.
In the view of insiders such as T3 Travel, WM, and Geometry, the travel market is not saturated, and the mainstream of future growth of new energy vehicles is still in the B-end market.
Specifically, since the gradual development and growth of the online ride-hailing market in 2015, the first batch of operating vehicles has been four or five years, and the replacement of this batch of vehicles can bring a wave of new new energy vehicle sales. At the same time, the replacement of fuel vehicles in platforms such as taxis and Didi in various places can be transformed into an incremental market for new energy vehicles.
"This market is big enough", Zhang Zhiguang even hopes that the B-end market can be paid attention to by more mainstream car companies, "no competitors is not a good thing."