At a time when first-line car companies have "turned away" Huawei, Xilis eventually became the latter's most loyal "joint car" partner. However, in the face of the dismal sales of the first model of the two sides (Huawei Smart SF5), the newly launched second model, AITO, asked what changes have been made? Can it be successfully counterattacked?
If you want to know the answer, you have to start with the cooperation between Huawei and Xilix. In 2018, the Xilis brand returned from the "returnees" of Silicon Valley in the United States, and launched the first model SF5 hybrid version under the family endorsement of Dongfeng Xiaokang Group, but unfortunately the first year of sales was only more than 1,000 vehicles, and the company also lost more than one billion yuan.
At that time, Huawei's "joint car manufacturing" plan was booming, but first-line car companies expressed their reluctance to give the "core soul" to him, resulting in their helplessness and forced to turn to the second and third echelon car companies to seek cooperation. Xilis, which has no brand heat, unswervingly takes high-end new energy vehicles as the direction, which is in line with Huawei's needs and has the factory car-making capabilities of Dongfeng Xiaokang Group, so the two are almost in agreement and go in both directions.
In April 2021, Huawei's Smart Choice SF5 model was launched. However, according to the statistics of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, from April to October this year, the monthly sales of the car were 129, 204, 1097, 507, etc., with a total of no more than 6,000 vehicles, which is obviously far from the "300,000 sales target" that Yu Chengdong once shouted.
In response to the reasons for the dismal sales of Huawei's Smart Choice SF5, industry insiders pointed out that SF5 has been listed before Huawei and Xilix cooperated, which means that there is no Huawei's excellent technical gene injection in it, and its biggest significance is to enter Huawei's offline sales channels and use Huawei's brand marketing influence.
The release of the new AITO M5 is no longer as simple as Huawei's OEM
Compared with Huawei's Smart Choice SF5, AITO Q&I M5 is the first joint model in the real sense after the cooperation between the two, and we can clearly see more of Huawei's technical genes in it, such as the first hammony smart cockpit at the core.
Even in terms of publicity, aito Q&I M5 is also claimed to be almost deeply built by Huawei itself, and is the closest to the "Huawei brand" car. It uses Huawei's DriveONE extender three-electric system, HUAWEI SOUND sound system, sales channels, and even the conference are completed by Huawei, and Xilis is more like a foundry behind it, silently opening up all the data on research and development, procurement, and production, and catering to Huawei's design needs behind the scenes.
If you look at it this way, Huawei is undoubtedly lucky. It was fortunate to find a traditional car company with factory car-making capabilities and willing to make great sacrifices to complete Yu Chengdong's ideal of "curved car-making". But as a result, even if Xilis is so willing to lie flat, Huawei still can't hand over a good answer sheet, AITO asked the M5's product strength, can only be said to be "unsatisfactory".
In Huawei's Hi full-stack intelligent car solution, the HOS Hongmeng intelligent cockpit system is only one of the three, and to a certain extent, it is the simplest technical requirement and the lowest implementation cost. The other two major AOS intelligent driving operating systems and VOS intelligent vehicle control operating systems are the core parts of the future of automotive autonomous driving. Obviously, the latter two are not carried by the AITO Q&A M5.
Compared with Huawei Smart Choice SF5, the new car has no major changes in the appearance design, continuing the Huawei DriveONE three-electric extender power platform, HUAWEI SOUND sound system enhancement, and the only big change is nothing more than upgrading from Huawei HiCar to a full set of Hongmeng intelligent cockpit. The clear-eyed person pointed out: "This is obviously a small modification of the model in April this year, but the price has risen sharply from 21W yuan to 25W million yuan, and the top match is more than 30W yuan, and the price is close to Weilai ET5." Where does Huawei have the courage to sell so expensive. ”
Profitability is the main goal that Huawei pursues at this stage, and technology depends on the future
Huawei is also expected to know this. However, Huawei's internal car manufacturing situation is extremely complicated, and Yu Chengdong said unabashedly earlier: "Huawei's decision to sell cars is to make up for the decline in profits caused by the impact on the sales of mobile phone business." Therefore, it is not difficult to understand Huawei's current purpose of car manufacturing: profit first, show technical strength for the time being.
From the listing of Huawei's Smart Choice SF5 in April this year to the launch of the AITO Q&A M5 in December, such a short and rapid model iteration, coupled with the new car on the basis of the comprehensive minor overhaul of the previous generation model, the price has also increased significantly, and the profit margin has risen significantly, which is obviously a problem that Huawei is eager to improve the dismal sales volume of the automobile business and the difficulty of profitability.
In addition, it is not equipped with the relatively hard-core, double-cost AOS intelligent driving and VOS intelligent car control, but the FIRST HOS intelligent cockpit system with obvious user experience perception, which further proves that Huawei created the Q&D M5 to reduce R&D and production costs while stimulating market sales in the simplest and most effective way.
As we all know, Huawei is not short of technology. On the BAIC Polar Fox Alpha S, Volkswagen has seen the actual power of Huawei's Hi full-stack intelligent car solution, which can be called the strongest in the industry. But what is missing is time and data. Although autonomous driving is the most important thing for Huawei, it requires massive vehicle loading and huge big data to become more and more iterative and mature.
Based on this, it is widely speculated that Huawei will not personally endorse hi full-stack intelligent car solutions until it is truly mature. Huawei hopes that through cooperation methods such as BAIC Jihu Alpha S, traditional car companies will act as the "market forerunners" of Huawei's automatic driving technology, and their gradual listing can allow Huawei automatic driving to have more user increment and mature data, and then open up word of mouth in the market, and then Huawei will personally appear to achieve "one hundred responses".
A Huawei insider revealed: "Huawei is currently trying various ways, which is a typical Huawei model: send different people to do similar things, and whoever wins will set the direction here." "Obviously, Huawei HI is taking the technical route, while the smart selection model of cooperation with Xilix takes the sales route."
Both can make Huawei profitable, and even the former brings more, but combined with input costs and time calculations, the latter is undoubtedly the fastest. This point may wish to refer to Xiaomi, even if Lei Jun invested 10 million US dollars, it is impossible to immediately build a Millet car, until 2024 is expected to be mass-produced and listed. At this stage, you can only invest money, you can't make money, which is the logic behind Huawei's emphasis on not building cars at present.
For consumers, it is undoubtedly a pity that they cannot wait for the mass production model equipped with the Hi full-stack intelligent car solution built by Huawei itself. At the same time, in the face of apple, millet, wei Xiaoli step by step, "strong in the outside" and high profit margins of the AITO asked the world M5, there is a bit of "who buys who is deceived" meaning.