Since the global automobile from the traditional fuel to the direction of new energy, the last decade in the automotive field can be described as the most lively decade, first of all, traditional car companies have opened their own transformation to new energy, followed by the rapid emergence of hundreds of new energy vehicle brands around the world, followed by major mobile phone manufacturers, Internet companies, real estate companies and other capital have laid out the new energy field.
At first, due to the market's high expectations for new energy, the new energy vehicle rookies financing smoothly, opened a wave of wealth-making movement, and the major enterprises cross-border car manufacturing also made their own companies' market value reach an unprecedented height and market attention, but with the limitations of technology and the rational return of the market, new energy vehicle rookies can highlight the few surviving few dozen, and many cross-border car-making companies began to be repulsed, light cut or sold new energy vehicle business, heavy caused the entire company to be on the verge of bankruptcy.
But this still can not stop some companies on the enthusiasm of new energy vehicles, with their own strong capital, and want to bundle their existing business with new energy vehicles to obtain greater benefits, still spend tens of billions of dollars to lay out the field of new energy vehicles, such as the famous domestic mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi, foreign famous mobile phone manufacturer Apple.
As we all know, Apple's control of the mobile phone supply chain is notoriously strict, and this principle seems to have been continued in car building. In January 2021, South Korean media reported that Apple began to negotiate with Hyundai Motor as early as 2018 to cooperate in car manufacturing, when the car-making plan was called "Titan Plan" within Apple, but at present, this plan is not going well.
Insiders said: Apple hopes to procure its own major auto parts from all over the world, eventually hand them over to Hyundai or its subsidiary Kia for assembly, and then leave the factory in the United States. But Hyundai Motor hopes that everything uses its own supply chain, is not willing to become a foundry like Foxconn, and cooperation with Apple does not help its high-end sub-brand Genesis (Genesis) image establishment, is not expected to get huge returns, coupled with Hyundai has never had a tradition of open cooperation, once it cooperates with Apple, it may also encounter great challenges in cultural integration, which has a greater impact on the company's future development planning. So Hyundai has now terminated negotiations with Apple.
In February 2021, South Korean media said that Apple was already in contact with Nissan after negotiations with Hyundai broke down, hoping to reach a cooperation to jointly produce Apple Car, but the negotiations reached an impasse after a brief contact between the two sides. The reason is similar to Hyundai, Nissan hopes to cooperate with technology companies to adapt to its own transformation to Internet cars and autonomous driving, but does not want to become Foxconn in the automotive industry, cooperation with technology companies, must be technology and services to adapt to Nissan's products, not Nissan to adapt to the technology and services of technology companies.
In April 2021, the South Korean media once again reported that Apple is currently negotiating with LG to jointly build a car, and the cooperation plan between the two sides is close to being negotiated. Although LG does not have experience in vehicle manufacturing, LG's display, chemical, energy solutions and other subsidiaries are currently in Apple's supply chain, so once the two sides reach a cooperation, Apple does not need to worry about supply chain problems.
Since LG abandoned the mobile phone business, the company urgently needs other services to fill the needs of enterprises for business growth, and the cooperation with Apple will allow LG to achieve good results from related businesses such as auto parts. Previously, LG has provided motors, batteries and other components to General Motors and Tesla, but its influence in the industry is not large, so LG urgently needs to cooperate with Apple to improve its position in the automotive industry.
Apple car has been quite popular in the mobile phone industry, the automotive industry and many fan consumers, in the past decade has also been rumored that different versions of the car plan, but Apple has not responded positively, but with the maturity of new energy vehicle technology, Apple car seems to really only have a matter of time left, and even at the end of last year, there was news that Apple will release its first model in 2024.
At present, in the field of new energy vehicles, Tesla is a well-deserved boss, whether it is technology, sales or brand awareness, it is the industry's premier brand. With the increase of new energy vehicle brands and models, tesla's market share has been eroded to a certain extent, but it is very difficult for any brand to completely shake Tesla. Once Apple mass-produces models in the future, I believe Tesla will be its biggest obstacle.
In China, BYD can be said to be the boss in the field of new energy vehicles, but also has been benchmarking with Tesla, in the battery and hybrid technology is also one of the industry leaders, the past two years BYD new energy models in sales is also catching up with Tesla, and other brands are left behind, but due to the impact of brand positioning, has not been able to enter the high-end market. However, with the blessing of technology, BYD began to impact the high-end market, but if Apple releases a mass production model in 2024, then there is not much time left for BYD in the high-end market.
Although traditional car companies occupy certain advantages in the brand, they cannot transform these advantages into sales in the field of new energy, one is that the technology is not as advanced as emerging brands, and the other is that traditional fuel vehicles have become a burden, making the transformation of traditional car companies not easy and smooth. Among the emerging brands, the car companies represented by Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weilai are afraid that they will not be able to compete with Apple in the future.
And Xiaomi, which is also a mobile phone brand cross-border car, although it is in line with Apple's thinking, but because of the frequent failure of mobile phones to enter the high-end market, the probability of car manufacturing is also mainly in the low-end cost-effective market, and I want to directly benchmark Apple in the high-end market like mobile phones, I am afraid that there is still a long way to go.