Cross-border and new life.
With the sweep of the "new four modernizations" wave of the automobile industry and the implementation of the "double carbon" policy, the development prospects of electric vehicles have been clear, whether it is the choice of consumer terminals or the attitude of the capital market, the answer has been given. Under the general trend of this unprecedented change in a hundred years, all participants are new cars, whether it is a traditional car company with mature manufacturing experience, or a new car-making force born based on Internet thinking, they are facing the same opportunities and challenges. Here, Green Orange Automobile will consider the cross-border car manufacturing of traditional car companies and technology companies to take stock of the new car brands in 2021.
SAIC rushes up the "left and right hands"
On January 13, IM Zhiji, a high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle brand jointly built by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba, was officially born. Among them, SAIC Motor invested 5.4 billion yuan and held 54% of the equity; Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba each contributed 1.8 billion yuan, holding 18% of the equity; the other 10% of the equity was divided into 5.1% ESOP (core employee shareholding platform) and 4.9% CSOP (user rights platform).
At present, its first model, the Zhiji L7, has begun the first delivery on December 26, and it is worth noting that the 200 models delivered this time are Beta Trial Editions, and the users delivered are "system test users". That is to say, the first 200 models of beta experience version of the L7 are handed over to professionals for final testing, not delivery in the true sense. Its significance lies in the collection and updating of data, and then give manufacturers room to adjust, setting the tone for the final mass production model.
The delivery of Zhiji Automobile, which shoulders the burden of intelligence of SAIC Motor, has a milestone significance for Zhiji and even the entire group. However, after a year, as the aggregator of SAIC Group's three electric, intelligent driving, intelligent manufacturing and other technologies, it is only experience delivery, or it is difficult to say that it is efficient.
In contrast, the development of Feifan Automobile, which is also SAIC's independent "left and right hand", is much more stable. With the announcement issued by SAIC Motor on October 29, 2021, the original R brand of SAIC Passenger Vehicles is market-oriented operation by Feifan Automobile as an independent company, and Feifan Automobile and SAIC Passenger Vehicle are both secondary subsidiaries of SAIC Motor.
Different from Zhiji Automobile's positioning of high-end intelligent pure electric brand, Feifan Automobile is positioned as a high-end new energy product, and R Car after independence will mainly focus on high-end new energy intelligent products of 200,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan. According to the plan, Feifan Automobile will launch a mass production version of the ES33 concept car in the second half of 2022, which is positioned as a medium-sized pure electric SUV. At present, its products on sale, ER6 and MARVEL R models, have a certain reputation base in the intelligent electric vehicle market.
Geely's new carrier
In an internal speech at Geely in February 2021, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, once again mentioned the "Blue Geely Action Plan" and said that "based on the changes in the global automotive industry and the application environment, Geely launched two Blue Geely Action Plans". One of them is mainly focusing on new energy vehicles and energy saving, including hybrid vehicles, extended range plug-in hybrids and other small-displacement energy-saving vehicles. Another plan is intelligent pure electric vehicles, the formation of a new pure electric vehicle company, the landing project of the plan is extreme krypton automobile.
On March 23, Geely launched a new smart pure electric brand - Extreme Krypton Automobile, the birth of Extreme Kr marks the arrival of Geely's new carrier to undertake the era of intelligent pure electric vehicles after the failure of the "Blue Action Plan" in 2015.
Along with the launch of the Krypton brand at the same time, its first model, the Krypton 001, the car brings new surprises to consumers both in terms of styling and product strength, and based on Geely's more than 20 years of car-making experience, the market and users are looking forward to the delivery of Kr 001. However, before the delivery came the negative storms such as "price increase", "simple matching", and "cutting leeks". In fact, regarding the turmoil of extreme krypton, the contradictions mainly focus on the change of price, the optional configuration after booking, the 400V and 800V voltage, and the mismatch of the "EC canopy" configuration after delivery.
At present, these problems have not been properly resolved. In the view of auto analyst Zhang Xiang, "as far as the Krypton brand itself is concerned, if the reputation of the first batch of users is not good, it is difficult to reverse the next, and it is difficult for more users to buy."
Chang'an's "emotional card"
On November 15, Avita Technology made its global debut in Shanghai, and its first intelligent electric vehicle, Avita 11, was also officially unveiled. Avita is a high-end brand jointly launched by Changan Automobile, Huawei and CATL to form the Chinese team.
It is worth noting that as a new smart electric vehicle brand, Avita did not choose the words sports and luxury as its brand positioning, but emphasized "emotion" in a different way.
Under the sweep of the new four modernizations, the extension of the concept of automobiles has been expanding, and automobiles are no longer a simple means of transportation. As traditional transportation tools evolve to personalized, diversified, and deeply integrated with users, consumers have more and more emotional expectations for smart electric vehicles.
In the view of Tan Benhong, CEO of Avita Technology, the current market still lacks an "emotional intelligence electric car", and Avita is such an electric vehicle brand that can achieve emotional intelligence." But in the eyes of the outside world, what is more important for Avita at this stage is how to survive in the new track of smart cars.
Huawei's new story
"Huawei does not build cars, but only helps car companies make better products." The "enthusiastic" Huawei recently helped its old partner Xilix to create a new high-end car brand - AITO.
On December 2, Xilis released a new high-end brand "AITO" jointly created with Huawei. Since then, at the Huawei Winter Flagship New Product Launch Conference on December 23, the first mass-produced model of the AITO brand, the M5, has appeared as the finale product.
It is worth noting that in this 2-hour winter new product launch, Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of consumer business, and CEO of smart car solution BU, spent 67 minutes introducing the M5 to the outside world. The car is positioned as a coupe SUV, and the new car is based on the HUAWEI DriveONE pure electric drive range extension platform, and a total of three versions of the rear-drive standard version, four-wheel drive performance version and four-wheel drive flagship version are launched. It is reported that the M5 will be delivered at the end of February 2022.
Yu Chengdong said that he hopes that M5 can make users feel the "high-end, fashionable, and youthful brand spirit," and said that its requirements for the Huawei team are "(M5) to be manufactured in accordance with the Million Luxury Car Standard", which may mean that the dominance of the models of the Cyrus high-end brand may depend on huawei, and the previously declared non-car construction speech is even more undeserved.
This article will be divided into two parts, the latter will be released in the near future.