Some time ago, Huawei and Xilix released the first model of AITO's high-end new energy vehicle brand, named "Q&A M5". One of the highlights of this model is the new Huawei HarmonyOS smart cockpit tailored by Huawei, which enables the car to be seamlessly linked with people, mobile phones, smart homes, smart watches, etc., truly realizing the convenience of all things in the car connection and bringing a new experience of smart travel.
This is actually not the first time Huawei has tested the waters of the new energy automobile industry. Previously, Huawei also jointly released the Alpha S Huawei HI version with BAIC Polar Fox, and once it was also rumored that Huawei wanted to invest in BAIC Polar Fox, which was later confirmed to be pure rumors. However, the news is not empty, from the perspective of Huawei's two tests of new energy vehicles, it still has a lot of ideas for the new energy automobile industry.
The main business is blocked, and we have to seek a breakthrough in the new energy automobile industry
We all know that since Huawei was sanctioned by the United States, its consumer terminal business and telecommunications equipment business that it once relied on for a living have been hit relatively hard, in order to break through the blockade, Huawei has also thought of many ways, including launching a 4G version of the mobile phone to continue to maintain the consumer terminal business, selling the glory of mobile phones to survive, trying to sell telecommunications equipment to overseas 5G operators, etc. At the same time, Huawei has also carried out a lot of exploration at the new business level, including the video surveillance market and the new energy vehicle market.
In recent years, the domestic new energy vehicle market has developed rapidly, and this year's production and sales are expected to exceed 3 million units, which is one of the few domestic automotive segments that are still maintaining rapid growth. Moreover, in the context of the era of carbon peaking in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060, the new energy automobile industry has very huge development prospects, so it is not difficult to understand that Huawei has taken a look at this market. However, according to Huawei's disposition of either not doing it or being the first, Huawei's two tests in the new energy vehicle market are only in the exploration stage, and the future depends on how Huawei will do it.
Supplier or OEM Huawei faces a tough choice
Judging from Huawei's previous actions, Huawei's initial choice to participate in the new energy automobile industry is to be a supplier, in addition to providing a few high-end electronic devices such as solid-state lidar, Huawei mainly provides HarmonyOS smart cockpits for cooperative manufacturers. There is a saying that the level of Huawei's smart cockpit is still relatively high, in the leading level in China.
However, what cannot be ignored is that except for a few marginal new energy vehicle companies such as BAIC Jihu and Xilisi, which have reached cooperation with Huawei, we have not seen any mainstream passenger car companies and Huawei reach relevant cooperation. In fact, not only Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have long laid out the field of unmanned driving and smart cockpits, but at present, their promotion pace is still very slow, and even the news of the big layoffs of baidu's auto team has been reported.
The reason is because of unmanned driving, intelligent cockpit and other technologies, because there are a large number of software and hardware suppliers, such as the Great Wall, Geely and other mainstream passenger car companies are not difficult to integrate, it is difficult to pull out a decisive gap in the user experience. Therefore, except for a few manufacturers with weak technical strength, automobile manufacturers tend to be the leader of technology, rather than adopting the solutions provided by suppliers.
According to Huawei's ambitions, it will not accept only being a low-level supplier. Therefore, if Huawei wants to expand its market share, one of the alternative routes is to build its own car. Whether it is its own shares or another factory, if Huawei wants to deeply participate in the new energy automobile industry, it is indispensable to build its own cars. Just like when Huawei went from building telecommunications equipment to making mobile phone terminals, it was almost the same route.
Some people say that Huawei has only started to build cars at this time, will it be too late? Xiaomi, one of Huawei's peers, is also preparing to build its own car, its technical accumulation in new energy vehicles is not as good as Huawei, people are not afraid, will Huawei be afraid?
Huawei car manufacturing has several very significant advantages, the first is that Huawei has a very good national degree, through the development of these years, Huawei's recognition among the people is quite high, which is the foundation of Huawei's car manufacturing. The second is that Huawei has a very strong accumulation of electronic technology, whether in the field of systems or in the field of chips, Huawei's technology accumulation is the top in China, very easy to convert, and its strong technical team can also ensure that it can achieve technological transformation. Third, Huawei also has a very strong sales terminal channel, whether it is telecommunications equipment sales or mobile phone terminals, Huawei's sales iron army is very strong, known in the industry.
Moreover, after years of development, the parts supply chain of new energy vehicles has been quite mature, and a newly established small factory can integrate a new energy vehicle on its own. From this, we can make a judgment, if Huawei can not break through the US sanctions this year, in order to expand revenue to support itself, Huawei will sooner or later start to build its own cars, let's wait and see!