Although it has been repeatedly emphasized that "no cars are built". But Huawei's so-called "helping" car companies build good cars is almost personally entering the workshop to tighten the screws. It also highlights that only "helping" car companies cannot support the ambitions of Huawei's auto business.
(Image source: Screenshot of Huawei's press conference)
Wen | Car Novel Fig
On the track of "car building", Huawei can be described as unfavorable. Neither Xiaokang Xilis nor BEIQI Polar Fox has failed to carry its lofty ambitions.
The Cyrus SF5, which has just been listed for a short time, has been rumored to be discontinued. Although Xilis issued a statement on January 5 in response to the statement that "SF5 will continue to accept user orders", Cheshi Novel noted on its official website that the model available is only a four-wheel drive version (the two-wheel drive version is not seen), and some body and interior colors are no longer available.
(Image source: Cyrus official website)
In addition, in the Huawei Mall, only the AITO Q&I M5 is available for users to purchase, and the Xilix SF5 is missing.
On January 5, in response to the online rumor that SF5 was discontinued, the official customer service of Xilis replied to the car story: "(Production) has been stopped years ago, and the follow-up situation will wait for the notification of the next year." ”
As for whether consumers can still buy SF5 normally, the customer service said, "You can buy it, but the resources are limited." Specifically, you need to contact your local store to confirm. According to the car novel, whether the car can be mentioned depends on whether the store has a current car.
Running out of traffic and short-lived SF5?
At last year's Shanghai International Auto Show, Huawei, which insisted on "not building a car", and Cyrus, a subsidiary of Chongqing Xiaokang, jointly launched Huawei's first model, the Cyrus SF5.
The SF5, which hitched a ride on the concept of "Huawei-made cars", ushered in a peak in traffic as soon as it was released. After the press conference, the car novel was seen in the Huawei flagship store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai, and even near 9 p.m., several SF5 exhibition cars in the store were still surrounded by crowds of car watchers.
(Image source: Car fiction /photo)
"You guys built this car?" " How long does it take to charge?" How far can I run? "When can I test drive and pick up the car?" "In the face of one question after another, the store staff told the car novel that this state of affairs has been going on all day." Smoke is going to go up in the throat," the staff member said.
After the high traffic, various "good news" followed. According to a number of media reports at that time, the order for SF5 has exceeded 6,000 units in a single month.
Then, since May 29, 2021, after SF5 opened the first batch of car owners delivered at the Liangjiang Intelligent Factory in Chongqing, the terminal market sales data showed that it did not show the same hot as during the pre-sale period.
According to the statistics of the Association, as of the end of November 2021, the wholesale sales of the Cyrus SF5 were only 7,080 units.
According to Tencent's "Deep Net" report, Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei and CEO of Smart Vehicle Solutions BU, has set a goal of selling 300,000 Huawei Smart Models internally. The performance of SF5 in the end market is far from this target.
Although Xilis claims that SF5 continues to accept user orders, according to customer service responses, it has stopped producing years ago, and whether the car can be mentioned depends on whether the local store has a current car.
In addition, car owners who have already purchased SF5 do not have to worry about whether to park or not, and can enjoy the same after-sales service as the new brand AITO.
AITO asked the M5, Huawei sent itself into the workshop to tighten the screws
Xu Zhijun, huawei's rotating chairman, once revealed that Huawei had organized a vote on whether to "build a car", 3 rotating directors, 1 chairman, and 3 executive directors voted, and only Yu Chengdong raised his hand in favor of building a car.
As the first model launched by "helping car companies build good cars", Yu Chengdong has high hopes for the market of SF5. However, after the initial stage of the release, Yu Chengdong could not sit still in the face of the cold sales report card placed in front of him.
In the last month of 2021, at the huawei winter flagship new product launch, Yu Chengdong once again stood in the center of the stage and solemnly recommended the second model he brought to the outside world - AITO Q&A M5.
Although like the Cyrus SF5, it was born from the Well-off Cyris factory, this time, the new car release was completely missing the figure of the Well-off Cyris.
(Image source: Huawei Mall)
In fact, Yu Chengdong can see the hint in the opening statement of introducing this new car to the audience at the press conference.
"We and Xiaokang Xilis released the SF5 car this spring, using some components of Huawei DriveONE, using some of our technology, but the whole vehicle is not designed by us, we think we can do better, this time we used the industrial design team, software team, and user experience team of Huawei's consumer business to create (AITO Q&I M5) this product." At the beginning of the press conference, Yu Chengdong said so on the stage.
"Can do better" shows that SF5's performance did not meet Yu Chengdong's expectations.
According to Yu Chengdong, from the pre-planning, design and post-marketing of the AITO M5 car, Huawei has led the way. Since the launch, the car novel still can't find any information about this new model (AITO Inquisition M5) on the official website of Cyrus. Regarding the sales and introduction of this model, the online export is on Huawei's platform.
Based on dissatisfaction with the performance of Cyrus SF5 in all aspects, this time, the "AITO Q&I M5" is fully dominated by Huawei, except that the production plant is related to Cyris. In a sense, Huawei is close to "building a car" in this new car, and it is almost possible to tighten the screws in the workshop.
According to a number of media reports, the number of national orders for AITO Q&I M5 has exceeded 6,000. Similar to the number of orders announced at the beginning of the SF5's launch, how many deliveries the order will eventually be converted into is still unknown. Whether it is the network or the end market reaction, AITO asks the development situation of M5 or will most likely follow in the footsteps of SF5.
Huawei has "ridden the tiger difficult"
"Huawei will definitely build its own car in the end," a person who has worked with Huawei for many years told the car novel.
In the view of this person, whether it is BAIC Jihu and Xilisi, or the new brands (Avita) that are made together with Changan and Ningde era, they cannot really carry Huawei's automobile business.
"No matter what kind of partnership, the most important thing for Huawei is how to achieve economies of scale in a short period of time, which is the key to success or failure." Obviously, neither Xilis nor BAIC Polar Fox has the potential to achieve large-scale sales in a short period of time. ”
According to the data of the Association, as of the end of November, the cumulative wholesale sales of the Cyris SF5 were only 7,080 units. The cumulative wholesale sales of the two models (Alpha S and T) of the BEIQI Jihu were 4933 units.
In contrast, the little-known Skyworth Automobile has achieved wholesale sales of 5,171 units by the end of November. Yundu Automobile has achieved a total of 5,100 wholesale sales.
For Huawei, is it to continue to deeply bind niche edge brands such as Xilis, BAIC Polar Fox, and Avita? Or do you adjust the strategic direction and build a car yourself? Now, it's time for serious consideration.
The end market has proven that even with the full support of Huawei technology, niche car brands still have difficult opportunities to turn around. Even the cooperation with marginal niche brands has also had an impact on Huawei's cooperation with other mainstream brands.
In addition to the "soul theory" of Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, which represents the voice of some traditional car companies and is impossible to cooperate with Huawei in depth, according to the public account "Finance Eleven" under Caijing, Huawei's cooperation with Jihu has directly affected the relationship between Huawei and Weilai.
According to the media report, Li Bin personally approved the cooperation order with Huawei, and provided Huawei with a large number of ES8 as test vehicles at a low price, and opened up a data interface with extremely high permissions. However, some people familiar with the matter said that Huawei pushed the automatic driving function realized on the Weilai car and later moved it to the polar fox. Wei Lai felt that he had made a wedding dress for The Extreme Fox. Subsequently, Weilaifang took the initiative to terminate this cooperation.
On the one hand, the auto brands that have been cooperated are too niche and it is difficult to bring large-scale sales in the end market. On the other hand, Huawei Inside's deeply bound cooperation model means that Huawei is unlikely to have more energy to cooperate with too many car companies.
Where Huawei's auto business goes, some of them are difficult to ride.
It is impossible to get rid of the quagmire of "building cars"
At present, on the table, Huawei is indeed helping Xilisi and BAIC Jihu to "build a good car", but the problem is that end-market users are not willing to pay for these so-called "good cars".
Although it is in the world's largest automobile consumer market, cars are not consumer electronics after all. As a special bulky commodity, the car is still a big thing for household consumption. There are many factors that need to be considered holistically before making a purchase decision. Including but not limited to vehicle price, configuration, design, the number of after-sales channel outlets, the convenience of maintenance, product reliability, etc.
(Image source: Car fiction /photo)
In fact, to this day, many consumers still do not know who "Xilis" is, nor do they know what "Polar Fox" is. This is also one of the main reasons why the initial stage of new car launch is very lively, but the terminal sales are sluggish.
"Rush to see Huawei, but after all, after buying it back, the main deal during the use of the period is still Xilis, the name is very unfamiliar, the heart is bottomless." Earlier, a car user in Huawei's flagship store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai said so.
Taking Shanghai as an example, according to the car novel in the official website of Xilisi, it was learned that as of now, Xilis has three user centers in Shanghai (which can undertake after-sales maintenance and repair services), which are located in Pudong, Jiading and Songjiang Districts, which are relatively remote from the geographical point of view.
(Image source: Polar Fox official website)
Although there are 5 after-sales service outlets in Shanghai, only one is in normal business, and the other 4 are marked as "opening soon". The location of the show business is also relatively remote, located on Gonghexin Road in Baoshan District.
In fact, in addition to the factor of "Huawei", whether it is Xilis or BAIC Polar Fox, it is difficult to find a selling point that allows users to make up their minds to pay from their own perspective.
Under the superposition of various factors, the strategic prospect of "helping car companies build good cars" is not optimistic.
"It is only a matter of time before Huawei announces that it will build its own car, and sooner or later it will choose to build it itself," said the above-mentioned person who has cooperated with Huawei for many years.
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