At the just-opened 2022 CES Consumer Electronics Show, Sony brought two models, one is the Vision-S EV electric sedan that was released two years ago, and the other is the new concept SUV Vision-S 02.
Sony's CEO admits that they have set up a new electric vehicle company and are ready to officially enter the car industry.
This is also another digital giant after Apple and Xiaomi, entering the automotive field. In the consumer goods sector, all three companies are known for being very good at "pinching" fans, and they are all Top 500 giants, of which Apple has just become the first company with a market value of more than $3 trillion.
"Change" to build cars, can they do it in the end? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
Schedule comparison, Sony or in time?
Sony is the only one of the three companies to "have a car", in addition to the previously released Vision-S EV electric sedan, the Vision-S 02 unveiled at the CES exhibition is also very full of highlights.
It is actually the "hull" model of the first car, the two are based on the same platform development, a bit like the relationship between the Model 3 and the Model Y, but also equipped with the same power system, are 200kW front and rear dual motors, in terms of electric vehicle standards, the performance is not outstanding. Of course, the sedan is only available in a 4-seater version, and this SUV comes in 4-seater and 7-seater layouts.
The new car is equipped with 40 sensors, and its camera covers all angles of the vehicle's front view, rear view, and side view, which is used to improve the level of intelligent assisted driving. In addition, it also supports 5G information transmission, and it is expected to support V2X car networking technology in the later stage. Beyond that, there doesn't seem to be much valuable information.
Just to say that sony cars will be very entertaining, its concept car is equipped with 360 ° surround sound, front and rear rows of entertainment screens, not only traditional touch and voice recognition, but also support fancy L-Swipe gesture control and other new "gameplay", and even Sony also equipped it with a gamepad.
But Sony has already taken out real cars, and the other two giants, Apple and Xiaomi, are more likely to only hear their voices and not see their cars. Before the Internet exposed a set of MiCar1 information, 100 km acceleration of 2.9S, the longest endurance of 1200km, equipped with 800V + fast charging function, and finally proved to be a netizen spoof. In fact, Lei Jun last talked about building a car on December 24, 2021, and he claimed that Xiaomi's first model will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024, but did not disclose unnecessary parameters.
Apple's attitude is more ambiguous, it has actually launched a car-making project called "Titan Project" as early as 2014, and in 2017, it also set up an autonomous driving laboratory with Didi, but there has been no big move since then. Recently, Apple cars have also been exposed to be listed in 2024, but there has been no positive response from Apple.
In contrast, it seems that Sony, which has already made a real car debut, is the one closest to the car. Previously, it was said that Sony's first car would not be a Vision-S EV, but a commercial vehicle, which would be launched in 2023, but the Sony CEO of the CES exhibition did not mention this matter.
Research and development progress, only Xiaomi in the "real dry"?
In the field of research and development, it seems that the "latecomer" millet is more powerful. In September 2021, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. officially completed the industrial and commercial registration, with Lei Jun personally serving as a legal person, and the registered capital alone reached 10 billion yuan.
And Xiaomi is also starting a team formation, in June last year, Xiaomi released a number of automatic driving related positions of recruitment information, involving positions including vehicle infrastructure, decision planning, data platform, millimeter wave algorithm, embedded software, front-end platform development, high-precision map, simulation platform, etc., basically are very popular directions nowadays, it can be seen that Xiaomi car manufacturing is indeed serious.
In November last year, Xiaomi signed a contract with the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone to build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles. In 2024, a preliminary production capacity will be formed, with a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles in the first phase, which coincides with Xiaomi's car-making progress.
In addition, Xiaomi has also invested in many parts companies in the automotive industry. The most typical is Suzhou Yuntu Semiconductor Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Konghui Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., the main business of these two companies is the production of vehicle-grade chips and electronic control suspension systems, both of which are well-known companies in the industry.
Apple's attitude is more ambiguous, it acquired a self-driving car startup Drive.ai in 2019 and claimed to have poached dozens of self-driving technology engineers, but then there is no more information.
The latest news is that Apple found NINGDE Times and BYD respectively, asking these two companies to go to the United States to establish a special power battery factory for Apple cars, but both were rejected.
Therefore, whether Apple cars will really produce energy in 2024 will still be marked with a question mark. At least from the current progress, the accumulation of technology and the factory are not perfect enough.
As for Sony, from the two cars that are two years apart, using the same set of power systems, it can be seen that it is not so strong in the field of research and development. The biggest highlight is its audio-visual entertainment function, and the hardware technology at the core level seems to be taken out. Some people say that Sony is through the way of "car building", showing its own camera and entertainment system, at present, this possibility is really not small.
Of course, there is also a possibility that we are closer to Xiaomi, and its every move we know better. And Sony and Apple as foreign companies, what they have to do, our perception is often lagging behind.
Compared with the three companies, who has more car-making "genes"?
In the impression of most of us, Sony, Apple, and Xiaomi seem to be the enterprises of the three eras. Nowadays, with the wave of new energy vehicle development, these three companies have rarely come together.
As the father of portable digital products, Sony once produced such a landmark digital product as Walkman. And its cameras, cameras, Bluetooth headsets, Bluetooth speakers, and even televisions are also very powerful, basically the industry's first-class existence. In addition, Sony is one of the world's largest game manufacturers and the world's largest producer of movie cameras.
But Sony has one of its biggest drawbacks, which is that it basically has no "Internet genes." This is also the reason why the mobile phone business has rapidly declined after the transformation of the mobile phone industry to an intelligent aspect.
Sony's most powerful part is its industrial design. It can indeed make a variety of forms of products, and the quality is so reliable that many consumers sincerely feel that "Sony Dafa" is good. But from the current development of major new energy forces, "Internet gene" is actually a very important part, Wei Xiaoli's founders are all "born" in the Internet industry, Musk was originally engaged in the IT industry.
Apple is actually very similar to Tesla, and their biggest ability is actually the integration of the industrial chain. Just like Tesla itself does not produce battery cells, whether it is the earliest 1865 battery, or the 4680 battery to be pushed now, it is produced by suppliers. But in the early days, these cylindrical batteries were not used in the electric vehicle industry, and it was Tesla who discovered their superior consistency and high energy density, and successfully imported them through its own BMS battery management system.
Apple is actually the same, it is not the first company to do fingerprint recognition, nor is it the first company to do fast charging and large screens, but its integration ability is indeed first-class, and these have become its advantages.
I believe that Apple's involvement in the automotive industry is the same, it will provide a new car-making ideas, but also do its own quality control, Apple's quality reputation is much stronger than Tesla, and then see how it promotes the product.
As for Xiaomi, it is probably the most "grounded" enterprise. Even after it has become a top 500 enterprise, it still holds high the banner of cost performance. The biggest feature of Xiaomi is to supply the product to consumers at the most appropriate price, Apple's 90% performance, but as long as 50% is not even the price, this is xiaomi's advantage.
I believe that it is the same as making cars, before netizens speculated, it is 150,000, a millet intermediate sedan can be taken home. Judging from Xiaomi's past resume, this is definitely not impossible. Anyway, many netizens have said that as long as Xiaomi's car dares to come out, they dare to buy it.
Kung Fu shoots
These three companies have one thing in common, that is, they all have a considerable number of fans and already have a good mass base.
But from the current performance, it is really only Xiaomi that is advancing towards the goal step by step, the engineer team is building, and the factory is about to start.
As for Sony and Apple, Sony has to strengthen its Internet genes, and Apple has to make psychological expectations, and may be far less profitable than selling mobile phones.
These three companies build cars, which one are you most optimistic about?