Sony's entry into the field of smart cars Why do consumer electronics giants frequently cross borders?

Reporter Jia Li

At the beginning of 2022, another consumer electronics tycoon announced that it has officially entered the field of smart cars and become a new player.

At the ongoing International Consumer Electronics Show 2022 (CES2022), Sony unveiled the VISION-S new SUV prototype (VISION-S02). It is understood that the car is a smart electric vehicle, the shape is similar to tesla ModelY, which also means that it has officially stepped into the track of new energy vehicles.

At the same time, Sony also announced that it will officially establish a new company, Sony Travel, in the spring of this year, to be responsible for the commercialization of Sony cars.

Home appliance companies do not hesitate to invest heavily in cross-border entry, and the competition in the new energy vehicle market is becoming more and more fierce. So, how strong is Sony's car manufacturing? Why do home appliance giants insist on grabbing the car market?

Is it hype or realism?

Recently, Sony unveiled its latest concept car to the world in a high profile.

In this regard, Sony CEO and president Kenichiro Yoshida said that Sony has a vision in autonomous driving and electric vehicles. "We are exploring the commercialization of Sony electric vehicles."

Although Kenichiro Yoshida only said that Sony set up a new company to explore the automotive market, Sony has already laid out in this area.

As early as 2014, Sony had announced the commercialization of automotive CMOS image sensors. Three years later, it released an electric concept CAR SC-1 similar to a square box, and then cooperated with YAMAHA to officially put the concept into mass production. At CES2020, Sony unveiled the "VISION-S" concept for the first time. Currently, vision-S electric vehicles are undergoing functional verification tests in Europe.

Sony said that the new car will be equipped with an electric vehicle cloud platform, 5G vehicle networking technology and 40 sensors. Sony expects to provide a car with gaming and audio equipment to meet the entertainment needs of passengers.

However, it is understood that VISION-S is not independently built by Sony, but by Qualcomm, NVIDIA, ZF, Bosch and Magna and other upstream and downstream supply chain companies to participate in the completion. It can be seen that Sony has not really mastered the automotive manufacturing industry chain at present.

"From the perspective of Sony's car-making action, most of its previous technology is showing, and the car launched is also a concept car that has not achieved mass production in the true sense, and the current impact of 'car-making' is more of a concept blessing." Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said in an interview with the Securities Daily reporter.

Behind the acceleration of the automotive industry is Sony's anxiety in the field of consumer electronics.

In recent years, the growth of the traditional consumer electronics market has gradually declined. Sony, which once dominated the world television market with cutting-edge technologies such as flat picture tubes, has also fallen into consecutive years of losses under market pressure and high-level decision-making errors, splitting the TV division and laying off more than 5,000 employees, and selling the personal computer business as a whole. In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, Sony Group's profit decreased by 54% year-on-year.

Trapped in its main business, Sony urgently needs a new growth point, and it has turned its attention to the hot electric vehicle market.

"Sony is not a home appliance company, but a global technology company. For Sony, which has mastered the core technology of various sensors, the field of smart electric vehicles is a good choice. However, this field requires a lot of capital and technical precipitation, and if Sony rushes into the vehicle market, the risk will be very large, and it will be a more stable choice to enter this market as a component and application provider. Ding Shaojian, founder of Nail Technology, told reporters.

Zhang Xiang said: "Sony has established its own ecosystem of smart appliances, cameras, game entertainment and other terminals and applications, which can be transplanted to smart cars, and Sony's role in the automotive market is more of a participant, which can start with auto parts." ”

Not only Sony, in the past two years, many companies have continuously poured into the electric vehicle market, the industry is seriously involved, there is a shortage of talents, and the robbery war has broken out, and the market competition is bound to be more intense in 2022.

Why did the giants enter in a big way?

"The new energy intelligent vehicle market is in the ascendant. The substitution effect of traditional fuel vehicles makes this market have huge room for development. The home appliance industry is very mature. Under the limited growth space under the stock market and the relatively solidified competitive pattern, many brands are difficult to make a big difference, and they hope to find new space and share a piece of the pie in the automotive market with great prospects. In addition, with the upstream supply chain of new energy vehicles such as batteries, motors, and electronic controls becoming more and more mature, the threshold for car manufacturing is significantly lower than that of traditional fuel vehicles, and enterprises can enter this market relatively quickly as long as they do a good job in technology integration and channel marketing. As far as Sony is concerned, it has a deep accumulation of technology in audio-visual entertainment, intelligent sensors, communications, etc., and there is a lot of room for integration and application in the field of new energy intelligent vehicles. Major General Ding said.

In the view of Zhao Meimei, assistant to the president and general manager of the research and innovation department of Aowei Cloud Network, more than 20 countries/regions in the world have announced the schedule of banning the sale of fuel vehicles, and it is only a matter of time before new energy vehicles are fully rolled out in the world. Huge demand for automobile consumption is the most important market attraction.

She believes that "the overall difficulty of new energy vehicles, whether in terms of structure or adjustment requirements, is much lower than that of the former fuel vehicles." It can even be said that 'new energy vehicles are home appliances with wheels', becoming a new entrance and outlet, the future home appliance companies have a lot of space in this industrial chain, who first seize the market who has an advantage. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that home appliance companies are frantically pouring into the field of new energy enterprises. ”

At present, the strategies of various home appliance companies to enter the new energy vehicle market are also different.

Midea Group focuses on the core "three electric" systems of new energy vehicles, that is, motors, electronic controls and compressors as the core of auto parts, the product line involves motor drive systems, thermal management systems and auxiliary, automatic driving systems, etc.; Hisense Group aims to make efforts in new energy vehicle air conditioning compressors and vehicle thermal management technology and other segments; Gree pays attention to the field of permanent magnet motors; Haier and Skyworth pay more attention to scenarios such as vehicle interconnection.

"New energy vehicles are indeed an opportunity for home appliance companies, but enterprises should summarize the experience of the last failed car manufacturing, not blindly invest in a huge amount of capital layout, but should combine their own advantages with small incisions to enter, and then gradually expand to the industrial chain." Zhao Meimei thinks.

(Edited by Cui Man, Qiao Chuanchuan)