Source: Car stuff
Just at the end of 2021, the AITO brand released its first model, the Q&I M5. This car is not only equipped with Huawei's electric drive, Hongmeng cockpit and other core components, but also has the deep involvement of huawei teams in the appearance and interior design.
Since it is to sell incremental components, why should we be deeply involved in the development and manufacture of vehicles? And, can Huawei's deeply involved Q&I M5 really get a piece of the pie in China's smart electric vehicle market?
Just when these questions were flying all over the sky, Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of terminal BG and smart car solution BU, stepped forward – at a communication meeting held the other day, Yu Chengdong had an in-depth dialogue with a small number of media such as Che Dongxi.
Huawei's consumer business has experienced great difficulties in the past two years because its mobile phone business has been sanctioned by the United States, but Yu Chengdong has not lost confidence in the slightest.
Yu Chengdong frankly introduced Huawei's core playing style and goals in the automotive field, such as Huawei's goal of sticking to the same, that is, to help car companies build and sell good cars. At the same time, it also shouted out an extremely challenging development goal - the AITO brand goal is to sell 30,000 units per month.
In Yu Chengdong's words, Che Dong saw his sincerity and enthusiasm for embracing the automobile business, but more was the stubbornness and confidence to be the world's first.
01.
Adhere to the positioning of not building cars A variety of models help car companies build good cars
"We don't build cars, we help car companies build good cars." At the beginning of the exchange, Yu Chengdong directly elaborated on the core starting point of Huawei's automotive business.
According to him, Huawei's role in the AITO brand is still that of a supplier, but the model of cooperation is relatively new – suppliers are more involved and deeper.
Specifically, Xiaokang is responsible for vehicle research and development, manufacturing, etc., while the Huawei team fully empowers it in terms of parts, design, user experience, quality management, and channels, and the two teams work together.
▲Q&I M5
"I myself am deeply involved in the styling design and material selection of the M5." Yu Chengdong said, "Our goal is to make this car better reflect the ultimate design concept of simplicity, high-end and purity. ”
Huawei's deep participation in vehicle research and development is also very obvious.
The first is to enable the M5 to be launched quickly and seize valuable market opportunities. The second is to make the M5 more competitive in the same class of models and have the strength to seize more market share.
"By empowering car manufacturers, we help car companies build a new model of cooperation, and provide assistance to those car companies that cooperate with us in depth, helping them to become the most profitable and commercially successful car companies." Yu Chengdong said firmly.
According to Huawei's definition, this cooperation model with Xiaokang is called Huawei's smart selection model.
▲The interior of the M5
In addition, Huawei also has a HI model, that is, car companies choose a full set of Huawei components and systems including Hongmeng cockpit, electric drive, ADS system to build models, but Huawei only provides parts, product definition and research and development are led by car companies, and the cooperation between Huawei and BAIC Jihu is this model.
Of course, car companies can also choose Huawei's single components or services, such as vehicle communication modules, millimeter wave radar, lidar, MDC computing platform, electric drive system, etc., which can be said that domestic mainstream car companies are almost all Huawei's partners.
02.
The AITO brand sells 30,000 a month and two cars on the road
Although car companies and Huawei have a variety of cooperation models, the most representative or show the strength of Huawei's automotive business is obviously huawei's smart selection model.
AITO is the first attempt at this model, and Yu Chengdong has high hopes for it.
According to its introduction, AITO will also launch two new cars in 2022, one is a pure electric version of the Inquisition M5, and the other is a medium-sized SUV.
"With these three new cars, I hope that AITO's monthly sales will exceed 30,000 units, this year's sales target of 300,000 units, and next year's commitment to million units with partners." When it comes to sales expectations, Yu Chengdong gave this data.
For Yu Chengdong, who has operated hundreds of billions of dollars in business, it is obvious that he has set a very high goal for the automobile business.
The reason why Yu Chengdong dared to make such a determination is closely related to his development concept and past successful experience.
▲Yu Chengdong, Managing Director of Huawei, CEO of Consumer BG and Smart Car Solutions BU
Previously, he had put forward the development concept of "positioning determines status, vision determines the realm", that is, if you pursue the second-rate level, you may not even be able to do the third-rate and fourth-rate. If you pursue the first, sooner or later you will become the first.
During the interview, Yu Chengdong talked about the user experience of M5 and empowered partners, and put forward the goal of achieving "world first". It can be seen that in the development of the automobile business, he is still resolutely implementing this concept.
In terms of achieving the goal, Yu Chengdong and the Huawei consumer BG he manages have indeed fought many victories.
The most famous is in 2015, when Huawei's consumer business began, when consumer BG set a goal of achieving 100 billion US dollars in revenue by 2020. However, under the leadership of Yu Chengdong, the goal was completed ahead of schedule in 2018, becoming a legendary story in the science and technology circle.
03.
The core components of the intelligent car are fully laid out and the terminal BG capabilities are sufficient
After all, mobile phones and cars have essential differences, can Huawei's successful experience in the field of mobile phones or consumers really support the ambition of selling 300,000 units in 2022 and million units in 2023?
When you raise the perspective, you can see that Yu Chengdong's confidence is not just a successful experience in the past and a development concept. His confidence actually comes from Huawei's comprehensive layout in the field of smart cars over the years, as well as the comprehensive ability of the consumer BG team in industrial design, user experience creation, and quality management.
Over the years, Huawei's automotive business has started from a communication module and gradually expanded to sensors, operating systems, cockpit and autopilot chips, electric drives, autonomous driving solutions, and many other fields, and has established a smart car solution BU to focus on providing incremental components for car companies.
Based on the long-term accumulation of radio, optical communications, chips, AI, operating systems, and software algorithms, various components and systems developed by Huawei's smart car BU are at the front-line level in the industry. For example, Huawei's ADS advanced autonomous driving is the second company in the world after Tesla to dare to publicly demonstrate the city's peer-to-peer L2 autonomous driving capabilities.
Huawei's consumer BG product line involves many categories such as mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs, and has a good sales performance in many countries around the world. Conquering the Chinese and global markets, consumer BG has accumulated experience in the design, development, manufacture and sales of high-end smart devices.
A smart electric car is a smart terminal with wheels. Huawei holds the core components of smart cars in one hand and the research and development experience of smart devices in the other. The combination of the two empowers car companies to create competitive high-quality models.
Coupled with Huawei's thousands of sales stores in the core areas of many cities across the country, it is naturally not a problem to sell excellent models.
All of this is the real confidence of Yu Chengdong to dare to set this grand goal.
04.
Huawei must succeed in a backwater battle
Yu Chengdong admitted in the communication that after Huawei was sanctioned, because there was no chip, the shipment of high-end mobile phones fell sharply, which made the revenue scale of consumer BG sharply decrease.
Participating in the fast-growing smart car industry is obviously the key to making up for the decline in consumer BG revenue and even allowing it to achieve a new leap.
"Huawei has a strong retail system, and if it is not used, it will be wasted." Helping automakers sell cars and helping partners achieve commercial success will also lead to large-scale sales of BU parts for our cars. Regarding the operation logic of the entire automobile business, Yu Chengdong said.
▲Q&I M5 Hongmeng car machine
In addition, as the largest terminal in the IOT, the smart car can also grow into a smart travel ecosystem with the increase of sales, improving the user experience of other huawei terminals. For example, Huawei mobile phones and watches can control the car, the navigation and smooth connection video phone on the car can be seamlessly connected with the mobile phone and tablet, and the account and experience can also be connected to each other.
"This is a huge advantage of our Huawei ecosystem." Yu Chengdong commented.
Whether it is from the perspective of the development trend of the industry, or Huawei's own ability accumulation and ecology, the development of intelligent car business - helping car companies build good cars and sell good cars is not only a rising road that is most suitable for Huawei consumer BG, but also a breakthrough road that must be chosen under the shadow of US sanctions.
For Yu Chengdong, who runs Huawei's consumer BG and automotive business, it must succeed.
Whether it is from Yu Chengdong's eyes, words, or the results of the Huawei team, Huawei's winning side is not small.