IAUTO
Speed Depth Attitude
Introduction |
2022/01/15
The chance to play cards is only once, and if you don't succeed, you will become a ren...
Reporter 丨 Cui Liwen
Responsible editor 丨 Cao Jiadong
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Many years ago, when Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, and Li Xiang chose to give up all the glory of the past, start a business again, and enter the game of car building, the outside world threw more voices of decline and doubt.
With Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal located in the terminal market, successfully surviving the darkest moments, and gradually coming up with enough achievements with gold content, these "disturbances" were finally broken. Because of this, whenever I hear that there are new brands and make the same choice, the standards of external scrutiny and judgment are still becoming more and more stringent.
But Li Yinan still came with a "self-traveler".
From debuting as a "genius" at the age of 15 to becoming a vice president of Huawei at the age of 27, he was once internally designated as "Ren Zhengfei's successor", but finally left twice, not hesitating to stand against Huawei, to founding The Maverick Electric Vehicle and serving as the CEO, and was arrested two days after the release of the new product, stepping down as the CEO of the Maverick.
Before entering the car market, his own topic and attention have surpassed the three founders mentioned at the beginning of the article. So, I can't help but ask, can Li Yinan, who chose to start a business again, do better?
Hole card, shown
"Fail, at least pay off the supplier's money."
"Whether it is a self-traveler, I have no point of view, because first of all, my car has not come out, I have not yet come on stage, I am not qualified to say what this is the first, whether I can live, I can't answer this kind of words, I am not qualified." 」
In fact, at the end of last year, I went to Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, to participate in the "Self-Traveling Home" media communication meeting. As the founder, Li Yinan, when asked in succession and if the final result deviates, and if he can finally break through, what kind of ranking he will win, he gave two very straightforward answers in succession.
Throughout the event, the biggest personal label he showed was never hidden, without too much nothingness. And refocus the attention on this car company, after understanding, learned that as of now, since youjia has completed a round of financing totaling 500 million US dollars, access to IDG Capital, COATUE and other well-known institutions to invest. At present, it has nearly 1,000 R&D personnel, the brand is headquartered in Beijing, and Shanghai has set up a R&D center.
It has a manufacturing base covering an area of 770,000 square meters in Changzhou, with an overall design capacity of 180,000 vehicles per year, and is currently undergoing pre-mass production transformation and calibration, and will be put into use in March 2022. The plant's predecessor was Mahayana Motors, which has been upgraded to meet actual needs since the formal acquisition of Youjia.
At the same time, through three years of preparation, the first mass-produced model "Self-Touring NV" is scheduled to be delivered in September this year. Positioned as a medium-sized and large-scale new energy SUV, born on the Gemini twin platform, it will launch two versions of the extended range and pure electric models after listing, and focus on urban off-road style.
To be fair, from the information revealed above, Li Yinan's road to "building cars", although the progress is slightly slow, is still proceeding step by step.
As everyone knows, just this week, the appearance of its first new car "Self-Touring Home NV" was officially released. The front face part, the headlights composed of double LED circular halos, have a certain retro style, with a raised engine canopy and a black front bracket shape, visually trying to create a certain sense of power.
The side shape is more rigid, without too much waist line to modify, the highlight is that the C-pillar adopts a metallic cover design and embeds a dynamic charging indicator to show the battery level of the vehicle. The through-type taillights at the rear of the car adopt a matrix design, which echoes the headlights. And the rear wiper is embedded inside the roof spoiler.
In addition, according to the official data, the body size, length, width and height reached 4915mm, 1950mm, 1750mm respectively, and the wheelbase reached 2900mm. The new car will be equipped with an electric all-wheel drive system as standard, and the pure electric version and the range extender hybrid version will accelerate by 0-100 km/h in 5.9 seconds.
At this point, with the gradual release of product information from Youjia NV, it is certain that it is close to the node of being tested by the market and users. However, greater difficulties and challenges have also emerged.
Chance, just once
"The capital threshold that needs to be reserved for car building, a few years ago I said 20 billion, now there is no 40 billion may not be able to do it."
In the interview session after the end of the 2021 NIO Day, Li Bin doubled the update of the car-making fund threshold he had said, combined with the undercurrent of the current overall environment. And the unspoken meaning I heard was more like not having sufficient preparation, so don't impulsively enter the game, otherwise it is very likely to be crushed to pieces.
Only from the financial point of view, the self-touring family has not yet shown a very abundant state of readiness to fight. Even in Li Yinan's eyes, "We haven't been short of money for a day." "What's more serious is that since the NV must clearly know what kind of opponents it will face after the listing and delivery in September this year."
Ideal ONE, NIO ES6, BMW iX3, Lantu FREE, NIO EC6, NIO ES8... In the past year, the new energy SUV subdivision sector can already be described as overcrowded, and many models appearing in the list together constitute a suffocating "red sea".
At the same time, the ideal X01, Xiaopeng G9, and Weilai ES7, as the three blockbuster new cars to be launched this year, are also rivals that cannot be ignored. On the one hand, the preference of many Chinese consumers for SUV models still exists. On the other hand, the hunters who snoop on this tempting "cake" accumulate more and more. As a latecomer, the NV is facing the pressure of terminal competition, which can be imagined.
And this also puts forward extremely high requirements for the preparation work it is doing at the moment, before the listing and delivery. What exactly is the corresponding product label? What are the memory points that are clear enough? Is the degree of completion of intelligence high enough? Is the corresponding supporting service system perfect? Is the direct sales channel in the main sales market fast enough? One thorny problem after another is in front of the entire self-touring team.
"There are too many supply chain companies in China, Japan, Germany, Europe, the United States, South Korea, domestic, northern, southern, state-owned, private, workshop joint ventures, the number can not be counted, only under such a rich supply chain system, so that enterprises like ours can be established." On the contrary, it is impossible to copy it anywhere in the world. ”
I clearly remember that in that interview in Changzhou, Li Yinan talked about the opportunity to start a business. It is undeniable that it is undoubtedly quite fortunate for all the new forces in China that have been established or are on the road to creation to build cars. Fertile enough soil to give birth to opportunities.
But the new pain point has become more and more prominent: resources are still limited after all, and the trend of tending to the head echelon is very obvious, so for car companies like Ziyoujia, the real access to things may not be as numerous as imagined.
In the end, the situation faced is: the opportunity to play cards, only once, unsuccessful will become a ren...
| Cui Liwen |
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