Bo Hu nodded: the car is connected to all things, and the eyes are full of red.
Text | Tang Bohu
In 2021, mobile phones have been rolled onto folding screens. At the end of this year, Huawei released a folding screen mobile phone to play a 1-hour advertisement for its Hongmeng automobile "AITO Q&A M5".
From the original "1+8+N" Internet of Things strategy centered on mobile phones to the current car-centered "car-connected everything" concept, mobile phones have been reduced to wedding dresses, and cars have been placed in the center of the stage.
The only thing that has not changed for Huawei is its determination to establish the Hongmeng ecosystem.
In the case of dismal car sales, is Hongmeng Ecology real or virtual? How does Huawei make this thrilling leap from mobile phone to car?
In front of the car, a few steps away
The Q&I M5 is an SUV model produced by Huawei and Cyris, different from the Cyrus SF5 previously cooperated by the two, the Q&I M5 has a new brand name "AITO", positioning the high-end electric vehicle market, with 250,000, 280,000, 320,000 three price points.
(Q&I M5 Image Source: Network)
This car is Huawei's deepest effort so far, and it makes people feel suspected of making cars.
First of all, the core of AITO is Huawei's Hongmeng ecology, and the M5 is the first model equipped with harmonyOS smart cockpit, which has hardware such as car audio on the car machine and is marked with Huawei logo.
Secondly, in the power system, the M5 adopts the same range extender route as the ideal ONE, and uses the DriveONE pure electric range extender platform developed by Huawei.
Recently, Yu Chengdong mentioned in an interview with the media that Huawei participated in all aspects of product styling, interior and exterior design, and brand marketing of the M5.
Previously, there were also media reports that Huawei single-handedly handled all aspects of the planning, design, marketing and other aspects of the M5, and Xilis could only assume the role of a tool for production and manufacturing here. It can be said that in addition to the four tires and frame, Huawei is basically all-inclusive.
However, after the release of the M5, the parent company of the partner Xilis, Xiaokang, fell for two consecutive days, compared with the highest price of 77.77 yuan a few days before the release of the car, which has fallen by 37.9% (January 11).
There are also reasons why the market is not optimistic about this new car, and the M5 is lackluster in other aspects except for the Hongmeng smart cockpit.
Some key data at the press conference were not announced, there was no lidar, L2 level assisted driving, but the price mentioned 250,000 to 320,000 high-end trams Red Sea. Whether this price point is facing the Xiaopeng P7, Tesla Model 3, or the Weilai ET5 (250,000 yuan) just released a week ago, it does not see the advantage of the M5 at all.
Interestingly, during the New Year's Day holiday, China Securities News visited the physical store, and the sales staff of huawei stores revealed that within 96 hours (4 days) after the release of the Q&C M5, there were more than 6,500 predetermined units nationwide.
Regardless of the credibility of the news, this gap between the direction of the stock market, media evaluation and "reality" is worth recalling.
The Selix SF5, which was launched in April 2021, as the first model cooperated by Huawei and Cyris, Yu Chengdong came forward as its platform, and the market attention is also very high. At the time, an unidentified source said, "Orders exceeded 3,000 units two days after the sale, and more than 6,000 in just one week." However, when the data came out, it was found that the sales of the Xilis SF5 in the first two months of the market were 129 and 204 vehicles, respectively.
The emergence of the M5 is a new attempt and breakthrough for Huawei to the previous car, the Cyrus SF5. It can be said that the SF5, which has indisputable sales, has forced Huawei to the door of car building, a few steps away. Huawei is trying to increase user confidence by increasing its own involvement to improve past car sales.
However, the caliber of Huawei's car not has not changed, and the sales volume of the M5 can be verified by the market, and now it is more important to pay attention to that Huawei, which has been hovering in front of the car-making door, has bred some hidden dangers.
The point of disagreement between the company and its employees
In 2018, Huawei issued a resolution in the internal community, indicating Huawei's determination not to build cars and build good cars for car companies. At the end of the article, it is noted that it is "valid for 3 years".
Now that 3 years have passed, at the beginning of the new year, Yu Chengdong once again showed Huawei's route, "Huawei helps car companies build a new cooperation model by empowering car manufacturers, helping them build the most profitable and commercially successful car companies." ”
(Q&I M5 with Huawei logo printed on the audio source: network)
However, the employees below have run out of patience.
In November 2021, it was reported that She Xiaoli, chief functional safety expert of Huawei Energy Automotive Solution BU (formerly known as the Internet of Vehicles Lab established in 2012, hereinafter referred to as "BU"), has left to join NIO.
In the same month, Extreme Krypton Confirmed that Chen Qi, the former founder of Huawei's autonomous driving team and director of the Autonomous Driving R&D Department, has joined Extreme Kr to be responsible for the automatic driving business and reported to CEO An Conghui.
In the past six months, the key people who left BU include Jiang Jun (head of maps and data), Zhang Xiaohong (director of intelligent driving product project group), Peng Xueming (head of fusion sensing) and so on. Many engineers and employees also left Huawei and chose to go to car companies such as JiKr, SAIC, and Xiaopeng.
The reason for employees to leave is also very simple, whether it is to do parts supply, or to provide a complete set of car solutions, are dependent on cars, now Huawei does not build cars, the only way is to find car companies to cooperate, but at present, Huawei cooperation of several cars have little effect.
As of November last year, Huawei's SF5 cooperation with Xilisi had accumulated sales of 7,080 vehicles, and Huawei's Jihu Alpha S cooperated with BAIC had even worse sales, only more than 2,100. In addition, after knowing that Xilis can not afford to support, Huawei independent high-end brand "AITO", in order to give resources to this new car, SF5 stagnated booking, Cyrus fell into the "disguised suspension of production" storm, many people buy SF5 is based on the trust in Huawei technology and brand, which further damages the credibility of Huawei brand.
In addition, there are also differences within the top level about whether Huawei builds cars or not. Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, once told the media that in the face of Huawei's decision not to build cars, "we Lao Yu (Yu Chengdong) are not convinced, but Lao Yu only has one vote." ”
Perhaps not building a car is more in line with Huawei's overall interests, but for employees who want to develop their careers, building cars is obviously more in line with their own interests, especially at present, in the case of a bleak future for parts integrators, job-hopping car companies have become the best choice for employees.
Overall, Huawei not only failed to help car companies sell good cars, but also had internal troubles in its own car team. Technicians continue to leave car companies, one is that their own technical research and development strength will decline, and the other is squeezing the market share of their own parts suppliers.
If the M5 is still poor sales this time, then the first thing to consume is not Huawei's funds, but the employees at the bottom.
Lost your phone, connected to everything?
In 2021, Huawei is expected to achieve sales revenue of 634 billion yuan, directly reducing more than 250 billion yuan. In the face of declining revenue, at the beginning of the year, Huawei raised funds from the bond market, amounting to 4 billion yuan for daily operations.
Under the current situation, it is no longer a wise move for Huawei to build a car, and the development and growth of its own Hongmeng ecology is the key.
According to the data of the flagship conference in the winter of 2021, the number of Huawei equipment equipped with Hongmeng is 220 million, and the number of partner equipment equipped with Hongmeng is 100 million, adding up to 320 million, which has completed the target of 300 million set by Huawei last year.
(Source: Network)
In the past, Huawei's IoT strategy was "1+8+N", that is, taking the mobile phone as the center and connecting the entire Hongmeng ecosystem through its own intelligent terminal devices.
This is also worth pondering, although there is no evidence, it can be guessed that according to the average service life of mobile phones of 3 to 5 years and the second-hand mobile phone business that Huawei began to do last year, the 220 million Huawei equipment equipped with the Hongmeng system should be mostly old models.
Especially since last year, Huawei's mobile phones have fallen out of the top five, and the global mobile phone market share in the second quarter is only 3%, which has been surpassed by Lenovo. That is to say, in the future, mobile phones are already difficult to push up the increment of Hongmeng ecology, and the only thing that can be hoped for now is smart cars.
Yu Chengdong also said that smart electric vehicles are "smart terminals with wheels".
From the Polar Fox Alpha S, Xilis SF5 to the current Q&A M5, Huawei has transitioned from a mobile phone-centric Internet of Things strategy to a car-centric Internet of Vehicles.
The most important thing is that in the past, even Yu Chengdong did not understand why some people in the market speculated on the Hongmeng concept that they did not know how to make a profit, but now the M5 has an eyebrow in this piece.
From the M5, there are not only HarmonyOS car operating systems, but also Huawei speakers, tablets, and smart screens integrated with the smart cockpit, in addition to Huawei music, Huawei video and other Huawei ecological products on the car, regardless of software or hardware, can grow up in the Hongmeng system.
In this sense, Huawei did not learn Baidu, from software to hardware, it is a wise move.
But all of it, still need to return to the original origin, mobile phone market share decline, Huawei does not build cars, and there is no successful cooperation cases, big manufacturers are jealous of Huawei solutions, how to promote the Hongmeng system is still the biggest problem.
From the original operator to the mobile phone manufacturer, Huawei completed its own gorgeous jump, and stepped on Samsung Apple, once became the world's largest sales of mobile phone brand. Now, from the phone to the car, Huawei has to make another jump. There was a huge cloud in front of me, and the fog had not yet dissipated.
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