A certain Cyrus store du ge photo
Author | Wan Jiali Wangfu
Edit | Tian Feng
Source | Consulting Finance (teccj6)
"To have the spirit of a king, the team I lead, no matter what field is done, must become the king of the field." In August 2018, Yu Chengdong was domineering at Huawei's first-half results conference, and the light in his eyes passed through the thick lenses.
In the first half of 2018, Huawei and Honor mobile phones shipped nearly 60 million units together, ranking first in China. At the time, 49-year-old Yu Chengdong was the CEO of Huawei's consumer business.
At that time, Yu Chengdong did not expect that the difficult moment would come so quickly and for such a long time. In 2021, Huawei's annual revenue was 634 billion yuan, compared with 891.4 billion yuan in 2020, down 28.9% year-on-year, plummeting by more than 200 billion yuan.
When Huawei's mobile phone is gradually drifting away from Yu Chengdong's world number one, Huawei needs to find a new track breakthrough. "Big Mouth" Yu Chengdong undertook an important job: Huawei's automotive business. His dream of 2022 is beautiful - to achieve 300,000 car sales and 100 billion yuan in revenue.
Huawei, which has no experience in building cars, and Beiqi Blue Valley (600733. SH) under the Polar Fox, Xiaokang Shares (601127. SH) and others have cooperated. However, after Yu Chengdong launched the Q&I M5, a storm swept in.
Suspension of production storm
The birth of the M5 was originally a happy event.
Some people find themselves "beggars" in the first place. In the world of product managers, it may always be like the new and tired of the old. The new car is coming, please leave the old car.
On December 23, 2021, Huawei held a winter flagship new product launch in accordance with the usual practice. The weather is indeed getting cooler, and Yu Chengdong is dressed in a suit and casual clothes, warm and energetic.
At the press conference, the P50 and smart glasses did not bring surprises. Yu Chengdong values the AITO Q&I M5, a new energy vehicle designed by huawei's team.
Under the continuous pressure brought by the phantom on the other side of the ocean to Huawei and Yu Chengdong, Yu Chengdong has not been so excited for a long time. Compared with the Xilis SF5, this car has poured the painstaking efforts of Yu Chengdong and Huawei. In the process of research and development of this new SUV, "Car Circle Visibility" learned from the relevant developers that this car is led by Huawei, and even reached the point of "How Huawei wants to get it".
Huawei, which has a certain degree of dominance, has brought new technology to the M5. Many people are looking forward to the miracle that the M5 can do.
Shortly after the press conference, some Celis Huawei Smart SF5 owners posted complaints on social media, and many people said that not long after the car arrived, the "bride" in huawei stores was changed. How to protect after-sales in the future? Did they pay the IQ tax again?
The SF5 has only been on the market for more than 8 months, and it is said that no one will let a car die so quickly. After all, building a car costs a lot of time and money.
On April 19 last year, at the SF5 listing conference, the leader of the conference was Zhang Zhengyuan, CEO of Xilis. At that time, Yu Chengdong, who was about to officially serve as the CEO of the smart car solution BU in May, hosted the Smart Mobility and Huawei Smart Selection Tasting Meeting on the next day. He said that from now on, Huawei Mall will open reservations, and batch delivery will be available in May.
This is the first new energy vehicle to enter Huawei's channel, which naturally bears Huawei's "halo". Sales of the Cyrus SF5 look like they're going to be smooth sailing, and news is constantly irritating consumers. Since the new forces entered the automotive sector, impulsive consumption has become a new feature of automobile sales. Many first-time car buyers who are not familiar with car performance and car companies are quite bullish on the coolness and hype of new energy vehicles, and often quickly fork under various information bombardment.
Under the impact of the news of "two-day orders broke 3,000" and "one-week orders broke 6,000", some young car owners also chose Cyris.
However, the tide receded to know who was swimming naked. A few months later, the data came out: from April to October 2021, the sales of the Sf5 were 129, 204, 1097, 507, 715, 1117 and 1926, respectively, for a total of less than 6000 vehicles. "Six thousand orders a week" has become humor.
However, with Huawei's might, some consumers are still determined. One consumer went to pay a deposit in December 2021 and was looking forward to picking up the car a week later. However, soon he regrettably heard that the manufacturer had stopped production, and the solution given was to shunt the car from other cities after video inspection.
The storm of suspension of production has spread more and more widely, and Xiaokang shares and Huawei have encountered great pressure.
On the afternoon of January 5, 2022, Cyrus released a letter to SF5 users through social tools. In the letter, Xilis said that Xilis SF5 will continue to accept user orders, and after the user places an order, Xilis will arrange for someone to follow up and assist in delivery. For delivered users, the warranty of the vehicle and the range extender will be upgraded to a lifetime warranty according to the first owner.
Orders can be placed, after all, the space in Huawei's sales store is limited, and the old lady of SF5 can only give way to a younger and more beautiful bride.
Urgent Huawei
On one side is seawater and on the other side is flames.
After the epidemic in 2020, new energy vehicles have begun to soar under the stimulation of policies and other stimuli.
Huawei's mobile phones are experiencing a difficult time, mobile phone sales have declined across the board, and thousands of Huawei sales stores are waiting to be fed.
Can the flag set up by Yu Chengdong be realized? Can any field be king?
It is undeniable that Huawei is determined and confident in the future. Their grasp of future trends and industries is comparable to that of few domestic companies. In the exploration of the field of car manufacturing, Huawei was originally calm.
In 2009, Huawei's global sales revenue was 149.1 billion yuan, and its net profit was 18.3 billion yuan, with a net profit margin of 12.2%. Such achievements have honored the flag set by ren Zhengfei, the founder of the early years - "After 10 years, the world's communications industry will be divided into three worlds, and Huawei will account for a share." That year, Huawei had managed to become the world's second-largest equipment vendor.
Huawei, which is particularly obsessed with technology research and development, is already conducting a secret research at this time: the research and development of in-vehicle modules. At the beginning, this work was not obvious in Huawei's huge research and development of communication technology.
However, looking back, Ren Zhengfei's decision at this time is in line with the national strategy. In 2009, China introduced a financial subsidy policy for new energy vehicles. The policy is also one of China's combined fists in response to the global financial crisis. At the beginning of the new year in 2009, China released the "Ten Cities and Thousands of Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Demonstration and Application Project" to provide financial subsidies for the production and promotion of new energy vehicles. On January 14, 2009, the "Automobile Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan" was also adopted at the executive meeting of the State Council. The "Planning" proposes to take new energy vehicles as a breakthrough, strengthen independent innovation, cultivate independent brands, and form new competitive advantages.
At that time, it was still the world of traditional energy vehicles. At that time, the traditional energy vehicles emphasized more on the driving sense and intelligence on the road.
Huawei has accumulated experience through the research and development of in-vehicle modules. In 2012, Huawei established the "2012 Lab". The idea is said to have come from Ren Zhengfei watching the disaster movie "2012", which was released in 2009. For the sake of the future, more exploratory research is needed. In 2013, Huawei finally launched its first auto part, the ME909T. This year, Huawei also established the Internet of Vehicles Business Department.
The timeline of Huawei's cooperation with major car companies
Who would have thought? A decision made more than 10 years ago will help Huawei find a new track after being suppressed?
Who will be Huawei's first partner in the automotive industry? On November 10, 2014, Changan Automobile and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shenzhen. As a result, Huawei and Changan Automobile have launched cross-border cooperation in the fields of Internet of Vehicles, Intelligent Vehicles, International Business Development, Process Informatization, and Informatization Construction. This year, There was also Audi with Huawei. In cooperation with Audi, the results were launched quickly. At CES Asia in 2015, the 2015 Q7 released by Audi is equipped with Huawei's LTE 4G in-vehicle communication module, which supports 2G/3G/4G to provide mobile data connectivity for the whole vehicle.
The cooperation between Huawei and Changan will really blossom until 2018. On July 4, 2018, Changan Automobile signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei to focus on the development of intelligence and new energy. Since then, the two sides have gradually deepened cooperation. At that time, the plan of the two sides was actually very similar to the cooperation of Xiaokang shares on Cyrus. Changan Automobile and Huawei have created a new high-end product, from the cockpit, chassis, electric drive, battery, electronic control, etc. are deeply using Huawei's solutions. Such a car is actually more like a car with Huawei genes.
It's just that Huawei is not willing to be tied to a car company, and Huawei, which does not build cars, wants to provide solutions for the entire industry, which is destined to huawei to seek partners extensively. In addition to Changan, it will also look for shares in GAC, BAIC and Xiaokang.
Through this series of cooperation, Huawei's dream has gradually become a reality. And such a process is actually becoming more and more urgent after Huawei was blocked.
Huawei mode
Under the urgency, Yu Chengdong's goal became more ambitious.
Yu Chengdong once said, "In 2022, I hope that the monthly sales of AITO will exceed 30,000 units." In 2022, we will be able to challenge the sales target of 300,000 units, and in 2023, we hope to challenge the sales of one million units with our partners. ”
This means that Huawei has taken out 1,000 stores to sell cars, and each store must sell 300 units a year to achieve its 2022 target.
Of course, when challenging the million-unit target, friendly forces do have to come to the rescue. Changan Avita is expected to go public in the third quarter of 2022, and the SUV cooperated by Huawei and GAC Aean is expected to be available in 2023. However, whether these cars can be popular in the market is still unknown.
Huawei's car-making model has copied the history of mobile phone development to a certain extent. Huawei supports the mobile phone industry chain and finally cuts into mobile phone production. This model will also encounter challenges.
After-sales issues. Huawei's channel points are all sales outlets, but they do not have after-sales functions. Regardless of the boundary or the follow-up Arian Avita, there is no amount of ownership and no auto repair accumulation. The car has a problem, where does the user go to repair and maintain? The car is sold in the name of Huawei, if it is handed over to a third party to be responsible for after-sales, cutting off the experience, how many people are willing to pay for the faith of "Huawei"? In particular, can the service network of Xilis under Xiaokang Co., Ltd. support the maintenance service after the rapid volume of the M5?
And if the server side is in control of Xilix, Huawei's auto business in addition to making profits in the store, the huge aftermarket has little to do with Huawei. However, if the after-sales service does not go up, Huawei's reputation will also be greatly affected.
In addition, it is the cooperation between many manufacturers and Huawei. In addition to applying the Huawei ecosystem, there are also considerations for rubbing Huawei's fame. How does Huawei balance the relationship between many manufacturers competing with each other? And once a manufacturer's product has quality problems, or there is a major public opinion in after-sales service, many manufacturers' products endorsed by Huawei are inevitably subject to collateral damage.
Perhaps, Huawei's current cooperation model is only a transition. At the beginning, it said that it would not build its own cars, but after the ecosystem matured and the market further expanded, the possibility of Huawei's own car-making on the agenda will also increase.
From this point of view, it is slightly similar to Baidu.
Baidu first used the automatic driving system Apollo to expand car partners, and later invested in the new car manufacturer WM, and finally decided to personally build a car and join forces with Geely to establish "Jidu Automobile". Its road to car building is also becoming clearer and clearer.
The problems that Baidu has faced in the past are now also in front of Huawei. Baidu has negotiated investment with Ideal Automobile (LI.US) and Xiaopeng Automobile (XPEV.US), but Baidu's condition is that it hopes that they will only use Apollo as its autonomous driving solution in terms of intelligent driving. This way of bundling makes the ideal and Xiaopeng unhappy, and the cooperation will not be solved.
Huawei, which has strong strength, does make individual car companies willing to cooperate with it, but more traditional car companies are not willing to bet on Huawei systems. In the future, with the efforts of traditional car companies and new forces in technology research and development, the advantages of Huawei's automotive ecosystem will be further reduced.
With the continuous improvement of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China, the elimination of new energy vehicles will also be fully launched. If Huawei wants to win millions or more sales in the future, if it wants to become the king yu Chengdong said, personally going down may be the ultimate way.
Before personally going off the field, the lessons brought about by the suspension of the sale of Cyrus SF5, Huawei also had to learn well. This is just a small lesson that the complex automotive ecosystem has taught Huawei. In the future, Huawei, which is not familiar with the automotive industry, will encounter more challenges in the market.
Can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, everything is just beginning!
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