Recently, the "war of words" between Wen Wei, CEO of Tuanche, and Li Xiang, founder of Ideal Automobile, has triggered cross-border eyeballs. At 1 p.m. on January 16, Li Xiang, the founder of Ideal Automobile, forwarded and commented on Weibo the content of the media interview after Wen Wei, CEO of Tuanche, announced the construction of the car, and publicly shelled Tuanche, saying that it was "most likely a liar" and refreshing the bottom line of entrepreneurs. At noon on January 17, Wen Wei, CEO of Tuanche, responded on social platforms: "No one should think of themselves as prophets" On January 18, Wen Wei said that car building is not a drama, and Li Xiang was invited to attend when Tuanche first released its products.
Since the failure of Jia Yueting's car-making in "Tomorrow's Return", with the rise of new energy vehicles, Many mobile phone manufacturers such as Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, Yu Chengdong and so on have begun to build cars, 2015 is the first year of "Internet car-making", and 2016 has become the "Internet car-making" focus on the participation year. 2021 is the year of the Internet car on the road. So, what Internet cars have these big guys built, and why are they treated as children's plays? Why is the Internet car manufacturing accused of being unreliable? Find out today.
01
Internet cars are not on the road
People "run away"
Sell cars, group cars in the line. What about car building? According to the data, in the third quarter of 2021, the net income of Tuanche Network was 61.1 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 38.9%; the gross profit in the third quarter was 46.8 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.1%. In terms of profits, it seems that it is difficult for tuanche to reach the 40 billion car-making threshold proposed by Li Bin, the founder of Weilai. As of now, the market value of Tuanche.com (TC.US) is 55.797 million US dollars, which has evaporated by more than 90% compared with the beginning of the listing. The decline in the profit of the group car also means that the company needs to find a new profit growth point, so building a car may be an option.
About new energy vehicles, not only car companies are eager to move, how many Internet companies also want to share a piece of the pie, in the years when the new car-making forces have just emerged, almost every new car-making force is holding a PPT clamoring to challenge Tesla, and then it can raise tens of billions. Sadly, the cars built by Internet companies have not yet been on the road, but people have run. Let's take a closer look at the failure cases of Internet car building.
Byton, from the public spotlight to the brink of bankruptcy
In January 2018, the first model, the BYTON Concept, was released. Subsequently, after several financings, Byton Automobile has raised a total of 8.4 billion yuan. From 2018 to 2020, Byton Automobile built a factory in Nanjing, renovated the design center in Shanghai, and roadshows and exhibitions around the world.
However, in the space of two years, Byton Has spent almost all of its money. Coupled with the sudden epidemic in 2020, Byton Automobile, which has just released its first mass production car M-Byte, has completely hit the bottom.
In June 2020, Byton Automobile, which had been silent for half a year, was once again pushed to the forefront because it was exposed by CCTV that it had burned out 8.4 billion yuan but could not build a mass production car. On the 29th of the same month, Byton Automobile announced that it would officially stop production and work, and suspend the business of Chinese mainland, and the M-Byte mass production and listing that was expected to save Byton Automobile in water and fire was also stillborn.
Apple's closed door car construction encountered obstacles, and the "car dream" shrank!
In 2016, Apple named its car project "Project Titan." At the time, a McKinsey auto analyst estimated that Apple's auto projects would be worth $6.7 trillion by 2030. Then, the news of Apple's car project layoffs of hundreds of jobs and the suspension of self-produced car programs went away, and many people were punched in the face. With Apple's huge brand influence, annual research and development expenses of tens of billions of dollars, R & D team of thousands of people, hundreds of millions of "fruit powder" of the Yin Yin period... Even the mobile phone giant Apple can plant a head on the car-making project, which shows that the Internet car-making is definitely not a child's play!
Country twice tomorrow?
Jia Yueting's high-profile car-making industry has cast a shadow
Since the release of the concept car in 2016, the domestic LeSEE super car (LeSEE) has no sound, and the "factory" in Moganshan is actually deserted; and Faraday Future, a car-making team invested by Jia Yueting in the United States in his own name, was also suspended due to a break in the capital chain.
Shen Haiyin, the former vice president of 360, once chose to leave 360 in order to grasp the turning point of the automotive industry and became an entrepreneur in the new car industry. "Rebuilding a Volvo" is the expectation of investors to shen Hui, former chairman of Volvo China and founder of WM Motors. At that time, a group of newcomers rushed to enter the car industry, in addition to Shen Haiyin and Shen Hui, there were also Li Bin, chairman of EasyCar, Li Xiang, founder of Autohome, and He Xiaopeng, founder of UC... For a time, more than a dozen start-up car companies rose in the Chinese market. Years later, the big waves are sandy, how many Internet car companies are struggling, staggering forward, most of them are eclipsed and fleeing. Just engaging in concept speculation and attracting investors to invest is definitely not a long-term solution.
02
Except for the price war
What are the highlights of the Internet car?
The rise of new energy vehicles makes scientific and technological car manufacturing a reality, and intelligence will become the next direction and trend in the field of automotive Internet, in the era of internet of everything, the car is gradually evolving from a traditional travel tool to a new generation of intelligent terminals that integrate entertainment, office, life and other attributes. Therefore, while the new forces of car manufacturing are fighting a price war, they must also have some characteristics and highlights to encircle the hearts of car owners.
However, there are "quite a few slots" for new energy vehicles.
Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of consumer BG, and CEO of smart car solution BU, complained about the pain points of new energy vehicles in the current market.
Short endurance, few charging piles, expensive battery packs, and unsound after-sales service. It can be seen that the new energy vehicle technology is not mature enough, and there are major defects and loopholes in the core aspect. For example, Tesla's brake failure has not subsided so far.
03
Why BMW Mercedes-Benz Audi
"Low-key" response to Internet car manufacturing?
Small Internet car companies hate each other, and why do first-class car companies such as BMW remain silent instead of standing up and breaking through this layer of paper?
Since 2015, the rise of the word "Internet car", and then to the major Internet companies have entered the game, the calm is the traditional car companies. Why is BMW Mercedes-Benz Audi "low-key" response to Internet car manufacturing?
According to public data, BMW's new energy model sales exceeded 48,000 units in 2021, an increase of 69.6% year-on-year. Among them, the pure electric BMW iX3 sold more than 21,000 units in the first full sales year. Since 2014, BMW has delivered nearly 140,000 new energy vehicles in China.
Generally speaking, it takes 5 years for mature car companies to launch a brand new model, and it takes longer for new entrants in the industry. An automotive product needs to go through multiple stages of research and development, design, manufacturing, testing, and mass production, which requires large-scale capital consumption, a large number of personnel collaboration, and strong technical research and development capabilities in all aspects.
Building a car is a matter of burning money, slow work and long production cycle. Internet companies that are accustomed to rapid iteration of products may not be able to adapt to such a production model. Tesla, founded in 2003, did not achieve small batch production until 2012. Although Internet companies choose to build cars to recruit car executives and technicians, they still lack long-term technical accumulation, and most importantly, the core patents of the automotive industry are still basically concentrated in the hands of traditional car companies.
It can be said that these traditional car companies are making a lot of money in a muffled voice, and Internet car companies often become the ones who lose money on the street.
In 2021, Xiaomi Lei Jun built a car for 10 billion yuan, desperately betting, Lei Jun said boldly: "This is the last major entrepreneurial project in my life." I am willing to bet on the full reputation of my life, personally lead the team, and fight for Xiaomi Cars! It is expected that Xiaomi Automobile will not be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
On October 18, 2021, 360 announced that it intends to invest 2.9 billion yuan in Nezha Automobile. In December, Nezha Automobile delivered 10,127 units, an increase of 236% year-on-year, and became the top four players after "Wei Xiaoli" in the camp of new car-making forces.
Zhou Hongyi said, "Car building is also divided into the first and second half, new energy vehicles are not new things, the new forces of car manufacturing three xiaolong (Weilai, ideal, Xiaopeng) growth rate is gratifying, their commonality is the Founder of the Internet, are All Internet cars, and the second half of the future will be Internet car manufacturing." ”
Undoubtedly, Internet companies originally built cars in the transformation process of the Internet from virtual to real, and they mainly focused on new energy rather than traditional cars, which is the new atmosphere of the industry.
According to the data, in 2021, China's new energy vehicle retail sales were 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year. The Association expects that the sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles will exceed 5.5 million units in 2022, and the penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles will reach about 25%. New energy vehicles are expected to exceed 6 million, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is about 22%.
However, there is a kind of discordant ugly drama constantly staged: there is a car-making model, the thunder is loud, the raindrops are small, only to see the stock price roller coaster shock, no car on the road. It is not uncommon to take the Internet car as a child's play, simply speculate in concepts, and cheat investment. Therefore, questioning the Internet car is a "whistleblower" is the best warning for sleepy investors.
The source network of the figure, the copyright belongs to the original author.
If there is infringement, please contact us in time.
Editor-in-charge | Fusu Editor| Qingshan
Open the door
Informative, informative, interesting
There are readers | There are stories | There is awe