Text: Haoran Zhang, Zhu Yun
ID：BMR2004
Among the "laymen" of many cross-border automotive industries, Huawei has always attracted much attention as a technology leader. Recently, it has been reported that Huawei and Xiaokang shares (601127. SH) jointly launched the Xilix Huawei Smart SF5 facing the suspension of production and sale. The shareholding structure chart of Qichacha shows that Xilis is an automobile company under Xiaokang Shares.
Source: Qi cha cha
At the same time, as the second model cooperated by Huawei and Chongqing Jinkang Xilisi Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xilisi"), the "first Hongmeng Automobile" AITO brand Q&I M5 was unveiled at Huawei's winter flagship conference held on December 23, 2021. It is understood that the original Cyrus SF5 store has been replaced by the AITO brand M5 logo. In this regard, many car owners have said that they have been "cut leeks". A reporter from the "Business School" visited a large shopping mall in Beijing's Chaoyang District and found that the original Huawei Xilis SF5 exhibition car had disappeared.
The picture is provided by the respondents
With the continuous doubts of the owner, Xilis published a "letter to the users of Xilis SF5" on the official Weibo on January 5, 2022, in which 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, Xilis promises that the first owner of the entire SF5 series of Cyrus will enjoy a lifetime warranty of the vehicle and range extender in addition to the 8-year/ 160,000 km warranty of the triple electric system. At the same time, if the first owner of the SF5 of Xilis sells other models of vehicles under the company within 4 years, he can also get a discount of 10,000 yuan on the basis of enjoying the current rights and interests of the new car to be purchased.
Image source: Cyrus official Weibo
AITO asked how the launch of the M5 will affect the sales of the SF5? Although bookings continue to be accepted, will the Cyrus SF5 still use the previous configuration and system? Will Cyrus also give other compensation schemes to owners who previously purchased Cyrus SF5s?
For the current Huawei Cyris SF5 owner said that he was "cut leeks" and the suspension of production storm, the "Business School" reporter sent an interview letter to Huawei and Cyris respectively, as of press time, the other party did not reply.
For the question of why the Sf5 of Cyrus SF5 previously suspended pre-sale and whether it will continue to accept orders in the future, the "Business School" reporter called the official website of Cyris, and the phone display was already "AITO User Care Center", the other party said that it was previously due to the problem that the delivery volume in 2021 was full, the pre-sale was suspended, from January 5, 2022 at 9 a.m. Online booking has been resumed, and the car can be picked up 45-60 days after the order is generated, and the specific pick-up time needs to be communicated with the delivery personnel. For the configuration problem, the other party said that it is the same as the previous Cyrus SF5, and there will be no configuration of the Boundary M5.
The owner personally described the Huawei Cyris SF5
"Love Hate"
In 2021, Mr. Zheng in Shanxi wanted to change a car, considering the problem of fuel vehicle limits, Mr. Zheng decided to buy a new energy vehicle next.
Among the many new energy vehicle brands, Mr. Zheng is worried that it is inconvenient to charge pure electric vehicles, so he wants to buy a hybrid car. Just when he was struggling with whether to buy the ideal car, the promotional advertisement of Huawei Xilis SF5 entered Mr. Zheng's sight, and after half a month of online observation of the product, Mr. Zheng resolutely placed an order.
Order information: The figure is provided by the respondents
"I will spend more than 200,000 yuan to buy such a car for Huawei's brand, and if there is no Huawei brand endorsement, I have more choices for the same price." Mr. Zheng told reporters.
"I placed my order on July 10, 2020, when the salesperson said I could pick up the car in 60 days, but I waited until September 28 to get the car. Delayed delivery time will have a subsidy of 200 yuan per day, because the car arrived at the store on September 24th and stopped the subsidy, I got a total of 3,000 yuan of subsidies at that time, and some car owners got 10,000 yuan - 20,000 yuan of subsidies. Mr. Zheng recounted.
Subsidy amount: The figure is provided by the respondents
Mr. Zheng said that although the process of waiting for the car to be picked up was long, at that time, whether it was from the publicity on the Internet, Huawei's influence, or from the evaluation of the car friends circle of the purchased owners, they all firmly made their choice. Not only that, Mr. Zheng said that after Huawei joined the quality control of Cyrus SF5, in order to ensure product quality, there was a period of suspension of delivery, he said that he felt that Huawei was doing a good job, preferring to give the owner a subsidy of 200 yuan per day to ensure product quality, and said that he was also very satisfied with the driving experience of the test drive.
However, after picking up the car, some small problems were slowly exposed, and it was not smooth to solve.
"I and other car owners have cases where the doors are not locked, the rear lights are foggy, and the aftermarket parts of the delivery center are incomplete." Mr. Zheng said.
"Shortly after picking up the car, I accidentally hit the car when reversing, the insurance that went at that time was still the Pacific Insurance recommended by the sales staff of the delivery center, and as a result, I drove to the store, and they had a dispute over the amount of reimbursement compensation, because the Cyris SF5 had no market assessment price before, they were delayed for several days because they could not be priced, and the store was still missing damaged parts, so it took me many days to pick up the car. In addition to these problems, the biggest problem is that the OTA upgrade system promised at that time was not realized, and now the system upgrade must go to the delivery center to upgrade, but also to make an appointment in advance, my home is more than 30 kilometers away from the delivery center, each time you need to go for half a day, delay things, nothing can be done, some car owners even drive from more than 100 kilometers to do system upgrades, but also live there for two days, which is really inconvenient. Mr. Zheng said.
Not only that, but there were wifi hotspots in the previous publicity car, but the upgraded system after-sales said that it was "castrated" because of conflicts with the Hicar system equipped with the Xilis SF5. In addition, the Hicar system can only support Huawei mobile phones, and Mr. Zheng also changed Huawei's mobile phones for this purpose. And Mr. Zheng has also found many times that the function of "leaving the lock car" sometimes does not work, and after leaving and returning, the car door is still open, which is very unsafe.
In addition to the above problems, Mr. Zheng also mentioned that the Cyris SF5 itself does not have the design of the cup holder, and after the cup seat comes out, it cannot be purchased with money, but must accumulate more than 1,000 points on the Cyris APP through likes, comments, forwards, etc. to redeem, and can only score up to 52 points per day. Not only that, but the Cyrus APP automatically blocks negative speech.
"Sometimes the problem of the car goes to the after-sales service, and the after-sales party can't understand what is going on." Originally there was such a small problem shortly after the car was picked up, and as a result, at this time, the M5 was announced to be listed again, and Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's intelligent car solution BU, used the way to promote SF5 at the press conference, without mentioning the rights and interests of old users, and now the advantages of the M5 are optimized on the basis of exploring the shortcomings of SF5. The M5 itself was only one more Hongmeng system on the whole, but at that time, SF5 was also promoting the upgrade of the Hongmeng system. Now not only the store has been replaced by the M5, but also the old owner has not been told in advance. Mr. Zheng said that this is the fuse for car owners to protect their rights.
Mr. Zheng admitted that the owner is worried that if the Xilis SF5 really stops production, then the owner of the car who just picked up the car in December means that the car will be stopped just after lifting the car, the car will have no retention rate to speak of, and even the second-hand car dealer will not collect it, and then a car that was originally more than 200,000 yuan may not be sold for 20,000 or 30,000 yuan. Although Cyrus issued a statement, this in itself is a meaningless guarantee.
In the screenshot of the circle of car friends provided by Mr. Zheng, it is seen that the owners of the Cyris SF5 have "complained" and pointed out the problems in their vehicles, and at the same time are eager to upgrade the Hongmeng system.
The reporter noted that in the investor question of Xiaokang Shares, many quality problems of Huawei's Smart Select Cyris SF5 were pointed out, including the automatic rise of the co-pilot's window during the window opening (no artificial operation or accidental touch), the key close to the body without automatic popping up the handle or slow response (occasionally occurring), the intelligent robot did not respond or was unresponsive, it would automatically wake up during normal driving (automatically wake up about ten times in three hours of driving on January 3), and the trunk leg sweep could never be opened. Problems such as opening the trunk from time to time when people pass by the rear wheels. These issues were also mentioned by Mr. Zheng.
Mr. Zheng said that the Cyrus SF5 had previously said in the publicity that it would upgrade the Hongmeng system, but so far there had been no action. Mr. Zheng and many car owners hope to fight for their rights and interests, the most important of which is the improvement of the OTA system upgrade and the upgrade of the Hongmeng system.
For the statement issued by Cyris on continuing to accept orders and promising that the first owner will also upgrade the lifetime warranty of the whole vehicle and the range extender in addition to the normal warranty, Mr. Zheng said that before Cyrus also issued an announcement on the APP for the owner, and also mentioned the upgrade of the warranty policy, but he said that the guarantee of Cyris removed the three-electric system (now 8 years and 160,000 kilometers), making this guarantee insincere, "no pain and no itch", which does not have much significance.
Some Huawei Xilis SF5 owners said: "I am the owner of Huawei Xilis SF5 who has just picked up the car for more than a month, and I have been a certain 'cutting leek' for 246,800 yuan, I hope you don't buy it." Otherwise my bad encounter is yours. On a certain car platform (note: understand the car emperor) some car owners said that they were "cut leeks" by Huawei Xilis, and used this as their nickname.
Although the official Weibo of Xilis issued a statement saying that the Xilis SF5 has not been discontinued, the "Business School" reporter learned from the insider Yin Shi (pseudonym) (Note: Huawei Xilis just left the sales staff in January because of this incident), and the Q&I M5 belongs to the replacement product of Xilis. The official answer of Cyris is to suspend the receipt of orders, in fact, it is discontinued, and the replacement product belongs to the replacement of the Cyrus SF5, which is very unfriendly to the owners of the Cyrus SF5 who made a big decision before December 23 last year. The so-called unfriendly, that is, the price point, in the configuration and the car machine system, the M5 completely surpasses the Cyrus SF5 at least one position. As far as the car machine system is concerned, xilis has upgraded it twice to be a Hicar system, and the M5 is directly a Hongmeng car machine. The price of Xilis is 246,800 yuan, while the question is 280,000 yuan, but the question has 18,000 optional equipment including the head display, interior, and exterior color.
So far, although Cyrus has officially issued a notice of no suspension of production, but the owner believes that the previously promised system upgrade of Cyris SF5 and the Hongmeng system has not been done, the M5 has become the first Hongmeng system car and has been fully listed, the store replacement has not been informed of the owner in advance, the owner is also facing the pressure of suspension of production, if the suspension is stopped, for the first batch of owners who buy Cyrus SF5, this car will no longer maintain its value, which is very unfair, so the owners have expressed solidarity, indicating that they were "cut leeks".
Regarding the situation that Cyris SF5 car owners have said that they have been "cut leeks", Qiu Kai, deputy secretary-general of the Industrial Coordination and Development Working Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that for a model that has been on the market for less than a year, if it is determined to stop production, then the impact is still very large, for consumers, first of all, the follow-up maintenance may be affected, and the subsequent vehicle as a second-hand car transaction replacement will also be affected, which will seriously affect the residual value of the vehicle, because the prerequisite for high residual value is that the ownership of the vehicle is large enough. For a model with less than 10,000 units, it is difficult to say how high the retention rate of the vehicle can be.
Automotive industry analyst Ren Wanfu said that Xilis has debunked the rumors of suspension of production, and Huawei is planning the second product, Xilis will not stop production for the time being, if the production is stopped, consumers' subsequent maintenance and maintenance will have problems, even if it can be transferred to the AITO brand to ensure after-sales, but the vehicle residual value will be greatly reduced, seriously damaging the interests of consumers, and the AITO brand will also be implicated.
From the Cyris SF5 to the Q&A M5, what are the prospects?
In April 2021, Huawei's Smart Choice Cyrus SF5, which huawei cooperated with the Cyrus brand under Xiaokang Co., Ltd., was officially unveiled at the Shanghai International Auto Show, which is equipped with Huawei's DriveONE three-in-one electric drive system and other components.
Huawei Smart Choice SF5 Booth: Zhang Haoran, a reporter from the Business School, photographed at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show
The SF5 is the carrier of the first cooperation between Jinkang Xilisi and Huawei, but before Huawei participated, the Xilis brand and SF5 products already existed, and were developed by Jinkang Xilis. Until April 19, 2021, Cyrus Huawei Smart SF5 was launched during the Shanghai International Auto Show, equipped with Huawei electric drive system and HUAWEI HiCar part of the function, the new car launched a total of two configurations, the price range of 216,800 yuan - 246,800 yuan.
Huawei's HiCar system can realize the intelligent interconnection of people, cars and homes, connect mobile phones without sensory seconds, control smart homes with one key, and remotely activate home air conditioners in the car. In terms of power, the Cyrus SF5 uses a three-in-one motor system, and the official says that the endurance can reach 1,000 kilometers, but according to Mr. Zheng's description, the actual endurance can reach about 70%, which is not very ideal.
For Xilis, in addition to the cooperation with Huawei, in addition to the blessing of its technology, Xilis can also enter Huawei's sales channels.
However, this heat brought by Huawei did not last, and the Cyrus SF5 did not receive large orders as expected in the subsequent development. According to the public data of Gestapo Automobile, in the eight months from April to November 2021, the sales volume of the Xilis SF5 was 129, 204, 1097, 507, 715, 1117, 2205 and 1446, with cumulative sales of only 7080 vehicles and an average monthly sales of less than 1000 vehicles.
According to the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in December 2021, the performance of the new energy vehicle market remained outstanding, with production and sales of more than 500,000 units, reaching a new high of 518,000 units and 531,000 units, respectively, an increase of 6.7% and 11.2% month-on-month, an increase of 1.2 times and 1.1 times year-on-year. The market penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 19.1% in December, which continued to be higher than that of the previous month, of which the market penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles reached 20.6%.
In 2021, production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. Among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles have shown a high-speed growth momentum.
Despite the fertile ground for the continuous upward growth of China's new energy vehicle market, the sales volume of Huawei's Xilix SF5 itself is not eye-catching. Looking at the market performance of other new car-making forces, in the same November 2021, ideal ONE sold 13485 vehicles in the month, Xiaopeng P7 sold 7839 vehicles in the month, Nezha V sold 7027 vehicles in the month, and Huawei's total sales in 8 months of 2021 were far less than the single-month sales of Ideal, Xiaopeng and Nezha. In contrast, sales of the Cyrus SF5 appear tepid.
Source: Gestapo Cars
Huawei Smart Select SF5 Image Source: Cyrus official website
For the reason why the sales of Huawei Cyris SF5 are not high, Yin Shi believes: "This car is mainly sold to bring in Huawei elements when it is sold, in fact, it is a big luck, and the niche group is more acceptable." Selling in Huawei's authorized stores, every sales is very hard, coupled with no advertising investment, so the first batch of Xilix SF5 is sold purely based on sales personal charm, and there is no technology to speak of. ”
Yin Shi told reporters that the product strength of the Xilis SF5 itself is not enough, mainly relying on the endorsement of the Huawei brand.
In December 2021, the cooperation between Huawei and Xilisi was further deepened, and a new high-end smart brand AITO was launched. At present, the first model of the AITO brand, the Q&E M5, has been launched and will be available for pre-order from December 23, 2021, and is expected to be delivered in February 2022. In addition, according to Yu Chengdong, the AITO brand will also launch a pure electric version of the Q&E M5 this year, and is expected to release a medium-sized SUV later this year.
For the after-sales service problems of the owners of the SF5 of Thelis, Yin Shi said that the follow-up maintenance, maintenance and after-sales problems of the Cyrus are still enjoyed in the delivery center of the circle. Yin Shi said that due to the lack of prior notice, the customer lost money in the price point, because it is a discontinued replacement car, even the second-hand car is not guaranteed, and the second-hand car dealer will not collect it. Huawei's stores have been very clear not to mention any problems of Xilisi, and Xilis has made it clear that it will stop accepting bookings on December 22, 2021, and the external publicity only has to ask the boundary, at present, including the direct sales store, the delivery center and all the Huawei authorized experience stores including the car business have been replaced by the qingjie, there is no exhibition car in the store, only the model is replaced, it is expected that after the order is placed 10-18 weeks to the car, the current sales staff are using tablet computers 3D talking cars.
Talking about Huawei's Xilis SF5 product itself, Qiu Kai said that the advantage should be the intelligent level of the vehicle, equipped with Huawei's system, the disadvantage may be the brand reputation of Xilis, after all, many consumers have not heard of Xilis before.
From the beginning of the order 6000 to the later sales of less than 1000, the sales of Xilis took a sharp turn, in this regard, Ren Wanfu said that there are several reasons for the poor sales of Xilis SF5, one is the lack of brand power, although there is traffic brought by Huawei, but Xilis itself is too weak; followed by insufficient product strength, compact SUV pricing is the price of medium-sized SUVs, the configuration level is not enough, the level of intelligence is insufficient, resulting in general product strength; and finally it is really necessary to make way for the AITO brand.
Although it continues to accept bookings, but the Cyris SF5 still uses the previous configuration and system, the AITO asked the M5 directly equipped with Huawei's Hongmeng system, without Huawei's brand and technical support, what will Cyrus be affected? Ren Wanfu believes that Xilis can still get the support of Huawei technology in the short term, but the strength will be greatly weakened, and the result can only be slowly faded out of the market.
At the press conference of AITO Q&I M5, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's intelligent car solution BU, spent more than 1 hour introducing the products of Q&I M5 and said that the car was "designed by Huawei participating in the new car" and "equipped with the latest Hongmeng ecological cockpit".
"We plan to use a thousand stores to sell cars by the end of this year, assuming that each store can sell 30 vehicles per month, monthly sales can reach 30,000 vehicles, this year Huawei will challenge the sales target of 300,000 vehicles, so that the annual sales of cooperative car companies will reach 100 billion yuan." Our goal is to build huawei's in-depth cooperation partners into the most profitable car companies in China. Yu Chengdong said.
However, in fact, judging from the market performance of the first model huawei and Cyris Sf5, it is still far from the target of 300,000 vehicles per year.
So, ask whether the world M5 can create a sales target of 300,000, ask the world M5 what the prospects are, will it follow in the footsteps of the Cyrus SF5?
Qiu Kai said that at present, it seems that Cyrus SF5 is like Huawei's "testing the waters" in the automotive field, to see how the market response is after the release of the model, and the prospects for AITU Q&A M5 are not very good at present, if it is the same as the fate of Cyris SF5, the impact on the entire brand image and consumer confidence will be huge, so Huawei will definitely be cautious this time.
Ren Wanfu also admitted that with Huawei's deep participation and support, the prospect of the Q&I M5 will be much better than the SF5, but everything still has to speak in terms of products, with Tesla, Weilai and other predecessors in front, the pressure of the Q&I M5 is not small.
Since the official launch of the AITO Q&I M5, in addition to the statement released on January 5, 2022 for the old owners of Cyrus SF5, the official Weibo of Cyrus has been fully promoting the M5, so how to protect the rights and interests of the first batch of car owners? Can the reputation of old users be salvaged? Q. Can the M5 be like its propaganda of "starting from the sun and chasing the dream galaxy"? The Business School will continue to follow.