Gu Huinan, who has a hard bridge and a hard horse, is becoming more free and determined.
For the past three years, every year, he has had the opportunity to sit together and chat, sometimes alone for a long time, and sometimes a group of people listening to him talk loudly. No matter what the occasion, his typical "old Canton temperament" will make the conversation skip everything and quickly enter the core topic. You ask, he takes one sentence after another, sometimes harder than you ask, so hard that you are stunned - how dare he say it? This exciting tiger personality has made him popular in the media circle. Everyone called him: Lao Gu.
After chatting, he used "Guangpu" to say: "I know that you (we) love me (we), we are friends, some words can be exchanged between friends, don't send it out." "This trick works, both make friends and don't cause trouble for yourself."
The topic that has kept him the most in his head has always been one: technology. As long as this is talked about, it must be gushing, and words such as "first" and "first" keep popping up, as if the Himalayas have been trampled under his feet. So much so that you can't help but wonder: Is there such a cow? "Yes, of course!" His eyes would become sharp and even fierce, as if he were about to draw his sword to meet him.
This Lao Guang, who advocates "technology" and "offensive spirit" to the extreme, is like Li Yunlong. At the beginning of 2021, when someone publicly questioned that "under the existing technical conditions, it is impossible for a car to balance range, charging efficiency and safety", he quickly organized a large-scale publicity campaign on "magazine batteries", and at the end of that year launched the first mass production electric vehicle with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers: AION LX Plus.
Over the past three years, technology, products, marketing, competition, organizational change, controversies about him or Ean have been discussed, and nothing can be done. There is only one exception to the topic: entrepreneurs. When the 2020 Beijing Auto Show talked about this topic, I asked at the time: "If one day, you receive a paper transfer order, what will this company do?" That was the first time he talked to Thin Mud: "We are only working in state-owned enterprises, you have to believe that there are excellent talents in the system, and changing a person will only do better than me." ”
That was the first time I realized that this tiger-like man was dancing in shackles—with the fire of entrepreneurship burning inside, but I couldn't admit it.
In this era of great change, all the enterprises on the smart car track are running for their lives. Institutions and mechanisms are more important supply factors than technology. Lao Gu understood this better than anyone, but he couldn't say it.
On the evening of August 30, 2021, GAC Group issued the Indicative Announcement on the Proposed Mixed Ownership Reform of Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries and the Introduction of Strategic Investors. At that time, I was on the plane, and immediately sent a congratulatory text message to Lao Gu. I knew that at that moment, he and the team had been waiting for a long time.
Now, the dust is about to settle. When the film crew of "Pang Guan" met him in Guangzhou in December, it was obvious that lao Gu, who had a hard bridge and a hard horse, was becoming more free and firmer— in his words, "the light boat has passed through the ten thousand heavy mountains." Since the establishment of GAC Aeon in July 2017, he and his team have spent more than four years, with the courage of desperate Sanlang and the spirit of pragmatism and enterprising, and finally won the opportunity for this company to compete on an equal footing with "Wei Xiaoli": a modern corporate governance structure.
In 2021, saic motor zhiji, SAIC Feifan, Dongfeng Lantu, Changan Avita and other companies are also happening similar stories to the Aian mixed reform. This has led many observers to believe that China's large state-owned auto conglomerates are forging a consensus: embracing new technologies with new systems and striving for nirvana rebirth.
In our view, as the vanguard and leader of this wave of state-owned enterprise reform, when Gu Huinan really became an entrepreneur, GAC E'an's journey really began.
1. At least 60 billion yuan of R&D investment
Pang Yicheng: 2021 is a big year, your sales have increased from 60,000 units to 120,000 units, released high-voltage overcharge technology, 1,000 km endurance car, and also issued the Star Spirit Architecture. In your opinion, what are the really important developments for Aean in fiscal 2021?
Gu Huinan: In 2021, before May, in fact, the entire market for new energy vehicles was not very good, and then it began in June in the second half of the year...
Pang Yicheng: Suddenly it broke out.
Gu Huinan: In terms of the whole market, (growth) is still a relatively short period of time, and it has not yet had a market that lasts for a long time, which is a feature of this year. The second feature is that due to the tension of chips, power pulling, etc., the vast majority of car manufacturers are in a state of no inventory. So this year's prosperity, it does not yet represent the full competitiveness of enterprises.
Pang Yicheng: Do you mean that because the market is too good, the wind has blown everyone up?
Gu Huinan: Fuel vehicles are the same as the lack of cars, right, not just new energy vehicles (lack of cars). So it's not enough to judge how brilliant the market is this year. I think this still needs to have a clear understanding, do not use these words too much, otherwise it will affect the judgment of the next few years.
Taking advantage of this development opportunity, Aeon has indeed developed well, doubling its growth, and more importantly, many models have achieved sales champions in the market segment.
Like the Aeon S, it's in the A-Class sedan (the champion), the Y is the champion in the A-Class SUV, and the V is in the market around 200,000 (the champion). 4 cars have 3 championships, which is good.
Just now you mentioned that we have a lot of new technologies, and the core of this year's whole year is reform and innovation. We mainly revolve around several major aspects, one is the technology just mentioned, such as magazine batteries, silicon anode plate batteries, super-speed batteries, the newly released Xingling electronic and electrical architecture, and many new models... Next year we will continue to do this upgrade on the technical side and product side.
The other is the industrial chain end, we are building our own battery cable, my own motor, has been carried to our car to sell. In addition, our increased investment this year, such as Horizon, Heduo, etc., the layout of the industrial chain has been further improved, and it has also been rewarded this year.
The other is on the manufacturing side, we are starting to expand production capacity this year, from 100,000 to 200,000 (units), and I will complete 200,000 before the Spring Festival next year.
Pang Yicheng: Complete the expansion of 200,000 units of production capacity before the Spring Festival in 2022.
Gu Huinan: Right. At the same time, we have started the renovation and construction of the second plant. The original GAC Fiat plant, we strive to complete the transformation by the end of next year, and add another 200,000 production capacity. The production capacity will be 400,000 units by the end of next year (2022).
The other is the reform of sales, which should be carried through the whole year last year. At the beginning of the year, we launched such a new marketing model of one price, low inventory and high turnover, which greatly improved the enthusiasm of dealers and significantly improved the level of profitability. The other is the layout of online plus offline, car city plus supermarket, direct sales plus distribution of this channel, it should be said that our sales reform, will become the mainstream of the industry.
There is also one of the biggest changes in the organizational system culture, the industry knows, we are doing mixed ownership reform, about to enter the real employee shareholding, our internal organizational system has also made changes, now there are no cadres below the section chief, we have improved efficiency.
Pang Yicheng: I just said so many important things, what is the most important thing at present?
Gu Huinan: The most important thing at present is the layout of technology. Now the development of the industry is a technological revolution, so the current focus is still on technical iteration. These new technologies like the release of these on the one hand to land, but does not mean that it is over, but also to continue to iterate.
Pang Yicheng: The battery cells should be built by themselves, the motor should be made by themselves, and then the horizon, Heduo, chips and perception devices should be invested by themselves.
Gu Huinan: No, the core of these technologies is first of all certain that we have to master it ourselves, but we will also cooperate and work together. Sandian must be mastered by yourself, and automatic driving must be mastered by yourself.
Pang Yicheng: Full-stack self-development of autonomous driving?
Gu Huinan: It doesn't have to be full stack, but the underlying application side needs to be controlled by itself.
Pang Yicheng: The underlying operating system should be done by itself?
Gu Huinan: We will also do operating systems, but not necessarily from scratch.
Pang Yicheng: Will you use the Hongmeng operating system?
Gu Huinan: Yes, we are now cooperating with Huawei. Cooperation with Huawei is part of it, and there is also a part that is not related to Huawei.
Pang Yicheng: Walk on two legs. Is the future technological development route already clearly thought out in your mind?
Gu Huinan: Within 5 years, it should still be relatively clear, but it should be constantly adjusted.
Pang Yicheng: From now to 2025, what core technologies will Aean master?
Gu Huinan: The core parts of the three electricity and ICV I just talked about must be mastered.
Pang Yicheng: How much investment is needed to achieve this?
Gu Huinan: At least 60 billion to 100 billion.
Pang Yicheng: Just now you said that in terms of autonomous driving, you have to be fully autonomous core capabilities, how to achieve this piece?
Gu Huinan: We have now released the Star Spirit Architecture, which itself solves the underlying problems. We now have two roads, one road is cooperating with Huawei, the other is completely independent, or will use the basis of the star spirit architecture, because it already has a central controller, the next thing we have to solve is the problem of the operating system, we are also using the open platform to do this operating system. In addition, in the part of the perception system, we will mainly use social resources and focus on the development of execution systems.
2. It will be listed after Series A
Pang Yicheng: What eats your energy more now is mixed reform?
Gu Huinan: I think mixed reform is very important, but it does not necessarily eat a lot of energy. Because Aeon is a very high-quality investment project, investors are very interested.
Pang Yicheng: You just said that there are already employees who are ready to pay for shares, that is, this plan has been decided.
Gu Huinan: It has been decided, and now it can be implemented after the approval of the SASAC, and it should be implemented according to the plan (before the Spring Festival).
Pang Yicheng: When is the first round of strategic financing expected?
Gu Huinan: The first round will probably be completed in June and July next year (2022).
Pang Yicheng: For the future of Aeon, the group supports your independent development. A round B round C round, the future independent listing, this road is already planned, right?
Gu Huinan: We completed the mixed reform of employee shareholding, and then we entered the A round, and it was over. I have said on many occasions that we first have to solve the problem of institutional mechanisms, the second is to enter the problem of capital competition, and the problem of changing our incentive mechanism and retaining talents, financing is not necessarily our most important first, so we do not need to do this through many rounds.
Pang Yicheng: After the A round of mixed reform, you said that you no longer need financing, my understanding is that because of the direct listing, your financing needs can be completely arranged through the listed company, right?
Gu Huinan: Yes.
Pang Yicheng: Just now you said that there will be almost 60-100 billion yuan of technical investment in the future, and the general plan is that a small part of the group will invest, or will the main body be invested by Aeon himself?
Gu Huinan: In general, the EV side is basically invested by Aeon, and if the ICV side is more, the investment enterprises can share it.
3. 2022: Three black swans
Pang Yicheng: In the next 5 years, what may be the biggest challenge that can be perceived so far?
Gu Huinan: Still technically. One is the problem of the route of technology, and the second is the problem of the sense of temporal rhythm.
Pang Yicheng: The main reason why consumers will pay in the future is to buy technological innovation, which is your core judgment.
Gu Huinan: Technological innovation is definitely the first, of course, there will be services and so on. But the service of these things is controllable, I can say that three or five months to change it is not ok, the key is that your organizational system does not allow you to do such a flexible change. Many enterprises want to change and not move, just as far as my organizational system is concerned, I can change it at any time.
Pang Yicheng: So 2021 can be said to be the year of reform, and if you named the theme of Aeon in 2022, what word would you use?
Gu Huinan: Deepen reform and continue to reform. On this new track, you must continue to change, so that you can adapt to the needs of the current future development.
Pang Yicheng: Listening to you at the last dinner, (at the beginning of 2021) you were a bit underestimating the increase in this year's market, and the target of 100,000 units you set at the beginning of the year was actually exceeded. Is this target for next year (300,000 units) challenging for you?
Gu Huinan: We are not saying that we underestimated this year's market, and our overall grasp of the market seems to be relatively accurate now. It's like this year, I did 120,000, and in fact 200,000 did it. But doing it is not the same as doing it, we think it is still necessary to be stable, you do 200,000, there may be some risks that cannot be controlled.
Pang Yicheng: How do you predict the total amount of the market next year?
Gu Huinan: It should be okay to maintain the overall growth trend next year, but many people predict that it will double next year, which I think is not impossible, but it may be risky. If it is still such a big increment, does the state still have the money to subsidize it?
Pang Yicheng: The subsidy has fallen by 30%.
Gu Huinan: The state has not promised you to have subsidies, and some subsidies are not OK? Now all localities (for new energy vehicles) do not shake the number, when the time to also implement the lottery line? At present, they are basically enterprises that have survived by subsidy policies.
Pang Yicheng: Now the subsidy amount has accounted for a very small proportion, for example, for example, the best AION S you sell, the subsidy amount for a car in 2021 is 18,000, down 30% and more than 12,000. In my own judgment, the central government will not reduce subsidies (in 2022), because the central economic work some time ago clearly proposed to accelerate the development of new energy vehicles.
Gu Huinan: This is just one of the judgments, and it is difficult to say which stage will be entered next year. The general direction or the guidance of the policy, new energy is now going so fast, is not all policy-driven? The second is the influence of capital, which invests a lot of money in it. The third is the progress of science and technology, if such a large amount next year, do you think raw materials will continue to rise? Theoretically, the cost increase caused by rapid increments, how to share the cost pressure through technological innovation will be a problem.
Pang Yicheng: You are talking about the upstream price.
Gu Huinan: Why do resources become so tight? Is it not enough raw materials, or the threshold of technology, or some other reason? Now all the battery raw materials are rising in price, copper and aluminum are rising the most.
Pang Yicheng: Do you think there is a causal relationship between the rise of copper and aluminum and new energy vehicles?
Gu Huinan: There is a relationship, because the use of new energy vehicles is the largest. Therefore, if next year's new energy vehicle market is still predicted to have such an increase, the existing external environment theoretically does not support this high-speed development, and there are many risks.
Pang Yicheng: You hinted at three risks, the first is the risk of policy changes, the second is the risk of capital, and the third is the price of bulk raw materials, and you are now seeing three black swans. So what's your judgment next year?
Gu Huinan: Our basic judgment is that the total increment is there, but the situation cannot be overly optimistic... Prepare with optimism and plan with pessimism.
Pang Yicheng: Back to the question just now, is the target of 300,000 units set high?
Gu Huinan: This is what we are trying to achieve. The group gave us (the goal) is to guarantee 200,000 and challenge 250,000. At least 80%-100% growth is guaranteed.
Pang Yicheng: If one or two of those three black swans appeared, do you think it would affect the goals you set?
Gu Huinan: I think these three black swans should not affect us much, and the overall strategy (change) next year will not be too big.
4. The light boat has passed through the Ten Thousand Heavy Mountains
Pang Yicheng: Back to the main line of technology, you just said that walking on two legs, what will be the relationship between these two legs?
Gu Huinan: I can't answer this question for the time being, if I know the answer, I won't go on both legs, and everyone knows that it is best to go one way. Because this itself is a topic to be seen while walking, and at this time it is necessary to make a conclusion, which is itself an irresponsible act.
Pang Yicheng: This is a very good answer. So for you, it's confident that you're ready for change in the next 5 to 10 years.
Gu Huinan: We are not a new force. GAC Aean is a benchmark enterprise of a scientific and technological power, and has been given the mission of growing a national enterprise, and we are the national team. This is the difference between our traditional car builders and the so-called capital car, Aeon as a brand, I hope it can be passed down from generation to generation, this is our mission.
Pang Yicheng: If you had one word to describe 2021, what word would you use?
Gu Huinan: One word I think is not OK, or one sentence is more appropriate: the light boat has passed through the Ten Thousand Heavy Mountains. There are many ups and downs in the year, but there are still many beautiful scenery along the way.
Pang Yicheng: This sentence reflects that you are very satisfied with the overall situation in 2021, because there is a sentence that you have hidden in the front: a thousand miles a day in Jiangling - a day and a thousand miles, right? Now this time, in addition to work, friends and you chat together, what is the most talked about?
Gu Huinan: Recently, I have asked a lot, and it must be mixed reform.
Pang Yicheng: You just said that Aeon is a relatively scarce good project, and I agree. The capital market chases valuable projects, and pays more attention to the team, especially the entrepreneur. Although Mr. Gu often "fires" outside, a deeper understanding of the inner world of entrepreneurs may also be a very important thing for them.
In 2022, if we are now predicting that some important things will be implemented one by one, the company will be able to smoothly reach the end of 2022, reach the goal of 200,000, and complete some important nodes in the schedule, such as A round of financing. At that time, the Aean team headed by you and the current Eian team, will there be any changes in temperament?
Gu Huinan: There will definitely be changes. The most basic change should be because of the change of mixed reform, the first is that the institutional mechanism is different. A lot of your decisions need to be in line with the rules of the market, we think about things, and the speech should be more in line with the rules of the market. There is also the stability of the post, in the past, many of our middle-level cadres, according to many state-owned enterprises, you have to go to the flow regularly, and now the flow is going to withdraw the stock, which is invisibly constrained. The third is that you have invested so much money yourself, you have to work harder to fight for your own return on investment and fight for yourself. At least you finish investing money, don't be when the stock is not worth much, go back to your wife and say that the nest is right?
Pang Yicheng: If because of the career development, we need to introduce some high-end talents from the outside, and talents from completely different backgrounds enter our team, do you think that something different will happen at that time than today?
Gu Huinan: We employ people with our basic point of view, that is, to make good use of the existing, recruit urgent, and cultivate the future. First of all, the existing talents are the most important, the future to rely on their own training, the middle is only to supplement a small number of emergency talents, not more, or to ensure that the team culture and behavior is relatively simple.
The creativity of the enterprise can be recruited, it can be dug, otherwise you will be stuck in your own hands, but you will not have cohesion if you rely entirely on digging. You see, the ten marshals of the Communist Party of China are all teams that grew up fighting side by side. Therefore, we can supplement this kind of talent, but we cannot rely too much on external talent.
Pang Yicheng: Recently, the topic of PHEV has been hot. Some people predict that in 2022, PHEV will become a main track, what do you think?
Gu Huinan: My judgment of the future is mainly EV, supplemented by PHEV. To this day, my basic view has not changed, you have the technology of the engine, and there will be a problem of divergence between it and pure EV technology. The coexistence of the two technologies in the market completely without incident is unrealistic.
Pang Yicheng: So for Aehan, you will focus very simply on EVs.
Gu Huinan: The mission of Eian, when it was first established, was to make high-end intelligent electric vehicles, pure electric. I only do this thing, I want to do the ultimate, to achieve the world's top competitiveness, no distractions, don't do so many things, everything is mediocre.
Remarks: This article is edited and sorted out according to the interview records of "Pang Guan", and has been reviewed by the interviewees and has been deleted. Related video content will be launched on various video platforms in the near future, so stay tuned.