The author | Liu Gongchang
On the evening of January 17, there were rumors in the market that Chen Long, former chief strategist of Zhongtai Securities Research Institute, and Jin Fangyi, former quantitative director of a public fund, were both arrested, and it was rumored that the small group of more than 20 people involved in the case was arrested, including Chen Long, as well as two Huawei employees.
According to informed sources, the main reason for being arrested was the joint venture between floating funds and institutions to speculate on huawei-made car concept stocks, which were subsequently investigated. Rumors also say that the Huawei car concept stock hyped by Chen Long's team is Xiaokang shares. The company's brand, Xilis, cooperates frequently with Huawei.
According to the Shanghai Securities News on January 18, Chen Long has indeed been arrested or suspected of manipulating securities and insider trading.
In response to these rumors, on the morning of January 18, Xiaokang shares hurriedly issued a clarification announcement.
（1）
Huawei's car can become a concept stock, which is hyped by people with ulterior motives. For Huawei, a company that enjoys a lofty status in the hearts of netizens, it is really not good news. So what's going on with Huawei's car? Here's a quick combing.
Diametrically opposed car-building information
In July 2020, huawei's internal website Voices Community published the Huawei Management Team (EMT) document (Huawei EMT Resolution [2020] No. 007), officially adjusting the business jurisdiction relationship of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU (IASBU) from the ICT business management committee to the consumer business management committee. At the same time, Wang Tao was appointed as a member of the Consumer Business Management Committee.
On December 23, 2021, Yu Chengdong, who is responsible for Huawei's consumer business management committee, claimed at Xiaokang's press conference that Huawei has and mastered the key technologies and details of building a car, and is cheering for the new car at the conference.
Almost everyone who has seen Yu Chengdong's conference should have such an impression that Huawei has built a car. The same goes for many media headlines. It is reasonable to say that this should be the collective voice of the Consumer Industry Committee represented by Yu Chengdong.
However, just in the above (EMT) document, Huawei solemnly stated that Huawei does not build complete vehicles, but focuses on ICT technology to help car companies build good cars, build good cars, and become an incremental component provider of intelligent and connected cars. "In the future, who will suggest building a car and interfering with the company can be transferred out of the post and look for another post."
Seeing this, I think most people will have the impression of why the same company sends a clear and diametrically opposed message to the public.
Some media claim that Huawei's internal car manufacturing and selling cars is divided into two factions, one is the autonomous driving BU faction represented by Wang Jun, which is united with BAIC, mainly to get good automatic driving technology for BAIC; the other is the BG faction of consumer business represented by Yu Chengdong, and the mobile phone of the consumer business is half dead by the United States, and wants to find some compensation from the car. The branch of Xiaokang was found by Yu Chengdong. Therefore, as soon as Yu Chengdong talked about cooperation, he immediately let his sales channels start to sell Well-off.
But are cars really that easy to build?
The amount of sensor chips used in a car in a traditional car is about 200, while the amount of L4 smart cars has exceeded 1,000, we assume that the chip connected by 5G communication here is one-tenth, even so, but under huawei's sanctions by the United States so severely, where do these chips come from? Without chips, what to build an electric car? So the current Huawei does not want to build a car, is not able to build a car at all, even if it is really as Yu Chengdong said, the technology of car building has been mastered, how about it?
Some people may say that after two years, maybe the US sanctions on Huawei will be relaxed, or then the domestic chips will catch up, then Huawei can be built. But by then the best window for building a car had also passed. Because according to the relevant experience in the automotive field, it takes 5 years for a car to start a project to successfully go public, so everyone sees that the update of each generation of models of large car companies is basically at the node of 5 years.
But at this time, the consumer business that supplies more than half of Huawei's operating income is still shrinking further, perhaps two years later may completely withdraw from the market, and the rising cloud computing can not afford Huawei's huge cost operation, at this time Huawei urgently needs new business to boost, electric vehicles are undoubtedly the most suitable choice at this time, in this sense, Huawei has no time to wait.
For the reasons why Huawei sells cars, Yu Chengdong frankly admits that there are three reasons, one is because after Huawei was sanctioned, the lack of 5G chips, the shipment of high-end mobile phones fell sharply, selling cars can help retail stores survive and help retailers make money; second, it can help car manufacturers save a lot of costs for laying retail channel networks, and will also drive large-scale sales of car BU parts to achieve a win-win situation; finally, helping car companies to achieve commercial success will also make Huawei's smart travel ecology grow rapidly and improve the user experience of other end products. （2）
"Two are not like" well-off cars
Some people have observed that from the beginning of the research and development of the xiaokang new car released by Huawei on December 23, 2021 to the listing, it will take more than a year, so this can only be Huawei's own technical connotation, and then with the help of the shell of the well-off car, then the outside world naturally thinks that it is Huawei's car.
Specifically, Xiaokang is responsible for vehicle research and development, manufacturing, etc., while the Huawei team fully empowers it in terms of parts, design, user experience, quality management, and channels, and the two teams work together.
However, after the press conference, the market's reaction was that the well-off were almost two stops. It is said that Huawei's most proud full-stack autonomous driving solution is not used for Xiaokang, and the price is so high, how do you want others to buy it.
At this time, in front of Huawei, there are actually only two roads: either learn Weilai, openly play their own banner brand, the early software technology and the after-sales after-sales are all by me, but the car-making hardware is completed by the special manufacturer, and the car created is what I Weilai; or it is true that Huawei's own propaganda, just the software technology based on automatic driving into the shares, the early publicity of the vehicle And the later sales are handed over to the manufacturer, the brand is also people's, and they only get the benefits they deserve from the shares.
But now Huawei's well-off car is completely different. Listening to Yu Chengdong's hours-long hoarse introduction, I believe almost everyone will say, oh, this is the car made by Huawei. I believe that Yu Chengdong and other Huawei insiders also want the audience to think so, and they take it for granted that with Huawei's strong brand appeal, the audience will rush up like buying mobile phones.
On April 15, Huawei released a video of an unmanned driving car, a Polar Fox Alpha S car equipped with Huawei ADS automatic driving, the entire video, driving smoothly, can accurately identify obstacles and quick reactions, during which there are pedestrians crossing the road and turning. After the video was released, it quickly grabbed the headlines of various networks.
To this end, Meituan Wang Xing weibo issued a testimonial:
However, Tesla's Musk will indeed flicker, but people have become the world's largest sales of electric vehicles, and Huawei's blessing of the well-off?
According to Huawei's public publicity: Xiaokang Xilis SF5 is jointly manufactured by Huawei and Xiaokang, Huawei provides a complete set of soft installation systems, but the shell manufacturing is completed by Xiaokang himself. As the core supplier of Cyrus SF5 cars, Huawei is the soul provider of Cyrus SF5, while Xiaokang is the shell forger. （3）
According to the data of the Association, from April to November 2021, the sales of the SF5 were 129, 204, 1097, 507, 715, 1117, 1926 and 1446, with an average monthly sales of less than 1,000 vehicles. In 2021, the cumulative sales volume was 6997 vehicles.
In 2021, Tesla, which is equivalent to it, will sell nearly 1 million vehicles.
Between a "sudden", the world is different.
Dismal sales overwhelmed the Cyris SF5, which was draped in Huawei's Chinese clothes, and in early January 2022, Xiaokang shares (601127. SH) has suspended production of its first model, the Cyrus SF5, in partnership with Huawei. According to the China Fund News, because the Xilisi store has been changed to the AITO brand, the Xilis SF5 has suspended the booking, and the exhibition car is sold off the line at a discount.
At this time, less than half a month after Yu Chengdong's vigorous car conference, there is no doubt that the first batch of owners have been rumored to be the guinea pigs of Huawei's car. In this matter, Huawei gives people the feeling that it is to first take consumers as guinea pigs to practice, and when the practice is almost complete, they will get it themselves.
There should be no doubt that sales of the Cyris SF5 did not meet expectations.
Obviously, it is a well-off car, but in terms of marketing, it is fully Huawei, and it is fully linked to Huawei. As a result, car owners have bought a well-off Cyrus because of their support for Huawei. When selling cars, Xilis sales will also hide the well-off at the same time, vigorously praise Huawei, and use Huawei's brand appeal to achieve sales conversion. In the end, the owner decided in his heart that this was a Huawei car.
A lose-lose Huawei well-off
However, once the product has a quality problem, the responsibility is also borne by the well-off. Huawei is only a supplier, but this supplier has overdrawn its brand credibility to car owners.
And the well-off? Since the end of 2020, stimulated by the news of cooperation with Huawei, the stock price of Xiaokang shares has soared: it has risen by about 2.5 times from April to June, and by ten times from the end of 2020 to June. In June 2021, Xiaokang shares were issued in a private placement, raising 2.6 billion yuan. In October, Xiaokang announced its plan to apply for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise funds again.
But this is almost the last glory of Xiaokang shares.
Previously, Xiaokang shares relied on the sale of low-priced micro-fuel vehicles to make a profit, although it did not create a star model, but it could still maintain a gross profit margin of about 18%. In the third quarter of 2021, the gross profit margin of Xiaokang shares fell to a record low of 2%. In the first three quarters of 2021, Xiaokang lost 1.6 billion yuan. In 2020, Xiaokang lost 2.2 billion yuan.
The reason for this situation is, on the one hand, due to the downturn in the industry. The sales of fuel minibuses nationwide fell from nearly 2.5 million in 2010 to 400,000 in 2020, and the sales of fuel vehicles by Xiaokang shares also decreased from 400,000 in 2017 to 250,000 in 2020. On the other hand, sales of the Cyris SF5 model, which had high hopes, were dismal. （4）
And the stock price of Xiaokang? On the day of the release of AITO Q&I M5, the shares of Xilis's parent company Xiaokang fell by more than 7%, and fell for two consecutive days, and the market value shrank by more than 17 billion yuan in two trading days.
So Huawei Is Well-off, in fact, a lose-lose situation.
Automobile manufacturers into the "shadow"
Then at this time, some people want to say, since Huawei is just a software, like automotive hardware manufacturing and sales services, then leave it to a special car company to get it right, then find a better car company is not all right?
If Xiaokang is replaced by SAIC Motor, huawei's brand premium and quality control of Smart Choice Automobile can undoubtedly go up to a higher level. However, SAIC Has money and talent, and would rather join hands with Bosch to build a new golden saddle than use Huawei's saddle.
Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, said in an interview: "It is unacceptable for SAIC to cooperate with a third-party company like Huawei to drive autonomous vehicles. It can't become the soul, and SAIC becomes the body. ”（5）
If from a high point of view, SAIC refuses to lie flat, this is a practice of traditional car manufacturers to retain a little self-esteem, but also a kind of courage and strategy. In an era when software and systems are more important than hardware, once a system solution provider such as Huawei dominates the automotive market, the traditional auto giants may simply be reduced to a car assembly plant. （6）
But the deeper consideration is profit.
At present, the cooperation with Huawei is some second- and third-tier car companies, which are not doing too well in the industry, and only want to borrow Huawei's fame to sell cars in Huawei mobile phone stores.
Why would SAIC, which has a lot of money and good reputation, prefer to use the unknown Bosch software rather than the famous Huawei?
Let's first look at the performance of car companies that cooperate with Huawei.
In response to the M5 model, the Reporter of Caijing visited huawei stores on the spot, and the staff enthusiastically introduced the "Huawei car", without mentioning the producer of the car. I only know Huawei, I don't know the brand. This is the impression left by some consumers on the latest new car AITO Q&A M5 on display in Huawei's experience store. "As soon as I came over, the sales told me what kind of huawei advanced technology this car uses, how advanced the appearance and interior are, and how to conform to Huawei's consistent style." On December 28, Xie Bolong, a consumer living in Beijing's Fengtai District, came to Huawei's world's first new concept store that had just opened and saw the just-released Q&E M5.
Yu Chengdong's more than 1-hour Q&A M5 release activity has become Huawei's one-man show, not only did not appear on the stage of Cyrus related people, even Yu Chengdong's speech rarely mentioned Cyrus, but mainly emphasized the role played by Huawei in the new car manufacturing process. As a contrast, when Xilix released the AITO brand in early December, Yu Chengdong made a video speech, and the speeches of relevant people of Xilis also frequently mentioned Huawei. （7）
Under the radiation of Huawei's dazzling light, the car companies that cooperate with it have become inconspicuous sunspots.
This is the promotion of car sales, so what is the substantive cooperation?
Huawei Cyrus SF5 to use as an example. In this car, Huawei's electric drive system, central control software and hardware solutions, and the vehicle's hard and hard three-dimensional surround system are almost fully covered from hardware to software, which is still not a shallow cooperation that has not joined the automatic driving program. A new energy vehicle is just a few things, Huawei's overall solution has been wiped out, and its partners even only need to make a chassis + four tires and some basic hardware to go public.
As SAIC Chen Hong said, the future of the car must be software dominant, huawei to provide the overall solution is actually to provide the soul of a car, SAIC choose to cooperate will become a body, which not only means that the car company gradually lose the right to speak of hardware selection, and even the chassis, steering, braking and other core components of the car, but also need to give way in order to cooperate with the partner, which is unacceptable for any mature enterprise.
Huawei has said that the composition of the traditional components of the next generation of cars will only account for 30%-40%, so Huawei has developed a solution to give the remaining 60% to a pot. This is unacceptable for many companies, "do not put eggs in a basket" is the recognized truth, but Huawei is to put its basket full of eggs to the manufacturer, and also told others that the size of my eggs are arranged in order, you directly use it, which makes SAIC how to cooperate? （8）
You Huawei not only ate all the meat, but also the bones, leaving the partner with some soup.
Not only that, but even more shocking is yet to come.
It is reported that at present, cooperation with Huawei, it is necessary to accept the "Huawei family barrel" from algorithms, chips to sub-power systems, and cars using Huawei's DriveOne solution must migrate to Huawei in the overall architecture, because the self-consistency and integration of Huawei's entire system lead to car companies not being able to choose to use only part of Huawei system services.
Referring to the BEIQI Jihu series, the T version is not even equipped with Huawei 5G, and even the version below 300,000 is not even optional.
This means that after the choice of Huawei's package solution, all high-value-added software and hardware configurations have been fully contracted by Huawei, leaving SAIC with only the chassis of the car shell and non-electronic part, a veritable "shell".
Correspondingly, Google provides Android AutoOS to third parties, but it does not affect the differentiation of car companies in hardware, chips and applications; Nvidia, Intel, Horizon and other manufacturers provide car specification chips, and even provide automatic driving algorithms for car companies, and car companies can also choose to use the tool chain provided by manufacturers to port self-developed algorithms to the hardware platform.
Even if we do not talk about industry trends, the cost performance of Huawei's overall solution is still questionable in the industry, and the follow-up problems caused by this may erupt after the launch of mass production models. （9）
That is to say, the system provided by Huawei is exclusive, as long as you use it, you can no longer use other similar products on the system, and car manufacturers have no other use except to accompany you Huawei. As an automobile manufacturer, it must be responsible for the benefits of the entire manufacturer, and the diversification of purchased products itself is a necessary means to control the amount of costs. And once it is found that there are software manufacturers that perform better than Huawei, it is not okay to change some without saying that it is all changed. Over time, this naturally becomes a complete attachment of Huawei. The resulting cost and even the huge pressure on the brand are always pressed on the head like a boulder, which is more like planting a hidden bomb.
Do you think that the giants of FAW, Dongfeng and SAIC will give you this face?
Why Huawei cooperated with BAIC
Huawei never seems to be looking for these giants.
Initially, Huawei used the ES8 of Weilai when it began to test automatic driving in Shenzhen, and Weilai was probably a little flattered, not only providing Huawei with a batch of new cars at cost prices for testing, but also opening up all kinds of background data of its vehicles to Huawei.
But somehow, Huawei found BAIC, and in the blink of an eye, it dumped Weilai, and there are rumors that Weilai can't mention Huawei internally.
One of the main reasons why Huawei is looking for BAIC may be that BAIC's new energy laboratories and testing grounds are the best at the national level, and a good manufacturing platform, as well as a stable high-end supply chain formed by BAIC and Mercedes-Benz cooperation for decades, are all eager for Huawei to play a world in this regard.
In the end, BAIC Huawei's cooperation created a test field for autonomous driving, and its Jihu brand adopted Huawei software technology. Later, there was also the well-off Cyrus who also added. （10）
As mentioned earlier, if Huawei and BAIC basically fulfill Huawei's commitment not to build cars, they simply export technology and software. When it comes to cooperation with Xiaokang, Huawei can't wait to jump out. From the embarrassment of Xiaokang at Yu Chengdong's press conference, xiaokang can be regarded as a subsidiary of Huawei.
Like Xiaokang's 18-line brand, you yourself have crises in all aspects, if there is no Huawei's blessing, it may not live for more than three years, so Xiaokang can only obey Huawei. But a child is not enough to obey, his own ability is not enough, wearing Huawei's new clothes, wearing a yellow robe can not become a prince. Everyone has seen the sales of Xilix, and Huawei is really embarrassed to sell this car.
BAIC is also a third-tier brand, although not many people know about it in China, but at least it is still alive. Its original intention of cooperation with Huawei was only to cooperate in the field of automatic driving, and did not want to cooperate in sales channels.
So what did BAIC get with Huawei?
The mid- and large-sized sedan Polar Fox Alpha S (ARCFOXαS) with Huawei genes will be launched in May 2021, with a guided price of 251,900-34.49 million yuan. From the pricing point of view, it should be considered medium and high-end. It seems to be going to Huawei mobile phones.
But about the sales of the two listed cars of the Polar Fox, it was really a bitter tear...
（11）
In the recorded seven months from April to November 2021, a total of 1128 vehicles were sold with Huawei's Polar Fox Alpha S (ARCFOXαS).
So far, two of the three major models that Huawei has served so far are known, one has been discontinued, and the other has sold 1128 vehicles in 7 months.
In fact, Huawei's set is not only suffered by large car manufacturers, but also in large mobile phone manufacturers.
As we all know, Huawei has made a Hongmeng system, sparing no effort to publicize how advanced it is, but not to say that no one in foreign countries has paid attention to it, and the domestic large mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi OV has not moved, that is, huawei's low-end mobile phone seller Glory did not use Huawei's Hongmeng operating system after almost fully accepting Huawei's technical personnel. As a result, many media have said that these domestic mobile phone manufacturers are not patriotic and do not support domestic operating systems, but the truth is not so.
From behind the "positive energy totem"
Today's Huawei is not like a company, but has become a totem full of positive energy, mention it, it seems that everyone should be in awe, but a few years ago the evaluation of it is just the opposite, the famous 251 incident confirms this.
According to relevant news, Li Hongyuan joined Huawei in 2005 and left in January 2018. Due to the disagreement between the amount of the severance compensation and the company, the two sides agreed to pay Li Hongyuan a replacement of 331576.73 yuan of severance compensation after negotiation. In March 2018, Li Hongyuan, the former secretary of his department, transferred 304,742.98 yuan to him through a private account. But on December 16, 2018, Li Hongyuan was criminally detained by the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of extortion and arrested on January 22, 2019. However, due to "unclear facts of the crime and insufficient evidence", he was released on August 23, 2019, and was detained for a total of 251 days.
In the interface news report, Li Hongyuan said that the reason the police said when they arrested him was suspected of embezzlement of his position, and then when he arrived at the police station, the crime became suspected of leaking trade secrets, and then the "extortion" that was later made public.
The shenzhen Longgang procuratorate's decision against Li Hongyuan was that there was insufficient evidence not to prosecute. In the legal sense, there are three types of non-prosecution by procuratorial organs in cases transferred by public security organs for prosecution: no prosecution without guilt, no prosecution for minor crimes, and non-prosecution when in doubt.
From the Longgang District People's Procuratorate's decision not to prosecute, it can be seen that the procuratorial organs twice returned the transfer of the public security organs for review and prosecution, and once extended the period for review and prosecution, and finally "still believed that the facts of the crime determined by the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau were unclear, the evidence was insufficient, and did not meet the conditions for prosecution." According to media reports, it was Li Hongyuan's full recording that saved him. （12）
Since November 28 of that year, when former Huawei employee Li Hongyuan was accused of extortion and detained for 251 days for severance compensation, public opinion began to ferment, but Huawei, the initiator, neither explained nor apologized. By December 02, after Huawei's response, public opinion was pushed to the peak, with 220 million views and 40,000 discussions on related Weibo topics.
The Paper: With the size of Huawei and the strength of Huawei, it can turn an employee's life upside down within the scope of the law. But the greater the power, the greater the responsibility; in addition to wolf nature, there should be empathy and compassion. Enterprises have big goals, employees have more small dignity, and can not casually despise the small dignity of individuals for the sake of big goals. Huawei's giant wheel rumbled over, but it didn't bother to say an apology to the overwhelmed grass! So all the grasses got angry. No matter how big an enterprise is, it is also composed of laborers; no matter how big the moral aura is, it cannot erode the dignity and personal freedom of a citizen.
WeChat public account "Yo Yo Luming: A while ago, because of the suppression of Huawei by some foreign organizations, most of us have done Huawei propagandists for free, supporting Huawei as a representative of Chinese enterprises to survive this difficulty, and using a lot of resources to support Huawei up and down the matter of Huawei's key members being detained abroad, for fear that Huawei has suffered a little grievance. However, who would have thought that in this process, Huawei would also be so cruel to its own employees, even more ruthless, when this matter was finally exposed, it was such a response. （13）
Among China's well-known Internet companies, Huawei is recognized as a wolf-like company, and if you don't turn into a wolf after you go in, you will be eaten by others and not even bones.
Huawei employees have the three-word recipe of "endure and roll". The so-called "endure and roll", Huawei employees understand as, "either endure, or be cruel to yourself, really can't roll." ”（14）
This is true for employees, and even more so for companies associated with them. The advantage of doing Huawei's supply chain is that it can quickly increase its own reputation by shipping a large number of goods, but the disadvantage is that the profits of companies in Huawei's supply chain are very low and low, basically fast to the cost line, because most of them must be Huawei's, and where Huawei kills it, either obey or get out. （15）
exegesis:
(1) More than 20 people speculated that Huawei car manufacturing was caught2022-01-19Source: China Semiconductor Forum
(2) Why does Huawei, which does not build cars, sell cars? Yu Chengdong frankly said: Selling cars can help retail stores survive January 12, 2022 Sina Network author Financial Media
(3) Huawei makes cars, why don't consumers buy it? ZAKER News Release time:2022-01-06 Guangzhou Jianhe Network Technology Co., Ltd
(4) The first cooperation model with Huawei is suspended, and the prospect of Xiaokang shares is unknown2022-01-05Source: Finance Eleven official
(5) Car companies do not want to be Huawei's shell, Huawei may eventually have to build their own cars only to talk about technology Release time:2021-07-12 14:13 Changsha Chuntian Hesheng Information Technology Co., Ltd
(6) Car companies are reluctant to be a puppet for Huawei? Fortune 2021-07-03
(7) Snubbing the Polar Fox, offending Xilis, huawei "forced" to build its own car? 2022-01-01Source: Economic Observer reporter Pu Zhenyu
(8) When cooperation with Huawei becomes a "moral kidnapping", how many car companies are willing to give in? Travel Bureau Release time:2021-07-07 16:28Chongzhou Xiangwan Network Technology Co., Ltd
(9) SAIC motor rejects the last stubbornness of traditional car companies behind Huawei and the final struggle with technology giants, July 15, 2021 Source: Electric Technology
(10) Viewing image from Android modified in 2021-12-2708:27 In-depth understanding of the rights and wrongs of Huawei's car manufacturing, where is the future of BAIC Polar Fox This article is transferred from Dongcai Stocks, the author of Southeast Wind
(11) Where is the road? Wang Jingbo, the brand high-end appeal of Chinese car companies, January 4, 2022 Source: Autohome
(12) 8 big question marks and attribution essays in the 251 incident Released:2019-12-03
(13) Author: Sending the Rest of Hanfu Community https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv4097955 Source: bilibili
(14) Information editing supervisor of Hua roll Shangjia Data Service (Xiamen) Co., Ltd., which knows that netizens love to laugh
(15) In-depth understanding of the rights and wrongs of Huawei's car manufacturing, where is the future of BAIC Polar Fox 5 December 26, 2021