Home appliances to build cars: technology to the left, the scene to the right

This article is from the WeChat public account "Leek Finance", author: Wang Qian, Pencil Road is published with permission.

With the increasingly serious involvement of various industries, in addition to deepening the current business, enterprises have also begun to develop new business across borders. The continuous heat of the new energy vehicle track has also made cross-border car manufacturing a new trend, not only with The participation of Internet giants such as Alibaba and Baidu, but also mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi.

The giants have gathered to build car tracks, which has triggered a new round of car manufacturing boom, home appliance giants are naturally not far behind, but also want to share in the new energy automobile industry. As a result, domestic home appliance giants such as Midea, Gree, Hisense, Haier, and Skyworth have chosen car-making methods that fit their own development routes, and have all entered the field of new energy vehicles.

In fact, cross-border car manufacturing by home appliance companies is nothing new. As early as more than a decade ago, domestic home appliance companies led by Chunlan, Oaks, Bird, Xia Xin, Xinfei, Greenkel, and Midea have already tested the water to build cars. However, at that time, due to the restrictions of technology, market, capital and other aspects, the car-making actions of these home appliance companies were folded. After several years, the comeback home appliance companies, their entry angle and car-making logic are also very different from before.

Technically dispatched parts

With the lessons of the "forerunners", the home appliance giants have become more cautious after returning to the car market, among which Midea, Gree, Hisense and other companies have begun not to build complete vehicles for the purpose, but to take the automobile supply chain as the entry point.

Midea has clarified the strategic direction of car manufacturing, mainly laying out auto parts products with motors, electronic controls and compressors as the core. In fact, since very early on, Midea has laid out the relevant fields of new energy vehicle parts, not only through its welling automobile to put into production three major product lines related to new energy vehicles, released five major parts, but also acquired Hekang New Energy, trying to fully penetrate in the manufacturing of core components of new energy vehicles, as well as fuel cell systems.

Similar to midea, Gree also entered the field of new energy vehicles through the acquisition of Zhuhai Yinlong, but Gree has a special love for automobile air conditioning manufacturing. As we all know, Zhuhai Yinlong not only has rich experience in car manufacturing, but also has a unique technical advantage in the core components of new energy vehicle batteries. Through cooperation with Zhuhai Yinlong, Gree can combine its rare earth-free main drive motor and driver with Yinlong lithium titanate battery to effectively solve the power problem of new energy vehicles and make it successfully enter the field of automotive air conditioning.

Hisense has entered the field of new energy vehicles with the core components of vehicle-road collaboration and body perception. Due to the development of a new generation of electric compressors, integrated thermal management systems and automotive air conditioning products developed by Japan's three electric appliances, etc., which have been widely used in new energy vehicles, Hisense has acquired the automotive air-conditioning supplier Japan Sandyon Group, relying on the significant technical advantages of Japan's three electrics, Hisense has made good achievements in vehicle thermal management, intelligent cockpit and vehicle-road coordination.

The reason why Midea, Gree and Hisense chose to enter the car from a more subdivided field of automotive core components is self-evident.

On the one hand, the risk of auto parts is more controllable than that of vehicles with more complex processes. Due to the higher technical requirements of the whole vehicle, the complexity of the production process and the management requirements for the integration of the supply chain are much higher than those of auto parts. The industrial chain of parts and components is shorter, and there will be no major conflict with the original business of the enterprise. Therefore, for home appliance companies, the risk of entering the car market from parts is smaller.

On the other hand, the profit margin of auto parts is higher than that of complete vehicles with higher investment costs. Due to the long industrial chain of the whole vehicle, the return on investment period is relatively long; coupled with the large amount of investment funds involved in the whole vehicle, the profit margin becomes very limited. On the contrary, the auto parts industry chain is relatively short, and it is a consumable, and the demand is sustainable; the price is relatively high, and the return is relatively rich; and it does not need too much investment in the early stage, and it can also get the return on income as soon as possible.

Empower the faction to do the scene

There are many cross-border car manufacturers in the home appliance industry, and the technical school that cuts from parts and components is not unique, among them, the empowerment faction from the driving scene layout cannot be ignored.

Haier car manufacturing is more through the empowerment of automobile manufacturing related enterprises, the car and home two life scenes connect, so as to achieve the interconnection of all things. Haier mainly cooperates closely with car companies in the internet of vehicles and the interconnection of smart homes, marketing channels and the application of intelligent driving in scenarios such as intelligent logistics. By getting involved in the automotive field, Haier has opened up the connection between life and work, thus realizing the extension of the home appliance industry.

Skyworth's focus in the driving scene is also the interconnection of cars, but Skyworth pays more attention to health problems such as blood pressure and heart rate of drivers. As a leader in the field of home appliances, Skyworth has great advantages in terms of technology and sales channels. For example, by opening up the whole chain of R&D, manufacturing, sales and service, it has achieved resource sharing with its main company Kaiwo Automobile at the level of intelligent cockpit, offline retail, charging services, etc., which will promote the improvement of its research and development capabilities to a certain extent.

The reason why Haier and Skyworth lay out the car from the perspective of driving scene is not unrelated to the importance of smart cars to smart life. With the deepening of the Internet of Everything, the connection between the car and the home will become closer and closer. As an indispensable part of future scenario-based life, new energy vehicles have become inevitable to connect with home appliances, which means that smart cars will become part of smart life. The layout of home appliance companies to build cars is also to improve smart life and IOT ecology.

Different logic, same purpose

Although the logic of Midea, Gree, Hisense, Haier, Skyworth and other enterprises to build cars is not very different, it is undeniable that the purpose of these home appliance giants is very similar.

For example, they are eager to improve their competitiveness through diversification and expansion. In fact, whether it is Midea, Gree, or Hisense, Haier and Skyworth, almost all have the characteristics of a single product structure. As the traditional home appliance industry gradually approaches the ceiling, the space for home appliance giants to rely on the main business for further growth has become very limited, so the diversification of the layout has become the only way to cope with more fierce market competition.

In addition, the diversified layout can also help home appliance companies to create a new brand image, so as to remove the label of "home appliances". Home appliance companies generally rely on star products, such as Midea and Gree are famous for air conditioners, so even if they later expand to the field of small household appliances, "de-labeling" is not very ideal. In addition, the single brand image is very unfavorable to the development of enterprises, so the layout of new energy vehicles is particularly important for home appliance companies to tear off the "home appliances" label.

Different advantages, the same dilemma

Attracted by the new energy dividend, Home appliance giants such as Midea, Gree, Hisense, Haier, and Skyworth have poured into the car-making market. Due to the layout time and development path of each car industry, the advantages of home appliance giants in laying out cars are not the same.

On the one hand, Midea, Gree and Hisense have deep accumulation in auto parts. For example, Midea has been deeply engaged in the field of mechanical and electrical for many years, and the mechanical and electrical parts of new energy vehicles can also be regarded as exerting its advantages; Gree has long been in the research and development of intelligent car related technologies and partners with car companies; Hisense has also had many years of layout in intelligent transportation, on-board display technology and body perception core components, and many of its products have landed in some cities in China.

On the other hand, Haier and Skyworth have a good foundation in AIOT. As the world's first scene brand "Three-winged Bird", Haier has been in a leading position in the field of intelligent life scenes, which has also determined the direction of Haier's car manufacturing to a certain extent. Skylink has developed a Skylink intelligent networking system based on the application scenarios of the car, which provides a full-time AI intelligent voice interaction experience and car home interconnection for vehicles, and can also easily access and control the one-click networking function of various IoT peripheral accessories while providing vehicles with full-time AI intelligent voice interaction experience and car home interconnection.

Due to the accumulation and advantages of Midea, Haier and others in the construction of cars, these home appliance giants have also embarked on two different development paths. However, the home appliance giants with different car manufacturing logic have encountered the same problems in building cars.

First of all, the home appliance giant has lost the first-mover advantage of new energy vehicles. Looking at the entire new energy car manufacturing market, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal have won the first place in terms of service experience, technology research and development, market share, etc. By virtue of their first-mover advantages, other new energy car manufacturing companies are not as good as "Wei Xiaoli", but they also have a pivotal position in this field. As a latecomer, home appliance companies have missed the first wave of new energy vehicle development, although they have strong funds and unique technical support, it is difficult to highlight the siege in a short period of time.

Secondly, the brand influence of home appliances and cars is not enough, and it is difficult to increase sales. Affected by inherent thinking, users often recognize the car brands they are familiar with in the market, so whether it is a new car-making force or an old car brand, it has a strong user stickiness and unique competitive advantage. However, for home appliance companies that are unknown in the automotive field, many users subconsciously think that it is difficult to create a good car, so it is difficult for home appliance companies to gain user trust in the automotive industry, and naturally there is no user accumulation.

Finally, the barriers to new energy vehicles are high, and home appliance companies are difficult to overcome. New energy vehicle manufacturing is a very complex system engineering that requires the participation of many parties, involving almost speech, data, algorithms, automatic driving, information processing, artificial intelligence and other aspects. Even Tesla, as the benchmark in the industry, it took 17 years to open up the industrial chain and technical links, and for home appliance companies that lack the accumulation of new energy vehicle technology, it may take a lot of time to overcome problems such as technology, supply chain, sales, and operation.

All in all, building a car is not an easy task in any way. What's more, whether it is compared with technology giants such as Huawei or Internet manufacturers such as Ali, the advantages of home appliance companies that also come across borders are not obvious. As the struggle between the new forces of car manufacturing gradually becomes white-hot, enterprises have not only competed for "banknote capabilities", but also look at the strength of automobile software and hardware and the ability to integrate resources. And whether the home appliance giants represented by Midea and Gree can finally laugh at the car industry, there is only time to give an answer.