Originally thought that in 2022, the new forces entered the "knockout race", but I did not expect that a number of "new new forces" such as Niuchuang Automobile, Box Car, and Tuanche Network could not wait to join the car-making army. This has to make us rethink and look at the "new forces" group.
Regarding the new forces of car manufacturing, the earliest refers to a group of enterprises that built cars with "Internet thinking" established around 2016, such as Weilai, Weima, Xiaopeng, Ideal and other brands. Compared with centuries-old traditional cars, these brands have naturally become "new forces". The new here is not only the new time of establishment, but also the redefinition of the car in terms of technology, products, concepts and other aspects - intelligent electric vehicles. At present, the cumulative sales of these brands have generally reached 100,000 vehicles, and they are generally considered to be the head enterprises of new car-making forces.
When the track gradually became clear, more capital, crossovers, and even local governments began to follow. The Niuchuang car, box car, and Xiaomi car mentioned at the beginning are not like this. Of course, in addition to these brands, there are also some "auto people" who have attracted a lot of attention by integrating the resources of the automobile circle and under the banner of "new cars", such as Hongguang MINI EV, Nezha Automobile, Zero Run Car, etc. These brands have quickly harvested a wave of market sales through "low-price strategy". If you look at the sales performance alone, there is a great tendency to rush into the "head camp" of the new car-making forces.
At this time, the view of "heroes on sales" began to appear in public opinion. Is sales the only criterion for judging the "head"? If not, then how should we view the current changes in the pattern of new forces? To answer this question, I think we should think about it in at least three ways.
First of all, is the new enterprise a new force? Behind this question is actually, is the new energy vehicle equal to the intelligent electric vehicle? Previously, He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Automobile, mentioned a point of view: less than 150,000 cannot build a real smart car. The implication is that at present, many new energy vehicles can only be regarded as electric vehicles, and they are not qualified to be called smart cars. I think most people agree with this view.
The reason why the new car-making forces represented by Weilai, Weima, Xiaopeng, etc. can rise is fundamentally because they have created a new species different from fuel vehicles, and the essential difference is "intelligence" rather than "electric". Whether a car is smart is not only a question of whether there is one or not, but also a question of whether it is good or not. Taking the most common automatic parking as an example, almost all electric vehicles are equipped with this function, but the user's use experience is very different, in this regard, the AVP technology equipped with the WM W6 and the XPILOT Parking technology of Xiaopeng are well-known. Therefore, the intelligence of smart cars must not stay on the configuration table, but depends on the user's experience.
In addition, from the perspective of future trends, these head brands have taken the lead in entering the "lidar" era, and Weilai ET7, WM M7, Xiaopeng P5, and Ideal X01 are all equipped with lidar. Among them, WM M7 is equipped with 3 solid-state lidar, and the automatic driving scheme is more perfect, which is also difficult for other brands to follow in a short period of time.
If you understand this truth, you will find that many electric vehicles are not actually "new forces", or that everyone is not competing on a track at all. At this time, no matter how much sales are only a number, it cannot form data, and it cannot drive the iterative upgrade of user experience.
Second, is sales the "only" criterion for judging the head? Apparently not. But we can't avoid that sales are a very important reference standard. At present, the historical cumulative delivery volume of "Wei Xiao Liwei" has exceeded the 90,000 mark, which is obviously superior to other new forces.
However, behind the sales volume, we should see the institutional strength of an enterprise. Not long ago, the chairman and CEO of Huanqiu Automobile Group put forward a point of view that the new car is transitioning from the 1.0 era (characterized by technology and products) to the 2.0 era (characterized by system strength and efficiency). From this point of view, Weilai, WM, Xiaopeng and the ideal head advantages are more obvious, such as have self-built or exclusive factories, especially WM from the beginning of the self-built factory, the product quality firmly in their own hands; from the product line point of view, in addition to the ideal start to focus on SUVs, "Wei Xiaowei" has a "SUV + car" product matrix, and WM, Xiaopeng are more focused on the mainstream market. For example, WM has always advocated the concept of "universal technology", always focusing on the market segment of 150,000-250,000 yuan, covering the widest user group, and creating "cool and affordable" smart electric products for consumers. With the transition of new energy vehicles from "dumbbell type" to "spindle type", it is expected that by 2030, electric vehicle models in the price range of 150,000-250,000 yuan will occupy about 60% of the market share. At this time, WM will usher in the "outlet" of market growth.
Third, the new car is a marathon, and it is not yet time to draw conclusions. This argument is not new, but many times we are willing to talk about short-term, one-dimensional numbers, thus ignoring the longer-term development potential.
Note: Since mass production, WM Automobile's sales have occupied the first place in the core value range of pure electric sales (150,000-300,000 price range)
Here is an example, in the last wave of Chinese brand entrepreneurship, the sales of Lifan, Zotye and Haima have been brilliant, but after the end of an industrial cycle, these companies have disappeared. The same is true of the current new forces, looking at the development of intelligent electric vehicles from the perspective of the century-old history of the automobile industry, it is undoubtedly just taking the first step. He Xiaopeng also said last year that "no automobile company can clearly say that it has obtained the 'first hand' today." We're all in qualifying and haven't made it to the knockout table yet. "WM Motors has won a number of first places in the recent rankings of foreign third-party authoritative institutions, and surpassed joint ventures, independent hard power opponents such as Volkswagen and Xiaopeng, and steadily occupied the head position with strength." Even so, Shen Hui mentioned in an interview last year that "the new energy track is a long-term track, like playing football, and now the first 15 minutes of the first half have not been played, and who wins and who loses is not yet known." ”
The reason why Shen Hui believes that the new energy track is like a lengthy football game stems from his precise grasp of the brand attributes of WM Motors. WM Motors, which advocates "universal technology", has always been the only car company among the new forces to focus on the mainstream market. Mainstream means the largest volume, but also means to maximize the potential of "universal benefit", superimposed intelligence has increasingly become an important factor for mainstream users to buy vehicles, which will become the second half of the new energy ball game, WM brings us the greatest growth imagination space.
In this way, the "Wei Xiao Liwei" in the head position is still so in awe, when we look at the problem, do we also think from a different angle?