What is a car? Industrial pearls, aggregators, in short, adjectives are very tall, not children's homely things. But in recent years, car-making no longer seems to have a "sacred" aura. From the entry of the first batch of RMB players' "new car-making forces" to the "secondary entrepreneurship" of traditional car companies or executives of traditional car companies, the emergence of new car brands is overwhelming. But this is not the end, if the Internet manufacturer's entry can also be said to have money to make the ghost grind. Next, the maverick electric car, the group car network these also come to build cars, really on the edge of the line? The stone technology that builds the sweeping robot also goes down to build a car, what is this "theory"?
Same age as NIO? Sweepers can also be listed
Where is stone technology sacred? Even in its specialty in the smart home space, Stone Technology is a very young company. Stone Technology, which was founded in July 2014, may not have imagined that in less than 8 years, it would enter the car-making track with Weilai, which was a month younger than itself, and the ideal car, which was founded a full year later. However, at the beginning of its establishment, the most recognizable label printed on stone technology was xiaomi.
Xiaomi ecological chain is a package of smart home solutions that everyone is quite familiar with, and Stone Technology was included in the ecological chain enterprises by Xiaomi after its establishment 2 months ago. In the later period, Stone Technology also brought mijia sweeping robot series, as well as mijia wireless vacuum cleaner and other well-received products. 2017 is the first important time point of Stone Technology, this year its revenue reached 1.12 billion yuan, more than 6 times that of the previous year. More importantly, it achieved a net profit of 67 million yuan. Compared with a group of new car-making forces who are suffering from inability to make a profit, at least at the time, it seems that building home appliances seems to have more "money".
If you compare the enterprise to life, although the time is very long, the decision to really determine the fate is just a few steps. Stone Technology has taken several steps so far, in 2018 and 2019, with the "blowout" of revenue, net profit and cash flow, Stone Technology is ready to go public. Although the story of "small household appliances" is not as moving as the car, it is not as good as the speed of their listing that was not in a track at that time. However, Stone Technology, which completed its listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in early 2020, can also be said to have rapidly completed its transformation.
In 2020 alone, the total assets of Stone Technology reached 7.848 billion yuan, nearly 4 times that of the previous year. Net operating cash flow reached $1,518 million, more than double the previous year. In short, it is stone technology that has become more cattle. Judging from the public data as of the third quarter of last year, in 2021, core data such as revenue, profit, and cash flow can basically maintain the growth trend. But these figures also illustrate another problem, and the growth rate of stone technology may have to slow down. But whether it is for individuals or for businesses, winning naturally wants to win all the time. Insatiable greed, or was it once shipwrecked for water? This is all a dusty comment, and the current thought will only be, what do we have to do?
The end of everything is to build a car? Besides, I still have "technology"
Building a car has not unexpectedly become the choice of stone technology, as early as last year, shortly after the "end" of millet, stone technology applied for the trademark of "stone smart car". Although stone technology also came to a wave of official responses at that time, but looking at the establishment time of this Luoke automobile (formerly known as stone automobile) in early 2021, who was deceived by the original response, but the final brand name was changed to "Pole Stone Automobile". Everyone is surprised, or the contrast, or the natural gap between a robot that builds a sweeping robot and a car. If nothing else, let's talk about how to solve the problem of money.
From 0 to build cars to burn money, there is no need to make up nonsense to scare people, and the accounts of the first wave of new car-making forces are still hot. Both Weilai and Xiaopeng have sighed about this. Want to build a car, 20 billion yuan is not enough to spend? The net profit lying on the ledger of stone technology is more than one billion yuan. It is good to build a car here, long-term benefits needless to say, in the short term, whether it is the preferential policies of the state and local governments for industrial development, or the public opinion attention obtained, it has become a high-quality "story" in the financing environment. So the birth of Luoke Automobile, it won its own "small goal", 100 million US dollars of financing. It is reported that the leading investors of this money are Tencent and investment institution Sequoia. It is reported that Luoke Automobile is currently at a valuation of $2 billion and is making a new round of financing.
(Pictured with ideal ONE)
If money can be solved, then what kind of car will Stone Technology build? The more reliable situation is that the first model of Stone Technology is expected to start with a range extender SUV model. It's just that I said reliable, just relative. After all, the range extender is indeed carried forward in the ideal car, and the technical path is mature and safe, which sounds at least the posture is still very low. But there is also unreliable news, such as even the PPT has not been written, began to benchmark Mercedes-Benz "big G" or something.
The "unreliable" thing is that Stone Technology has never been a company that likes to do it yourself. As a fist product started by the enterprise, the vast majority of Stone Technology's sweeping robot business is involved by the famous foundry Sunwoda. This is not to say that diss stone technology 'procurement' identity, let alone his "with goods" strength can not be denied. But it is unrealistic to expect a company that does not even produce its own sweeping robot to invest in building a factory and a car.
Of course, Stone Technology can also say that money and time are not enough. Indeed, since the construction of a car factory, the first qualification will cost a lot of money. Secondly, what kind of money is spent to build cars, and how much time must be "wasted" when money is used to buy qualifications and factories? If you think about starting from the "mature and reliable" extender, it is much easier to find a "partner", as if all the logic is right.
Is the stone technology completely pulling the banner as a tiger skin? Maybe not either. His current "hard power" is worth mentioning about laser ranging modules (LDS) and synchronous positioning and map construction (SLAM) technology. Originally, these technology accumulations were used in the field of sweeping robots. But in principle, it is similar to the intelligent driving technology of the car. It's just that driving on the main road and sweeping the floor in the living room are equal to how to calibrate, depending on everyone's understanding.
Write at the end:
As a football fan, I don't feel much about the movie "One Goal Fame". Because the film pays attention to "art and logic", but there are not too many traces of romance on the realistic football field. This is often the case, we need logic to make up stories, but the reality is more about efficiency. Therefore, in the logic of car manufacturing, we may need to accumulate, precipitate, develop and build factories. But in reality, the big guys can't wait. The stone technology of "sweeping a house and getting on the road" is coming, who will be next?