Executives have left one after another, Huawei cars, where is the road?

In the past year, He Liyang, vice president of automotive business & Western European enterprise business, Jiang Jun, head of autonomous driving COO & map and data, Zhang Xiaohong, director of intelligent driving product project group, Peng Xueming, head of fusion sensing, Chen Qi, director of autonomous driving research and development, and She Xiaoli, chief functional safety expert, have left Huawei cars, plus Su Zhen, a veteran of Huawei who just left on January 25, Huawei's automotive business seems to have lost all talents, which is not a good news for a new business line, and the industry has begun to speculate. Huawei What's wrong with this? Why can't I retain talent? Is It Huawei's car that chose the wrong path?

The answer, I will not say first, it is not easy to say, let's take stock of the beginning and end of Huawei's car manufacturing.

At present, Huawei's caliber on the matter of car manufacturing is unified with the outside world: "Huawei does not build cars, but helps car companies build good cars." They not only say this, but also regard it as a mission to help traditional car companies build and sell good cars.

In 2014, Huawei established a cooperative relationship with Chang'an, but after the cooperation, there have been no significant results, and the details are unknown. The new strategic cooperation agreement was not signed until July 2018. In January 2019, the two sides established a joint innovation center. In November 2020, Changan announced that it will join hands with Huawei and CATL to jointly create a new high-end intelligent car brand, and the new car will use Huawei's solutions on the cockpit, chassis, electric drive, battery, electronic control and other modules, and Changan will be responsible for the assembly.

In 2017, BAIC and Huawei also established a cooperation intention. In 2018, the two sides signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. Until April 2021, the Polar Fox Alpha S Huawei HI edition was released, priced at 388,900 yuan and 429,900 yuan, the car used Huawei Kirin 990A chip, equipped with Hongmeng system, as well as a complete set of Huawei ADS high-end, fully automated driving full-stack solutions.

In February 2019, Xiaokang Shares, a small factory that builds low-end commercial vehicles of 30,000-50,000 yuan perennially, reached a comprehensive cooperation with Huawei. In April 2021, the first new car, Xilix SF5, which is equipped with Huawei's DriveONE three-in-one electric drive system, this new car that has only been in the project for 3 months shines at the Shanghai Auto Show, receiving 3,000 orders in two days of appearance, and the order volume is as high as 6,000 units a week later.

Among the automakers working with Huawei, there is another one, GAC, and the focus of their cooperation is also to create an L4-level driverless car, which is expected to land as early as 2024.

Among these four manufacturers, Changan, GAC, and BAIC are three large state-owned enterprises, which are traditional automobile companies, which have mature car-making technology themselves, and what is missing is only the soft power of intelligence, software, and automatic driving technology. But Thelis is different, the manufacturer behind it Xiaokang shares, relying on the production of car springs to start, and then cooperate with Dongfeng, the production of low-end commercial vehicles, mini vans, model pricing between 30,000-50,000 yuan, the market is good in those years, the gross profit margin of Xiaokang shares maintained a high growth rate of 20%, which allows it to store a certain amount of funds. But there is no key technology reserves of Xiaokang shares, in 2017 when the overall decline of the auto market, the decline is obvious, turning profit into loss, so Xiaokang ran to the United States, and Tesla's original founder Martin. Eberhard cooperated, established SF MOTORS, and then with the Jinkang New Energy Company established in China in 2016, Jinkang New Energy is responsible for production and manufacturing, SF MOTORS is responsible for publicity and publicity, raising the value, but unfortunately, the cooperation is not going well, Xiaokang had to lose the foreign market, return to The country, after cooperating with Huawei, Xiaokang shares have finally been redeemed, only a car show, let this small business on the verge of bankruptcy, from a marginal area of the eighteenth line, Leap to the center of public and public opinion. Even so, but Xiaokang shares still have not really risen, there is no technical background of it, all the core components have to use Huawei," although Huawei has been preaching that "Huawei does not build the whole car", but Huawei has been making core components and core technologies, just like an industry insider said, "Huawei took away the cream, pearls, and milk caps in a cup of milk tea, leaving only tea and water for other manufacturers", and tea and water have never been scarce resources, who can provide, so we have also seen the ending. Celis sf5 was withdrawn from Huawei's official website and offline stores only 8 months after listing, and production was discontinued, the first wave of car owners became leeks, you come to give the evaluation, this is not angry?

The second car cooperated by Huawei and Xiaokang shares, the M5, completely got rid of the system of Xiaokang and operated independently. In the cooperation with Huawei, Xiaokang completely played a puppet role and had no right to speak from beginning to end. Perhaps it is precisely to see this, domestic first-line car companies do not choose to cooperate with Huawei in depth, SAIC chairman once publicly issued a speech "If SAIC adopts the overall solution of third parties such as Huawei, then SAIC will lose its soul and can only be reduced to a body." This passage has become the classic soul of the car circle, saying that no car company is willing to be reduced to a foundry like Xiaokang shares. Huawei wants to control the dominant power, and the car companies do not want to be reduced to foundries, and no one will give in, which is an embarrassing dead cycle.

Huawei is also full of uncertainty, the organizational structure is frequently adjusted, the strategic direction is not clear, and the internal implementation of a fierce horse racing competition mechanism, which is serious internal friction, resulting in the continuous loss of core talents, and most of the talents after leaving have gone to the new forces of Weilai, Extreme Krypton, and Xiaopeng.

Combing through the model of cooperation between Huawei and other car companies, it can be found that Huawei has a total of four routes:

The first is to provide car companies with Huawei inside mode, cooperation in autonomous driving, computing platforms and sensors, to provide car companies with a full set of solutions.

The second route is that Huawei enters the list of tier 1 suppliers of car companies to provide differentiated technical solutions for car companies.

The third route is to provide parts to car companies;

The fourth route is to help car companies sell cars.

According to Huawei's official website, there are currently 8 automakers that have established cooperation with Huawei, in addition to the above-mentioned BAIC, GAC, Changan, and Xiaokang, as well as BYD, Great Wall, Dongfeng Peugeot, and FAW Hongqi. In addition to Xiaokang shares, these car companies only use some of Huawei's technical solutions, have not reached the level of deep cooperation, and the soul is always in their own hands, perhaps everyone has an abacus in their hearts.

The biggest problem faced by traditional car manufacturers is the software level, although since 2009, SAIC, Changan and other manufacturers have sought intelligent solutions, Ali and Baidu bats have also entered the game, launched their own intelligent systems, but that is also limited to some of the functions of smart phones into the car machine, and did not really integrate into the Internet system, today's intelligent car systems, has been paying attention to the complete ecological experience. Changan, SAIC, and FAW, which have obvious technical shortcomings, have not given up tapping talents from home and abroad, and Huawei is facing a three-way siege from traditional manufacturers, BAT and new car-making forces, and the future is still full of uncertainties.

Let's go back to the original question, is Huawei's car the wrong choice on this road?

I think there is no, car intelligence is the current outlet, entering the game in a different way, is a correct choice.

From the perspective of the entire industry, looking at Huawei's entry into the field of intelligent vehicles, I think it is conducive to promoting the entire domestic automotive industry to move forward, at present, China's automotive industry is isolated by the technical barriers of a number of foreign parts suppliers, Chinese car companies want to embed what new features in the model, they have to "ask" these first-level suppliers, after their consent, these new features can be embedded in their parts. New energy vehicles are an emerging field, Huawei has a strong advantage in technology, a steady stream of funds, strong system research and development capabilities, leading 5G technology, in essence, Huawei is currently the most domestic potential to break the foreign technology blockade.

Ren Zhengfei and millet, Apple, OPPO thinking is different, he firmly inclined to technology research and development, perhaps absorbed the lessons of Huawei mobile phones, if Huawei builds its own car, it is likely to face suppression from some political forces, touching the big cake of new energy vehicles, has made Huawei enemies on all sides, if you do not avoid it, it may really be rebounded by partners, for Huawei, do industry enablers, provide technical support for car companies, help car companies sell cars, is the best choice at the moment. Of course, according to Ren Zhengfei's consistent style, when the "Resolution on the Management of Intelligent Auto Parts Business" is valid for three years, maybe Huawei will build its own car, and he did it that year.