The automobile industry has been in the past century, and now it has reached the moment of "unprecedented major changes".
New and old players have begun to turn around and transform to intelligence.
The most obvious, more mainstream joint ventures or independent brands have also come up with new energy main models in 2021 to accelerate the intelligent transformation.
"Transformation" means hurting bones and struggling for most car companies, and among many brands, Great Wall Motors can be described as one of the fastest and most obvious brands with the fastest transformation effect. Its transformation path is of enlightening significance to the traditional automotive industry.
Great Wall Motors, how to transform to intelligence?
Sales are the best illustration. Compared with other players, Great Wall Motors is one of the few car companies with substantial growth in fuel and new energy business in 2021.
According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, China's automobile sales in 2021 will be 26.275 million units, an increase of 3.8% year-on-year, far lower than expectations, due to both repeated epidemics and lack of cores.
However, great wall motor's latest released data shows that in 2021, 1.28 million new cars were sold, an increase of 15.2% year-on-year, of which the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were 137,000 units, more than double the year-on-year increase.
△ Source: Great Wall Motor official micro
The increase in sales directly led to the growth of profits, and the net profit of Great Wall Motor in this year was 6.781 billion yuan, an increase of 26.45% year-on-year.
The reason behind this big profit may not be in line with the traditional perception of Great Wall Motors.
At present, Great Wall Motors has a total of 6 passenger car brands, and from the specific data, we can see where the growth of Great Wall Motors comes from.
Haval brand perennial SUV sales crown, 2021 is still the main force, providing a year-on-year increase of 2.6%, from the data point of view has entered a stable stage.
In addition, Great Wall Motor's pickup truck, like the SUV, has always been the absolute leading player in China, and its sales volume in 2021 ranked first, providing a year-on-year increase of 3.6%.
In these two commonly recognized strengths, Great Wall Motors did not contribute the most to the 15.2% total growth.
Euler, along with the fire tank, became the brand with the highest growth rate of Great Wall Motors in 2021, euler mainly focused on pure electricity, with accurate positioning and chic design to achieve more than 100% growth.
The tank has changed the concept of off-road vehicles stupid big black thick, intelligent driving, smart cockpit are readily available, becoming a popular trend toy, delivering more than 80,000 in one year, orders of more than 220,000.
From the perspective of these models, the product attributes of Great Wall Motors have undergone fundamental changes, and new energy and intelligence have become the biggest growth points of Great Wall Motors' energy.
At the same time, it can also be seen that Great Wall Motors has achieved initial results in intelligent transformation.
In fact, since the establishment of the software technology center 10 years ago, Great Wall Motors has taken the step of intelligence and begun to explore and accumulate at the technical level.
In 2015, Great Wall Motors demonstrated L3-level intelligent driving technology for the first time;
In 2016, Great Wall Motor Team won the first prize in the China Smart Car Future Challenge.
At the 2019 Digital Expo, Great Wall Motors came up with L4 level autonomous driving, 5G remote unmanned driving, automatic valet parking and other technologies in one go.
Until 2020, great wall motor's intelligent strategy, the outside world can see more clearly -
This is the strategy of "big boats and small boats".
Among them, Great Wall Motors, as a "big ship", is responsible for the overall system architecture, underlying logic and other general problems that need to be faced in the intelligent transformation; the subsidiaries such as Zhixing and Xiandou Intelligent, which have been established successively, are responsible for solving the core technical problems in the intelligent transformation point-to-point as "small boats".
The specific layout is as follows:
The overall framework is called coffee intelligence. In June last year, Great Wall Motors released Coffee Smart 2.0, including intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent services.
The underlying technology carrying coffee intelligence is a centralized electronic and electrical architecture equivalent to the torso of a future intelligent car, which integrates the central control unit and integrates functions such as power, chassis, body, driver assistance and vehicle control.
This new E&E architecture is guided by user needs and adopts the SOA concept to standardize communications, establish dynamic communication relationships, and better realize the interconnection of everything.
In addition to meeting the mainstream level of current automotive intelligence, it also reserves the space for the expansion of L4 level or above autonomous driving technology.
In terms of intelligent driving, Great Wall has set up a market-oriented independent operation of Zhixing, with amazing development progress, accumulating 4 million kilometers of road tests, and has been mass-produced in Weipai multi-model models under Great Wall Motors.
Moreover, in addition to the basic assisted driving, models equipped with the product of The Ultimate Wisdom have realized the high-speed pilot assistance function, and this year will also update the pilot auxiliary driving on the city roads.
For automatic driving, the algorithm is only a part, in addition to the need for the support of the underlying computing platform, many manufacturers have chosen to purchase, but Great Wall Motors has completely developed the intelligent driver assistance computing platform IDC 3.0 through the end of zhixing.
The veneer computing power is 360T, which can be continuously expanded and upgraded to 1440T, which effectively supports the on-board computing of the AI visual model.
IDC 3.0 supports up to 6 Gigabit Ethernet and can be connected to high-definition cameras, millimeter-wave radar and solid-state lidar at the same time, enabling L3 and higher level autonomous driving.
In terms of intelligent cockpit, Great Wall Motors established Xiandou Intelligent, and the MO.life 1.0 intelligent cockpit system was also installed in Weipai multi-model.
In terms of the underlying operating system, there is also the self-developed intelligent cockpit GC-OS, which can provide app unified interface + HAL unified interface, while supporting UI/UE platform + brand differences, which can take into account a variety of high-computing platforms and adapt to major brand models of Great Wall Motors.
Intelligence is something that Great Wall Motors users can directly experience, and it is also perceived by the outside world, but this is only the tip of the iceberg of Great Wall Motors' comprehensive transformation into a technology company.
The changes that are taking place in the automotive industry and the opportunity track with great potential in the future, Great Wall Motors are all making efforts.
In terms of new energy, Great Wall Motors has set up a honeycomb energy specializing in power batteries, which has been mass-produced by Great Wall Motors' own models.
As a hybrid technology reserve in the transitional stage, Great Wall Motors also has a subsidiary Honeycomb Power, and DHT technology has also been mass-produced and listed.
Weishi Energy is a subsidiary of Great Wall Motor's hydrogen energy technology, and the entire hydrogen energy industry chain is in the layout.
This year's hot unmanned logistics freight track, Great Wall Motors has also made new moves. Ant Logistics, which focuses on intercity freight and park logistics, has cooperated with Yishi Technology to launch an autonomous material transfer mass production model.
Previously, it was revealed that great wall has obtained commercial vehicle production qualifications through acquisitions.
It is foreseeable that if Great Wall Motors really launches its own heavy-duty truck models, there is no doubt that it will have close synergy with automatic driving, power batteries, and hydrogen energy businesses.
In addition to automobiles, Great Wall Motors has also been involved in photovoltaic power generation, semiconductors, lithium or other industries, or invested or personally.
To describe the transformation of Great Wall Motors in the simplest words, it must be "not only fast, but also complete".
The intelligent "battle royale" of car giants
As of 2020, Great Wall Motors has sold more than one million for 5 consecutive years, and it is necessary to make every effort to transform to intelligence.
Find answers directly from the data.
Although Great Wall Motors has sold more than one million units for five consecutive years, it has been stable in the range of 1 million to 1.1 million units in the past five years.
In 2021, sales soared to 1.28 million, the core reason is that the results of intelligence and electrification began to land, and users can experience an unprecedented sense of technology on the new models of Great Wall Motors.
The necessity of intelligence is self-evident.
In fact, major car companies also understand this truth, but at the crossroads from fuel vehicles to new energy and intelligence, the history and results of each family are different.
The first is the Volkswagen Group, represented by the Ashkenazi.
In addition to facing the technical threshold, volkswagen's transformation is a bigger challenge lies in the heavy burden of traditional car companies.
Volkswagen's current CEO Diess has been following Tesla's example and pushing for reform, but there is a lot of internal resistance, and he has almost been fired several times. After the recent turmoil of the struggle, Diess had to hand over the management authority of multiple departments, which added variables to Volkswagen's transformation.
Even so, Volkswagen's pace of transformation is still radical among many traditional car companies.
Let's look at Japanese car companies.
Toyota did not announce its complete new energy model plan in Japan until a few days ago, after the head of Toyota Akio also harshly attacked pure electric models.
As for intelligence, it seems that it has never been a Japanese label.
Finally, let's look at the American system.
GM recently revealed that it delivered only 26 pure electric vehicles in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2021, the worst result since the launch of the first electric car, the Chevrolet Volt in 2010. Previously, it was also forced to stop production and recall due to battery problems.
Musk even teased him about it, saying "Room to improve."
Ford Motor claims to have been "woken up by Tesla", and its Mustang brand has fully transformed into electric, but it still emphasizes brand and sport. In terms of key intelligent experiences, Ford does not have the strength to self-develop and still purchase supplier products, and does not serve as the main selling point.
Obviously, in the face of transformation, these traditional car companies generally have the situation that it is difficult to turn around due to the large volume.
On the one hand, car giants want to ensure that the sales of fuel vehicles do not fall; on the other hand, they also have to compete with the new car-making forces on the new track, and a little slack may be left behind by others.
Although the car giants have high sales and a large market share, they often walk on thin ice when they face transformation problems.
This is also the case with the major domestic car companies.
In 2020, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, publicly stated: "Great Wall Motors' life hangs on the line... No sense of crisis is the greatest crisis. Many people believe that this "life hanging on the line" argument may be too exaggerated for Great Wall Motors. Because at this time, Great Wall Motors sold more than one million for 4 consecutive years, and the domestic SUV and pickup truck markets were lonely and defeated.
But Wei Jianjun's anxiety comes from his experience of changing market and user needs.
The intelligent revolution set off by Tesla's new forces has shaken the entire industry, and users buy cars and have higher and higher requirements for intelligence and new energy. The pace of Great Wall Motor's transformation is slightly deviated, and it may directly lag behind others.
Therefore, the intelligent transformation of Great Wall Motors lies not only in the technical level, but also in the comprehensive transformation of its ideological understanding and architecture design.
At the ideological level, Chairman Wei Jianjun's worried thinking has been able to prove the resoluteness of Great Wall Motor's transformation.
At the technical level, although Great Wall Motors also proposes to build an open ecosystem, Great Wall Motors has always adhered to self-research on the core technology of intelligence.
Autonomous driving technology, the establishment of the ultimate wisdom walk, market-oriented independent operation, have full autonomy, in accordance with the management and operation of technology companies, to ensure efficiency and enthusiasm.
The Xiandou Intelligence, which mainly focuses on the intelligent cockpit, the hive energy that develops the power battery, and the untaxed energy that lays out hydrogen energy, all use this form.
Under the framework, talent is the "flesh and blood" that maintains innovation.
In this regard, Great Wall Motor will continue to introduce more than 10,000 talents of all kinds around the world on the basis of the existing 15,000 R&D personnel. At the same time, Great Wall Motors will further increase R&D investment, and the cumulative R&D investment will reach 100 billion yuan in the next 5 years.
The "Great Wall Model" of Intelligent Transformation
The development of the automobile industry in the past century to today, whether it is the initiative to lead the new track, or the rapid follow-up, or forced on the road of transformation, everyone no longer doubts the revolutionary direction of intelligence and new energy.
But the transformation process and outcomes are very different.
The new forces can focus on a point and quickly form their own moat, such as Xiaopeng's intelligence, ideal user orientation, Weilai's nanny-style service and so on. However, for car companies with a long history and huge volume, to turn, it is necessary to overcome the huge inertia brought by the huge volume.
In fact, the intelligent transformation of car companies is not all difficult to trek, and Great Wall Motors has stepped out of a new model.
The core meaning of this "Great Wall model" is three points.
The first is the wide layout.
From the very beginning, Great Wall Motors did not use the status of car companies as a restriction.
A series of measures such as the establishment of an autonomous driving company to ensure the intelligent attributes of products are still at the level of the car. Establishing an agile R&D, rapidly iterative workflow is a necessary attribute of a "technology company". The layout of the whole industry chain of hydrogen energy, photovoltaics, batteries, lithium ore, etc., shows that Great Wall Motors is not only a car, but also an energy company.
The second feature of the transformation is that the core key technologies of intelligence are not released and self-research is adhered to.
China's intelligent car industry chain is perfect, autonomous driving suppliers, battery suppliers are countless, to transform is actually very easy, buy buy buy on the line.
In fact, not only some traditional car manufacturers do this, but many new forces in China also outsource the core of automatic driving and batteries.
However, Great Wall Motors' approach is to develop all self-developed the core wire control chassis, electronic and electrical architecture, automatic driving, and power batteries of intelligent vehicles, and then open up the ecology of cooperation on this basis.
What are the benefits of time-consuming and laborious? Of course, it is to firmly grasp their "soul". Great Wall Motors believes that the smart car revolution is like the smart phone revolution of that year, and taking the route of "purchasing OEM" can take a momentary coincidence:
But those who do OEM smartphones are dead, and those who survive today are those who have mastered the core technology.
The third point is also the most difficult challenge for all car companies to transform: efficiency.
Great Wall Motors is of course an automobile giant, with a mature system and a clear process, but the management framework of the manufacturing industry is difficult to transplant to technology companies.
Therefore, Great Wall Motors adopts the strategy of "big boats and small boats", and the teams that undertake key tasks of transformation set up subsidiaries, such as automatic driving, power batteries and so on. Great Wall gives these subsidiaries full trust and autonomy, allowing them to manage and operate in the way of Internet technology companies, without being restricted by the process of the large enterprise system, and fully stimulating enthusiasm.
Therefore, there are subsidiaries such as Mi mo Zhixing and Xiandou Intelligent that are mass-produced and put on the car within two or three years of their establishment.
Great Wall Motors is not the first to shout the slogan of comprehensive transformation, but it is the first to come up with results, and those who see results are worth thinking about.
Moreover, the "Great Wall Model" has more unique significance in the current background.
On the one hand, the transformation of a number of traditional car companies at home and abroad is difficult, and the "Great Wall Model" provides a template for all car factories struggling to escape.
In addition, the automobile intelligent revolution is menacing, China's automobile industry is in a leading position, and the transformation of Great Wall Motors is also another representative of "lane changing and overtaking" outside the new forces.
Finally, because Great Wall Motors has shown the scientific research strength of Not losing internet companies, the industry is now uncertain that the first to reach the end of automatic driving will be a "pure" technology company.
The battle royale that began in the context of the "great change that has not occurred in a hundred years" in the automobile industry is still to come.