"Could it be that the leeks were 'cut'?" Now you can't see Cyrus Huawei Smart SF5, what to do after-sales service..." SF5 owner Zhang Yang said that many SF5 owners are worried about the after-sales service of this car, because almost all Huawei flagship stores and experience stores have recently occupied the center of the exhibition car position, there is no trace of SF5, replaced by Aotu (AITO) Q&Ao M5. In this regard, the explanation of the Huawei experience store to the reporter of China Automobile News is: "Only one car can be put in the store, so now there is only the M5 of the Q&A." ”
Recently, the buzz between M5 and Huawei and Cilis has continued to heat up.
With the advent of the Huawei Q&A M5, Huawei's goal of selling 300,000 vehicles per year, and the previous ambition of "INSAID (infiltration) of every car", Huawei's automotive strategy has gradually surfaced. Unlike other new car builders, Huawei chose to attack in two ways and go hand in hand: on the one hand, it is constantly testing the edge of car building; on the other hand, it is also actively infiltrating Huawei technology into each car.
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Cooperation with Xilis: Huawei sells cars to test the waters and explore the way?
For selling cars, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's smart car BU, said that Huawei's challenge is to sell 300,000 new cars a year.
Huawei's car sales have long been no secret, I still remember the hot scene of car sales in Huawei's flagship store in the week before the "May Day" festival last year, and orders reached 6,000 in just a few days, once exceeding the sales volume of Xilix in 2020. Although this hot scene did not last long, Huawei successfully entered the ranks of car sales with Cyris. Therefore, in 2022, Huawei's public caliber officially added the declaration of "helping car companies to sell good cars" after the original "help car companies build good cars".
Is the cooperation with Xilis a test of the waters and ways for Huawei to sell cars? How much help can the previous nearly one year's experience bring to Huawei's car sales? The reporter recently visited a number of Huawei experience stores to understand the sales of the M5.
In the Huawei authorized stores in Beijing that the reporter visited, some of the stores added the brand word "AITO" to the outer walls, and some consumers in the store also came to inquire. However, for this new car, the reporter did not see a scene similar to the previous sales of Xilis, consumers no longer just hold the trust in Huawei and easily choose to order this car, but more rationally look at this new brand.
Cui Yong, a consumer who is consulting the Q&I M5 at the Huawei authorized store in Beijing's East Third Ring Road, told reporters: "Although the sales representative can smoothly introduce the parameters of the Q&I M5, they are still unfamiliar with some empirical knowledge such as car structure and performance, handling, etc. It is estimated that although there is training, there is not enough car sales experience." Therefore, in this case, I can only book a test drive after January 20, experience the handling performance of the new M5 car, and then decide whether to pay for a reservation. ”
He added that since last year, Huawei has cooperated with Xilix to create the SF5 and the Q&I M5, and sells cars in some Huawei flagship stores and authorized stores, which seems to be testing the waters for selling cars, but it feels that most of the car sales representatives are inexperienced.
Like Cui Yong, Tang Lin, another Huawei authorized store in Beijing's Chaoyang District, a consumer who is watching a car, also feels the unprofessionalism of the sales staff. He said that he had read a lot of information about the car online and offline, but when he came to the store to consult, he felt that the sales representative did not know the car as well as he himself.
The direct impression given to Tang Lin is that the space area of Huawei's authorized stores is not large, and only one exhibition car can be put, which is slightly cramped, and it feels less professional than most car 4S stores or supermarket stores; at the same time, most of the sales staff do not know too much about cars. "Huawei definitely hopes to open up the road of car distribution like selling mobile phones, but from the current situation, it is not optimistic, which will take time." He said.
From the dialogue with the sales staff, the reporter also felt that Huawei has a long way to go in selling cars. Although the car sales representatives of Huawei's authorized stores said that they had all been trained in the car sales business, they had memorized the parameters of the M5 and other data. However, the reporter also learned that Huawei's auto sales staff are mostly transferred from the mobile phone business, or newly recruited personnel, most of whom have no experience in car sales, and it takes time to grow into mature auto sales personnel.
Of course, for selling cars, Huawei does have advantages that other companies cannot match. At present, Huawei has publicly announced that the M5 will enter 1,000 Huawei flagship stores and authorized stores in some cities across the country, and the actual number is more than the number of stores stationed in SF5, roughly calculated, the average monthly task volume per store reaches about 30 vehicles to achieve Huawei's annual sales target of 300,000 vehicles. This also makes the sales staff firmly believe that "as long as the product is guaranteed quality and supplied on time, it is not a big problem to complete the target."
For Yu Chengdong's goal of selling 300,000 vehicles a year, Wang Jun, chief operating officer of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU, said bluntly: "Nothing is impossible. "And his confidence comes from products and channels." The first is to see if the product is good enough, and the user can't pay the bill; the second is to see if the sales channel is strong and perfect enough to sell the car. He thinks they have both.
Consumers, however, don't think so.
"I think the M5 is relatively hanging in the air to achieve its annual sales target." Zhang Yang, a consumer with 10 years of electric vehicle driving experience, said that some new cars were quickly opened up by advertising effects when they were first released, but after a period of time, they were unknown, and SF5 was like this. Although the official M5 is better equipped and performant than the SF5, it is not easy to sell cars by relying on cramped experience stores. Moreover, a new car will have to squeeze the previous car off the shelf, coupled with the lack of sales experience, after-sales service can not keep up, March to start delivery and other factors, it is not easy to achieve the goal of annual sales of 300,000 vehicles. "The delivery volume of the head enterprise of the new car-making force that has been working hard for many years has not exceeded 100,000 vehicles in 2021, and it is difficult for the M5 to achieve the sales target of 300,000 vehicles." Zhang Yang said, "SF5 does not seem to be booked now, what about the follow-up maintenance and OTA upgrades?" ”
In this regard, Mr. Bai, a sales business manager who did not want to be named by Chongqing Jinkang Xilisi Company, explained: "Xilis has issued a special announcement that SF5 will continue to accept bookings, SF5 owners in addition to the maintenance of the three-electric system for 8 years or 160,000 kilometers, the first batch of owners also enjoy the lifetime warranty of the whole vehicle and the range extender." Xilix also has its own dealerships in various places, which can provide services to users. ”
There is no turning back from the bow. Huawei's car sales have become an established strategy, but future challenges are also inevitable.
"Judging from the current situation, Huawei's 'helping car companies sell good cars' is its new strategic direction, but the current reality is that there are more challenges." Qin Xiaopeng, an analyst at Orient Securities, said that the Huawei experience store can only put one exhibition car due to site restrictions, and whenever a new car is listed, it is easy to mistakenly think that the previous car has been discontinued and suspended, and a large number of newly recruited auto sales business personnel are inexperienced, which are the limitations of Huawei's car sales.
"Perhaps in Huawei's view, once the car is successful, it is a new profit growth point, and it can extend the automotive industry chain it has mastered, so compared with other automotive businesses, Huawei seems to be more eager to sell cars." That being the case, why not hire more experienced car salespeople? Qin Xiaopeng said. At the same time, he suggested that Huawei has mobile phone dealerships all over the country, which can be used as a starting point to gradually develop in the direction of automobile stores.
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Q: The beginning of Huawei's "car building"?
In fact, compared with Huawei's car sales, the industry is more concerned about the significance of the M5 in Huawei. Many people believe that Huawei's "ambition" to participate in car manufacturing is vividly reflected in the M5.
"The model platform of the Q&I M5 is Huawei Drive ONE pure electric drive range extender platform, the smart cockpit adopts Huawei's Hongmeng HarmonyOS operating system, the voice car control adopts Huawei's self-developed end-cloud collaborative architecture, the on-board map service is provided by Huawei Petal Maps, and the audio is equipped with HUAWEI SOUND sound system..." In the introduction of the sales representative of Huawei's authorized store, Huawei's technical contributions in Q&I M5 were particularly emphasized.
"Compared with the SF5, Huawei's participation in the M5 is deeper, and Huawei's technical team of more than 400 people is deeply involved in the design, testing, manufacturing, and technical improvement and selection of some components and systems of the M5." Mr. Bai, the sales manager of Chongqing Jinkang Xilis Company, who did not want to be named, introduced various technologies such as dual motor drive and the optional and technical improvement of the extended range four-cylinder engine.
On December 23 last year, the M5 was officially released. Yu Chengdong introduced the M5, Huawei's deeply empowered high-end model, in 70 minutes. "In addition to providing key auto parts, Huawei's mobile phone industrial design team, software team, and user experience team are also involved in cooperation, and the research and development between car companies is closer, hoping to help solve the pain points of fuel vehicles and electric vehicles." Yu Chengdong said. That is to say, from pre-planning, product design to post-marketing, the M5 is all led by Huawei, and this car also uses Huawei's smart car solutions. It can be said that the M5 is deeply branded by Huawei.
In fact, there have been rumors in the industry about Huawei's "car-making", and the advent of the Q&A M5 is considered to be a temptation for Huawei to "build a car".
However, Qin Xiaopeng believes that with these limited contributions alone, it is believed that Huawei's basis for starting to build cars is not enough. In fact, the main composition, chassis and manufacturing of the M5 models from the SF5 to the Q&I M5 are still dominated by Xilis, and it is more appropriate to see it as a deep cooperation that plays its own advantages. In fact, it is a little late for Huawei to start building cars, Baidu, Xiaomi, Apple, Sony, etc. all have to build cars, and the car-making track of new energy vehicles is becoming more and more crowded.
"I think Huawei will definitely not personally go down to build a car, it lacks neither conditions nor a suitable environment." Fan Yongjun, Secretary-General of Chengdu New Energy Automobile Industry Promotion and Application Promotion Association, analyzed:
On the one hand, car manufacturing needs funds, talents, experience, supply chain and refined management and other conditions, at present, although Huawei does not lack funds, it can also recruit talents, but there is no strength and experience in vehicle manufacturing, nor has it mastered the supply chain, whether it is the next car or the so-called "OEM" car, there are no conditions and possibilities;
On the other hand, compared with traditional car companies and new car-making forces, Huawei's entry into the automobile industry is unstable, and if it builds cars, it cannot be compared with BYD and new power head enterprises.
In addition, from the perspective of the entire industry, Huawei to push its own intelligent auto parts systems and products, it is necessary to choose partners, but this is a two-way selection process, like SAIC motor, large-scale traditional car companies will worry about the role of "soul" and "body", the two sides are at most project or procurement cooperation, and there will be no deep cooperation. The head of the new car-making force has developed rapidly and it is difficult to cooperate.
The fastest-growing home electric passenger car market is a completely new field for Xilix and an area in which Huawei wants to be deeply involved, and the cooperation is more acceptable to both parties. For Xilis, Huawei's brand effect and intelligent strength are exactly what it urgently needs. For Huawei, it can also accumulate experience from cooperation with Xilix and continuously expand the upward channel of the parts market. "Judging from Huawei's style, even if you really want to build a car in the future, you will not find a foundry company." Fan Yongjun believes that giving full play to its own strengths to be an incremental supplier of smart auto parts is Huawei's current best positioning.
"There is no need to argue about whether Huawei builds a car, and it can be seen from the M5 that Huawei has been deeply involved in the process of building cars." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, believes that compared with the previous SF5, the M5 has more injection of Huawei's superior resources. In the construction of the M5 model, Huawei not only injected its own superior technical resources, but also injected its own systematic concept of car-making to a considerable extent, which is more worthy of attention than car-making.
But some people think that Huawei will definitely build cars. Cao He, president of Allianz Auto Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd., is convinced that Huawei will definitely embark on the road of building its own cars. He analyzed that Huawei is now actively involved in the industrial chain of intelligent networked vehicles with the help of its own advantages, and has not yet directly made a car, but it is only a matter of time sooner or later. Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, publicly and clearly stated last year that "we must take the soul in our own hands", which actually reveals the rules of the game in the industry, and a certain degree of cooperation can be done, but the dominance cannot be handed over to the partners. The reason why Huawei has repeatedly claimed to "not build cars", and internal documents seriously pointed out that the violators are transferred from their posts, which is actually just that they do not want to establish too many competitors in the early days of entering the automotive industry, but Huawei will not always make wedding dresses for others.
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Real ambition: Huawei technology penetrates every car
Huawei's repeated claims to "not build cars" are perhaps more important because it is more committed to "INSAID every car".
As early as April 2019, Huawei landed at the Shanghai Auto Show for the first time as an auto parts supplier and proposed to "help car companies build good cars". Later, he proposed to "bring the digital world into every car" and "Install Huawei into every car".
In recent years, as a supplier of smart auto parts, Huawei has indeed reached cooperation with many car companies. "Judging from the listed or released models currently cooperated with Huawei, the 'Huawei INSAID' model mainly has several specific performances." Fan Yongjun analysis:
The first category is the BAIC BJEV Jihu, which has cooperated with Huawei in the early days of entering the automotive industry, during which Huawei provided intelligent driving systems, intelligent cockpits, etc., reflecting the accurate role positioning of "intelligent auto parts incremental supplier", as for the design, production and market sales of Jihu, Huawei did not participate;
The second category is Huawei's cooperation with Changan Automobile and CATL. Huawei and CATL participated as major component suppliers and cooperated with Changan Automobile to create the electric vehicle Avita. However, the design and manufacture of the whole vehicle is completed by Changan Automobile, and the sales are also responsible for Changan Automobile, which has a more perfect channel. In this cooperation, Huawei should choose "technology shareholding", that is, to take out its own advantage technology or the right to use related technical intellectual property rights as a price to enter the shares.
The third category is the cooperation between Huawei and Xilix; the cooperation model with Huawei and Jihu and Changan is different, and Huawei is deeply involved in the design of the M5 model, the supply of main intelligent and electrified parts, and the sales of complete vehicles. Although it is also a parts supplier, the cooperation with Xilix is a kind of in-depth cooperation. But even if it includes the cooperation of vehicle sales, Huawei has not broken through the identity of suppliers and collaborators.
Lu Haibo, an analyst at CITIC Securities, believes that the original intention of the "Huawei INSAID" model is first of all to open up the market and gradually promote Huawei's self-developed intelligent components, including computing chips, modules, platforms and Hongmeng systems, "all-in-one" electric drive systems, etc. However, the intelligent system hardware and software of auto parts, especially smart cars, are different from mobile phone products, and it is easier to promote them if there are examples of practical application success. Therefore, Huawei has been looking for suitable partners, and Xilix is undoubtedly a partner that meets Huawei's needs and has common aspirations. If the Q&I M5 opens the market, it will meet Huawei's expectations, and this can be used as a successful case of Huawei's smart parts application, so as to promote it to more car companies that are on the sidelines. Therefore, Huawei has sent more than 400 technical forces to work with Xilis to carry out the design and technical optimization of the M5 at any cost.
From the current point of view, the "Huawei INSAID" model has begun to show results, which is based on Huawei's own technology accumulated over the years to the integration of automotive intelligence, networking, electrification and other parts and components. But on the other hand, "Huawei INSAID" is also encountering more challenges. "Huawei is also facing the challenge of continuous technological evolution as the development trend of software-defined vehicles, domain controllers to centralized domains, and central domain controllers becomes clearer and more intelligent." Qin Xiaopeng said that at the same time, domestic OPPO, Meizu and other technology companies, foreign canon and other electronic digital product giants are entering the field of auto parts, car companies are also trying to accumulate their own software capabilities, coupled with the restrictions from the outside world on its high-end chips, etc., have determined that the road of "Hua INSAID" is not easy.
"'INSAID' Every smart electric vehicle company is known as Huawei's ambition or ambition, but enterprises without ambition are doomed to be difficult to become bigger and stronger." Lu Haibo said that compared with the hot discussion of Huawei's "car-making" and the difficulty of selling cars, "Huawei INSAID" may be a more realistic and grounded way to stand and develop.
Text: Zhao Jianguo Editor: Sun Huanyu Layout: Zhao Fangting