[Aika Auto Industry News Original]
A "mutual fear" that broke out between Wen Wei, CEO of Tuanche, and Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Automobile, opened the curtain for the 2022 year of the automobile circle, and its excitement exploded half a month later, and at the same time, more people also cast curious eyes on the recent wave of new car-making forces that "entered the circle". Of course, it is accompanied by questions about the threshold for new energy vehicles and the motives of new forces to "enter the circle": "Is that so interesting?" ”
Group car to build a car: less dry goods, more stories, even PPT saved?
If you pull together a rigid relationship, Wen Wei, the founder and CEO of the automobile trading and service platform Tuanche.com, and Li Xiang, who founded Bubble Network, Autohome and Ideal Car, can barely count half a peer, and this mutual hatred is quite a verification of Lao Guo's sentence that "there is naked hatred between peers". But to be honest, in early January, when tuanche announced the construction of the car in the Weibo official and owed it to the first echelon of the new forces of @Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng, it really did not cause any waves in the circle, until more than 10 days later, Li wanted to quote a Weibo content interviewed by Wen Wei and innuendo that the other party was a liar, and the matter of tuanche making a car was smashed in the circle and attracted attention. Is this series of operations a bit of the entertainment industry's "black and red is also red" flavor? In this case, I am not afraid to speculate with the greatest malice: will It be that Mr. Li is really helping his peers create a situation in this "anti-string powder" way?
Originally failed to cause waves, the regimental car official announced the construction of the car, after Li wanted to be so frightened, alas, this heat it has! Genuinely squirted or genuinely? Who can tell?
Putting aside the above Apple Weekly-style gossip association, carefully look at Li Xiang's spray point on the group car, and Wen Wei's several remarks about his own car, to be honest, there are indeed quite a few places worth complaining about the group car to build.
The first is the timing of entering the circle. As the predecessor of the new car-making forces, Li xiang before founding the car and home, the two entrepreneurial experiences of bubble network and auto home are quite successful, whether it is voluntary or involuntary departure in the end, Li wants to say that he entered the new track with his head held high (li bin of Weilai Automobile is also the same); but looking back at the group car network when the official announced the car, the continuous years of losses after the listing, the huge shrinkage of the market value, and the sharp decline in revenue in the third quarter of 2021... Putting aside the current volume and operating conditions of the group car, what magnitude of "foreign aid" and investment can be attracted, just choosing to announce the conversion track at this time node will inevitably give people a bad impression of "can't survive and change the industry to test the water".
With the successful entrepreneurial experience of Bubble Network and Autohome, Li Xiang entered the new track of car building with his head held high, which is very different from the current situation of Tuanche Network.
Since its successful listing on the NASDAQ in 2018, the market value of Tuanche.com has fallen all the way, and has shrunk from a value of $600 million at the beginning of the listing to more than $40 million today.
Of course, the hero does not ask the provenance, just by the setback encountered by the current group car to determine that the car is unreliable, it is too arbitrary, after all, the epidemic has a huge impact on offline marketing (auto show + group purchase), the timing is not good, non-manpower can also be. But Wen Zong's next series of remarks even outsiders feel outrageous: "A new car production costs only 50 million US dollars" (spending tens of billions of "Wei Xiaoli" to see and want to scold the mother), "the car manufacturing cycle of 18-24 months (traditional car manufacturers currently have a trend of compressing the research and development cycle of new models to about 2 years, but this is based on the already mature management, supply, production system), failure only takes three months to come back to another one". The car-making team can be built down to less than 50,000 yuan to more than 20 million yuan"... Honestly speaking, the cost and cycle of car manufacturing, if the group car that is first involved in the field of car manufacturing can really be realized, and the product meets the relevant national quality standards and then pushed to the market, it should be given to Wen Zong at least not lower than henry Ford's status in the automotive industry, after all, the biggest contribution brought by the industrial revolution of the assembly line to build T-cars is also to improve the production efficiency of the automobile industry, product quality and reduce production costs, which is comparable to Wen Zong's car-making plan; and the car-making team that "can be built from below 50,000 yuan to more than 20 million yuan" Listening to it, people can't help but think of the already cool Sailin car (including the old man music from tens of millions of supercars down to more than 100,000 yuan).
Traditional car companies are trying to shorten the research and development cycle of new models, but it is really incredible that a "new force" with no manufacturing experience has released the "bold words" of "building a new car within 24 months".
If according to the cost and cycle that Wen Wei said, Tuanche can really build a mass production model with listing standards, then its revolutionary contribution to the automotive industry is comparable to Henry Ford's assembly line T car.
What's more, in the more than a month after the announcement of the car, in addition to a too vague 100,000-200,000 yuan first product pricing range, any information about the product is all under-served, it is inevitable that people feel that the sincerity is insufficient: at least the PPT car-making ancestor - Ranger Car is still out of the "business" after having a PPT and a Ranger X shell that resembles Model S.
Ranger at least has PPT and Ranger X models, but at present, except for a too vague pricing range of 100,000-200,000 yuan of the first product, all other things are under-owed.
Summary: The group car makes a car, from the perspective of timing, strength or the understanding of the helmsman for the car, there are many difficulties, I am not optimistic, looking forward to punching the face. In addition, there is a sentence "it is useless to say it but it is not unpleasant": local governments must also polish their eyes and be cautious when introducing new forces to build car projects, and do not mistakenly pay feelings, resources and money, after all, there are many lessons from the past.
Group car: less dry goods, more stories, even PPT saved?
Luoke Automobile (Stone Technology): The starting product is the benchmark Mercedes-Benz G-Class?
Compared with the tuanche network, another newly promoted "new force" in the circle at least looks more reliable.
At the end of January 2022, according to relevant media, Luoke Automobile, a new car-making force founded by Chang Jing, founder and CEO of Stone Technology, has completed a financing of 100 million US dollars at the end of 2021, and the list of investors is impressively listed with Tencent and Sequoia Capital, which are absolutely hard enough.
You see, this hand is much more grand than the group car.
According to relevant media, the leader of Luoke Automobile is tencent, which has strong strength.
Let's take a look at stone technology, relying on xiaomi OEM to start the main business is the development and production of intelligent sweeping robots. After relying on the foundry to earn the first bucket of gold, Stone Technology did not settle for the status quo, quite far-sighted began to embark on the road to establish its own brand, and the achievements are remarkable (to Xiaomi OEM, there is quality assurance), at home and abroad have achieved quite good sales results, although it has not yet reached the leading position, but its market share also belongs to the first camp.
Technology-oriented stone technology has achieved quite outstanding results in its own industry - intelligent sweeping robot field.
What is more valuable is that the investment of stone technology in research and development is absolutely worthy of the word "science and technology", according to relevant data, from 2018 to 2020, its research and development investment reached 117 million yuan, 192 million yuan and 263 million yuan, accounting for 3.8%, 4.6% and 5.8% of its total revenue, respectively. In the first three quarters of 2021, the R&D investment of Stone Technology was 311 million yuan, which reached 8.13% of the operating income (it should be known that in the mainland, with the volume of enterprises such as Stone Technology, the proportion of R& D investment in revenue can be identified as high-tech enterprises). As of the end of the second quarter of 2021, Stone Technology has obtained a total of 730 patents, and there is no doubt that a proper technology-based enterprise has been established. If the founder can transplant the heavy research and development of stone technology to Luoke Automobile, the latter is definitely worth promising.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the first product of Luoke Automobile is said to be the standard Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
Don't laugh, I know what you think: "Here's another one who can brag about X", right? But the benchmark is against the benchmark, people can not say what is the benchmark Mercedes-Benz G-class, is the benchmark price? Or design? Or off-road capability? If the online transmission of "founder Chang Jing loves off-road" is true, then it is estimated that the off-road ability of the benchmark G level is a high probability.
The first model of The Rocky Car is said to be the standard of Mercedes-Benz's classic hardcore off-road vehicle , the G-Class with a history of more than 40 years.
Regardless of whether the off-road ability of this first car is really a fight with the G-class (born from military demand, the G-class with more than 40 years of strong off-road history is so easy to be "marked"? ), simply with the positioning of off-road new energy vehicles (most likely to be a range increase) into the market is a very good start, after all, the current domestic in this field is still blank, and when electric Hummer, Rivian R1S and other models can be introduced is still unknown. In this gap can turn out a new energy SUV with a certain off-road capability, it should have its own audience.
Electric hardcore off-road models are still blank in the domestic market, and it is unknown when overseas HUMMER EV and RIVIAN R1S will be introduced.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if its off-road ability is not as good as expected, at least a durable hard-core model will not lack fans in China, after all, only the Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz G-Class are not in the minority who drive as commuter cars every day. "Sports car" can be a "sports model" car, how can an off-road vehicle not be an "off-road model" car?
Summary: As a reverse reference for the group car, it is also a stone technology that is first involved in the field of car manufacturing, the industry is in good operating condition, there is a successful experience in the manufacturing industry, and there is financial support from a large backer, and the entry point into the new field is very unique, and I am cautiously optimistic.
Editor's comments: Now go back and take stock of the first wave of new power brands in the period of the development of new energy vehicles in 2015-2016, not only the successful cases of "Wei Xiaoli", Zero Run, Weima and so on, but more are the ranger "PPT car", Byton "50 million to buy snacks", And Sai Lin's "ten million super running to become an old man".
Whether it is a new force or a new new force, it is just hoped that there will be less farces of "ten million super runners becoming old men" and "50 million to buy snacks".
The national "curve overtaking" strategy is far-sighted and continues to invest huge manpower and material resources in the long-term development of the new energy industry, including various policy inclinations. I only hope that under such a good situation, among the enterprises and individuals who have "entered the game" in this wave, there will be fewer scammers who hope to make a fortune by empty talk, and more doers.
Highlights review:
Xiaopeng sits on the top spot 2021 new forces sales interpretation
New forces brand sales comparison These cars contribute the most
New Forces +1 Penley Auto will release new cars in 2022
Luoke Automobile: The starting product is the benchmark Mercedes-Benz G-Class?