[Editor's Note] In recent years, the automotive industry is in the midst of a drastic change, with leaps and bounds almost every year.
Just in the past 2021, new energy vehicles accounted for more than 10% of china's auto market, lidar was installed in mass production models for the first time, Robotaxi officially opened commercialization, and major car companies have released carbon neutral targets...
The time has entered the year of the 2022 non-Yin Tiger, and the automobile travel related industries will continue to step on the waves and accelerate their development.
Yiou Automobile specially launched the special topic of "Nonyin Acceleration - Insight into the Development Trend of the Automobile Travel Industry in 2022" to explore new trends in the capital market, segmentation and product technology related to the automobile travel industry in 2022 for the reference of industry insiders.
This article is the seventh in a feature series.
In 2021, China's auto travel industry is enjoying the benefits brought by the market recovery while suffering from the pain of the core shortage crisis. In this context, China's auto travel industry in 2021 is still making new breakthroughs in multiple dimensions.
China's new energy vehicle sales will increase by 160% year-on-year to 3.52 million units in 2021, and the market penetration rate has reached a level of nearly 15%. In 2020, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in china's automotive market is only 5.8%.
Also in 2021, the autonomous driving industry chain is gradually maturing, upstream core sensor manufacturers are emerging, and downstream scene solution providers have begun to commercialize.
Thanks to the rapid development of the market and the changes brought about by intelligence, the entire automobile travel industry has also received a lot of attention in the capital market. In the secondary market, many sectors of the automotive travel-related industry have reached record highs. In the primary market, a large amount of money pours into the various chains of related industries. At the same time, a large number of outstanding talents choose the automobile industry as the entry point for entrepreneurship and innovation.
According to Yiou data, there were 405 financing incidents in China's automobile travel-related industries in 2021, with a total financing amount of 277.151 billion yuan.
In the blink of an eye, 2022 has gone through the top 10% of his life. Compared with 2021, what changes will occur in China's automotive travel industry in this year? What segments of the industry will capital's eyes focus on?
Yiou Automobile has thrown these problems to the top leadership of the five major auto industry leaders, including Lightspeed China, Lanchi Venture Capital, Hengxu Capital, Boyuan Capital, and Chentao Capital. From their answers, a dot matrix of "future development opportunities" for the automotive industry is gradually becoming clear.
Lanchi Venture Capital: The division of labor in the industrial chain is expected to be decoupled
"2021 is a 'milestone' year for the automotive mobility industry, with dramatic changes in many directions." Zhu Tianyu, managing partner of Lanchi Venture Capital, said, "We deeply feel that this industry is moving towards a new stage. ”
The market share of new energy vehicles has increased rapidly in 2021. This phenomenon is not only happening in China, but also in North America and Europe. In the capital market, the automobile travel industry has given birth to a number of single investments of 100 million yuan or even billion yuan, and the investment threshold of the track has reached a new height.
Under the capital market and industry boom, Zhu Tianyu believes that the automobile travel industry has also exposed some problems in 2021. For example, the disconnect between the development speed of new energy vehicle infrastructure and the growth rate of the market is becoming more and more obvious, and the commercialization of high-grade autonomous driving of passenger cars has entered a bottleneck.
Zhu Tianyu believes that in 2022, the automobile travel industry will continue to develop rapidly, especially in new energy vehicles, automobile circulation and automatic driving:
In terms of new energy vehicles, brands and models will be more colorful, there will be more diversified and personalized products to meet the needs of users, and it is expected to give birth to some new and more efficient business models.
In the field of automobile sales, as the number of new energy vehicle brands continues to increase, the competition in automobile sales will also become more and more intense. Innovation opportunities are expected to emerge on the side of channels such as the circulation and trade of automobiles.
At the level of automatic driving, there will be more autonomous vehicles on the road, and related technologies are expected to achieve normal and stable operation, and promote the opening of the closed loop of commercialization.
Based on the prediction of the industry, the focus of Lanchi Venture Capital in the automotive travel industry in 2022 will be adjusted.
As the automotive travel industry gradually moves towards the direction of intelligence and electrification, the division of labor in the entire industry chain will be adjusted, including the design, manufacture and processing of complete vehicles. According to Lanchi Venture Capital' prediction, with the further development of the market, there will be some industrial chain division of labor decoupling, and the decoupling part will become its focus.
At the same time as the rapid development of new energy vehicles, new energy infrastructure will also usher in the fertile ground for innovation. In the future, Lanchi Venture Capital will also invest considerable energy in related fields such as efficient utilization of charging piles, innovation of power exchange mode, utilization of battery ladders, and even battery technology innovation.
In terms of the evolution of vehicle intelligence, Lanchi Venture Capital has also found two new trends brought about by advanced sensors: one is the development of automotive automation driven by the improvement of perception ability; the other is the improvement of human-computer interaction experience brought about by cockpit intelligence.
"In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, under the superposition of super energy supply, computing power supply and cockpit space to be redefined, there will be many interesting things in the automotive travel industry." Zhu Tianyu said.
Speed of Light China: New energy vehicle penetration rate or more than 20%
Similar to Lanchi Venture Capital, Lightspeed China has also set its sights on the integration of new energy and intelligence in the investment of the automotive travel industry in 2022.
In December 2021, the penetration rate of new energy passenger cars in China's auto retail market was as high as 22.6%. Just a year ago, that figure was just 5.8 percent. What makes Gao Jiankai, a partner at Speed of Light China, feel excited is that not only Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, the new car-making forces, but also the sales of new energy vehicles of traditional car companies represented by BYD are also growing at a high speed.
When it comes to the new energy vehicle market in 2021, the changes in Gao Jiankai's eyes are more than numbers: "This year, new energy has truly completed the transformation from being questioned to fully embracing in the automotive industry. ”
Prior to this, from product quality to delivery capacity to business model feasibility, the new energy automobile industry has been moving forward in controversy. In 2021, Toyota, which has been looking down on pure electric vehicles, has begun to fully embrace electrification.
According to Lightspeed China, the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China is expected to increase from nearly 15% in 2021 to more than 20% in 2022.
"As the market penetration rate continues to increase, new energy vehicle companies will continue to differentiate their brands based on the differences in user self-perception and positioning." Gao Jiankai believes that some new energy vehicle brands that meet the personalized needs of consumers will usher in opportunities in 2022.
The increase in production and sales of new energy passenger vehicles will drive the cost reduction and intelligent level of the entire new energy vehicle market. This also gives new opportunities for new energy commercial vehicles.
Qianchen Automobile, invested by Lightspeed China, is a company that sees opportunities for new energy commercial vehicles. Qianchen Automobile helps truck drivers and logistics companies reduce operating costs to achieve a win-win situation with customers by improving the level of intelligence of new energy trucks.
With the continuous maturity of the new energy automobile industry, Lightspeed China believes that the biggest industrial innovation in the future will come from the upstream parts industry. In 2022, automotive power chips will be one of the upstream chip areas that the agency is focusing on.
"In the future, automotive power chips will be converted from traditional silicon chips to silicon carbide chips." Gao Jiankai said.
Compared with traditional silicon chips, new energy vehicles powered by silicon carbide chips can reduce energy losses by about one-fifth.
According to Gao Jiankai, with the advantages of higher energy conversion efficiency, silicon carbide chips will gain a large number of market opportunities in the high-voltage charging and discharging of new energy vehicles such as charging piles, vehicle chargers, and inverters.
At present, Lightspeed China has laid out the leading enterprise Zhanxin Technology in the field of silicon carbide chips. More than this area, the agency will pay long-term attention to more core upstream technologies related to the new energy industry in the future.
"We believe that the new energy industry revolution will not only occur in the automotive field, but will lead to broader industrial upgrading and change." Gao Jiankai said.
Hengxu Capital: Looking for the power of "green"
"For the automotive industry, the new kinetic energy, which is mainly characterized by electric, intelligent and networked, is opening up a major change in the automotive industry that has not been seen in a century." Lu Yongtao, chairman of SAIC Hengxu Capital, said.
In 2021, Hengxu Capital has laid out nearly 20 enterprises in various fields, including semiconductors, new energy vehicles and automatic driving. Among them, there are many enterprises such as Xinwangwei, Zhixin Semiconductor, Jie Hydrogen Technology, Zhiji Automobile, Momenta, Jingwei Hengrun and so on.
Lu Yongtao said that for a long time in the future, including 2022, Hengxu Capital will continue to adhere to the development opportunities of "electrification, intelligent networking, sharing and internationalization" in order to lay a solid foundation for the medium- and long-term sustainable development of the parent company SAIC and the entire automobile travel industry.
However, in addition to the above areas, Hengxu Capital has also set its sights on the direction of "double carbon".
Lu Yongtao believes that the rapid growth of the new energy vehicle market and the continuous maturity of the autonomous driving industry chain are inseparable from the contribution of "double carbon". In his view, it is the road of the automobile travel industry to build a green and low-carbon circular development transformation that has given the relevant industries important development opportunities, and the proposal of the "double carbon" goal has also had a profound impact on the development of many industries in China, including the automobile industry.
According to Hengxu Capital, the automotive industry will make significant progress or changes in the fields of green transportation, clean energy, energy conservation and emission reduction, advanced manufacturing, and cutting-edge technology in 2022. The agency has also incorporated the green development investment concept of "environment, society and governance" (ESG) as an important factor in the formulation of investment strategies.
In the less than three years since its establishment, Hengxu Capital has made a number of layouts in promoting the development of green industries, with a total investment of more than 10 billion yuan. In the field of green transportation, the agency has invested in enterprises such as Zhiji Automobile, Hello Travel, and Tongbao, and has also invested in enterprises such as Zijiang New Material, Bensong New Material, Guofu Hydrogen Energy, and Jie Hydrogen Technology in the field of clean energy.
In the new year, Hengxu Capital will continue to increase its investment layout in green and sustainable development. At the same time, the agency also plans to enhance its own capabilities in industrial empowerment.
In 2021, Hengxu Capital has just established an information exchange platform that brings together entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and industry experts in the investment ecosystem of Hengxu Capital - "Hengyouhui". The launch of this information exchange platform is to help enterprises in the investment ecosystem establish deep connections with upstream and downstream companies in the industrial chain to obtain better business development and resource synergy.
Boyuan Capital: Discover the next giant of automotive software
Compared with Hengxu Capital, which was established in 2019, Boyuan Capital, which was launched in China by Bosch, the world's leading automobile supplier, is younger.
In recent years, in the process of the automotive industry moving towards electrification, informatization, intelligence and other directions, a number of emerging Chinese enterprises have led the world trend in terms of technology landing. At the same time, the increase in localization productivity caused by the rise of Chinese car companies represented by new car-making forces and the epidemic has provided a large number of opportunities for emerging domestic players in related industrial chains.
Jiang Hongquan, chairman and managing partner of Boyuan Capital, believes that as the new wave of industry continues to expand, it is likely that world-class Chinese companies will emerge in some market segments.
Early detection of Chinese start-ups with world-class company potential has become one of the important tasks of Boyuan Capital. As an important supplement to Bosch Ventures, Boyuan Capital, which was just established in September 2021, has a freer decision-making mechanism and a broader investment scope in China.
When looking for projects with world-class enterprise potential, Boyuan Capital will conduct project screening based on two important criteria: on the one hand, technical barriers, and on the other hand, commercial landing capabilities.
Just in January 2022, Boyuan Capital officially announced the layout of the car chip manufacturer Black Sesame Intelligent and the automotive "skateboard chassis" manufacturer Yo-Pao Technology.
According to Jiang Hongquan, Boyuan Capital also has a number of reserve projects that will be released at an appropriate time in 2022. But he also stressed that the agency values whether it meets the standards more than the number.
As the era of software-defined cars approaches, Boyuan Capital will also increase its investment in automotive software in 2022.
"The potential for development in the automotive software sector is enormous and could have a decisive impact on future changes in the entire automotive product." Jiang Hongquan said, "But the structural adjustment of the entire industry still needs time, and we are still waiting for the emergence of giant-level enterprises in the industry." ”
In the field of automotive software, the application layer software and the underlying operating system level are the focus of Boyuan Capital, but the angle will be different. At the application level, more attention will be paid to complementarity with Bosch, and in the underlying software, it will start from the direction of middleware for decentralized software and hardware architecture.
The automotive-related business accounts for about 60% of the Bosch Group's revenue, with the remaining 40% consisting of other business lines. In 2022, Boyuan Capital will also begin to focus on industries other than automobiles in the Chinese market, including manufacturing, industrial software, logistics, etc., and may even involve more forward-looking areas such as quantum computing.
Chentao Capital: Specific scenarioSYSelection L4 autonomous driving is about to be commercialized
Similar to Boyuan Capital, "software-defined cars" are also an important focus of Chentao Capital in 2022. The difference is that the latter's focus on automotive software will be more focused on the AI direction.
In the view of He Xiongsong, executive general manager of Chentao Capital, the new energy automobile industry chain is one of the most imaginative tracks at present, and the AI industry is also, so the combination of the two will undoubtedly make people more excited.
At present, the most important combination point of new energy vehicles and AI is "intelligent driving". He Xiongsong believes that the commercial landing scenarios of intelligent driving are diverse and the space is huge, and the ceiling-level system complexity makes the track gather extremely high-density talents, and it will become easier for successful enterprises to expand business boundaries in such a complex track.
From an investment point of view, intelligent driving is a track that is expected to appear in the "super unicorn" level enterprises, and the return on investment is extremely impressive. At the same time, to understand the intelligent driving track, it is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of the various components and technical principles, which will help investors to continue their attention to the entire AI field in the future.
At present, the load rate of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) in the passenger car market is also very high. In some specific scenarios, including mines, ports, and park logistics, L4 autonomous driving technology has entered the early stage of commercialization.
He Xiongsong believes that the penetration rate of ADAS in the passenger car market in 2022 will be further improved, the industry standard of automatic driving will continue to improve, and the division of labor in the industry chain will be more systematic. He also said that L4 autonomous driving in some specific scenarios is expected to be truly commercialized on a large scale in the near future, but whether it will be in 2022 is still unknown.
He Xiongsong expects that after the completion of some specific scenarios, L4 autonomous driving technology is also expected to achieve the initial commercialization of trunk logistics scenarios within 5 to 10 years, while the landing of the passenger car market will be even later.
Based on the above judgment, Chentao Capital will continue to pay attention to the commercialization of autonomous driving in specific scenarios in 2022, and continue to explore local replacement opportunities for related technologies.
"The opportunity for localization of autonomous driving is more obvious than ever." He Xiongsong said that the preparation of foreign traditional tier1 in related fields is obviously not as sufficient as that of domestic enterprises. According to its observation, in-vehicle chips and some core components of smart cars related to automotive safety have emerged opportunities to be replaced by Chinese companies.
epilogue
In the communication with the top leaders of the five major investment institutions, it is not difficult to find that the investment circle of the automobile industry is quietly changing.
From the perspective of investment direction, electrification and intelligence will still be hot tracks in the automobile industry. Unlike before, more investors will look in a more upstream and cross-industry direction in 2022, such as chips, energy, software, etc.
In the conversation between Yiou Automobile and investors, the topics related to "industrial division of labor reshaping" and "localization" were mentioned by more than one investor. It can be seen that companies involved in the reshaping of the division of labor in the automotive industry chain and the localization of emerging technologies will gain greater development opportunities in 2022.
It is worth mentioning that as an investment institution of SAIC Motor, the largest automobile group in China, Hengxu Capital attaches great importance to the direction of "carbon neutrality". On the one hand, this means that the responsibility of the automotive industry in the direction of carbon neutrality is heavy, and on the other hand, it also represents the great pressure of the industry to cope with carbon neutrality.
When it comes to investment decisions, technical barriers and commercialization capabilities are increasingly important in the eyes of investors. Relying primarily on the background of the founder or team is already difficult to impress investors in 2022.
In the automotive travel industry in 2022, money will become more and more difficult to get, but there are still many opportunities.
![The auto industry in the eyes of the five major investment institutions in 2022[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)