The electrification of cars has changed the logic of car manufacturing, which used to be considered a high threshold for automobile manufacturing industry, and now all walks of life can blackmail capital to enter. The first wave of cross-border car manufacturing boom in China began in 2014-2015, starting from Ranger Cars, LeTV Cars, etc., and finally with most of the PPT car-making companies in the public, "Wei Xiaoli" and a number of car-making forces have gained a firm foothold in the market.
How many of these brands of the first wave of new car-making forces are still alive?
And now, after Xiaomi officially entered the automotive industry with $10 billion in 2021, a new round of car-making boom is gradually brewing, and a number of new forces with a car-making heart are coming across the border. After experiencing the first wave of car-making boom, along the road of car-making that the predecessors have already flattened, whether this batch of new domestic car-making forces is reliable or not, we may wish to take stock together.
Luxshare Precision
Reliability index: 80
On the evening of February 11, as one of the leaders in Apple's supply chain, Luxshare Precision officially announced that it would sign a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Chery Group, and the two sides would jointly establish a joint venture company to lay out the automotive FOUNDC business. At the same time, the company's controlling shareholder, Lixun Limited, also purchased 19.88% of the equity of Chery Holdings, 7.87% of the equity of Chery and 6.24% of the equity of Chery New Energy held by Qingdao Wudaokou for 10.054 billion yuan.
Although Luxun said that it does not build cars, the newly established joint venture company is still dominated by Chery, and it is mainly based on OEM, but Luxun Precision is also clear to enter the automotive industry. It is understood that Luxshare Precision's automotive OEM business has a relatively clear landing project, about the next 12-18 months will be put into production, and anyone can associate with Apple's foundry business.
In the future, if Luxshare Precision has hardened its wings in the matter of car manufacturing, it is also possible to launch its own brand. Who said that foundry companies must do OEM work for a lifetime?
Foxconn
Reliability index: 90
At the 2021 Hon Hai Technology Day in October last year, Foxconn released three self-developed electric vehicles in one go. Foxconn's logic is similar to That of Luxshare Precision, taking the OEM route in an attempt to bring the logic of OEM for Apple into the automotive industry, except that Foxconn began to plan earlier than Luxun.
However, unlike Chery, a joint venture of Luxun Precision, Foxconn has its own independent set of things from research and development to manufacturing, from standard system to product platform. In other words, Foxconn already has the ability to build cars independently, whether to OEM or launch its own brand, but it depends on Foxconn's decision. Of course, if you want to produce in the mainland, Foxconn still lacks a production qualification.
Niu Chuang Automobile
Reliability index: 60
In fact, Li Yinan's Niuchuang Automobile was established in 2018, but it has always been relatively low-key and has not received much attention. It was not until December last year that Niuchuang Automobile released the "Self-Traveling Home" brand, which was considered to have entered the public's vision.
If you count the preliminary research, Niuchuang Automobile has been brewing for nearly 4 years, the time is not short, and the R&D center and production base are already available. The first product, Youjia NV, is still choosing to cut into the medium and large SUV market, and launched two versions of range and pure electricity at the same time, which is closer to the idea of the ideal car. The new car will be launched and pre-ordered in the first half of 2022, and the delivery will start in September, which can be said to have reached the stage of a foot in the door.
But the car is not as good as the electric motorcycle, and whether Li Yinan can reproduce the success of the Maverick electric car in the automotive market with an SUV is still unknown. In addition, Li Bin once said that there is no 40 billion yuan can not do the car, Niuchuang Automobile just got a $500 million A round of financing at the end of last year, Li Yinan's follow-up how much money can support R & D and production, channel construction, marketing promotion is also worth paying attention to.
Loke cars
Reliability index: 40
Behind the Luoke car is the stone technology that started by doing sweeping robots. If you insist on saying that Stone Technology has any advantages in car building, it may be that the visual recognition of sweeping robots, automatic obstacle avoidance and the automatic driving of cars can be related.
According to reports, Luoke Automobile is positioned as a benchmark Mercedes-Benz G series off-road model product, hoping to achieve a range of more than 1,000 kilometers with the help of range extension technology, and is also an imitator of an ideal car. It is no wonder that "Luoke Automobile", which was established at the end of 2020, wants to enter the car-making track in a short period of time, and the choice of extended range technology should be said to be cautious and relatively stable.
However, as a new brand with no roots, it is necessary to benchmark Mercedes-Benz G as soon as it comes up, and it has some of the colors of the previous generation of PPT cars. Compared with Niuchuang Automobile's low-key research and development of 3 or 4 years before launching products, Luoke Automobile's PPT of the product has not yet been seen, or people can't help but hit a question mark first.
Group car
Reliability index: 10
It started with car group buying and auto shows, and was listed on the NASDAQ, known as the "first stock of auto new retail". However, after years of losses and no hematopoietic capacity, the books are not rich, and how to look at the group car network does not look like it has the ability to build a car.
But it is such a listed company that recently announced the construction of cars. As Wen Wei, the founder of Tuanche.com, said, pulling an "experienced" foreign team of more than 100 people already has semi-finished models and can build cars in 18-24 months. Although the threshold for building cars has now become lower, it is impossible to hear that the group car has the slightest reverence for car building. It's not like doing a century-old store, it's more like making quick money.
The mutual hatred between Wen Wei and Li Xiang on Weibo has made the construction of the group car an instantly become a hot topic in the industry. Look at the depressed stock price of the group car, the meager funds, maybe make up a story, create a topic, and pull up the stock price is the purpose that Wen Wei really wants to achieve.
As of September 30, 2021, the total amount of cash, cash equivalents and restricted deposits of Tuanche was $134 million.
Modern cars
Reliability index: 30
Quietly, the first model of a modern car was launched at the end of last year.
The management team of this company is mainly from traditional car companies, most of which are automobile groups, which is a new force from the background of traditional car companies, so it also adheres to the style of traditional car companies in terms of work style. The brand and product positioning of modern cars are focused on the word "tide", but so far, the publicity and marketing have not seen anything to do with the "tide".
At the end of the day, it's a matter of money. The shareholders behind Modern Automobile are mainly local capital in Jiangsu, and since its inception, Modern Automobile has not gained the favor of strong capital, and it is still a blank in financing. And modern cars do not have production qualifications. In this context, it is not easy to smoothly mass-produce and market products through OEM. Behind this should also be the resources of the management team in the industry.
Modern cars are considered to be down-to-earth cars, but if they can't get the support of large funds, can modern cars continue to be "solid"?
Box car
Box car is an alternative, other families are going to the C-end market, box car is to win the B-end market.
In December 2021, Box Car was officially released, and two new pure electric cars focusing on the B-end market were also unveiled. The BM-400, which is about 120,000 yuan, is positioned in the online car market, and the BM-600 is aimed at the high-end rental market, and the two cars will achieve mass production in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
From the product point of view, the two cars are quite unique features, box cars even developed an exclusive modular chassis, it can be said that the foundation is very solid. From a logical point of view, in addition to the specific models of a few brands in the B-end market, all the brands and products in the B-end market are still a minority, and it makes logical sense to break through to the B-end.
However, for box cars with many years of experience in automobile design, but no experience in vehicle manufacturing, the real difficulty is not in product research and development, but in a series of problems such as follow-up cost control, quality control, supply, after-sales service, and financial services, which is what the B-end market cares about.
And as a ride-hailing passenger, does a short-distance temporary trip really need such an exclusive ride-hailing car?
Light orange car
Reliability index: 20
The light orange era is a new force for rapid car building. At last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, the light orange era, which had just been established for half a year, had come up with a quasi-mass production model. This quasi-production car claims to have a super fast charge that can be charged for 8 minutes and travel 200 kilometers, and can be mass-produced and delivered in the second half of 2022, and the oem is BAIC Ruixiang.
However, what is the main positioning of this mass production car, what are the characteristics, future marketing ideas, channels, etc., the light orange era has not been clearly stated. From the perspective of the management team in the light orange era, it is also a variety of talents, the chairman is playing finance, the CEO is a game, the chief scientist is in the communications industry, and only the vice president of design is from the background of the car company. Such a combination does not have much help for the product itself, but it is easier to make up stories.
Bingli Cars
Reliability index: 50
Bingli and Bentley are only a word difference, but Bingli cars are really going to high-end luxury brands. At present, Binli Automobile has obtained investment from Dongfeng, and Dongfeng Motor has oemed it. But at least before the mass production car appeared, the aura of Binli Automobile was far less than that of its founder Su Weiming.
Su Weiming has served as vice president of Daimler China, vice president of Volkswagen Group China, chairman of Volkswagen China, CEO of Renault China and other positions, which can be regarded as the top figure of the domestic automotive industry and the most heavyweight figure in this round of new car manufacturing forces.
Therefore, in terms of connections, resources, technology and even funds, Binli Automobile definitely has an advantage. Another big guy in the car circle, Ding Lei's Gaohe car, the price of 700,000 or 800,000, can live until now. As long as you don't spend money like Byton, Penley Motors still has a good chance of surviving this round of competition. It's just that how high the market's acceptance of high-end luxury pure electricity will determine how far Bingli Automobile can go.
Write at the end:
It is said that the current competition for new energy vehicles has entered the 2.0 era, and the difficulty and cruelty of competition and the cost of investment are far more than the 1.0 era. And this wave of new car-making forces joined the war situation without hesitation, some of them were well thought out, and some of them did not rule out that some wanted to take advantage of the chaos and make a piece of the pie. So, which one are you more optimistic about? (Text/UVIS Auto Old Cannon)
Note: The picture comes from the network, the rights belong to the original author, thank you! This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of Univision Automobile.