To overthrow Tesla and BBA's Huawei, how to solve the "rice cooker"?

After testing the water with the help of BAIC Polar Fox and Jinkang Cyric, Huawei's appetite for car manufacturing has blossomed. One year to overturn Tesla, two years later annual sales of more than 2 million vehicles, high-end version of a kill BBA... If such a goal is not from Huawei, I am afraid it will be regarded as a "fool's dream".

"If you look at China's car factories, those enterprises that choose our car BU, including state-owned enterprises and central enterprises, want brands without brands, channels without channels, retail without retail, product design, experience in all aspects are not good, there is no line, even the new forces of car manufacturing can not do it, who can do it? If we don't enter the market and help car companies to do a good job in the design and experience of the car and sell it well, this business cannot close the loop at all. Recently, an internal speech video by Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of consumer BG, and CEO of smart car solution BU, continued to ferment in the automotive circle.

In the eyes of the industry, Yu Chengdong's speech is slightly reckless. As a crossover, the brain drain and cooperation without first-class car companies are becoming the two major shackles to the development of Huawei's automotive business.

Car-building mode wobbles

Huawei officials recently confirmed that Su Zhen, the former director of the intelligent driving product department of Huawei's intelligent car solution BU, will leave his post. Su Zhen's most famous remark was at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference last July, when talking about the Tesla autopilot accident, he said that when machines and humans coexist, they will definitely cause accident rates, and the ugly point is "killing". Subsequently, because of this remark, Huawei dismissed Su Zhen from the position of director of the intelligent driving product department and entered the reserve team to receive training and assignment.

Over the past year, a number of senior executives in Huawei's automotive business have left, such as He Liyang, vice president of the automotive business, Zhang Xiaohong, director of the intelligent driving product group, Jiang Jun, head of autopilot COO & map and data, Peng Xueming, head of fusion sensing, Chen Qi, director of the R&D department of autonomous driving, and She Xiaoli, chief functional safety expert.

For the frequent departure of executives, relevant people close to Huawei told the "China Times" reporter that one is the pressure of internal rolling, and the other is that there have been different voices on the internal car. "Internally, there is a horse racing mechanism, and so is the leadership level, and different senior officials are responsible for different projects, so the speed is fast, but the internal friction is also very serious." The above-mentioned person revealed. It is reported that there are three teams within Huawei in the lidar project alone, which has led to the departure of many of the teams that have performed poorly, and the leaders have also left one after another.

In addition to the turmoil in personnel, Huawei is still in a period of exploration in the strategic direction of car manufacturing. Huawei's internal voice advocates that the most secure and grandest way for Huawei to build cars is to become China's "Bosch", which can prevent repeating the mistakes of the mobile phone business; but another voice, including the hardware team, believes that Huawei does not have the endowment of "Bosch", and in the future market transformation, the era of smart cars may not necessarily need a new Bosch, so it is still a down-to-earth independent portal and independent car manufacturing is the most realistic.

At present, Huawei has helped car companies launch three models, namely BAIC Jihu Alpha, Chongqing Xiaokang Xilix SF5 and AITO Q&I M5. These three cars can basically represent the three modes of Huawei's car manufacturing: Polar Fox Alpha is dominated by BAIC, Huawei is mildly involved, although Polar Fox Alpha is labeled huawei, but both the soul and the shell are dominated by BAIC; Xiaokang Xilis SF5 is jointly manufactured by Huawei and Xiaokang, Huawei provides a complete set of soft installation systems, but the shell manufacturing is completed by Xiaokang itself, Huawei as the core supplier of Xilis SF5 cars, is the soul provider of Xilis SF5 AiTO is a high-end new energy vehicle brand jointly launched by Cyrus and Huawei, and Huawei has participated in the design and manufacture of the M5, which can be seen as the first car manufactured by Huawei.

Judging from the three models, Huawei has great signs of advancing towards the deep water area of car manufacturing. According to media reports, Huawei currently has a team of 2,000 people in the autopilot-related business alone, and the hundreds of places added by Huawei in 2021 are almost all given to the car BU. At the business level, in April last year, Huawei officially announced the news of car sales, announcing that it would sell cars in online flagship stores and some offline flagship stores. According to insiders, the consumer business attaches great importance to selling cars, and many people in the original mobile phone business line have been adjusted.

"There is no good horse with a golden saddle"

"So far, Huawei has built cars and is still facing a contradiction that is difficult to reconcile. That is, mainstream car companies are reluctant to give the 'soul' to Huawei, and small brands cannot afford the premium of Huawei's smart car. Some insiders said bluntly. In its view, Huawei's entire set of smart car technology is not cheap, it is Huawei invested heavily in research and development to get, "put this set of smart car technology on the body of a small brand, like a pair of golden saddles, with an inferior old horse." From the analysis of technology and market side, Huawei in the automotive market is considered by many people to be the golden signboard, on the one hand, huawei in the mobile phone market strong performance and research and development capabilities related, in the field of mobile phones Huawei has become a strong player who can expel foreign capital; on the other hand, related to Huawei's corporate style, the Hongmeng system will be donated, the attitude behind this enterprise is worthy of respect.

But the reality is that the development of new energy vehicles labeled by Huawei is not going well. The price of BAIC Extreme Fox Huawei HI Edition is 319,900 after subsidies, with cumulative sales of about 1,000 vehicles in 2021; the price of Cyris SF5 after subsidies is 216,800, and the cumulative sales volume of 6,997 vehicles in 2021; AITO Q&A M5 has just been launched, with more than 6,000 first prepaid orders, and the specific delivery volume remains to be seen. A huawei executive who left the company once said: "Putting a Rolls-Royce engine on a tractor is definitely a tractor, not a Rolls-Royce." What is revealed behind it is actually Huawei's helplessness in cooperation with car companies.

In June last year, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, said that it was unacceptable for SAIC to cooperate with third-party companies such as Huawei for autonomous driving, "It is like a company providing us with an overall solution, so that it becomes the soul and SAIC becomes the body." For such a result, SAIC is unacceptable, and it is necessary to take the soul into its own hands." Chen Hong's statement represents the true thoughts of many first-line car companies. Jiang Yiming, partner of PwC's China automotive consulting business, pointed out that "the software needs to be constantly iterated and updated, and only by mastering these in their own hands can we ensure the frequency and cycle of product updates, so as to better ensure the stability and advanced nature of the function." In other words, whether car companies are willing to cooperate with Huawei and whether they are willing to deepen cooperation depends not only on whether Huawei's technology, products, and solutions have advantages, but also on whether car companies are willing to lose some of their initiative. For most car companies, especially first-line car companies, the answer is definitely no.

At the same time, although Huawei has repeatedly claimed that it "does not build cars", in the eyes of many car companies, Huawei's statement may only be a delaying strategy. After the official launch of the Q&I M5, Huawei already has the ability to develop and design new energy vehicles. If Huawei builds its own car, it only needs to find a foundry to copy Weilai's Jianghuai OEM model. Weilai is to master the vehicle technology research and development and design, and the production is handed over to Jianghuai Automobile.

After overturning Tesla and killing the BBA, Yu Chengdong's idea was grand, but Rome was not built in a day. BAIC Polar Fox and Xilis are only a mock exam, starting from the AITO questioning, Huawei's first big test is really coming.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping