On February 16, the signing and groundbreaking ceremony of Midea Group's new energy auto parts strategic base was held in Anqing, with a total investment of about 11 billion yuan, which is one of the few large investments in the field of new energy vehicles, and it is also the largest total investment project in the history of Midea Group.
It is understood that the total investment of the Anqing Welling project is about 11 billion yuan, of which the fixed asset investment is about 6.5 billion yuan, and the planned phase I land is 458 mu, which can form an annual output capacity of 60 million sets after completion and achieve an annual output value of 40 billion yuan. The project mainly produces power steering motors, electric compressors for new energy vehicles, drive motors for new energy vehicles and other categories.
The project belongs to Anqing Welling Auto Parts Company, which is a product company under the Industrial Technology Division of the five major divisions of the group, mainly responsible for automotive components, with motors, electronic controls and compressors as the core of automotive components products, the product line involves motor drive systems, thermal management systems and auxiliary / automatic driving systems three major systems. Midea Welling also has two subsidiaries, Guangdong Welling and Anhui Welling.
In fact, the origin of Midea Group and the automotive industry can be traced back to 2003, first signed the Midea Yunnan automobile integration project in Kunming, and then through the investment and acquisition of Sanxiangmei Bus Co., Ltd. (renamed "Midea Sanxiang") involved in bus manufacturing, Midea once owned Hunan Sanxiang Bus, Yunnan Bus, Witt Special Vehicle and other three automobile manufacturing companies, all of which are mainly bus manufacturing and bottom plate and other parts.
At that time, when the profit margin of home appliances was shrinking, home appliance companies extended their tentacles to the automotive industry. Chunlan Group is also involved in automobile manufacturing, seeking capital to break the game. But at this time, Huang Hongsheng, chairman of skyworth's board of directors, scoffed, saying that "I will not consider entering the automotive industry now, because it is too late." At this time and another time, Skyworth has joined the new energy vehicle track in 2021.
However, the good times did not last long, the Midea Sanxiang bus completely stopped production after five years, and in 2009, it was under the command of BYD with an income of 60 million yuan to build a new energy bus factory base. Thirteen years later, the Comeback of the United States to devote itself to the automobile track again, not to build a car but to lay out the strategy of new energy vehicle parts, will it break the sand again?
At present, it is not easy to jump to conclusions, in recent years, the new energy vehicle track has continued to be hot, many new players are flocking to it, and cross-border car manufacturing is not a new thing. In 2021, Xiaomi jumped into the game to announce car manufacturing, Skyworth looked at the timing of cross-border car manufacturing, Hisense and Midea laid out the automotive three electric fields, Gree Electric Holding Yinlong New Energy, Huawei jointly built auto sub-brands with Xilis and Jihu.
Home appliance companies cross-border car manufacturing, in addition to the weak demand in the home appliance market itself, the industry into the stock competition, are all eyeing the new energy vehicle cake. At present, new energy vehicles are in a period of rapid development, according to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the sales of new energy passenger cars in 2021 will be 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year, based on this cross-border investment in the new energy automobile industry seems to have become the only choice for home appliance giants.
From the current point of view, home appliance companies are mainly divided into two categories, one is represented by millet, directly build their own vehicle factory; the other is to represent the United States, as an auto parts supplier, and use the accumulation in the home appliance industry to do horizontal expansion. However, unlike Internet technology companies such as Xiaomi, Baidu, and 360, Midea emphasizes that it "does not build cars" and focuses on providing auto parts for car companies. Its strategy of entering the automotive industry is similar to Huawei's, and it hopes to become the Bosch of the domestic automotive industry.
Cross-border risk car manufacturing needs to be cautious, automobile manufacturing is a very complex system engineering, car manufacturing not only needs capital support, but also a long investment cycle of the industrial chain, cross-border novice players are many, but there are not many with advantages, but also to face the traditional car companies and new car-making forces. At the same time as cross-border car manufacturing in the home appliance technology industry, Geely Automobile has also crossed the border to build mobile phones. There are many times when we often don't know that when we admire others, we have become a landscape in the eyes of others.