The author | Wang Yunpeng
The source | Auto Grand view
"The time for THE official delivery of HI's small batch to the partner Huawei has been delayed for 4 months from November, December, January and February. Is there an internal problem that has delayed delivery? Or is it some other reason? ”
The above questions are the recent questions of investors on BAIC Blue Valley, the main body of BAIC New Energy. For these questions full of gunpowder, Beiqi Blue Valley still gives a standard answer: it is working closely with Huawei to promote the delivery work, and the relevant information will be announced in due course.
As many investors have questioned, the delivery time of the BAIC Jihu Alpha S HI, which was called "the world's first mass production car equipped with Huawei's HI full-stack intelligent driving solution, the world's first mass production car supporting high-end intelligent driving on urban roads, and the world's first pure electric car equipped with Hongmeng OS" has been postponed many times. Among them, the latest delivery time mentioned in the Alpha S HI version was mentioned by Wang Jun, director of operations of Huawei's automotive BU in January this year, "The Polar Fox Alpha SHI version will be delivered at the end of February 2022." ”
It is worth mentioning that by the end of January this year, the only Alpha S HI version in the country has been stationed in Huawei's first new concept direct flagship store in Beijing Yintai. However, it is reported that the car is only a engineering vehicle, and the store staff also said that the exhibition car cannot be test-driven, and the model can be ordered but the delivery time is uncertain.
In addition, from the postponement of the delivery time of the Alpha S HI version, the recent postponement of Huawei's vigorous promotion of the delivery progress of the AITO Q&A M5 co-led by Xilis, and the title of the Alpha S HI version at the official media communication meeting at the end of last year, the only thing left was "the world's first high-end intelligent driving mass production car that supports urban roads", the relationship between BAIC Extreme Fox and Alpha S HI version and Huawei may have been very delicate.
Or there is already a gap between them
On December 23, 2021, at Huawei's winter new product launch conference, Xilix's first flagship extended-range electric vehicle AITO Q&I M5 was officially released.
According to Huawei's official statement, Huawei has been deeply involved in the research and development, manufacturing, sales and service process of AITO, and in addition to huawei's Hongmeng car machine system and HUAWEI DriveOne three-electric system, the M5 is also deeply involved by Huawei in terms of exterior interior design, performance configuration, audio, and home charging piles. Moreover, Huawei's support for the AITO brand at the channel level also exceeds that of the previous cooperation model between the two sides, Xilis Huawei Smart Choice SF5.
In other words, AITO is a high-end intelligent car brand deeply involved by Huawei, and the M5 as a whole has been deeply branded by the Huawei brand. Of course, the depth of Huawei's involvement in the AITO brand also seems to deviate from the business scope of auto suppliers.
As a parts supplier that is not willing to be behind the scenes, Huawei is "singing a monologue" in the cooperation with Xilisi, and its other partner, BAIC Jihu, is gradually being snubbed.
In fact, the "mutual dislike" between Huawei and Polar Fox has already appeared before the release of AITO Q&A M5. During the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2021, Jihu revealed that the large-scale delivery tasting activity of the new HI version of Alpha S will be held in Shenzhen on December 25 of that year, but it was finally changed to December 20 at the Magna intelligent manufacturing production base of Beiqi Blue Valley, that is, the Zhenjiang factory, and the large-scale delivery tasting activity has also become an internal delivery activity.
In addition, at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Jihu also emphasized that the Alpha SHI version is "the world's first mass production car equipped with Huawei's HI full-stack intelligent driving solution, the world's first mass production car that supports high-end intelligent driving on urban roads, and the world's first pure electric car equipped with Hongmeng OS". By December 22, Jihu's expression of the Alpha S HI version was only left as "the world's first high-end intelligent driving mass production car that supports urban roads", and the title of "the first Hongmeng car" also fell on the AITU Q&A M5.
Combined with a video of a speech by Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of consumer BG, and CEO of Huawei's intelligent car solution BU, who seems to be "spraying wildly" at the end of 2021, Huawei may already have plans to abandon BAIC Jihu.
"Huawei has expressed its dissatisfaction with Jihu, probably because in terms of cooperation, the Jihu factory adopts Magna's design concept, management method, and workflow, and Huawei hopes to replace Magna's thinking with its own thinking, because the two are completely incompatible, but BAIC Jihu is not willing to do so." A person familiar with the matter said in an interview with the media that replacing the extreme fox with a well-off Xilis is an important trade-off between Huawei and its cooperation with partners, and Huawei feels that Xilis is more obedient and the polar fox is more difficult to cooperate.
Where is the way out of the Polar Fox?
In 2017, the BAIC Jihu brand was born, and from the perspective of time, its entry into the domestic intelligent electric vehicle market is no later than that of new power brands such as "Wei Xiaoli".
However, this "early catcher" not only failed to lead the trend of domestic smart electric vehicles, but even did not seize this "outlet". The brand was born in 2017, but it was not until October 2020 that BAIC Jihu launched its second model, the ARCFOX αT, a pure electric SUV, which was silent for 3 years.
When BAIC Jihu "did nothing", the domestic high-end new energy vehicle market has almost been occupied by Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, etc., even with huawei's blessing, BAIC Jihu's sales have not improved much. The data shows that in 2021, when the domestic new energy market is developing rapidly and the overall sales volume is doubling, the cumulative sales volume of BAIC Jihu is only 4993 vehicles, which is far from the sales target of 12,000 vehicles set at the beginning of the year.
Insufficient product strength and the poor brand reputation of BAIC New Energy is the main reason for the low sales of BAIC Jihu, taking alpha S as an example, the car is positioned as a medium and large car, the price after subsidy is 25.19-28.19 million yuan, its main opponent is BYD Han EV and other models, but whether from the core three electric, or driving control, Alpha S is far behind the competition.
Nowadays, the delivery time of the Alpha S HI version, which has won considerable attention with "Huawei-made car", has been delayed again and again, which also has to worry about whether the car can still face constantly upgrading competitors when it is really launched.
It is worth mentioning that the BEIQI Polar Fox, which has poor sales, is also facing a rather bad financial situation. On January 29, Beiqi Blue Valley issued a performance forecast saying that it is expected to lose 4.8-5.3 billion yuan in 2021, deducting non-permanent profit and loss losses of 5.0-5.5 billion yuan. Among them, in 2021, BAIC Jihu spent 1.7 billion yuan on brand promotion, channel construction, advertising and operation.
The poor financial situation may also be the main reason why Beiqi Blue Valley has once again been involved in the whirlpool of "whole people" of sharp layoffs and salary cuts after the storm of layoffs and salary cuts at the beginning of the year. According to a number of employees of Beiqi Blue Valley, the company has launched various disguised layoffs for some time, among which the marketing company has reduced from more than 900 people at its peak to about 500 people.
The huge expenditure and the dismal overall performance have also begun to make many investors feel dissatisfied. Many investors said in the investor exchange section of Beiqi Blue Valley: "Your company, from the chairman to the middle level of Jihu Marketing, has said on different occasions that the sales volume of Jihu will increase explosively in 2022. However, in 2022, I did not see the vigorous publicity of the polar fox car in the mainstream media, asked the city store, the sales volume did not increase, and the sales staff was helpless. May I ask the leaders at all levels of your company, in addition to posting and boasting in interviews, where is the actual action? Is it necessary to look forward to 2023 again at the end of the year, due to the epidemic? ”
In this regard, the secretary of the board of directors of Beiqi Blue Valley said in his reply that the company has formulated a corresponding marketing plan and gradually exerted efforts, and the improvement of sales also requires a certain climbing and linear growth process.
For the Jihu brand, what kind of marketing plan has Beiqi Blue Valley formulated? At present, it is still unknown, and whether this is another excuse for perfunctory external questioning needs to be further observed. But what is certain is that the sales target of baiqi jihu this year is 40,000 vehicles.
"BAIC BJEV's sales target of 100,000 vehicles in 2022 includes 40,000 Jihu vehicles, and strives to impact 300,000 vehicles in the future." Zhang Xiyong, general manager of BAIC Group, said not long ago. Try to analyze, in 2022, if BAIC Jihu wants to achieve the goal proposed by Zhang Xiyong, the year-on-year growth rate will reach 701%, and the monthly sales will reach at least 3300 vehicles. Judging from the current business performance, product layout and weak brand strength of BAIC Jihu, it is difficult to say that Zhang Xiyong is not "painting a big pie".
At the same time, Huawei's "empathy and farewell" also proves once again that the marriage of car companies also pays attention to "door to door", if one party is strong and the other party is in a weak position, cooperation is doomed to not last. All in all, if you want to win the respect of the marriage party, the market and consumers, what the current Polar Fox has to do is to be self-powerful.