Written by | Liu Yiwei
Edit | Yang Guang
Produced | Automotive Sankei
The signal of strict control has been sent. After experiencing the rapid development of the past few years, the entire new energy market has also exposed many problems, how to return to rationality after "barbaric growth", how to make the industry from disorderly development to healthy development, strict control of OEM has become the most true portrayal of the current policy tightening.
Liu Zhi, who has worked in traditional car companies for many years, recently smelled the signal of strict control of OEM.
He told the Auto Industry and Economy that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently invited some car companies to conduct an internal discussion, and one of the important changes is that the OEM policy will change from a single qualification requirement in the past to a double qualification requirement, and not only the OEM enterprises need to have production qualifications, but also the entrusting party.
According to the understanding of the automobile industry and economics, the policy may be officially announced in the near future.
Once the new policy is implemented, it means that the threshold for OEM car manufacturing will be greatly increased, especially for new brands that want to enter the market recently, and it will become more difficult to enter the field of car manufacturing in the OEM model.
NO.1
[A "mysterious" internal workshop]
"If you look at the companies that have recently applied for OEM, almost none of them have been able to pass the approval."
As one of the invited representatives of car companies, Liu Zhi participated in this small-scale ministerial seminar invited by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
"There is such an intention in the discussion content, the latest requirement on the foundry model is that both sides of the foundry must have production qualifications, the foundry enterprise must have it, and the entrusting party must also have it."
In Liu Zhi's view, the possibility of this policy being written and issued is extremely high.
"Resource integration is the core, strict management of the foundry process is an inevitable process, such as a manufacturer with production qualifications to accept the entrusted production of many new car manufacturers, this party will have to assume unlimited responsibility, if not managed, then the final consequences are immeasurable." Liu Zhi analyzed.
Auto Industry and Economics also interviewed a number of industry veterans, in their view, in the past two years, the auto market has poured into a large number of new entrants, for these new car companies seeking to outsource OEM production, the state may have to do control to prevent the formation of disorderly competition.
This starts with the foundry model being written into regulations.
In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Administrative Measures for the Access of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products on its official website. It clearly encourages R&D and production capacity cooperation between road motor vehicle manufacturers, and allows road motor vehicle manufacturers that meet the specified conditions to entrust processing and production.
The promulgation of the "Measures" has officially clarified the legal status of oem production.
In 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Amendments
This move has been interpreted by the outside world as a policy that deliberately lowers the threshold for car manufacturing and clearly encourages the OEM model.
Auto Industry and Economics has made incomplete statistics on the new brands announced since 2021, and found that only Xiaomi Automobile in 9 companies has determined to enter the market to build cars through the self-built factory in Shunyi, Beijing.
For the acquisition of its production qualifications, there are two theories, one is that Xiaomi obtained it through the acquisition of Borgward; the other is to rely on the Beijing Municipal Government to apply.
Almost all other new brands have chosen to start their own car-making road with "OEM", including many efficient progress, such as Jidu's first automobile robot concept car will be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show; and the Self-Touring NV is also scheduled to be released at the end of March and delivered in September.
As new players pour in, foundry mode is also changing subtly.
Initially, Xiaopeng found Haima OEM, and the two sides transformed the original Zhengzhou third factory of Haima and agreed to produce, and Xiaopeng needed to pay the foundry fee.
The OEM model of WEILAI and JAC Automobile is biased towards strategic cooperation, and the two sides jointly invest in the establishment of an independent JAC WEILAI factory, and only used to produce NIO, in terms of product manufacturing and quality control, NIO has more say.
For new players, such as Geely and Baidu, Foxconn and Yulon, etc., they have chosen to set up a joint venture between the two parties, and the relationship between the two is more like a community of interests.
NO.2
[OEM "double qualification", who is worried about?] ]
Whether the new policy of double qualification OEM can finally land is still waiting for the official release of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
But there has been some wind in the circle about this matter.
"I have heard this (OEM dual qualification) statement, but the details are not very clear, and the current project is advancing normally according to the plan and is not likely to be affected." A senior executive of a new force car company told Auto Industry and Economics.
Although the CAAM said it did not pay attention to the information in this area, it did not deny the existence of the new policy, insiders said, "At least in terms of strict control of production capacity, the government will definitely gradually improve." ”
New brands that have not yet made the car model public include Box Cars in November last year, Tuanche Network this year, and Stone Cars.
Although the two new cars under The Box Car have been unveiled, information such as production qualifications has not been announced, and it is not excluded that it will be affected by the policy to postpone the mass production progress of products.
And new forces such as group cars and stone cars, the new regulations may become a roadblock in their car-making process.
According to past experience, brand application for OEM needs to first go to the Provincial Development and Reform Commission for the filing of production projects related to automobile investment enterprises, and finally implement them into documents.
Once the OEM dual qualification is implemented, new cars without production qualifications will not be able to complete the approval process.
However, "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom", and the new car builders who heard about the new deal have also explored new doorways.
"If through the way of cooperation between enterprises, only the two sides of the enterprise need to reach an agreement, the needs of both parties will be shown through the way of contract, it does not exist in the so-called OEM process." Wang Yu, the project leader of a car company, told Auto Industry and Economics.
Wang Yu added that for new entrants, it is best to have a government matchmaking.
"You need a business plan, but also try to tell some stories, because now the local government is full of enthusiasm for the car, go to the local government to talk, for high-quality potential stocks, without production qualifications, they will also help you 'thread the needle' to find relevant resources."
Specifically, those automakers that are on the verge of bankruptcy and restructuring and have production qualifications will cooperate with the government, and then the government will sign contracts with the new brand in a deep cooperation manner, but the project operation level will be controlled by the new forces.
Wang Yu speculated that the new round of light orange times and Binli, which joined the car-making track, is likely to use a similar approach to obtain production qualifications.
NO.3
[The pits that were crossed in the past year, the new brand has to go through it again]
Looking for a third-party OEM, it is difficult to avoid the industry's doubts about its production capacity most of the time.
At the beginning, in order to break the inherent prejudice of the outside world against Jianghuai, Weilai spent a lot of silver in the cooperative production with Jianghuai.
It is said that in order to ensure product quality, WEILAI not only spent 200 million yuan in the early stage to build a trial production line in Nanjing, but also tried to run through all the processes, and the production line built in the Jianghuai factory was also arranged by WEIlai employees to control the whole process of its manufacturing process.
A few years later, although oem has become a popular model, similar plots continue to play out.
For example, Huawei and Cialis have been in constant friction in the product production process.
Huawei controls the pre-product planning, post-marketing and channel sales of the AITO brand, Jinkang Xilis is only responsible for OEM production, while Huawei, which has more says, has strict requirements for Jinkang factories.
According to media reports, Huawei technicians were not satisfied with the self-built factory in Chongqing Jinkang Liangjiang, and some places that did not meet the standards even had to be overturned and rebuilt.
A new car executive also told the automobile Industry and Economy that there is a set of standards for choosing a foundry, such as whether the equipment is advanced enough, whether the scale is large enough, etc. need to be carefully calculated, and the construction and transformation must be carried out before the official production.
For the new car manufacturers who have selected the foundry, there is also a game link between the entrusting party and the foundry, such as how to ensure that the foundry uses the best resources to build the car, and who is responsible for the product quality problems.
In the words of Fang Yunzhou, the founder of Nezha Automobile, the system of car companies has been continuously improved after long-term practice, and many of the pits we have traveled to may need to be repeated.
NO.4
[Written at the end]
A real problem is now a matter for brands that have adopted or intend to adopt OEM.
Assuming that the new policy is launched, will it be necessary for those brands that applied for OEM work with a single qualification in the past? Or will it be spared?
However, there are also views that the significance of the existence of foundry is to help new cars quickly use idle capacity to build cars without production qualifications, and the double qualification of foundry is a bit contrary to the meaning of the existence of foundry, which is not very logical.
Perhaps as an industry insider said: "The standardized development of the threshold and requirements for future foundry mainly depends on the balance between policy norms and encouraging innovation." ”
As for how the relevant policies will be promoted, we may wish to wait and see.
(*Liu Zhi and Wang Yu are pseudonyms in the text)