According to the News of the WeChat public account "Cybercar" on March 15, a person familiar with the matter revealed that the Didi car-making plan (code name "Da Vinci") may be officially released in June this year. The project intends to strive for the delivery of the new car in June next year (2023).
According to the report, Didi's first self-developed model may be an A-class pure electric vehicle for the mass consumer market, priced at about 150,000 yuan. At the same time, Didi is also developing a model D1 Light for the ride-hailing market. The model is planned to be used by Flower Piglet and will be produced by BYD.
Screenshot of the WeChat public account "Cybercar" report
Didi, which once officially declared that it "resolutely does not build cars", can it win a game for itself by building cars?
Didi's car plan was exposed? Insiders: Intend to acquire Guo Ji Zhijun
According to the report, Didi's model code for the online ride-hailing market is D1, and the model code for the mass consumer market is C1. According to informed sources, Yang Jun, vice president of Didi Chuxing, is mainly responsible for the D1 project, and the C1 project is presided over by Didi's veteran employee Luo Wen, who directly reports to Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Chuxing.
According to the news, among the known project leaders, Liu Haijiang, vice president of Didi Chuxing and general manager of the Automotive Innovation Center, is responsible for the supply chain, and Zhang Rui, who was the general manager of Didi's hitchhiking business unit, is responsible for user operations. At present, the project supplier is gradually being confirmed, and its power battery supplier may be NINGDE era or BYD.
According to cybercarriage, informed sources revealed that Didi intends to acquire a factory with car manufacturing qualifications and capabilities to fully control the development and production of C1. At present, the target of the acquisition is Guo Ji Zhijun, whose factory is located in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. According to the report, guojizhijun insiders revealed that the possibility of the transaction being reached is relatively large, and there may be results at the end of the month, and employees are currently waiting for follow-up arrangements.
According to the information of Tianyancha, Guoji Zhijun Automobile Co., Ltd. is a new energy automobile manufacturing company with independent intellectual property rights established by the enterprises organized by the China National Machinery Group, which is committed to building a high-end automobile brand. According to the equity information, its major shareholder is China National Machinery Automobile Co., Ltd. (holding 40%), while the controlling shareholder of China National Machinery Automobile is the central enterprise China Machinery Industry Group Co., Ltd. (70.54%).
Sky Eye check screenshots
From cooperative development to personal downfall, Didi can not escape the "real fragrance of making cars"
In April 2018, Didi and 31 automotive industry chain companies jointly initiated the establishment of the "Torrent Alliance". Cheng Wei, founder, chairman and CEO of Didi Chuxing, elaborated on Didi's three visions for the next decade: to become the world's largest one-stop travel platform, jointly build a platform for automobile operators, and become a leader in global intelligent transportation technology.
In the middle of the speech, Cheng Wei said bluntly: "Didi's positioning in the entire industry in the future is very clear, Didi resolutely does not build cars, Didi does not seek to become the largest car operator in the future, Didi will not have ten million or even fifty million or more cars, Didi's core ability is to serve users, serve good car owners, and continue to invest and break through in big data and technology." ”
Figure source Central Broadcasting Network
The comprehensive observer network previously reported that in fact, as early as March 2018, Ideal Automobile reached a strategic cooperation with Didi, and the two companies jointly invested 400 million yuan to create "Orange Electric Travel". At that time, Didi held 51% of the shares, and ideally held 49%. Yang Jun, vice president of Didi Chuxing, served as the chairman and legal person of Orange Electric, and Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Automobile, served as CEO.
Since then, the two sides have cooperated to develop a pure electric MPV, according to "Late Post", the internal code of the electric vehicle is D01, and the ideal One uses the same chassis, tailored for Didi's "preferential" and "carpooling" business. Mass production of the car was originally scheduled for early 2020, but october 2020 remained stagnant due to no additional investment from either side.
However, Didi's car-making journey does not seem to have stopped.
In July 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" (Batch 335). The announcement shows that BYD applied for the approval of a latest pure electric vehicle - BYD7007BEV. Reuters reported at the time that people familiar with the matter revealed that the electric car, called D1, is a special car developed by Didi and BYD for ride-hailing services, and the two companies are trying to deliver vehicles to Didi's fleet cooperation company within this year. The D1, which was manufactured by BYD, is Didi Chuxing's first customized electric vehicle, specifically designed for ride-hailing.
In the eyes of the outside world, in the previous "car enterprise cooperation" model, it is difficult for Didi to have the leading power and the right to speak, and the speed and landing effect of the vehicle project are not as good as expected. Even if the publicity says that "Didi is dominant", the hardware manufacturing, core systems and key data of the vehicle are not in Didi's own hands.
The new energy track has been highly sought after in recent years, and the enterprises that originally cooperated with Didi have developed vigorously. Didi personally went down to build a car, perhaps as the result of the comprehensive effect of internal demand and external environment, but also a positive response to the hot situation of the mass consumer market.
BYD's stock price has risen sharply after 2020 Google Finance screenshot
From the perspective of business model, building and selling cars to C-end mass consumers is not Didi's initial choice. "Cybercar" reported that Didi insiders revealed that Cheng Wei has been worried about what kind of end Didi will end up if he continues to follow the business model of online ride-hailing.
The final judgment is that the labor cost of online ride-hailing is too high, the business model is unhealthy, and unhealthy will lead to chronic death. It is reported that in the very early days, Didi had a basic judgment: only by canceling the labor cost, didi's online ride-hailing model in the future is healthy.
In 2016, Didi began its self-driving research; in 2019, Didi Chuxing announced that it would upgrade its autonomous driving division to an independent company. However, with the entry of major companies into the autonomous driving track, the industry has accelerated, and the profit space of the "automatic driving system" is suffering from more uncertain risks.
From this point of view, looking for business models and profit margins may explain to some extent the reason why Didi has changed from cooperation to independent production and paid more and more attention to the "car-making" track.
Didi, who is in deep trouble, is making a car a prescription?
After experiencing the App takedown incident and the storm of US stock delisting, Didi, whose main business in China has been frustrated, has lost the scenery of the period of the burning money war. From the perspective of operation, Didi is surviving a difficult winter: its total revenue fell from 48.2 billion yuan in the second quarter of 2021 to 42.7 billion yuan in the third quarter, of which the revenue of China's travel business fell from 44.8 billion yuan to 39 billion yuan.
At the same time, Didi's losses are continuing to expand. According to the financial report, Didi's net loss expanded from 24.271 billion yuan in the second quarter of 2021 to 30.375 billion yuan in the third quarter. Lack of profitability, in the capital market to show people "broad growth space" Didi, urgently need a trump card to the outside world to take the "reassurance pill".
Observer Network Zhu Lin/Cartography Data source Didi financial report
So how is the new energy vehicle market this year?
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the All-China Federation of Passenger Vehicles, said that according to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, 4.27 million vehicles were produced from January to February 2022, with output increasing by 11% year-on-year, the production of new energy vehicles was 810,000, an increase of 151%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 19%, which is a high growth.
Cui Dongshu said that the growth rate of refined oil consumption this year is very high, and high oil prices have certain pressure on the automobile market; the impact of lack of core on the automobile market has improved, and the effect of production improvement has gradually emerged since the fourth quarter of last year. Problems such as chip tension and rising raw material prices are expected to be gradually alleviated in 2022. Cui Dongshu revealed last month that it is expected that the scale of new energy passenger vehicles will exceed 5.5 million in 2022, continuing to achieve high growth of about 70%.
January-February 2022 car consumption is relatively stable Screenshot of the WeChat public account "Cui Dongshu"
The hot market is good news for Didi Car, but it will also bring a problem: fierce competition.
For the car market environment last month, Cui Dongshu pointed out that the surge in new energy in February 2022, the pressure on traditional car companies is greater, especially the impact of the epidemic, the performance of large state-owned groups is differentiated, and the performance of BAIC is under pressure; SAIC and Changan perform well. The performance of private independent core enterprises is very good. BYD, Chery, Great Wall, Chery this year's performance is relatively strong. Second-tier car companies performed relatively well. Because of the conversion of new and old kinetic energy and the continuous loss pressure of new energy vehicles, the differentiation of independent brand SMEs is seriously sluggish.
The auto market was relatively strong in February, with divergent trends at the end of the year and the beginning of the year. Most of the main manufacturers continued to rise, but there were also Changan Automobile, SAIC Volkswagen, Wuling and other sprints after the decline. However, "Due to the many factors that disrupted the sales volume of the automobile market in February, the trend of manufacturers does not represent a sustainable trend in the future."
Screenshot of the WeChat public account "Cui Dongshu"
Didi acquired car companies to realize its own car-making dream, and if the plan can be landed, it can indeed avoid a series of problems caused by "starting from scratch" to a large extent. However, the transition from the Internet to the car-making track is not without thresholds. This is a proposition that Internet companies cannot escape.
For example, even if Didi has a huge amount of user data, if it wants to realize the intelligence of the car, it needs to process a lot of the model and even redevelop it. For example, the positioning accuracy standard of Internet services (such as 1 meter), in many scenarios, can not meet the millimeter-level accuracy requirements of intelligent driving.
The Internet may form an advantage in many places, but in the fierce competition of new energy intelligent car track, the advantages brought by soft services are actually being diluted. If the "Didi" turn to the car-making track, they undoubtedly need to find bright spots and run out of bright spots in order to gradually find a suitable market model and gain profit margins.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.