"Green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", in this era of rapid development of science and technology, our emphasis on energy conservation and environmental protection has gradually increased. Saving energy and advocating renewable clean energy is an inevitable demand for sustainable development; embodied in our daily travel and transportation, new energy vehicles are undoubtedly a new choice for energy conservation and environmental protection in daily life.
With the rise of industry giant Tesla, China's car industry is also trying to catch up and create its own new energy vehicles. The Xiaopeng Automobile we want to talk about today is one of them. In just a few years, it has grown from scratch, occupied a place in the domestic market, and become a dark horse in the new energy automobile industry. Touch the quality, discover the future, welcome to watch the 100,000 brand stories of "Xiaopeng Motors".
Speaking of Xiaopeng, there may be some friends who have not heard of it. But when it comes to the UC of the "shock body", it is estimated that everyone here knows it. He Xiaopeng is the intersection of these two companies. In 2004, He Xiaopeng, who graduated in computer science, and Liang Jie founded UC Univision together.
Although the Internet market at that time was no longer unfamiliar, mobile phone applications were almost blank. He Xiaopeng, who wanted to start a business, suffered from the limited technical ability of UC, and with the addition of Yu Yongfu two years later, UC's technical strength was greatly enhanced; then Lei Jun and other 4 million yuan of angel investment injected a strong impetus into the development of UC.
The difficulty of starting a business at UC has made He Xiaopeng understand the secret of success, and until now, he has always emphasized the key role of entrepreneurial teams, and at the same time, he also realized the importance of seizing opportunities. In particular, from Alibaba's investment in UC in 2009 until the formal completion of the acquisition in 2014, UC has undergone more than a dozen strategic transformations in just five years.
The rapid development of the Internet market makes He Xiaopeng feel the rapid pace of development more and more, and understand the foresight of the market and the advance layout of products. Only by grasping the latest development trends can we find the right direction and lead the trend.
It can be said that in this entrepreneurial experience of UC, He Xiaopeng gained the most from his unique vision of Internet technology and the layout strategy of related fields. In 2014, across the ocean in the United States, Elon Musk announced open source Patents for Tesla's 223 electric vehicles. This is a good opportunity to shorten the gap for China, where smart cars are relatively backward.
He Xiaopeng, who was already the president of Alibaba's mobile business unit at the time, was dazzled – isn't this the next step for the Internet intelligence industry? He recognizes that smart cars could change dramatically in the next 10-15 years, just like smartphones. He Xiaopeng suggested within Alibaba to enter the car industry and seize the domestic market, but he was poured cold water - Alibaba did not have such a plan.
He Xiaopeng, who ran into a wall, did not give up this idea. Over the years of Internet entrepreneurship, he has witnessed many setbacks, invested a lot, but gained very little, which has long become the norm on the road to Internet entrepreneurship. He Xiaopeng single-mindedly hopes to combine the technology of the Internet with the actual needs of the automotive industry, so that the dividends brought by the Internet have a more stable and basic industrial basis, to put it bluntly, keep up with the rhythm of the times, spend money on the blade, spend it to see the shadow, and no longer be as confused as UC in the early years.
So in this way, He Xiaopeng did not take an old subordinate and "retired" from the circle of the Internet. This Internet entrepreneur, who was once favored by Ma Yun and Lei Jun, has gone to the goal he identified without hesitation.
In 2014, He Xiaopeng, He Tao, Xia Heng and other Internet people joined forces to seek the help of a number of venture capital institutions to create China's smart car brand , Xiaopeng Motors, in Guangzhou. Dreaming with a group of Internet people and opening up in a field where they have not even been involved in china seemed very courageous at the time.
He Xiaopeng, Xia Yan and others started from scratch, from the virtual Internet to the real automotive industry, such a large span of difficulties are far greater than imagined.
First of all, when recruiting employees in the university city, Xiaopeng, who does not have any industrial foundation, will inevitably be questioned by many people. Even in the so-called production hall, employees see a lot of dismantled auto parts.
In the past, innovation in the Internet was more about innovation in ideas, and in the unfamiliar automotive industry, ideas were important, and the manufacture of ideas into practice was often more important.
The efforts of the early years were more about accumulation. From more than 50 people to more than 80 people, Xiaopeng Automobile is constantly expanding its lineup, among them, in addition to the Internet IT talents that occupy the traditional advantages, Xiaopeng Automobile has also introduced a large number of technicians from gac, BMW, Lamborghini, Ford, Peugeot Citroen and other well-known vehicle companies and large auto parts companies such as Delphi, while adhering to the core technology, step by step to build their own car-making strength.
With the help of many technology giants, automotive professionals and venture capital from all sides, Xiaopeng Automobile quickly established its core competitiveness, about 90% of the employees are technical personnel, a new and powerful intelligent car factory has gradually taken shape, and the launch of new cars has been called out.
Finally, kung fu pays off. On September 13, 2016, Xiaopeng Automobile's first model, Xiaopeng Automobile BETA Edition, was launched. This pure electric SUV marks that Xiaopeng Motors' investment has finally paid off. Xiaopeng Automobile has also become the first Internet car company in China to obtain product announcements from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and take the lead in mass production.
In 2017, He Xiaopeng, one of the core figures of Xiaopeng Motors, officially became the chairman of Xiaopeng Motors. This brings more confidence to the development of Xiaopeng Motors.
The new official took office with three fires. First of all, He Xiaopeng actively sought financing, and soon sought investment from Alibaba, and since then, through a Series B financing of 2.2 billion yuan and a Series C financing of US$400 million, as well as billions of yuan of unsecured credit loans from many banks such as China Merchants Bank, CITIC and HSBC, Xiaopeng Automobile can be described as a fish in the water, and has obtained abundant supplies in research and development funds.
Secondly, He Xiaopeng understands very well that as a technology company, Xiaopeng Automobile needs a steady stream of talent blessings, so he vigorously introduces more powerful technology and management talents.
In 2017, former Tesla technologist Gu Junli served as vice president of self-driving R&D of Xiaopeng Motors, responsible for the creation of Xiaopeng Motors' self-driving R&D team, leading the development of artificial intelligence innovation and autonomous driving software.
In 2018, Gu Hongdi, chairman of JPMorgan Chase Asia Pacific Investment Bank, officially joined as vice chairman and president. The growth of the talent team has made Xiaopeng Automobile have a more elite and wise management decision.
Third, in terms of advertising and marketing, Xiaopeng Automobile combines its own scientific and technological characteristics to do a good job in marketing publicity. Xiaopeng Automobile has successively entered the new energy vehicle sales list of the Association of Automobile Associations, cess International Electronics Consumer Exhibition and other large platforms in the field of electronic intelligence, bringing more fame and market to its own brands and products. In a few years, Xiaopeng Automobile has successfully opened up sales channels with products and influence.
Under the clear guidance of He Xiaopeng, Xiaopeng Automobile is down-to-earth, the first step is to realize the promotion of Internet electric vehicles, the second step is to accelerate the application update, realize the performance innovation of Internet electric vehicles, and further change people's travel methods.
Just like smart phones, when the Internet further penetrates into people's daily lives and brings more intelligent services to people, Internet cars will surely become the next rising star in the era of mobile Internet. And this time node is already about to come out.
With the improvement of the layout of Xiaopeng Automobile in related industries, some supporting measures have also been released. In 2018, Xiaopeng Automobile's first super charging station was built in Guangzhou. In the same year, the new model G3 was officially launched. This epoch-making model has laid the foundation for Xiaopeng Automobile's leading position in domestic Internet cars.
Among them, the automatic parking function of G3 is a highlight, it uses visual fusion technology, simulates the situation of nearby parking spaces, reminds various possible inconvenience factors, can not only automatically hit the direction when parking in the side direction, but also can get off the car remote control parking, and truly achieve the goal of automatic parking. This is really a good helper for novice drivers.
In addition, in terms of voice assistants, the G3 also has efficient recognition. Moreover, the G3 also has an excellent autopilot assist function, this function called "ACC + LCC", which can greatly reduce driving fatigue, it allows the vehicle to automatically stay in the lane, and will automatically adjust the speed according to the speed of the car in front.
In this mode, the driver no longer needs to accelerate and decelerate frequently, but only needs to gently hold the steering wheel with his hand, keep the monitoring, and make adjustments. The excellent driving experience allows more people to see the convenience of internet smart cars, and also makes Xiaopeng Automobile an unquestionable leader in the industry.
However, for the domestic smart automotive industry, the challenges are increasing. In addition to the competition of big-name car brands such as BYD, it is not only Chinese companies that are staring at the Chinese market.
With Tesla's crazy price cuts, Musk's intention to further seize the Chinese market has become very clear. This is a huge challenge for Xiaopeng Motors, which started relatively late.
Fortunately, Xiaopeng Automobile still adheres to the core intelligent technology of the Internet, unremitting research and development, and stabilizes the development situation of the enterprise. In 2020, Xiaopeng Motors announced the official launch of the P7 model. Compared with the past, P7 has increased the information transmission rate by 200 times, increased the computing power of the information security module by 8 times, and adopted the dual intelligent engines of NVIDIA and Qualcomm Snapdragon to launch more advanced "high-speed autonomous navigation driving" and "parking lot memory parking" functions, realizing a more intelligent driving technology experience. It was also in August this year that Xiaopeng Automobile officially landed on the New York Stock Exchange and was successfully listed.
At this point, He Xiaopeng, these Internet people, finally did an unusual career in another strange world. At the beginning, compared with the competitors with traditional advantages, Xiaopeng Automobile was far from the car-making strength. Byd, a traditional car brand, is also strong in electric vehicles. However, while facing up to the gap and trying to catch up, He Xiaopeng has successfully played his own technical advantages and enabled Xiaopeng Automobile to break through the siege and achieve success through technological leadership.
However, new things always have an immature side, and Xiaopeng Automobile has also exposed a lot of shortcomings in some links. Especially in July 2019, Xiaopeng Automobile officially released the 2020 Xiaopeng G3. It has 30% more battery life than the old G3, but the price difference is not large.
This kind of good thing of "increasing the amount without increasing the price" should have been a great joy for Everyone, so that Xiaopeng Automobile won well in front of powerful competitors such as Tesla and BYD. Unexpectedly, many car owners who ordered the old G3 and have not yet got the car are not satisfied. In his apology letter, He Xiaopeng promised that the owner of the cash Xiaopeng car would enjoy an additional exclusive subsidy of 10,000 yuan when purchasing a new car of Xiaopeng Automobile within 3 years. However, this re-marketing routine has caused more public anger. In the final analysis, the key to this contradiction and dispute lies in the slow delivery progress, and this is still related to the hard injury of Xiaopeng Automobile's car-making strength.
Although there are still immature places, Xiaopeng Automobile has been empowered by the Internet, showing the market more possibilities for future travel. From UC to Xiaopeng, it is two major fields with a large span, and He Xiaopeng adheres to the core technology, so the road in front of Xiaopeng Automobile is still very bright. In the industrial chain of vehicle production and delivery, Xiaopeng Automobile is obviously not satisfactory. Recognize and make up for the shortcomings, I believe that Xiaopeng can bring more surprises to domestic smart cars.