According to the statistics of the Association, from January to December 2021, the cumulative retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year, which indicates that the new energy market is in a rapid growth trend and is profitable for enterprises. The thriving new energy market coupled with the relatively low car-making threshold of pure electric vehicles has attracted many non-car-making companies to join the ranks of car-making, such as Xiaomi. Today, Didi also seems to want to drive into the car-making track.
Didi's car manufacturing plan may be announced in June
Recently, it has been rumored on the Internet that Didi will announce the car-making plan in June, and the code name of the plan is "Da Vinci". It is reported that it is planned to launch two models in the early stage, respectively for the mass consumer market and the online car market, of which the model code for the mass consumer market is C1, which may be a pure electric sedan positioned close to AION S.
In addition, there is news that Didi is recruiting car-related talents to prepare for car-making. The above information and actions show that Didi will most likely enter the field of car manufacturing and compete with traditional car companies and many new car manufacturers in the new energy market.
To build a car, you have to have a car-making qualification. The car buyer learned that Didi may obtain car-making qualifications and production bases by acquiring Guojizhijun. According to the data, GuojiZhijun Automobile Co., Ltd. was established in 2017, and its vehicle intelligent manufacturing base is located in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and also started construction in 2017. At present, there are three models on sale under the umbrella of Guoji Zhijun, namely the pure electric mini car GC1, the pure electric small SUV GX5 and the pure electric mini car GC2.
The car buyer inquiry learned that the sales volume of the national jizhijun in 2021 was 2333 vehicles, its Chinese jizhijun GX5 sold 813 vehicles in 2021, and the national jizhijun GC1 sold 1520 vehicles in 2021, the performance was not good, and it was completely inconspicuous in many new car-making forces. Today's auto market is extremely competitive, and it is expected that the dismal sales of Guo Ji Zhijun will introduce new investors or be acquired.
Why does Didi want to build a car himself?
Didi personally went down to build a car, nothing more than to increase profit points to obtain better financial report data. According to the financial report data previously released by Didi, Didi's total revenue in the second quarter of 2021 was 48.212 billion yuan, compared with 42.675 billion yuan in the third quarter of the same year, down 1.67% year-on-year. As for profit, coupled with investment losses, Didi's net loss attributable to common shareholders in the third quarter of 2021 reached 30.6 billion yuan.
The decline in profits and revenue has prompted Didi to seek a new path to profitability, of which personally building a car is a good choice, because Didi is already engaged in automobile-related industries, and it has also cooperated with BYD to launch an online car D1, which is no stranger to car building. In addition, Didi has its own accumulation in the field of automatic driving, which can not only give its own new energy vehicles more competitive advantages, but also help control costs and enhance the market competitiveness of the whole vehicle.
In general, in terms of building new energy vehicles, Didi has its own advantages. But the car buyer believes that if Didi really makes a car, then it will have more difficulties than Xiaomi, and it may even be a dead end.
Didi builds a car, will eventually be busy in vain?
According to the statistics of the Association, from January to February 2022, the cumulative retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 624,000 units, an increase of 153.2% year-on-year. Although the new energy market is still in the process of rapid growth, the list position of car companies such as BYD, Tesla, SAIC-GM-Wuling and other car companies has been quite stable, even traditional car companies such as Geely Automobile and Great Wall Motors are difficult to shake, not to mention the new car-making forces such as Didi. If Didi goes down to build a car, the competitive pressure it needs to face can be imagined.
In addition, in the face of the trend of automobile electrification, more and more joint venture car companies have begun to increase their efforts to launch the new energy market, for example, Honda plans to launch two pure electric vehicles e:NS1 and e:NP1, and Toyota also intends to launch Toyota bZ4X in 2022 to enhance the brand's presence and competitiveness in the field of new energy. Even GAC Mitsubishi, which does not have a strong sense of existence, has launched Atuka, a pure electric compact SUV that is not weak.
In the face of the original hegemony of new energy and the encirclement of many joint venture car companies, didi has little opportunity to break through. Because the competitiveness of GuojiZhijun in the new forces of car manufacturing is not strong, I am afraid that it will not be possible to jointly produce a new energy vehicle with a strong enough competitiveness for the mass consumer market. Chejun predicts that the future market performance of Didi's C-end products may follow in the footsteps of Guoguo Jizhijun's products.
Of course, as a latecomer, Xiaomi actually needs to face the competitive pressure brought by by new energy strong car companies such as BYD, Tesla, and SAIC-GM-Wuling. However, after all, Xiaomi has accumulated a cost-effective reputation in the field of mobile phones, which will bring a lot of help to its future automotive products, because everyone is looking forward to whether Xiaomi will bring consumers a cost-effective new energy vehicle that everyone can afford. In terms of brand reputation, Didi is not dominant.
In 2021, the "Didi Chuxing" APP was removed from the shelves due to serious violations of laws and regulations on the collection and use of personal information, which brought a huge negative impact on Didi. You know, new energy vehicles can actually become a collection device for personal information and road information, if it comes from Didi, then who is willing to take the risk to buy it?
It is no exaggeration to say that the impact of the removal of the "Didi Chuxing" APP on Didi is no less than the impact of the THAAD incident on Beijing Hyundai. From 2013 to 2016, Beijing Hyundai's annual sales exceeded one million units, making it one of the most popular joint venture car companies among domestic consumers at that time. However, by 2021, Beijing Hyundai's annual sales have fallen to 385,000 units, and a net loss of 4.995 billion yuan. Beijing Hyundai's annual sales have fallen from more than one million to less than 400,000 in just a few years, and the THAAD incident is "indispensable".
Of course, it may not be accurate to compare with the THAAD incident, but Before Didi builds a car, it must try its best to eliminate the negative impact of the past, otherwise the probability of the car will not meet the peak after the car is built, but it will be directly nipped in the bud, bringing greater losses to the enterprise, after all, the cost of building a car is not small.
If Didi really intends to go down to build a car, then it will not only have to face the encirclement and suppression of many traditional car companies and new car-making forces, but also eliminate the negative impact of the previous "Didi Chuxing" APP removal incident, which can be described as a long way to go. If you are not careful, the matter of building a car may be a flash in the pan and a busy job. So, are you expecting Didi to build a car? Will you buy a car for it? Welcome to talk to the car buyer.