Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618)
Wen | Wang Lin
Cover source | Visual China
Yu Dongdong, an employee of Jidu Automobile in Shanghai, feels that "his head is going to explode", and he has to work in multiple lines: solve the software problems of version A, complete the requirements of version B, and accept the product input of version C. Due to the current epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai, he waited for the alarm clock reminder at 12 pm and 6 o'clock in the morning to join the food grab war to ensure his basic living needs.
"Now node after node, at any time may pull up a meeting", when the planet Tech is connected to the winter, he described the rhythm of the set of car building.
Just past 2021, is the first year of new energy vehicles - "Wei Xiaoli" (Weilai, Xiaopeng, ideal) ushered in the most rapid development, the monthly sales of automobiles over 10,000 is the norm, the annual sales of 100,000 is also close at hand; last year is also the first year of the wave after the car - Jidu, Millet, Didi, 360, Ali, Xiaoma Zhixing, Stone Technology and other technology / Internet companies want to grasp, this is worth fighting the outlet and the opportunity of the times.
More exciting data is that in 2020, when the US stock market is high, the market value of Weilai will exceed $90 billion, approaching the Xiaomi Group. In December 2021, China's new energy passenger cars accounted for more than 20% of total passenger car sales. In 2021, China's new energy passenger car sales will be close to 2.9 million, far more than the 1.11 million in 2020.
A year has passed, after building the car, the wave is busy looking for money to find people to find a path, and the most concerned of them have set up a team of 1,000 people and begun to brush the progress wildly: sludge models, pushing concept cars, road tests... Ring after ring.
After building cars, the waves hope to seize this short window period and occupy a place in the second half of the competition for new energy vehicles.
Some have delivered, some have not yet concept cars
In the wave after the car, Baidu's blessing of the set of degree, is to disclose to the outside world its car progress information the most, from time to time on Weibo to publish the company's progress, CEO Xia Yiping has also become the best spokesperson for the set of degree.
On January 26, 2022, on the day that Jidu completed nearly $400 million of Series A financing, Xia Yiping sent an internal letter to all employees of the company, encouraging everyone to have the entrepreneurial passion of "Always Day One" and uphold the rapid iteration spirit of "flying an airplane to repair aircraft".
According to the official news of Jidu, the start-up with a scale of 1,000 people plans to launch Jidu's first automobile robot concept car at the Beijing Auto Show from April 21 to 30 this year, and Jidu is also the earliest player to launch a concept car among the companies that announced car manufacturing last year.
Jidu implements the dual headquarters setting of Beijing and Shanghai, the Beijing team is mainly based on the software team, compared with the software team in Shanghai, it is more inclined to the backstage of the Internet of Vehicles, such as the system of the sales store, the construction of mobile phone Apps, etc. Tech Planet learned from Jidu HR that the number of people in Jidu this year will exceed 2,000.
A Jidu insider revealed to Tech Planet that Jidu's first car is priced between 200,000 and 400,000, with three configurations, and the target users are young people who love black technology. The first car was produced at Geely's Hangzhou Bay plant and delivered in mass production in 2023.
Xiaomi Auto is personally led by 53-year-old Lei Jun, and at present, the size of the Xiaomi automotive business research and development team exceeds 1,000 people, and it is expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
Luo Baojun, general manager of Xiaomi Beijing-Tianjin Branch, said on the 2021 Xiaomi earnings conference call that in the third quarter of this year, Xiaomi Automobile's first engineering prototype will come out. According to related news, Xiaomi's first model or pure electric coupe, the price is 149,900 yuan - 299,900 yuan.
Among the teams of "curve car building", the most concerned is 360. In October last year, Nezha announced the completion of a D1 round of financing of 4 billion yuan, of which 360 Group led the investment of 2 billion yuan, and the curve entered the game of car manufacturing. In January and February this year, Nezha's sales continued to be strong, surpassing Weilai behind Xiaopeng and Ideal Automobile. Since last year, Nezha has delivered more than 10,000 yuan in a single month for 3 consecutive months.
Saic's and Alibaba's Zhiji L7 Pro has also been listed, and its price is 408,800 yuan. Zhiji Automobile is a high-end pure electric vehicle project jointly built by SAIC Motor, Alibaba Group and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, with the first phase of financing reaching the order of 10 billion, of which SAIC Holds 54% of the shares, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech each account for 18%.
Of course, not all new car-making players are going so well, such as the genius self-driving company Xiaoma Zhixing.
In June last year, Xiaoma Zhixing set up a car-making team of more than 10 people in Shanghai to complete the thrilling leap before the listing. In August, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 's request to "suspend" Chinese IPOs, Xiaoma Zhixing's listing path was shelved.
This means that in the primary market valuation is already large enough, it is difficult for Pony Zhixing to get more money, and car building is a game of tens of billions of funds. It is reported that due to this impact, some members of the car-making team of Xiaoma Zhixing have left to join other new car-making power companies.
New players grab the cake, rely on what
Kerui Consulting predicts that the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the new energy vehicle market is expected to reach 5.046 million units in 2022, an increase of 48.2%, and the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 9.25 million units by 2025.
A veteran of the automotive industry who has worked in top car companies for a decade told Tech Planet that the new energy vehicles created by traditional car companies can only be described by the word "huh", which gives new car-making forces the opportunity.
In 2021, "Wei Xiaoli" survived the grassroots entrepreneurial period of the company's life cycle calculated by the rate of burning money, and ushered in the most rapid golden year. Each company has raised tens of billions of dollars from the secondary market to strengthen its strength.
More importantly, these three have determined their core positioning - Weilai relies on user experience, Xiaopeng relies on intelligent routes, and the ideal is the first choice of "daddy".
Nowadays, the important question that needs to be solved after the car is built: from which angle to enter? Whose cake is cut?
On the first day of the establishment of Jidu, Xia Yiping had a general judgment on the first car. He hopes that this car has a very strong self-driving ability, voice ability and intelligent ability, and is essentially a robot. Xia Yiping's expectation is that in 2023, a car robot with the best user experience, both quality and cost advantages will be delivered on time, and the highest level of intelligence in China will be defined.
There is no doubt that the highlight that Jidu wants to create is intelligence. For example, in terms of software, the first version of Jidu's first car can already be done: in the city, when the user uses navigation, the vehicle can automatically stop when it recognizes the red light; the navigation requires left turn, and the car will drive to the left turn lane by itself (that is, automatic driving according to map navigation).
Industry insiders believe that according to the pricing of xiaomi cars that are now circulating, there is a high probability that they will not take the cost-effective route.
Xiaomi Automobile's original positioning is "to use high-quality intelligent electric vehicles to let global users enjoy the omnipresent intelligent life", in other words, Xiaomi car is not only a car, but a part of Xiaomi's overall intelligent ecology, which is one of the key scenes and core nodes of intelligent life.
The intelligent ecology is also the biggest advantage and selling point of Xiaomi car, which is different from other players.
Curve car 360 momentum is good. The current main models of Nezha, which it invested in, are priced at around 100,000 yuan, and the starting price after subsidies is 109,800 yuan and 62,800 yuan respectively.
This price range is a range that the new car-making forces have not tried in the past, and Nezha has seized market share before "Wei Xiaoli" further expands its market share and launches more economical models.
Since the second half of 2021, Nezha's sales have grown rapidly, and the cumulative delivery volume of Nezha in the whole year last year ranked fourth in new cars, with a year-on-year growth rate of 362%. In January and February this year, Nezha's sales exceeded that of Weilai after Xiaopeng and Ideal, while in January Nezha delivered 11,000 vehicles, and the monthly delivery volume exceeded 10,000 for three consecutive months.
Dangerous and exciting game
Even if each family has its own positioning, it is not easy to kill in the giant new energy car manufacturing track.
According to the statistics of the video blogger "Wu Ying's Broken Thoughts", most of the new energy vehicles sold in China are currently priced between 100,000-200,000 and 20-350,000, of which the former has 252 models and the latter has 130 models.
Xiaomi Auto's pricing of 149,900 yuan to 299,900 yuan is completely competitive red sea. A veteran who has worked in car companies for many years told Tech Planet that they feel that the price of 110,000-140,000 is more competitive and can hang many domestic fuel vehicles.
Jidu's first automotive robot is priced between 200,000 and 400,000, which is also a fiercely competitive price range. Another question to consider is whether young people who like black technology really have such purchasing power. The above-mentioned engineers who have worked in car companies for many years told Tech Planet that according to the existing information of Jidu, the first car will most likely be the highest level of Jidu's current pricing range.
This does not mean that the after-the-car wave does not have the opportunity to change the existing pattern. From the perspective of sales, fuel vehicles can sell more than 10 million units a year, and in the most lively 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicle terminals in the mainland are 2.8832 million units, accounting for 13.88% of the total sales of passenger cars.
This means that there is still a lot of room for the entire market to fill. "The market will be bigger, the players will be more, the market will increase by about 20% per year, and the player increase will exceed 50%," industry insiders said.
The bigger trend is that 2022 is a key node in the global automotive century of change, and this year will move from electrification to intelligence.
The report of Soochow Securities believes that as of January 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market has reached 0-15% (to achieve the "0-1" stage) with the continuous progress of electrification technology, and the penetration rate will usher in a leap from 15% to 50% + in 2022-2025 (to achieve the "1-10" stage), and intelligence will take over the bat electrification as the most important driver of this stage.
Li Bin, Li Xiang, and He Xiaopeng have proven that even without any manufacturing experience, a new energy electric vehicle can be mass-produced in 3 years. For Xia Yiping and Lei Jun, building a car is not too much of a problem.
The biggest problem is how to gain a foothold in the market through mass production. At that time, the existing competitive landscape will really be broken.
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