Say good closed-loop production
Text/Shanshan Xu
01
It's better to be defensive
A Volkswagen spokesperson recently said that Volkswagen's plant in Shanghai will stop production from April 1 to 5. Saic-Volkswagen relevant people confirmed the news to the domestic media, pointing out that the reason is that the epidemic has caused certain fluctuations in the supply of parts and components in the entire supply chain. Volkswagen's joint venture in Changchun, FAW-Volkswagen, has not yet resumed work.
Short comments
A few days ago, the news of the suspension of tesla's Shanghai gigafactory caused waves in the industry, when SAIC and SAIC Volkswagen insiders said that closed-loop management was implemented in the Shanghai factory and production did not stop.
SAIC Volkswagen said that the company strictly implemented various epidemic prevention measures, including but not limited to strengthening preventive disinfection and strengthening the management of employee life services such as "staggered peak dining in the canteen".
It should be known that FAW-Volkswagen and Tesla failed to implement the closed-loop production plan of "employees resting in the factory and working in the factory", mainly because of the lack of sufficient daily necessities and rations. However, I never expected that no matter how sophisticated the epidemic prevention means and sufficient preliminary preparations could not defeat the embarrassment of the shortage of spare parts.
For a long time, most of the factories that stopped production due to the shortage of parts and components were foreign factories, and the continuous spread of the epidemic abroad led to the instability of international logistics. The recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict has become another source of uncertainty.
In Shanghai, the epidemic has not yet been effectively controlled, and car manufacturers may face some obstacles in obtaining parts, further affecting normal production and delivery.
Tesla's suspension of production continues, and the loss of vehicle production of more than 2,000 vehicles per day is very clear; and Changchun FAW-Volkswagen has not yet resumed work, and the restart time is still uncertain.
As for SAIC Volkswagen, its Jiading plant has a daily production capacity of nearly 3,000 units, and if the Puxi area is unsealed and production resumes on April 5, the output loss will be about 15,000 units. But I don't know if there are a few more ifs.
02
"Slash" car companies
Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of WEILAI, responded to the rumors of Weilai's mobile phone when participating in an interview column in China. Li Bin said that Weilai's mobile phone is still in the research stage. As for why the mobile phone, it is because of the feedback of Weilai users, whether there is a mobile phone that can be better connected with Weilai Automobile.
In the new era, there are more and more "slash" young people, the main business earns a subsistence fee, and the side business develops interest. As the automotive industry moves closer and closer to intelligence, some car companies have also started the idea of making mobile phones.
For Geely and Weilai to enter the mobile phone market, most of the analysis believes that the focus of car companies is not on the development of side businesses, but to help the main business (automobiles) achieve better sales. Li Bin confirmed this.
An exclusive mobile phone can improve the user experience of NIO car owners while also helping NIO develop its ecology. This idea is truly fascinating. But it's a little confusing how much of the "better connection" mentioned above actually contains.
In addition to the Weilai APP, Li Bin's goal of making mobile phones should not only be able to call and video, so that Weilai may also have to develop its own mobile phone operating system.
To make a product that is convenient for users to use, Weilai's R& D investment may increase. Last year, Weilai's profit loss was 4.02 billion yuan, and it is difficult to say whether the mobile phone side business will affect its performance.
If according to Li Bin, Weilai mobile phone will not think from the perspective of commercial success, the true value of this mobile phone may be marked with a question mark. After all, a soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier.
03
Chickens and eggs, eggs and chickens
GoTo, Indonesia's largest tech unicorn, recently said it plans to raise $1.1 billion through an initial public offering (IPO). It will be one of the largest IPOs in Asia so far this year.
What happens if "Taobao + Didi" is listed together?
GoTo is a merger of Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform, and Gojek, which started as a ride-hailing platform, and mainly provides ride-hailing, takeaway and payment services. It can be described this way, GoTo has both Taobao, Alipay and Didi can provide the functions.
The new company also carries on tokopedia and Gojek's original shareholders, including Alibaba, SoftBank, Tencent, JD.com, and google, Facebook and Temasek. However, the Indonesian company's investors are not Didi.
It is said that GoTo has 100 million monthly users. I don't know if it is out of self-confidence, GoTo risked the global stock market turmoil to launch an IPO, which really surprised the market.
Because bydir Semiconductor's IPO review has been suspended again recently, some analysts said that the market environment is not optimistic, and BYD Semiconductor may have its own considerations.
But imagine how the market would change if Taobao and Didi merged into a new company. Will it give investors hope?
In view of the possibility of market monopoly, this transaction will most likely not appear, and it seems that it is difficult to see such a unicorn enterprise in the domestic market. However, judging from the emergence of Pinduoduo, it cannot be said that there is no room for words.