Author 丨 North Shore
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Edit 丨 Chic
Didi makes cars, and it is the king to use strengths and avoid weaknesses.
In 2018, the rumors of Huawei's car manufacturing were spread, and under pressure, the company stated for the first time that it would not build cars, and would not invest, participate in and control any car company in the future.
But what few people know is that in the year when the dark tide of Huawei's car manufacturing is surging, another giant has also vowed to emphasize similar ideas.
This company is Didi.
At the april 2018 earnings report press conference, Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Chuxing, made a categorical statement that Didi's positioning in the entire industry was very clear: "We resolutely do not build cars, nor do we seek to become the largest car operator in the future." ”
A few years have passed, although Huawei still emphasizes again and again that it does not build cars, but in actual actions, it has successively "hooked up" with many partners to "fancy car-making", and its right to speak is getting higher and higher.
Unlike Huawei's "hidden" attitude, Didi, which vowed not to build a car in the past, has completely reneged on its promise.
A month ago, Didi's "Da Vinci" was unplanned.
According to people familiar with the matter, The internal code name of Didi's car-making plan is "Da Vinci", or it will be announced in June this year.
The plan will initially focus on two models, the C1 pure electric sedan for the passenger car market, and the D1 Light for ride-hailing services, which is still produced by BYD.
Recently, more information has flowed out.
People familiar with the matter revealed to Bloomberg that Didi is in contact with Haima Automobile to negotiate joint manufacturing of electric vehicles.
The source, who asked not to be named, said didi is also currently discussing potential partnerships with other automakers, but those discussions are currently in the discussion stage and no final decision has been made on the matter of car building.
01
A new track that has been planned for a long time
After the Bloomberg news came out, "C Dimension" contacted Didi for the first time, but as of now, the company has declined to comment on the matter of qia haima.
Haima Motors has not commented too much on this, telling Bloomberg and domestic media that it has no plans to cooperate with Didi for the time being.
In the view of "C Dimension", whether Didi will join hands with Haima in the future, it is certain that electric vehicles and autonomous driving have become the new focus of the shared travel giant's future planning.
Switching to a new track is a product of Didi's plan. In the prospectus of Didi's IPO last year, we can look at its future-oriented strategic trends and business structure, and the company summarized its current main basic disks into "four core strategic segments", "three major businesses" and "double flywheels".
Among them, the four core strategic sections are the shared travel platform, the car service network, the electric vehicle and the automatic driving, which shows that the electric vehicle and automatic driving have been clearly classified into the long-term planning of the future by Didi.
From the fundraising purpose of Didi's IPO in the United States, it can be seen that about 30% of the amount raised will be used to improve technical capabilities including shared travel, electric vehicles and autonomous driving, which shows that In the future, Didi will increase its greater funds in new areas such as autonomous driving and electric vehicles.
First review the autonomous driving layout.
The company's autonomous driving testing has actually been low-key since 2016, and in the following two years, it has carried out autonomous driving-related technology research and development and road testing in China and the United States. 2019 is the inflection point of Didi's automatic driving, the autonomous driving department was officially split into an independent company, and it can be seen from the prospectus -
Its team had more than 500 people as of last year and had a fleet of more than 100 self-driving cars; Didi itself participated in the Series A financing for autonomous driving, with a $525 million injection making it the single largest financing for domestic autonomous driving companies; and at the time of filing the prospectus, Didi held a total of 70% of the shares in the autonomous driving company and held absolute control.
In the field of electric vehicles, Didi is also plotting.
In fact, Didi's earliest route strategy in the field of electric vehicles is similar to the current Huawei, on the one hand, executives are running around to explore the possibility of various cooperation, on the other hand, they adhere to the main role of the scene operator, and they do not build cars on the surface, which avoids potential confrontation with car companies and suppliers.
At the end of 2020, Didi and BYD jointly launched an electric vehicle called BYD D1, which is Didi Chuxing's first customized electric vehicle for sharing. But since then, the company has been recruiting automotive R&D personnel in both Beijing and Shenzhen.
Later, Didi finally figured it out: the matter of building a car, the self-reliance of the mountain is the end.
Therefore, there is a "Da Vinci" plan that is boiling at the beginning of this year, and the relevant strategy is expected to be announced in June.
Didi will also usher in the real sense of the "car-making journey", rumored to be the passenger car market of pure electric car C1, or its next car-making, conquest of the new car-making forces products.
02
There is a lack of money to build a car, and there is a shortage of people
Didi is an online ride-hailing platform that develops its own unique advantages in autonomous driving in the new business segment.
In its prospectus, it is also analyzed that shared mobility networks are the key to making autonomous driving a reality, and Didi has tens of millions of shared car data stores every day, and the cost of testing autonomous driving technology is actually lower than that of competitors.
So, what about in the field of electric vehicles? Didi's advantages are not obvious.
The two most basic elements, "money" and "people", the former test is whether the cash flow is sufficient, after all, automatic driving and electrification are huge pits of burning money; the latter test is the core team, after all, the threshold of the automobile manufacturing industry is not easy to cross, and professional things should be done by professional people.
At present, Didi's cash flow is not abundant.
Judging from the currently public data, Didi has accumulated a loss of 49 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of 1335% year-on-year, and the direct trigger is a straight decline in order volume.
At present, Didi's market value is only 12 billion US dollars, compared with the peak of 80 billion US dollars after listing last year, directly evaporating 68 billion US dollars (equivalent to 433 billion yuan per month).
Car manufacturing, aside from the huge R & D investment, just to acquire car manufacturing qualifications, all require billions of silver. We can compare horizontally, in the past, WM acquired Huanghai Automobile for 1.18 billion yuan, the ideal acquisition of Lifan spent 650 million yuan, and Aichi's acquisition of Jiangling Holding Group cost 1.74 billion yuan, setting a record for the highest number of new car-making forces to burn money for production qualifications.
Let me ask you, is Didi, which is trying to "return the blood" through large-scale layoffs, really have so much abundant funds to invest in new car-making projects?
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the year, there were rumors that Didi wanted to acquire a factory with car-making qualifications and capabilities to fully control the research and development and production of new cars, and the target had been locked in The National Jizhijun located in Ganzhou, Jiangxi.
However, Guo Jizhijun also deliberately came out to debunk rumors for this matter, responding that it was in contact with a number of companies in the industry to seek suitable strategic investors.
Let's look at the "human" factor.
Yang Jun, vice president of Didi, the person in charge of Didi and BYD's customized online car D1, is also one of the most core leaders of Didi car manufacturing, Lenovo was born, and later joined the small orange car service.
Liu Haijiang, vice president of Didi and general manager of the Automotive Innovation Center, is responsible for the car supply chain, and has visited a number of OEMs in recent months, and was former director of the purchasing department of Lenovo Mobile Business Group.
Luo Wen, one of the leaders of Didi's car-making project for the passenger car market, a veteran employee of Didi, and the first product manager of Didi Dache.
It is not clear whether the relevant person in charge and the internal structure of the Didi car project will be flexibly adjusted if it successfully joins hands with an automaker like Haima. However, from the current high-level layout, the company still lacks executives who really understand automobile manufacturing to coordinate the overall situation.
03
Recreate a "Xiaopeng"?
As we all know in the industry, before obtaining the production qualification of the self-built factory, Xiaopeng had cooperated with Haima Automobile, which produced its first mass production car, the Xiaopeng G3. Later, the production qualification was solved, and Xiaopeng independently produced the second mass production model P7, and in a trance, the seahorse finally became an outcast.
Today's Xiaopeng has exceeded the 15,000-vehicle monthly delivery mark, but in the initial stage of its car-making, the OEM of Haima Automobile has played an extremely critical role.
For Haima Automobile, the loss of Xiaopeng as a partner and the end of the OEM order, the idle production capacity of its factory is bound to be further aggravated - capacity consumption also means losses.
A person familiar with the matter, who did not want to be named, told Bloomberg that Didi is also currently discussing potential partnerships with other automakers, but these discussions are confidential and are currently in the discussion stage, and no final decision has been made on the construction of the car.
On the other hand, since the end of the cooperation with Xiaopeng, Haima is also looking for a new way out for its future. So, if the marriage with Xiaopeng is smooth, will the two companies create another "Xiaopeng" on the new electric vehicle project? After all, Haima has previous experience in OEM for Xiaopeng, and these experiences can also be copied to the relevant cooperation of other brands.
To be honest, it's hard.
In addition to the cash and talent disadvantages analyzed above, at this stage, Didi wants to enter the field of independent car manufacturing, especially through cooperation with Haima in the early stage, and it is not too early to enter the game.
At present, the status and market share of the new forces of mainland car manufacturing have long taken shape, the track is crowded, the internal volume is serious, and the latecomer Didi may not be able to rush out of a blood road.
Of course, there are other dimensions to consider.
For example, the strength of the partner. Marriage and doing things, even if it is a foundry partner, also need to have the advantages of the process, such as JAC has been upgraded by volkswagen Audi standards, and can provide product and technical guarantees for Weilai.
Can Haima, whose production lines are old and whose production capacity has been idle for a long time, empower Didi with intelligent and high-tech foundry hard power?
Moreover, Didi, as a latecomer to the integrated business, is bound to open up a car-making label that is different from "Wei Xiaoli" and different from Huawei Xiaomi.
Just as the Xiaopeng brand has occupied intelligent labels (keywords) and has a first advantage, how can Didi seize its own keywords?
The threshold of automobile manufacturing is not easy to cross, and this threshold is even more difficult for newcomers to build new cars. But after years of galloping in the rivers and lakes, Didi also has its own advantages, as the largest travel service provider in China, the travel data and application methods that have been mastered are absolutely outstanding.
Moreover, Didi now has a complete travel ecosystem and is involved in the upstream and downstream industrial chain of smart cars, which is easy to provide convenience for its own vehicle business.
Finally, we must also believe in Didi's own business judgment ability, which can not be afraid of strong enemies at this time, and presumably have made a comprehensive consideration of business model and tactical play.
North Shore
A sommelier who doesn't love cars
Not a good editor.
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