【Introduction: In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, the pressure faced by traditional car companies is self-evident. Previously, Ford and Volkswagen had worked together, and at the core of it was Volkswagen's opening of the MEB platform to Ford. Recently, Honda and GM once again officially announced an agreement to deepen cooperation, and the two sides will most likely develop a new platform based on GM's existing Aotene platform to compete in the compact SUV market. 】
Written| by Zhang Chi and edited by | Kang Qiao
Recently, GM and Honda announced a new cooperation agreement: they will develop a series of affordable electric vehicles that will cost less than $30,000 based on a new joint platform, which is expected to go on sale in 2027. In order to seek to exceed Tesla in sales. Previously, GM planned to produce two electric SUVs for Honda from 2024. Now the signing of a new agreement indicates that the cooperation between the two companies in the field of electric vehicles will be further expanded. Honda, which started slowly in the electric vehicle field, will quickly make up for its shortcomings in the electric vehicle field through GM's technology output, and GM will also get the opportunity to further dilute the cost of product research and development and raise valuable funds for the research and development of other forward-looking technologies.
Is a compact SUV a recipe for boosting sales?
At present, Tesla's product matrix, Model 3 positioning is the lowest, and in the past period of time, due to the sharp rise in costs, Tesla has repeatedly raised the relevant selling price. In the U.S., its cheapest model, the Model 3, has sold for $46,990 after a price hike last month, 34 percent more expensive than it was three years ago. So from this point of view, with the popularity of electric vehicles, if GM and Ford target the entry-level electric vehicle market below $30,000, especially the current annual sales of 13 million compact crossovers, to compete with Tesla in a misplaced competition, it is indeed possible to achieve good sales results.
However, from the perspective of this year's market situation, with the sharp rise in the price of battery-related raw materials, many domestic electric vehicles have risen sharply this year. Among them, the low-end models have risen not small, like the Great Wall and even the two entry-level models of Euler's black cat and white cat directly stopped receiving orders. For the foreseeable future, as inflation continues to rise, whether a $30,000 electric car is still profitable will need to be marked with a big question mark. Tesla has not promoted the listing of $25,000 entry-level electric vehicles, on the one hand, its production capacity is not enough, and the existing products with higher gross profit margins are already in short supply; on the other hand, Tesla's 4680 battery is currently technically immature and not enough production capacity. With existing battery products, it is impossible to push the $25,000 model to market. Therefore, in the next period of time, whether the cooperation between GM and Honda can achieve a substantial breakthrough depends on whether the two can make significant progress in core technologies including low-cost batteries.
Will GM and Honda have a deep alliance?
In addition to the cooperation on the electric vehicle project, Honda also owns a part of the equity of Cruise, a general autonomous driving technology company, and the two car companies are also jointly developing Cruise Origin autonomous electric vehicles. In addition to electric vehicles, the two companies have also formed a joint venture in Michigan to develop and produce fuel cell systems. Judging from the current situation, the cooperation between Honda and GM is very close, and in the next step, whether the two car companies can reach each other in addition to technical cooperation and open up more markets to each other is also worthy of people's attention.
Volkswagen and Ford have also formed relevant alliances before, specifically, Ford transferred part of its pickup technology to Volkswagen, and let Volkswagen take a stake in Ford's autonomous driving technology company Argo AI; and in return, Volkswagen shared the MEB platform to Ford, helping Ford launch electric vehicle models in the European market in the short term to meet the requirements of relevant EU emission regulations. But after that, there was no further cooperation between the two car companies. Volkswagen is currently focusing on the new SSP platform, and Ford is also planning its own next-generation all-electric platform. We originally expected further integration between the two car companies, and it seems that it will not happen in the short term. Therefore, two multinational car companies with large scale, in order to be able to truly be single-minded, whether it is the technical level or the corporate culture level or the distribution of benefits, there are many difficulties that need to be overcome, and there are not many cases that can succeed in the end.
Can the Traditional Vehicle Enterprise Alliance Challenge Tesla?
At present, car companies that are also American, including Ford and General Motors, have made it their goal to sell more than Tesla. But both GM's Bolt EV and Ford's Music Mach-E are far from Tesla's sales. From the perspective of enterprises, Tesla's position is actually difficult to shake in the overall market value or in the minds of consumers. Don't say that the United States, even in China, in terms of product strength, can be fully benchmarked Tesla and even surpass Tesla models in many core indicators, but whether it is from sales or market appeal, leaving Tesla is also far from the same. The reason is very simple, people buy Tesla's electric car, not just because it is an electric car.
Because Tesla's real strength lies in its capabilities in areas such as software engineering, chip design, and battery design that other car companies around the world don't have. Its robots, Dojo supercomputers, Starlink projects, space X rockets, are more difficult for many small and medium-sized countries to achieve with national strength. So as long as Tesla maintains a sustained lead in these areas, there will not be too many opportunities for other car companies. Because Tesla has mastered a lot of low-level original technology, and the average car company to master these skills, it may be unlikely in ten or even twenty years. Therefore, in the eyes of investors or consumers, Tesla is not only a car company, but also a high-tech company that can compete with Google and Apple, with full innovation capabilities.
Comments
The alliance between vehicle companies is a helpless move in the face of the high-cost development of the new four modernization technologies of automobiles. In the case of Honda, to make up for the shortcomings of electric vehicles as soon as possible, it is most appropriate to find a company with ready-made products like GM as a backer. However, after the alliance, whether it can surpass Tesla, or put a big question mark. Even if it surpasses Tesla in sales, whether it really has the core technology, investors and consumers will have their own hearts.
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