The competition in the automotive industry has never been so fierce as it is today, and the needle tip is not humble to Mai Mang.
On March 31, at the annual report conference of GAC Group, Feng Xingya, general manager of the group, released a harsh word, "What is the least necessary goal of Aean's mixed reform?" Change the current 'Wei Xiaoli'" to 'Ai Xiaowei'".
Feng Xingya, General Manager of GAC Group
Feng Xingya means not only to drive out the top three ideal cars with soaring sales, but also to move GAC's partner Weilai Automobile to a position, so that E-An Automobile will become the leader of China's new energy vehicles in the future, followed by Xiaopeng and Weilai.
Aeon, who has always advocated "one step ahead of others to enjoy science and technology", not only has a big tone, but also has a very obvious ambition, only to compete for the first place, not to be a substitute.
As a new energy brand of traditional car companies, Eian Automobile, which was only established in 2020, why does it have such confidence to be a latecomer, and it must be ranked first? Can Feng Xingya's small goals be achieved?
Sales will leave "Wei Xiaoli" behind
Compared with Weilai Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile, which were established in 2014, and Ideal Automobile, which were founded in 2015, the EIAN brand can be traced back to its predecessor, that is, the GAC New Energy brand established in 2017, and the EIAN brand will not be independent until 2020.
Compared with a number of new car-making brands such as "Wei Xiaoli", although Aean started behind, the sales performance did not appear to be immature at all, but climbed steadily and steadily, while "Wei Xiaoli" and other new car-making brands not only never approached or even surpassed Aeon in terms of sales, but were firmly left behind by Ae-an.
If the new forces of car manufacturing need a landmark node from quantitative change to qualitative change, then the annual sales of 100,000 vehicles is the general consensus in the industry. In 2021, Aeon, which has only been established for 4 years and has been independent for only 1 year, has become the only car company in the new car-making force to cross the threshold of 100,000 vehicles with an annual delivery of 123,660 vehicles; for this threshold, Tesla, which has achieved profitability, has taken 7 years to cross.
Compared with the sharp decline in February, the delivery volume of new forces car companies such as "Wei Xiaoli" rebounded sharply in March, and the four car companies of Xiaopeng, Nezha, Ideal and Zero Run all exceeded 10,000, and showed a year-on-year doubling increase. Eian showed more eye-catching performance, not only taking the lead in crossing the "2W+" monthly sales threshold, but also leading the new power car companies with a significant lead in the sales performance of 20317 vehicles.
The core technology is all in their own hands
The Internet thinking of "handing over all products to the supply chain procurement and assembly, and optimizing the software by themselves" of the new car-making forces such as "Wei Xiaoli" once seemed very untamed, but Weilai, which was affected by the epidemic and interrupted the supply chain and stopped production, had to make the new car-making forces wake up: how fragile the new car-making forces that have lost the core technology "life gate" and have internet thinking are.
Always adhere to the scientific and technological innovation to lead the brand development strategy, Eian will firmly grasp the core technology of new energy vehicles. Even in extraordinary times, Aeon's production capacity and sales volume have risen steadily. Especially after entering the technology explosion period, Aeon broke out new technologies that affected the industry every once in a while.
In terms of batteries, Aeon has three original battery core technologies: cartridge battery safety system technology, sponge silicon anode chip battery technology, and super-speed battery technology. The safety technology of the cartridge battery system realizes that the whole package of ternary lithium batteries cannot be pricked and cannot catch fire, redefining the safety standards of ternary lithium batteries; sponge silicon anode chip battery technology can reduce the volume of lithium-ion battery cells by 20% and reduce the weight by 14%; ultra-double-speed battery technology can achieve "charging for 5 minutes and lasting 200 kilometers".
In terms of electric drive, following the world's first three-in-one electric drive research and development application, Aeon has launched the world's first two-speed dual motor "four-in-one" integrated electric drive, which makes the Aeon series models step into the era of 100 km acceleration of 2 seconds. The two-speed dual-motor "four-in-one" integrated electric drive can achieve a balance between high performance and high endurance, for which Aeon has received more than 70 invention and application patents.
In terms of electronic control, following the GEP 1.0 platform, Aeon launched the first all-aluminum pure electric exclusive platform GEP 2.0 in China, which makes the vehicle space utilization rate higher, the power consumption lower, the performance stronger, and the derivative models can cover A0-C class models, with a range from 300-700km, and can achieve Level 3 automatic driving functions. GEP 2.0 was also recognized by Toyota, enabling its own brand to export products and technologies to the joint venture for the first time.
New car-making forces such as "Wei Xiaoli" need supply chain procurement due to the core system hardware, and this practice of handing over the core technology "life gate" to the supply chain not only makes the supply chain management very fragile, but also pushes up the cost of automobile production. Although "Wei Xiaoli" and others invest huge amounts of money in technology research and development every year, the vast majority of funds are invested in soft environments such as automatic driving and car control systems, and when they encounter a supply chain management crisis, they have to face the risk of production stoppage.
With the change of demand preferences of automobile users, the added value of the front and back ends of the automotive industry chain has been increasing, and Aeon, which has a full-life cycle travel service ecosystem of "hardware + software + scene application", continues to extend to intelligent scenario-based experience and mobile travel services, and is more and more comfortable with the concept of "travel as a service".
The ability to raise funds is not lost to new powers
"I know that making cars burns money, but I didn't expect to burn money like this," Li Bin, CEO of Weilai Automobile, once said bluntly.
He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, has calculated an account: "After the competitive pattern of the new car-making forces entered the 'Warring States Era', each company is committed to storing more 'grain and grass'. New car manufacturers need about 20 billion yuan in the early stage of development (0 to 1 stage), and enterprises need more than 30 billion yuan in the long-term development stage (1 to 100 stages). ”
Different from traditional car companies, the new forces of car manufacturing rely on capital and exist, financing is an important way to support survival, and all aspects of car manufacturing require continuous investment of funds. However, the current capital environment has undergone major changes, with the change of policy, the fading of the Internet car-making boom and the long return cycle of the automotive industry itself, "Wei Xiaoli" and other new car-making forces to finance "blood transfusion" has become extremely difficult, and its own "hematopoietic" ability is also seriously insufficient, even if "Wei Xiaoli" sales are good, but still do not make money.
Aeon, relying on the state-owned enterprise background of GAC Group, is favored in the capital market. At present, Aian has completed the capital increase and share expansion, and the investors include the employee shareholding platform and the production and investment of Ai'an Fund, China Chengtong, China Southern Power Grid and other 3 strategic investors, and the valuation of Aian has reached 39 billion yuan. As of April 1, gac motor group A stock market value of about 120 billion yuan; previously, a number of institutions predicted that giving E-An about 16 times the price-to-earnings ratio, the overall valuation of about 200 billion yuan.
The car manufacturing system of traditional car companies is more perfect
In the journey of traditional car companies to change lanes, the strength of the system is the key indicator to measure whether they can achieve high-end breakthroughs. Only by breaking through by systematic strength, including but not limited to brands, channels, marketing, and word of mouth, can we say that we can steadily enter the forefront of China's intelligent high-end automobiles.
After the mixed reform, for the first time in the industry, Eian broke the internal subcontracting mode of traditional car companies in research and development, intelligent manufacturing and sales, realized the integration and efficient coordination of "research, production and marketing", and was faster in overall decision-making efficiency and market response speed. Compared with the new forces of car manufacturing, this independent "research, production and marketing" method ensures that the decision-making mechanism of E-An is faster and more able to achieve rapid iteration, while enabling it to absorb and integrate the early R&D investment and the powerful resources behind the GAC Group through a consistent and systematic process system, and quickly achieve scale growth and cost amortization through platform-based technology, so that E-An can better implement technology in products and truly bring users a step ahead of the enjoyment of science and technology.
After the mixed reform, Aian invested 1.782 billion yuan to carry out equity incentives for 794 business managers and important scientific and technological personnel, and 100% of the shares, the coverage of equity incentives exceeded 14%, and the binding period between equity incentives and employees was as long as 5 years, which was much higher than the 3 years of ordinary private enterprises. Through equity incentives, Aeon binds core employees to the largest range and retains key talents to work together to promote the rapid development of its new energy vehicle business.
For E-An, the benefits brought by mixed reform are not simply the help of the opening of the stock ratio and external resources, but also the "geographical advantage" of integrating internal advantageous resources to achieve the competitive advantage of the system.
Under the superimposed influence of factors such as subsidy decline, supply chain instability, and repeated epidemics, the operating costs and risks of new energy vehicle companies with insufficient "hematopoietic" capabilities are increasing day by day, and the ability to strengthen the ability to resist future competitive risks in the form of cost reduction and efficiency increase is forced to become the choice of new car-making forces, and the rumors about the departure of "Wei Xiaoli" executives, the elimination of the last place or the layoffs are frequently exposed, and the high-paid digging of new car-making forces is becoming history.
As a new energy brand of traditional car companies, Eian Automobile, which only won the brand independence in 2020, with its leading sales, independent core technology, financing capabilities and "research, production and marketing" integration and efficient coordination, came to the fore, not only breaking the new power pattern of car-making represented by "Wei Xiaoli", but also forming a leading trend; with the transformation of Eian, the emergence of the name of "Exiaowei" is probably only a small step for Aian to gradually improve its situation.
Note: The picture comes from the official website of Aian and the WeChat public account of GAC Aeon