In recent years, the vigorous development of new energy vehicles has attracted many "big factories" to add blue eyes, and technology giants have begun to set foot in the car-making industry, and this whirlwind of cross-border car-making has been blowing from 2021 to 2022, and it has not stopped.
However, although the same is a cross-border, the entry posture of various technology giants is very different.
Xiaomi: Personally go down and take the "hardest road"
The hottest topic in the automotive circle in 2021 is probably xiaomi's official announcement of the car. On March 30 last year, Xiaomi officially announced its entry into the electric vehicle market, and founder Lei Jun shouted the slogan of "fighting for Xiaomi cars" at the spring press conference; 5 months later, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was successfully registered and settled in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan.
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A year has passed, through some public information, we can already roughly outline the outline of Xiaomi's car.
Unlike the new power car companies that chose OEM in the early stage of development, Xiaomi embarked on the road of self-built factories from the beginning, and with the headquarters settled in the Beijing Economic Development Zone, Xiaomi's factories were also located here. According to reports, Xiaomi will build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, and the expected production capacity of both phases is 150,000 vehicles, one of which is scheduled to be completed in June 2023, and in Lei Jun's car-making schedule, Xiaomi's first car will be mass-produced in the first half of 2024, and the time can be said to be very tight.
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In terms of products, Lei Jun had previously said that Xiaomi's first electric vehicle was priced at 150,000-300,000 yuan, which is also the most tragic market segment for new energy vehicles. At present, the R&D team of Xiaomi Automobile Business has exceeded 1,000 people, mainly focusing on automatic driving and intelligent cockpit solutions. Although it has invested in many electric vehicle hardware and software suppliers, Xiaomi will certainly not fake the automatic driving and intelligent cockpit that can be called the "soul" of electric vehicles. However, in the face of many powerful and experienced opponents, it is still unknown whether Xiaomi Automobile can break through the siege.
Alibaba: Join hands with SAIC to impact the high-end market
Compared with Xiaomi, Ali's footsteps are much more cautious, in November 2020, SAIC Motor's official website announced a pure electric vehicle project with Pudong New Area and Alibaba, a three-party joint venture with Pudong New Area and Alibaba, Zhiji Automobile, which marks the official cross-border construction of Internet giant Alibaba.
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Different from Xiaomi's full-stack self-development, Ali chose to use the advantages of traditional automobile companies to complete its own car-making plan, in the process of zhiji automobile research and development, the core "three electric technology" and intelligent cockpit system are from SAIC Motor, and Ali provides assistance in the internet of vehicles and new retail.
At the end of March this year, the zhiji brand's first model, the Zhiji L7 Pro, was officially launched, priced at 408,800 yuan, aiming at the high-end electric vehicle market. About this car, we have also introduced it before, and interested students can click to understand.
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For Ali, Zhiji L7 may only be the first step to enter the new energy vehicle, with the continuous improvement of the importance of automatic driving technology, Ali's advantages in software and platform will gradually appear, the future does not rule out that Ali will follow Xiaomi's example and embark on a road of vehicle manufacturers.
Huawei: Don't build cars, help build cars
In the past two years, Huawei has constantly emphasized on various occasions that it does not build cars, but only wants to help car companies build cars. But with the release of the Q&A M5, the answer to the question of whether Huawei builds cars seems to have become less important.
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As a solution provider, Huawei is deeply involved in all aspects of the M5 from research and development to listing, HUAWEI DriveONE pure electric drive range extender platform, HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit, coupled with Huawei's self-developed intelligent driving operating system, all the hardware and software that can be provided, Huawei has not let go.
Positioning luxury SUVs in the world of the M5 mainly intelligent, intelligent travel experience, which is obviously Huawei's advantage, but the well-off shares that cooperate with Huawei to build cars can only be regarded as second- and third-tier car companies, the product of this combination of strength and weakness, whether consumers buy it may have to put a question mark.
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At present, Huawei and car companies have three cooperation models of software supply, hardware and software supply and Huawei Inside, the latter two need Huawei to participate in the vehicle manufacturing process, which is very difficult for large car companies, as SAIC Chairman Chen Hong said: "This cooperation with Huawei has made Huawei a soul, and SAIC has become a body." For such a result, SAIC is unacceptable, because it has to hold the 'soul' in its own hands. ”
At present, Huawei is still on the road of "injecting soul" into other car companies, but if the market feedback of the M5 does not meet expectations, it may not be long before the new energy vehicles that truly have Huawei's appearance and soul are not far away.