When you think of Changan New Energy, what do you think?
You may think of Ben E-Star, you may think of Yidong EV, if you pay attention to the car market in 2021, you may also know a new brand Avita.
But obviously, when the proportion of new energy sales has reached 20% or even higher today, it is not enough to only have a few new energy models scattered. In 2021, Changan Automobile's new passenger car sales ranked second among domestic independent car companies, and the sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 100,000 units for the first time, accounting for 8.7%. Among them, as the main force of new energy sales, the sales volume of one model of the Ben E-Star exceeded 75,000 units.
From this number and product layout, it is not difficult to see that the current Changan New Energy needs to grasp two aspects: on the one hand, it is necessary to smooth the research and development, product planning and brand system of new energy, and do a good job in overall planning, on the other hand, it needs a number of subversive models to completely change the market's perception of Changan New Energy.
In fact, for Changan Automobile, this process began as early as 2017 when it proposed the "Third Entrepreneurship - Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan". A series of initiatives such as the launch of the new energy strategy "Shangri-La Plan" and the official establishment of Changan Automobile's New Energy Vehicle Division show that Changan Automobile did not start to act until today. In 2022, Changan Automobile has once again deepened its development strategy. With the release of the new pure electric brand "Changan Deep Blue", the route of Changan New Energy has emerged more clearly in front of the market.
Chang'an New Energy, which is the word "stable"
Time back to 2015, when Changan Automobile made a switch on the new energy technology route.
In fact, Changan Automobile has entered the field of vehicle electrification since 2001, but a lot of money and energy has been focused on hybrid power. With the national policy clarifying the strategic development direction of pure electric and plug-in hybrid as the strategic development direction of new energy vehicles, Changan Automobile must also be transformed accordingly. Zhu Huarong, who was still the president of Changan Automobile at the time, once said that what enterprises are most afraid of is that they cannot see the future and do not know what the future policies will be.
This also laid the tone of Changan Automobile's new energy field in the next few years, that is, not to be the person who rushed to the forefront, but to ensure that it walked steadily, did not plant a head, and saw the road clearly before going.
Therefore, although Changan Automobile released the "Shangri-La Plan" in 2017 and formulated a huge and long-term strategic plan for new energy vehicles, in the past 5 years, the market has not been particularly impressed by Changan New Energy. With several other leading independent car companies either fully transforming to new energy or launching a marketing offensive with a huge new electrification brand, Changan New Energy does not seem to be so strong.
However, this does not mean that Changan New Energy has done nothing in recent years. On the contrary, Changan still maintains a consistent "stable" corporate tone, giving priority to conquering the underlying core technologies in the field of new energy, and then moving up from platforms, products and brands step by step.
This time, the release of the digital pure electric brand of "Changan Deep Blue" also means that Changan New Energy will open a new new energy model. In the market's cognition, new energy is a new category, and a new category must be expressed with a new brand. Changan Deep Blue will undertake this heavy responsibility, not only to reshape the market's perception of Changan New Energy with new intelligent electric products, but also to be the pioneer of Changan Automobile's digital transformation path.
Changan Automobile is the first central enterprise in the domestic automotive field to split the new energy business and develop independently and realize the reform of mixed ownership. In the car market, which has long been red-eyed, if you want to develop, you must vigorously innovate. Changan New Energy also completed a Series B financing of 4.977 billion yuan in January this year.
At the same time, the Avita brand jointly built by Changan, Ningde Times and Huawei will also officially deliver the first model, Avita 11 this year, challenging the global high-end new energy brand. Avita will be the first high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand equipped with Huawei HI, and compared with the high-end new energy brands of several other independent car companies such as Zhiji, Lantu, and JiKr, Avita's degree of openness is also the highest, which is an important achievement of Changan's component "science and technology circle of friends".
With the release of the new pure electric brand "Changan Deep Blue", Changan Automobile has also officially updated its future development goals. By 2025, the total sales volume of Changan Automobile will reach 4 million vehicles, of which 3 million will be under the Changan brand and 1.05 million for new energy, accounting for 35%. By 2030, Changan Automobile will sell 5.5 million vehicles, of which 4.5 million are under the Changan brand and 2.7 million are new energy vehicles, accounting for 60%. In 2027, Changan Automobile will achieve carbon peaking, and in 2045, Changan Automobile will achieve carbon neutrality.
Three platforms to build the cornerstone of the future
One of the "Shangri-La plans" is to complete the construction of three major new energy platforms, which is an important symbol of a car company's transformation to new energy and increase the penetration rate of new energy. In 2022, there are already two embryonic prototypes in the three major new energy platforms.
The first is the CHN platform released last year, which is a smart electric vehicle technology platform jointly created by Changan, Huawei and Ningde Times, and the first model is Avita 11. This platform will integrate Changan's vehicle architecture capabilities, Ningde era power battery capabilities, Huawei's intelligent driving and digital cockpits.
The second is the EPA architecture for the mainstream electric vehicle market. The first model under this framework will be the C385 pure electric coupe model on the EPA1 platform. Among a number of self-owned brand pure electric medium-sized cars, the design of the C385 is not only in line with the public aesthetic, but also very recognizable. Another lumin, a scooter based on the EPA0 platform, is expected to be released soon.
The third platform is a new smart electric vehicle architecture SDA. Regarding this platform, the basic concept of Changan Automobile is to realize software-defined vehicles and build a flexible system of "hardware pluggable, programmable scenarios, ecological on-demand, and self-evolving systems". At present, Changan Automobile is promoting the E0 three-body "new car" project under the SDA framework.
At the same time, Changan Automobile also designed a gasoline-electric compatible platform during this transition period. UNI-V's first MPA architecture is an architecture that is compatible with internal combustion engines and electrification. Whether it is for traditional fuel vehicles that are still the main sales force, or various hybrids on top of this, Changan Automobile has a layout. So far, Changan Automobile has formed a full product route of ICE, HEV, PHEV and EV.
As early as 2017, in Changan Automobile's "third entrepreneurship", new energy, brand upwards, and intelligence are the three keywords. Today, Changan Automobile is still making steady progress on these three keywords.
Write at the end
From the perspective of the industry, smart electric vehicles will face three major scenarios: product side, user side, and capital end, which makes the logic of building a smart electric vehicle completely different from that of traditional fuel vehicles. Therefore, rather than saying that electric vehicles should create a new brand, it is better to say that electric vehicles should create a new system.
Chang'an deep blue may not be released too early, but under the accumulation of the previous accumulation, the pace of Chang'an deep blue is not heavy. Especially for a super car company with annual sales of more than 1.75 million vehicles, it is important to go fast, and it is even more important to walk steadily. However, once it enters the door of the new system, such a car company cannot be ignored.