A few days ago, some media interviewed Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG and CEO of Smart Car Solution BU, who said, "Huawei's entry into the automotive industry is to be the first, and no one remembers the second." When asked if the success of the mobile phone industry can be replicated in the automotive industry, Yu Chengdong said that experience, quality and brand are key factors. Some observers pointed out that this should be the first time that Yu Chengdong explained the relationship between Huawei and the automotive industry in public, and the intention to enter the car is very obvious and worth playing.
In this regard, some industry analysts pointed out that the news of Huawei's car manufacturing has been tacitly invested, the cost investment of tens of thousands of people, on the surface there are only partner factories, and in fact, Dongguan already has its own vehicle factory, other factories are also brewing, although Huawei has not yet made a car, but the research and development investment is already very high, and the research and development investment in 2021 is almost the same as Weilai, more than the ideal and Xiaopeng. An important point is that the problem of the lack of "core" in new energy may be solved by Huawei, before Huawei in high-tech research and development such as the Hongmeng system, has been able to achieve AIOT and control of smart cars, the future extension to the field of new energy intelligent vehicles for re-innovation, there is also a certain foundation.
With an investment of US$1 billion and a research and development scale of 5,000 people, Huawei's R&D investment in the automotive industry in 2021 is not the first, but compared with many Chinese independent brands, Huawei ranks among the best. Analysts said that 1 billion US dollars, only counting the investment in the automotive solution BU, in fact, now the terminal bu was originally engaged in the mobile phone business, most of them are now engaged in cars, so the R & D investment should be far more than 1 billion US dollars, the original Huawei terminal software department, software R & D engineers about 15,000 people.
The "Yang Scheme" of Transition from layout industrial chain
The Hongmeng system proves Huawei's research and development capabilities, can it solve the problem of the lack of "core" in new energy vehicles and let yourself ride the dust? On December 23 last year, at the winter flagship new product launch conference, Huawei's first Hongmeng automobile "AITO Q&A M5" was officially released, indicating Huawei's phased achievements in new energy vehicles. In Yu Chengdong's view at the time, Huawei's AITO M5 can be comparable to the Million Luxury Car, which is equipped with the intelligent cockpit of the Hongmeng O5 system, giving the owner a full range of luxury enjoyment.
The wording of Huawei's earnings report last year showed that the smart car parts business is a long-term strategic opportunity point for Huawei. At that time, the intelligent vehicle solution business was one of the five major businesses established by Huawei, alongside the ICT infrastructure business, cloud computing business, digital energy business, and terminal business.
At that time, Huawei made it clear that it would not carry out independent car manufacturing at present, but would carry out corresponding market cooperation with many other car companies. Yu Chengdong once admitted frankly, "For Huawei, they only need to provide corresponding industrial technology and high-quality parts and products." Huawei also responded that "we only make parts, do not build cars, we will help car companies build good cars." Not only to build a good car, but also to sell a good car. Today, looking at Yu Chengdong's ambition to enter the automotive industry, there is a distinct turning point.
On March 5th, the launching ceremony of the delivery of the AITO M5 was held simultaneously in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other cities. From now on, aito M5 will be delivered in more than 100 user centers in 36 cities. The new 1st generation Huawei SUV Q&A M5 is positioned as a medium-sized SUV, using a range extender power system, matching the four-wheel drive, and Tesla ModelY is the standard competitive relationship, the current price level of the model is 250,000 levels, M5 as a power system for extender, the comprehensive mileage can reach 1100 kilometers, and tesla ModelY mileage up to 640 kilometers,
For Tesla, the AITO M5 will be a strong opponent. Moreover, Huawei said that it has united more than 300 upstream and downstream partners in the automotive industry chain to build an ecological vehicle manufacturing for the intelligent automotive industry and has moved towards a cross-border ecological model.
But for the ideal, although the range extender power is one of the points of competition, the M5 car is 5 seats; it is completely different from the ideal target 7-seat customer, and the impact is relatively small.
First do the industrial chain, and then do the car, not only accumulate a lot of underlying experience and methodology, but more importantly, master the supply chain and car technology two sources, can make Huawei become a real auto giant.
Huawei's "obsession" in car manufacturing
Judging from the response of today's market, the M5 has also been favored by the market. According to the data, more than 3,000 M5 have been delivered in March, and it is expected that it may reach 5,000 in April, and the sales of AITO M5 will gradually go up. Under such a curve growth, monthly sales of 10,000-20,000 can complete the goal of 300,000 vehicles in M5, which may be the strength of Huawei's car manufacturing.
Huawei's real advantages are not only the consumer experience of the C-end, but also the supply chain and R&D capabilities of the B-end.
An analyst engaged in new retail of bulk commodities believes that the first generation of Huawei's HiSilicon chips has been widely criticized, and white-label mobile phones are not competitive and can only be charged and sent. But insisting on doing it after ten to fifteen years is indeed the first in the industry, if it continues to invest in this automobile business for many years, the future can not be underestimated. Because at present, in addition to Huawei's "Huawei brand" car, the industrial chain has entered from top to bottom, and even the gear oil of the reducer or the cooling oil of the motor are self-produced.
Huawei's financial report last year showed that HUAWEI HiCar has established in-depth cooperation with more than 30 mainstream car companies, and many car companies have achieved full platform integration. In 2021, HUAWEI HiCar will support more than 100 models, complete integrations in more than 30 industry platforms, and support more than 10 million vehicles. Huawei claims to have rapidly built the core process technology capabilities of intelligent auto parts manufacturing, and is striving to lay out the field of intelligent electric vehicles in an all-round way from production and manufacturing to sales terminals, from hardware to software ecology.
However, some insiders speculate that Huawei may not have entered the step of vehicle design and manufacturing, and is still providing smart car parts (software supply, hardware and software supply and HuaweiInside) to "inject soul" into other car companies; the current choice of this model may have many considerations and concerns; but this model is difficult, no large factory is willing to become a vassal of Huawei, and this model is not conducive to promoting software and hardware to further collect data (such as automatic navigation). Now you can only choose some small factories to try and see how the market feedback is.
In contrast, Weilai is also different, Weilai is only foundry manufacturing, but the design and development is completely its own, similar to Apple; the ideal and Xiaopeng is to design and manufacture all their own, similar to Samsung. If Huawei can design and manufacture its own brand, it will undoubtedly become a tyrant in the car-making force. Therefore, the conclusion is that Huawei will personally go down sooner or later, will not be satisfied with the current questioning world, Xilis, and the pursuing automakers will not be subject to the two core technologies of car machine and automatic driving.
However, some concerned people pointed out that Huawei's car-making, upstream and downstream all-you-can-eat style may also be resisted by the industry, Huawei may not have made up its mind, of course, once the decision is made, Huawei's speed of running the horse will be very fast. Huawei's model is now a bit embarrassing, large manufacturers will not cooperate with Huawei to use Huawei's intelligent software and hardware, are relying on self-research, Huawei's intelligent software and hardware if it can not be large-scale promotion of loading, it is impossible to collect road data and master data to update.
The core of the new force car manufacturing is intelligent equipment and data, which is the consensus of all automakers. To put it bluntly, data will be king in the future. Now the intelligent driving program is full of flowers, who has more installed capacity, who has more road data, who will be more likely to become the industry standard and grasp the right to speak in the future, like Bosch, the software and hardware suppliers of traditional cars, slightly weak in the era of new forces.
However, there are still many difficulties in achieving such data acquisition. Earlier, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, made it clear at the shareholders' meeting that he was unwilling to cooperate with third-party companies in autonomous driving solutions, "At this time, it becomes (third-party companies) is the soul, I am the body." This is unacceptable to us, and our soul must be in our own hands. ”
At present, the new energy market is worrying, and the total market value of the Ningde era fell below the threshold of 1 trillion yuan on April 20. Previously, on April 15, Yu Chengdong posted in the WeChat circle of friends that if Shanghai and other places cannot resume work and production in time, all technology and industrial industries involving Shanghai's supply chain will be completely stopped after May, especially the automobile industry.
If, at this time, Huawei can enter the market, to a certain extent, it will give the new energy market a dose of cardiotonic agent, Huawei's characteristics are to do long-term research and development investment, then the core component technology of the battery will also be upgraded and optimized. Once the time is ripe, Huawei can complete the acquisition of the vehicle factory at any time and directly transform into a super player in vehicle design and manufacturing.