A few days ago, the Volkswagen Group held a board of directors in Germany to take stock of the 2030 NEW AUTO strategy that the company is actively promoting.
In addition to reviewing the current electrification process, the Volkswagen Group has also exposed for the first time its main competitors in the fields of vehicles, technology platforms, software, batteries and mobility.
It not only includes major OEMs and huge automobile groups, but also battery manufacturers such as CATL and LG, and even cross-border companies such as Apple and Foxconn.
Why would Volkswagen choose such a list of opponents? What exactly are these opponents that make the public jealous? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
(1) Tesla bears the brunt of it, is it still the leader of electrification?
Pushing forward a few years, everyone basically recognizes Tesla as a leader in the electric vehicle industry. At that time, the Model S turned out to be a direct definition of how high-level electric vehicles should be built, and then Tesla published a large number of patents, which greatly promoted the development of the electric vehicle industry. In the years that followed, it grew rapidly into the world's most valuable company and became a solid "topic king".
Volkswagen has listed Tesla as an opponent in three aspects: the whole vehicle, software and battery, which is enough to show its strength.
In the first quarter of 2022, Tesla delivered 310048 new cars, and after achieving 11 consecutive quarters of high growth, it still showed a barbaric growth posture, and it was still in short supply at home and abroad. The Model 3 and Model Y remain the main sales force, delivering 295324 vehicles, accounting for more than 95%. These two cars are very comprehensive models, both good performance, but also good practicality, in the case of the price of new energy models, their cost performance is also quite good, from the order accumulation point of view, Tesla's global average inventory cycle is only 3 days, in a short period of time is still in short supply.
At the same time, Tesla's "infrastructure" work is also in full swing, the world has built and developed more than 33600 super charging piles, the construction of open super charging stations in China alone has exceeded 1100, and more than 250 experience stores and service centers have been established.
Overall, Tesla's product strength and service at this stage are still relatively leading, and it is also a model for new forces to learn.
In terms of software and battery technology that volkswagen is "worried" about, Tesla is still the industry leader. The new generation of Model 3 and Model Y, has been equipped with the latest AMD chips, the computing power is more than 50% stronger than the flagship Qualcomm 8155 chips of the new forces, and can even support playing PS5 games, the reaction speed and use experience are very advanced. In terms of self-driving technology, tesla's performance is also quite outstanding after accumulating enough user data.
Its latest 4680 battery has begun to be installed, using a very innovative "electrodeless ear" or "omnipolar ear" design, with a range gain of 16%, a cost reduction of 14%, and a full 7 times increase in production efficiency.
Volkswagen sees Tesla as its biggest rival, and it does make sense. Although the aura is not as bright as before, Tesla is still the leader in the industry at this stage.
(2) Chinese manufacturers on the list, what is the public afraid of?
In the past automotive industry sequence, the voice of domestic manufacturers was not strong. But in Volkswagen's latest list of rivals, there are three Chinese OEMs and a battery manufacturer on the list, they are BYD, Xiaopeng, Weilai and Ningde Times.
This shows that Volkswagen has begun to seriously regard these companies as opponents, and they all have points that the public is afraid of.
BYD has begun to challenge Tesla on the sales list, in the March car sales list, BYD has Song PLUS and Qin PLUS two models to break into the top ten, BYD Han and BYD Dolphin, respectively, ranked first in the sales of C-class cars and A0 class cars, has shown a very strong competitiveness, and the momentum is fierce. In addition, BYD's unique blade battery is also well received and is considered to be one of the most secure power batteries at present.
Xiaopeng and Weilai are representatives of the new domestic forces to the high-end breakthrough, the average transaction price of Weilai is more than 400,000, while maintaining monthly sales of more than 10,000. Xiaopeng is also mainly high-end cars, and the flagship P7 has monthly sales of more than 9,000 units. If the public wants to impact the high-end in the future, it is inevitable to meet them in a narrow way. In addition, Xiaopeng's fast charging and automatic driving technology, and the construction of Weilai's power exchange network, are becoming their solid "moat", which is not good news for latecomers.
The Ningde era has built its own battery empire, and in recent years it has continued to extend upstream and downstream links, and has mastered the key nodes of the entire industrial chain. From raw materials, to power batteries, to energy storage equipment, to the investment holding of automakers and exchange of electricity services, the Ningde era has mastered enough discourse power, and even to a certain extent to achieve internal circulation.
The biggest difference between Chinese companies is that they are too "grounded". No matter how strong Tesla is, it will eventually leave enough living space for the public, and if these domestic companies completely rise, the prospects of the public may be even more unfortunate.
(2) Cross-border is also worried, Apple and Foxconn are a huge threat?
In addition to new energy companies at home and abroad, Volkswagen has also included two cross-border companies, Apple and Foxconn, in the list of rivals. Of course, it is not because the public wants to do mobile phones or oem work, but these companies have brought real threats to the public.
A while ago, the news came out that Apple disbanded its own car team, the reasons are diverse, the more reliable statement is that the solution put forward by the Apple car team can not meet the high-level standards, and decided to tear it down and start over. In fact, in the past 8 years, Apple has reorganized and cleaned the car research and development team several times, and judging by Apple's consistent personality, it is unlikely to spend so much time on a thing that it is not optimistic about.
The more likely reason, or as Cook emphasized earlier, is that Apple cars will be more inclined to artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. Because it has the strongest integration of software, hardware and services in the industry, and has enough scary cash flow, investing in any industry will cause shock. Apple may just be waiting for a ripe opportunity, waiting for the regulations to be released and the market to mature, when apple will intervene in a big way. At least from the performance of the Volkswagen Group, it is still wary of Apple.
At last year's Hon Hai Technology Day, Foxconn unveiled three models: model C SUV, Model E sedan, and Model T electric bus, showing strong car-making ambitions. As the "king of foundry", Foxconn has a very high understanding of manufacturing management, which can not only solve the pain points of supply chain and production for OEMs, but also cannot completely rule out the possibility of "killing the owner". For example, foxconn acquired Sharp before, which was also based on years of cooperation between the two, and finally the assets that Sharp had operated for many years were transferred to Foxconn' name.
In the era of electrification, vehicles will become more and more homogeneous. Probably the vast majority of manufacturers' batteries, motors, and intelligent systems come from one or two companies at the head. In this case, the car built by Foxconn may be more reliable and cheaper than other companies.
All in all, if Apple and Foxconn really enter the game, it will definitely have a great impact on the automotive industry.
(2) Kung Fu shooting
What the public has released is not so much a list of "enemies" as it is a leader in various fields. It is precisely because of its strength that it will be feared by large car groups such as Volkswagen. There are a number of Chinese companies on the list, and you can also see the progress of domestic companies in recent years.
In fact, Volkswagen also missed an important name, that is, Huawei, which also has a very large voice in today's electrification field. Probably because Volkswagen is actively seeking cooperation with Huawei, it has inadvertently missed it.
The Road Is Long, and the Volkswagen Group, which hopes to find the target, can come up with stronger competitiveness and bring us more and better models.