Is vivo going to build a car himself?
Vivo car? The wolf is coming
A few days ago, the rumors about vivo's car were once again pushed to the cusp of the storm. The reason for this rumor is that Vivo has disclosed a patent related to automatic driving. For a time, the rumors of vivo car manufacturing were rampant, which also triggered some netizens' speculations about vivo car manufacturing.
However, soon, Vivo clarified and debunked this rumor, so far, the company still hopes to focus on mobile phones and surrounding ecological chain products.
Well, judging from Vivo's response, this is another "wolf coming". At least for now, Vivo really doesn't want to build a car. In fact, it is not difficult to find out carefully that vivo's patent disclosed this time is related to intelligent driving. The patent is entitled "Autonomous Driving Methods, In-Vehicle Devices, Mobile Devices and In-Vehicle Electronic Devices".
To put it bluntly, this is a patent related to automatic driving, but it is still 18,000 miles away from the real car, so you don't have to see the wind or the rain. Moreover, as early as 2020, it cut into the field of car networking and launched the Jovi InCar internet of vehicle service platform. Most of the patents announced this time are vivo's desire to go further in autonomous driving.
Although this is another wolf, this rumor has brought some other more interesting information: it seems that in the past two years, mobile phone manufacturers have become a hot topic. In other words, today's mobile phone manufacturers are more or less involved in the automotive field.
Mobile phone manufacturers get together to "build a car"
To sum up, it can be roughly divided into 3 categories: those who personally build cars, those who cooperate deeply with car companies, and those who only provide related software services.
One of the hardest core is Xiaomi, at the 2021 Xiaomi Spring Conference, Lei Jun strongly announced that he had entered the field of intelligent electric vehicles and personally led the team. Moreover, Lei Jun rejected all investors at that time, saying that he would insist on independent car building.
In the latest earnings report, Xiaomi used far more than expected to describe the progress of car building. And mass production is expected in the first half of 2024, of which the construction vehicle will meet with you in the third quarter of this year.
But that's easier said than done. Xiaomi Group's financial report shows that the net profit in 2021 was 19.3 billion yuan, down 4.99% from last year, the adjusted net profit was 22 billion yuan, and the cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period were 23.51 billion yuan, compared with 32.65 billion yuan in the same period last year, down 28% year-on-year.
The fact in front of us is that Xiaomi's cash flow is decreasing, and moreover, the car is a gold-devouring beast, and the cash of 23.51 billion is really not much.
Why isn't 23.5 billion in cash a lot? Apple is rumored to have been building cars since 2014, with a team of thousands of people, and at that time, Apple had more than $250 billion in cash reserves. As a result, on March 16 of this year, Apple's automotive project team announced the dissolution.
The amount of money spent on building a car may be beyond most people's imagination.
It can be seen that the cash on hand of Xiaomi is not abundant at present. This may also be the reason why xiaomi has not made much substantial progress since it announced the construction of the car.
Compared with Xiaomi's direct strong entry, Huawei's approach is more conservative and stable. Huawei did not personally build cars, but chose to cooperate with a number of traditional car companies to create new energy vehicles. It has launched the Polar Fox Alpha S and the Dongfeng Celis SF5 and the latest Q&C M5 in conjunction with BAIC.
Among them, the latest M5 from the Hongmeng system of the car machine system, to the SOUND of HUAWEI SOUND to the HUAWEI DriveOne three-in-one electric drive system. It can be said that this is a Huawei-enabled new energy vehicle, and you can even buy the Q&I M5 in Huawei's offline stores.
Finally, let's talk about the third mode of light participation, obviously, vivo chose this mode of light participation. Vivo only provides relevant software and services for car companies, and basically does not involve hardware.
Vivo's Jovi InCar Internet of Vehicle Service Platform, the first batch of more than 500 models covering BBA, Lexus and other brands, is gradually adapted with system upgrades. Cutting from software to the car ecology is also a good choice, the threshold is low, the investment is small, and the risk is relatively controllable.
And the facts have proved that this is a completely feasible path, at least Apple and Huawei have chosen to start from the software ecology when they enter the automotive field, and there have been small achievements.
So why are the manufacturers of mobile phones originally involved in the automotive field in the past two years? Isn't it good to make a mobile phone?
Judging by the latest data, this may be the case. In the past two years, the overall performance of the mobile phone market has been sluggish, and the sales of many brands have declined to varying degrees.
In the first quarter of this year, OPPO sales fell 37.6% to 12.8 million units, Honor sales soared 176%, Vivo sales fell 29.9% from 12.3 million units, Apple sales fell 1.3% from 12 million units, and Xiaomi sales fell 22.8% from 10.8 million units. Obviously, apart from glory, the rest of the day was not good.
In this case, mobile phone manufacturers may have to find new growth points, it is obviously difficult to find new growth points in the original mobile phone field, so opening up a new track may become a good choice, and new energy vehicles and intelligent driving are undoubtedly the outlet of the industry in the past two years.
Therefore, it is no wonder that in recent years, mobile phone manufacturers have begun to "build cars".
The tangle behind "car building"
But even mobile phone manufacturers are shouting about "building cars". But everyone is actually quite entangled in building cars. OPPO, which once rumored to build a car, has basically given up the idea of building a car after having problems in its own mobile phone business, and building a car not only requires a lot of burning money, but also needs to mobilize many resources. The OV without Duan Yongping obviously does not have such a capability. And Duan Yongping, who has long been reclusive behind the scenes, is obviously unwilling to wade into muddy waters anymore.
On the other hand, Huawei has also publicly stated many times that Huawei does not build cars, but helps car companies build good cars. But now Huawei and Dongfeng Motor are deeply bound, and the recent Huawei-empowered Q&A M7 is also about to be listed.
Previously, it was rumored in the industry that Huawei Managing Director, CEO of Consumer BG, and CEO of Smart Vehicle Solutions BU Yu Chengdong had set a target of 300,000 vehicles for the Q&I M5 jointly sold by Huawei and Xilix. Although he later changed his mouth to say that "now in the absence of cores in the global and Chinese automotive industries, it is impossible to do 300,000 vehicles, and it is a miracle to be able to do 100,000-200,000 units in the first year."
No matter what Yu Chengdong says, I don't believe it when you want to say that Huawei has no idea about "building cars", and Yu Chengdong's statement just shows Huawei's entanglement with "building cars". On the one hand, he said that he did not build cars, but on the other hand, he set a target of 200,000 units per year.
So does the automatic driving patent announced by Vivo show that Vivo also wants to learn from Huawei to help car companies build good cars? On the one hand, Vivo's Jovi InCar is currently cooperating with more and more brands, on the other hand, car companies often lack experience in car software and intelligence.
For example, the recently popular extreme Kr 001 has first-class mechanical quality, but because the car machine is stuck and the intelligent driving cannot be in place, the owner of the car is crazy, which affects the overall user experience. And this aspect is vivo's strength. The advantages of business complement each other, which is a very common operation.
Just don't know over time and the further deepening of cooperation vivo can be as willing as ever to do only light customization on the software? Or will it be like Huawei, gradually moving towards deep customization?
Will vivo car building come true one day in the future after countless times the wolf has come?
Text / Tan Zhaofei