OEM mode upgrade "new car-making forces" to solve the road of diversified car-making

Reporter Sheng Lan Zhang Jiazhen reported from Shanghai

The formation of a close community of interests is becoming a new model for oem of complete vehicles in the automobile industry.

"All along, the domestic automobile OEM model has been based on the direct OEM model of qualified enterprises for unqualified enterprises." Zhang Junyi, director of the Industry Development Department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, pointed out in an interview with the China Business Daily reporter: "But today's automobile foundry model is different from that of a few years ago, and enterprises are cooperating with other enterprises to develop and participate in vehicle manufacturing through the establishment of joint ventures and other means. ”

For the "new car-making forces" that are still in their infancy and have no self-built production bases and no production qualifications, OEM car manufacturing is regarded as the main way to quickly cross the "threshold" of car-making. Shang Jiao, deputy director of the Industry Development Department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told reporters: "A few years ago, cross-border car manufacturing by Internet companies was all the rage, but at that time, there were no real mass production cars. For the 'new car-making forces', the technical ability of vehicle production and manufacturing is weak, and cooperation with traditional car companies is a 'shortcut' to quickly achieve mass production." ”

However, under the OEM model, the client also faces many uncertainties. As the "new car-making forces" gradually entered a stage of stable development, many car companies began to build their own production bases and obtain production qualifications through mergers and acquisitions of traditional car companies.

Shen Hui, the founder of WM Motor, stressed to reporters: "Only by building a factory can we control product quality from the source." In addition, in the OEM mode, data cannot form a closed loop, and the advantages of car companies' digitalization cannot be reflected. ”

Foundry mode platformization

"The opening up of related platforms by car companies has become an innovative development model." Zhang Junyi introduced to this reporter, "Under this model, in addition to undertaking manufacturing work, vehicle companies will provide engineering and technical support, and can also continuously accumulate relevant application experience of intelligent technology and promote the transformation and upgrading of automobile intelligence." ”

Luxshare Precision (002475. SZ) previously announced that on February 11 this year, the company has signed a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Chery Holdings, Chery Automobile and Chery New Energy. According to the agreement, Luxshare Precision plans to establish a joint venture with Chery New Energy. The joint venture will be established within 3 months after the signing of the agreement, with Luxun Precision holding 500 million yuan and Chery New Energy 1.167 billion yuan holding 70% of the shares.

It is understood that the joint venture company will be engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of new energy vehicles. At the investor meeting, Wang Laichun, chairman of Luxun Precision, said: "This cooperation with Chery is to cooperate with Chery to develop the vehicle ODM (original design manufacturer) business for others. ”

It is worth noting that the "exclusive business terms" listed in the above agreement show that the above three Chery companies will not be able to cooperate with other automotive foundry companies in the future.

In fact, in the eyes of industry insiders, the cooperation between Zhejiang Geely Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Geely") and Foxconn's Futaihua Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. is considered to have opened up a new foundry model in China. At the beginning of 2021, Geely and Foxconn signed a strategic cooperation agreement to establish a joint venture to provide OEM production and customization consulting services for global automotive and mobility companies.

According to Tianyan, at the end of December 2021, Shandong Fujikang Intelligent Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was officially established. The registered capital of the company is 100 million yuan (RMB), and its business scope involves intelligent vehicle equipment manufacturing, auto parts research and development, etc., and Geely and Foxconn each hold 50% of the shares.

At the same time, in 2021, Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jidu Automobile") was established, which was jointly funded by Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Geely Holdings, and Dazi County Bairuixiang Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing Baidu Netcom Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Baidu"). According to the plan, the two parties will cooperate closely in the field of intelligent vehicle manufacturing based on Geely's newly developed Haohan SEA intelligent electric architecture.

At that time, Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely, said in an interview with reporters that this cooperation is not a traditional foundry model, and Geely will be responsible for providing engineering technical support in the process of R&D and manufacturing of Jidu automobiles. Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu Automobile, also said: "Geely's supply chain capabilities can solve the problem of suppliers' willingness to cooperate and cost, and Geely also guarantees the quality of products. In addition, Geely will also share Baidu's capabilities and experience in intelligence. ”

Finding a "new shortcut" to mass production

All along, the domestic automobile OEM model is mainly directly oem by qualified enterprises for unqualified enterprises, and has become one of the main ways for "new car-making forces" to quickly cross the "threshold" of car-making.

A typical case is Jianghuai Automobile (600418. SH) and NIO. On April 26 this year, NIO announced that the 200,000th mass production vehicle was officially rolled off the production line.

It is understood that the OEM cooperation between Weilai Automobile and Jianghuai Automobile began in 2016. At that time, Jianghuai Automobile issued an announcement that the company signed a "Manufacturing Cooperation Framework Agreement" with WEILAI Automobile, and WEILAI Automobile authorized Jianghuai Automobile to use its trademark and related technologies, while Jianghuai Automobile was responsible for producing new energy vehicle models cooperated by the two parties for Weilai Automobile, and jointly built a manufacturing base of Jianghuai Weilai in Hefei.

It is worth noting that the factory equipment, supply chain management and quality control management of the production line are all responsible for NIO. According to the 2020 financial report released by WEIO, from April 2018 to the end of 2020, NIO paid a total of 1.2339 billion yuan in manufacturing expenses and loss compensation to Jianghuai Automobile.

In 2021, the two sides signed a joint manufacturing production agreement again. However, this time, the partner joined a third party, Jianglai Advanced Manufacturing Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jianglai Manufacturing"). According to Tianyan, Jianglai Manufacturing is a joint venture between Weilai Automobile and Jianghuai Automobile in 2021, and the two companies hold 49% and 51% of the equity respectively.

According to Qin Lihong, the founder of Weilai Automobile, Jianglai Manufacturing is an innovative cooperation model, which is conducive to solidifying the cooperation model of Jianghuai Weilai, and is more conducive to quality improvement and supply chain management.

At the same time, another "new car-making force" in China, Huaren Express, has also solved the problem of car-making qualifications through OEM. In 2019, Huaren Express, Yueda Group and Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., Ltd. (now renamed "Kia Automobile Co., Ltd.", hereinafter referred to as "Kia Automobile") announced cooperation in the fields of new energy vehicle manufacturing and supply chain.

For the cooperation between Huaren Express and Kia Motors, some insiders told reporters that this is inseparable from the "matchmaking" of the local government in Yancheng, where Kia Motors is located.

According to the information previously released by the Yancheng People's Government Network, Huaren Express plans to have a production capacity of 600,000 vehicles per year, and after leasing kia automobile plant, it has completed 1/4 of its production capacity target. China Express started production at Kia Motors' first plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, which has an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles.

Diversified car manufacturing pattern

According to related reports, at the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology invited some car companies to conduct an internal discussion, and one of the important changes is that the FOUNDC policy will change from the previous single qualification requirement to a "double qualification" requirement, that is, not only requires the OEM enterprise to need production qualifications, but also the entrusting party needs to have production qualifications. If the "double qualification" policy is implemented, it means that the OEM car manufacturing policy may be tightened.

In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Administrative Measures for Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Access, which allows road motor vehicle manufacturers to carry out research and development and production capacity cooperation, and road motor vehicle manufacturers that meet the specified conditions can entrust processing and production. Under the guarantee of this policy, some "new car-making forces" that have neither a production base nor a production qualification hand over the production of new car production to traditional car companies with production qualifications for OEM.

Industry insiders said that although the "OEM car" scheme can enable car companies to achieve mass production in a short period of time, in this mode, the entrusting party faces many uncertainties, including product quality can not be guaranteed, and the production side has operational risks. A number of "new car-making forces" began to build their own production bases, and obtained production qualifications through mergers and acquisitions of traditional car companies, and the car-making model was gradually diversified.

Taking Zhejiang Zero Run Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zero Run Car") as an example, the relevant person in charge of the company told reporters: "At the beginning of its establishment, although Zero Run Car had a production base in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, it did not solve the problem of production qualification for a long time. ”

In order to solve the problem of car-making qualifications, Zero-Run Automobile chose Hangzhou Changjiang Passenger Vehicle Co., Ltd. to oem. Since then, zero-run cars have obtained production qualifications at the end of 2020 through the wholly-owned acquisition of Fujian Xinfuda Automobile Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded in 2015, WM Motors made it clear at the initial stage that it would not adopt the "OEM" model, and became the first batch of "new car-making forces" in China to obtain production qualifications and build factories by themselves. At the end of 2016, WM Motors' intelligent industrial park in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, started construction. According to the plan, the industrial park will have an annual production capacity of 200,000 new energy vehicles after completion.

"The road of self-built factories cannot be wrong, only by building their own factories can we control product quality from the source." Shen Hui stressed to reporters, "Once there is a problem with the vehicle, it can be traced to the source immediately to see whether it is a batch problem or an individual problem, and it is easy to fundamentally solve these problems." ”