A while ago, Guo Mingxi, an analyst at Tianfeng Securities, exposed a dose of fierce material, that is, Apple disbanded the car-making team, and this news was confirmed by a number of industry insiders. Combined with the previous Apple invitation to Ningde Era to build a factory in the United States was rejected, when everyone generally judged that Apple's plan to mass-produce Apple Car in 2025 was hanging.
Recently, the news from overseas media is that Apple's new car is actually close to design and finalization, which will be handed over to Foxconn OEM and will be released in 2025, positioning quite high-end.
Overseas media also exposed the rendering of Apple's new car, to be honest Kung Fu Car saw the first glance is rejected, completely do not believe that Apple's industrial design capabilities will be done like this, only hope that the mass production version will not be so ugly.
What does Apple's move really mean? What will its road to car building look like? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
(1) Can you start from the high-end?
This time, Apple revealed an important message, that is, its first model price is from $100,000, will use titanium alloy extremely lightweight body. But as we all know, the $100,000 car is basically impossible to popularize, and can only be understood as Apple's intention to start from the high-end.
This is nothing new, for example, Tesla started from the high end. In 2008, Tesla released its first car product, the Roadster, a two-door sports car, in 2012 Tesla launched the second model Model S, in 2015 Tesla launched the third model Model X, and then everyone is more familiar with the Model 3 and Model Y. Although the latter two now account for more than 95% of Tesla's sales, the first three have laid tesla's image to a certain extent.
This method has played a very good communication effect, the most intuitive impact is that when Tesla first entered the country, many people regarded it as a high-end luxury brand. The same is true of the representative of the new domestic forces, Weilai, whose first model is the flagship ES8, then the ES6, EC6, and until the recently launched ET5.
There is nothing wrong with starting from the high end, but this practice is actually not in line with Apple's consistent style, which is actually a company that does civilian consumer goods.
Apple phones, Apple tablets, Apple Watches, Apple headphones and other products are certainly not cheap, but few people classify them as luxury goods. The iPhone 4 was born that year, and the target was only flagship models such as Nokia N95, rather than business phones such as Rittal and Samsung W series. Like the Apple Watch cut into the market, it is only the route of high-end electronic watches, which is basically worth the money, and there is still a difference between it and brand watches such as Patek Philippe.
And the Apple Car, if priced at 100,000, has far exceeded the Model S and Model X. The same price, in the U.S. market can basically buy Porsche 911 or Mercedes-Benz E63S, into the domestic at least more than a million, is an absolute luxury level, which and Apple's consistent positioning is actually different. To put it bluntly, apples are invincible in various fields, relying on "fruit powder". And this time, Apple Car, there may be only a very small number of "fruit powder" can afford to buy, which is not good news.
And the higher the positioning, the more difficult it is to land. The more typical is Jia Yueting's FF91, which still has no energy production. Apple's strength is certainly not comparable to FF, but at such an opportunity to intervene in such a high posture, how many people can pay the bill, or to put a question mark.
(2) iOS or into the bottom card, how Apple will play
This time Apple also revealed an important message, that is, Apple Car will use the iPhone as a car key. This is expected by the vast majority of people, because the mobile phone car key has been quite popular, which is Apple's strength, there is no reason not to do so.
Another goal of Apple is naturally to develop the in-vehicle iOS operating system, so that the car's car machine system and mobile phone system can be interconnected, and the entire car machine experience can be improved. In this regard, in fact, the old rival Huawei has given a sample, although it has stated that it will not build cars, but the "content" of some recent cooperative models is really outrageous.
More typical is the Inquisitive M5, which is equipped with Huawei's latest HarmonyOS smart cockpit. This system breaks the communication isolation between different devices, and the car machine system can directly communicate seamlessly with the terminal devices such as mobile phones, smart homes, and smart watches, realizing hardware sharing. For example, the mobile phone plays a song, the car can be put on, the mobile phone brushes the b station, and the car can be continued for a second. Huawei's intelligent voice assistant Xiaoyi and car map Petal Map have also been successfully adapted to the new car, allowing users to be addicted.
Some people joke that the peak of the previous car machine system is Carplay, not to say how powerful it is, mainly because the stability is good and the reaction speed is also fast. Other kinds of fancy car engine systems have more than enough functions, but after the fresh period, they are rarely used, and the stability is generally average.
After the emergence of the Q&I M5, it directly elevated the experience of this dimension to a new height, attracted a large number of customers, and it won more than 900 dading orders in one day on April 30. The latest HUAWEI DriveONE pure electric drive range extender platform naturally pays great contribution, but Huawei's Hongmeng cockpit is also indispensable.
The simple thing is to rely on intelligence to attract users to the game, and then impress users with mechanical quality and use experience. If Apple wants to break the game, the road Huawei has traveled is quite worthy of reference. If the iOS system is successful enough, it is still very promising.
(3) Bet on Made in China, Apple compromised?
When Apple sent out car-making information in the past two years, it has been firm that it will prepare to establish a car production line in the United States and discuss technical specifications with a considerable number of global automotive electronics suppliers.
More famous, and the Chinese people are more concerned, is probably apple and Ningde era and BYD game. It is said that catheter has provided ternary lithium battery samples for Apple's car project, and Apple has also done related tests. Subsequently, Apple proposed that the CATL era must establish a battery factory in the United States, and it is necessary to form a cooperative development team with Apple. The reply of the Ningde era is like this, discussing the possibility of localized production with Apple, but considering the impact of factors such as efficiency, worker training, and labor unions on cost and quality, it can only be abandoned in the end, which is a very polite refusal.
The same thing happened to BYD, that is, it is possible to be a supplier, but it is impossible to transfer technology and build a factory in the United States.
Apple finally chose Foxconn OEM, and Tesla put the production focus on the country, and the probability is to match the trend and choose to compromise. After all, Tesla's second factory in China is going to be built, the production capacity will reach 1 million vehicles, Apple continues to hesitate, and finally I am afraid that there will be no slag left. Of course, hopefully Apple's entry will activate more vendors, just as it did in the mobile phone industry.
(4) Kung Fu shooting
Apple still chose to compromise after a big circle, including finding Foxconn OEM and placing the key area of production in China, which is a more pragmatic choice. But the design of the new car is really lackluster, and it is priced at more than $100,000, which is beyond the spending power of most "fruit powder" and may be difficult to promote as smoothly as its other consumer goods.
But from Huawei's success in the automotive field, there is still reason to look forward to Apple's car. After all, it is one of the companies with the highest market capitalization in the world, the most cash flow in hand, and its research and development capabilities are very strong. What kind of impact Apple cars will have on the market, let's wait and see.