Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
Author | Haohan
Edited by | Xiaohan
Who will be Huawei's next car-making partner?
Last month, Huawei held a Huawei analyst conference, and Huawei Rotating Chairman Hu Houkun said that Huawei will definitely have new smart car products released this year, whether it is a model of smart selection mode or Huawei Inside (hereinafter referred to as HI) mode.
This also means that within this year, Huawei's smart selection model and HI model will have new cars released or new cooperation.
At present, Huawei's HI model has three partners, namely BAIC, Changan and GAC, and with the listing of the BAIC Polar Fox Alpha S HI version, and the appearance of Avita 11. Therefore, Che Dongxi speculated that the next product of Huawei's HI cooperation is most likely from GAC.
In the smart selection mode, aito Q&I M7 and AITO Q&I M5 pure electric version have been announced in advance, so che dong speculated that the new smart selection mode products mentioned by Hu Houkun are likely to come from new partners.
So, how is the cooperation between GAC and Huawei progressing? When will the first model be unveiled? Who can become the new partner of Huawei's smart choice? In this regard, Chedong tries to predict Huawei's next partner (product) by looking for cooperation agreements between Huawei and various car companies and the "clues" flowing out of the network.
First, GAC becomes Huawei's next HI partner The new car will be mass-produced next year
Huawei and Changan's Avita 11 has been on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Polar Fox Alpha S HI version with BAIC has also been officially listed, so it is the turn of GAC next.
In 2017, GAC Group signed a cooperation agreement with Huawei, when Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution business unit had not yet been established, and the cooperation between the two sides was basically based on cloud computing, big data, intelligent driving, new energy and other group businesses.
According to public information on the official website of GAC Group, the two sides did not sign a specific cooperation project on smart cars at that time.
In 2020, GAC Group and Huawei once again signed a deepening strategic cooperation agreement. Compared with the previous cooperation, the direction and project of cooperation between the two sides have been very clear, and we will deepen cooperation in the field of intelligent vehicles to jointly create competitive products.
▲In September 2020, GAC and Huawei signed a deepening strategic cooperation agreement
Within a year, the two sides had made real progress. In July 2021, GAC Group announced that it agreed to the implementation of the GAC Aegean and Huawei (AH8 model) projects. In terms of Huawei, GAC has also been included in the car companies designated for HI cooperation.
It is reported that the AH8 is a medium-sized pure electric SUV model, equipped with Huawei's full-stack intelligent vehicle solution, which is scheduled to be mass-produced by the end of 2023, with a total investment of nearly 800 million yuan.
At present, the other two models that use Huawei's HI full-stack intelligent car solution, BAIC Jihu Alpha S HI Edition and Avita 11, the former of which has recently been officially launched and will be delivered in June, while the latter has also been on the list of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and will be delivered in the third quarter of this year.
▲Beiqi Polar Fox Alpha S HI Edition
However, from the past sales of BAIC Jihu, the Alpha S HI version equipped with Huawei's L2 automatic driving system ADS and Hongmeng OS car machine system is 100,000 yuan higher than the ordinary version, and the price has reached 400,000 yuan.
The Avita 11 is also the top match in the design and intelligence of the interior and exterior decoration, and the future sales depend on the pricing strategy.
The AH8 model cooperated by GAC and Huawei is positioned as a medium-sized SUV model, and the medium-sized and large-scale SUV model is one of the best-selling models of GAC in recent years, and the GAC GS8 is a phenomenon-level explosion.
▲GAC Trumpchi GS8
Therefore, the positioning of the AH8 model cooperated by GAC and Huawei is more like a pure electric version of the GS8, plus the L2 automatic driving system ADS from Huawei and the Hongmeng OS vehicle and machine system. At that time, this car, whether in intelligent configuration or mileage, will not be lost to the same size and level of competitors of the new car-making forces.
At the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum held in March this year, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC E-An, revealed to Che Dong that at this year's Beijing Auto Show, E-An will release a new model, and the new car will make everyone feel a new look at E-an.
If you speculate according to the time node announced by GAC for mass production at the end of 2023, the new car will most likely be officially unveiled within this year, and the new car mentioned by Gu Huinan and the new HI product mentioned by Hu Houkun are likely to be AH8 models.
▲Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aean
Second, Chery Huawei has signed an agreement or carried out smart selection cooperation
According to speculation, the new product of Huawei's HI model is most likely GAC's AH8, so who will be Huawei's next smart partner?
First of all, compared with the HI cooperation model and the smart selection cooperation model, Huawei has a higher degree of participation, deeply involved in product definition, vehicle design and channel sales.
Specifically, in the smart selection mode, Huawei will participate in product modeling design and interior design, provide five intelligent systems of intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent electric, intelligent network connection, and intelligent vehicle cloud, and sell them in Huawei's own stores. The cooperative car companies are mainly involved in vehicle production, after-sales maintenance, etc.
In other words, the smart selection model is almost equivalent to Huawei's participation in car manufacturing, but it requires the vehicle production capacity of cooperative manufacturers.
For cooperative car companies, choosing Huawei's smart selection model can help them transform to the new four modernizations, solve the problem of insufficient research and development capabilities, products cannot keep up with the times, and also get a piece of the pie in the era of intelligent electric vehicles.
Therefore, for those car companies that are hindered in the transformation of electrification and intelligence, but have complete vehicle production qualifications and production lines, Huawei's smart selection model is obviously a win-win choice.
The recent fire of the AITO Q&I M5 is a good cooperation case, the car combines Huawei's industrial design capabilities, digital capabilities and well-off vehicle research and development, manufacturing capabilities. With the release and delivery of the AITO Q&A M5, the brand influence and popularity of Xilisi and even the entire Xiaokang Group have been raised to a higher level, and they have begun to catch up on the track of smart electric vehicles.
▲AITO AskIng Boundary M5
If you retrieve the labels of "hindered intelligent transformation" and "vehicle production capacity" in the circle of friends of Huawei's car-making, Chery Automobile will have to make people associate.
In December 2020, Chery Automobile and Huawei signed a comprehensive cooperation framework agreement, in which the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in cloud computing, big data, and intelligent vehicle solutions to jointly promote the development of their businesses.
According to the agreement, the two sides will fully cooperate in the fields of intelligent vehicle electronic and electrical architecture, intelligent network connection, intelligent cockpit, on-board computing and automatic driving, intelligent energy, and intelligent vehicle cloud services, so as to help Chery accelerate the transformation of the era of big data.
▲Huawei and Chery have reached a cooperation
The content of this cooperation basically coincides with the cooperation content of Huawei's smart selection model, which further confirms the above speculation.
Third, Chery has production capacity without intelligence The smart selection model will be a win-win situation
Chery Automobile, as an old cannon of China's automotive industry, is now a bit behind.
As a former "explosive manufacturing machine", Chery QQ, Chery Tiggo and other models are well-known models in the domestic market. It can even be said that chery QQ's popularity in that year was no less than the current Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, or even far more than the latter.
However, with the continuous development of the automobile industry towards electrification and intelligence, Chery's old rivals such as Geely and BYD have adjusted their product structures, launched new energy sub-brands, and continuously increased investment in intelligent research and development, and sales performance and brand awareness have gradually increased.
▲Chery New Energy models on sale
Chery Automobile can basically be regarded as "lying flat" in terms of intelligence and electrification, not only has not launched its own new energy sub-brand, but also basically oil to electricity in the models on sale, and BYD, Geely Krypton's current products have been unable to be the same day, and its market share is gradually decreasing.
If Chery Automobile wants to catch up with the pace of old rivals, at this point, the full-stack self-development obviously has no time and cost advantages. Therefore, Huawei's smart selection cooperation model has become the best way for Chery to accelerate its transformation and even overtake in curves.
For Huawei, Chery Automobile's production capacity advantage will become one of its important factors.
Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei and CEO of terminal BG and smart car solution BU, has previously said, "I hope that the monthly sales of AITO can exceed 30,000 units, this year we can challenge the sales target of 300,000 units, and next year we hope to challenge the sales of one million units with partners." ”
▲Yu Chengdong, CEO of Smart Car Solutions BU
At present, the Xilis Liangjiang Smart Factory has an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles, but for the above million sales target, the annual output of 100,000 vehicles is a bit stretched.
Chery currently has 7 passenger car production plants in China, including 4 new energy vehicle production plants, with a total annual production capacity of about 400,000 vehicles. Chery's production base in Qingdao, Shandong Province, will also complete the roll-off line this year, and it is reported that the Qingdao Chery production base will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 passenger cars.
Moreover, compared with Xilix, Chery Automobile has two major advantages in vehicle production. One is that the latter has established 10 production bases in Brazil, Malaysia, Russia and other countries, with a total production capacity of about 300,000 vehicles per year. Second, Chery has vehicle production lines and production experience for Jaguar Land Rover's high-end models. Going overseas and high-end is also an important goal of domestic auto manufacturers.
Just in February this year, Chery Automobile's sub-brand Kaiyi Automobile also signed an agreement with Huawei to fully open cooperation business in digital transformation and the development of a new generation of intelligent and connected vehicles. The agreement states that in the future, Kaiyi Automobile will use Huawei's superior capabilities to accelerate the construction of green smart factories and drive high-quality development of enterprises with data.
At this point, Huawei's "script" with Chery and Kaiyi is more and more like that of Xiaokang and Xilis.
▲Kaiyi Smart Factory
Interestingly, Chery Kaiyi Automobile's factory is located in Yibin, Sichuan, while Xiaokang Xilisi's factory is located in Liangjiang New District, Chongqing, and the two factories are relatively close, and in the future material transportation, it will also have timeliness and cost advantages.
In summary, from the above signs, Chery Automobile will most likely become Huawei's next smart partner.
Conclusion: Huawei's circle of friends for car manufacturing is getting wider and wider
In May 2019, Huawei officially established the smart car solution BU and chose to enter the automotive industry. Since then, there have been voices saying that Huawei will personally build cars.
But three years have passed, and Huawei has not only verbally denied the rumors of building cars, but also denied this rumor from actual actions
Although Huawei does not build cars, the connection with the upstream and downstream industries of automobiles is getting closer and closer, the circle of friends is becoming more and more extensive, the recognition is also increasing, and automobile-related technologies will gradually become Huawei's next point of strength.