E Weekly Events, Weekly New Melons. Huawei's spring flagship new product launch conference was held as scheduled this Wednesday, which should have nothing to do with the car circle, but how could Yu Chengdong waste such a good opportunity. According to Yu Chengdong, the AITO brand will debut next month a model that does not rely on high-precision maps, specifically the M5 and M5EV high-end intelligent driving versions.
The new forces let us see the new elements of car building, and also let us see what is called chill and what is like walking on thin ice. This Tuesday, on a day that was originally full of spring, last year's "dark horse" Leap Car released its latest annual report, with a net profit loss of 5.109 billion yuan, equivalent to a loss of 45,900 yuan for each car sold.
Last month, the European Union announced that it would "dump" fuel vehicles by 2035, but recently seems to be seeing a turnaround. Because Germany, Italy and other countries opposed the EU's previous resolution to stop the sale of fuel vehicles, they proposed to use synthetic fuel internal combustion engines to extend the "life" of fuel vehicles.
What capital does AITO have in the world of complaining about friends?
On the afternoon of March 23, Huawei held a spring flagship new product conference, launched its first folding screen mobile phone Huawei Mate X3, which is thinner and lighter than the straight board machine, as well as the latest flagship Huawei P60, Huawei Mate X3 and other new products, but as a car account above we are not cold.
The only concern was that Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei and CEO of the consumer business, said about the automotive business at the scene. Of course, "Yu Dazui" really did not disappoint the outside world, and came up and began to release golden sentences: "I know a lot of cars, they burn almost every day, after they burn, they basically dispose of it themselves!" ”
Yu Chengdong said: "Huawei has strict quality standards, and so far it has maintained a record of zero spontaneous combustion. None of the cars in the boundary had burned down, and once the mall caught fire, and it was the rest of the mall that caught fire and burned our car. ”
Of course, this alone is the case, Yu Chengdong said that there are indeed relevant situations, many spontaneous combustion users have indeed made relevant remarks, the manufacturer will appear as soon as possible after the spontaneous combustion of the new car, and after giving compensation, ask the user not to disseminate relevant information.
In addition to the assassinated friends, Yu Chengdong also introduced AITO's product planning. According to the plan, the advanced intelligent driving version of the M5 and M5 EV will be released in April.
It should be noted that according to reports, the high-end intelligent driving version of AITO does not rely on high-definition maps. In other words, the high-level driving assistance of the boundary requires a more comprehensive self-perception ability, and at the same time, it can also "unblock" the restrictions of high-definition maps.
At the same time, all models will be upgraded to HarmonyOS 3 intelligent cockpit. HarmonyOS 3 intelligent cockpit will bring functions such as main driver privacy mode, super desktop, PC collaboration, smart car search, small art reminder, small art wake-up free and HUD height adaptive adjustment.
Overall, if you fancy AITO, if there is not much discount this month, it is still worth waiting.
Losses expanded, sales plummeted, and Zero Run couldn't run?
As the saying goes, the later the results are released, the worse the probability will be. This is the case with the Leap Motor, which not only released late, but also did not get much out of the way.
According to the annual report, in 2022, Zerorun achieved revenue of 12.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 295.41%; The net profit loss was 5.109 billion yuan. If calculated according to last year's sales of 111,200 vehicles, Zerorun loses about 45,900 yuan for every car sold.
According to the annual report, the gross profit margin of Leapmotor in 2022 is -15.4%, such a performance can only be said that there is no harm without comparison. Last year's ideal annual gross profit margin was 19.4%, NIO's was 10.4%, Xiaopeng, which was complained about every day, was 11.5%, and the gross profit of a bicycle was negative, which can only show that Leap Car cannot complete self-hematopoiesis, and it is difficult for the outside world to see its future.
According to statistics, from 2019 to 2021, the net loss of Leapmotor was 901 million yuan, 1.1 billion yuan and 2.846 billion yuan, respectively. This also means that the net loss of Leapmotor in the past four years has accumulated nearly 10 billion yuan, and it is still expanding. More importantly, as of December 31, 2022, Leapmotor held only RMB6.95 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
In the case of such an annual report, if Zerorun sales can continue to rise, it can also cover up all this with sales. In fact, Leapmotor delivered 3,198 units in February and 1,139 units in January. After the beginning of 2023, the overall sales list handed over by Leapmotor was only 4,337 units, down 62.35% year-on-year.
Such a starting trend is really not ideal for ZeroRun, you must know that Zerorun has set a sales target of 200,000 vehicles per year in 2023. According to the current sales trend, it will definitely be difficult for Leapmotor to achieve this unattainable goal.
So what is the solution given by Zerorun in the face of decline? At the beginning of this month, Leapmotor launched extended range versions of the 2023 T03, C01, C11 and C11, and reduced the price of some models. In other words, in the face of the continuous decline in sales, the solution given by Leapmotor is to expand the market coverage area with extended range and impress consumers with price reductions.
However, perhaps let the outside world feel that Leap Car can still "survive", solve the problems of old user products deposited before, and enhance the confidence of users, which is the most important task of Leap Auto.
Synthetic fuels "life" for European fuel vehicles
On February 14 this year, the European Parliament adopted the 2035 European Agreement on Zero Emissions of New Fuel Passenger Cars and Light Commercial Vehicles by 340 votes in favour, 279 against and 21 abstentions. The agreement stipulates that the EU will ban the sale of new fuel vehicles from 2035.
Of course, this proposal has long been put forward, as early as July 2017, and there was no result until last month. Just when the outside world generally believes that the internal combustion engine is at the end of its life, things have taken a turn for the better.
According to the EU legislative process, the European Commission proposes a bill that is passed by both the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union and then enters into force. Given that the EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament had previously agreed, the vote on March 7, which represents the interests of member states, should have been a mere process.
Just as the bill was in the final stages of its implementation, Germany suddenly pressured the European Commission to allow new cars using synthetic fuels to continue to be sold after 2035.
German Transport Minister Volker Wiessing said: "New synthetic fuels can replace fossil fuels and are compatible with fuel vehicles to reduce emissions. We can't just rely on pure electric or hydrogen to travel, we need to be technologically neutral. ”
Later, Italy's Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Zingrani, also responded: "The future of cars cannot be just pure electric, we can focus on a new generation of hybrid models, even if the performance is limited, but it is enough to reduce carbon dioxide emissions." ”
It is clear that Germany's public opposition forced the EU Council vote to be cancelled and postponed indefinitely.
The question arises, what is a new synthetic fuel? For traditional automobile brands, internal combustion engines and gearboxes are the technical barriers they have established for many years, and are the key core to open the gap with other brands. As a result, Porsche and Ferrari have always been big fans of synthetic fuels.
Porsche began to reveal as early as last year that it was developing synthetic dyes, and its eFuel is a synthetic liquid fuel, the main raw materials are hydrogen and carbon dioxide, hydrogen can be obtained directly by electrolysis of water, and carbon dioxide is obtained directly from the air.
The first step in the production of eFuel is the production of synthetic methanol, which can then be processed into eFuel synthetic fuel by converting it to methanol to gasoline. If it is refined, it can reach the octane rating of super unleaded gasoline, which can be used in conventional engines.
Oliver Blume, President of Porsche, said: "Slowing down climate change must be done holistically, and this is the main reason why we need to be open to the development of technology. Electrification is an important trend, but there are around 1 billion gasoline vehicles around the world today and will remain on the road for decades to come. In this context, eFuel is an effective and compensating solution that reduces CO2 emissions regardless of the vehicle's power form, and the internal combustion engine engine powered by eFuel is nearly carbon neutral and can be used without any modifications. eFuel synthetic fuel is available as an additive or separately at a gas station, and we have to give existing owners a choice. ”
Perhaps, the new synthetic fuel can really "continue the life" of the internal combustion engine.