Yu Chengdong, who crossed the line, was unwilling

Author: Zhou Zhiyu Chai Xuchen Editor: Zhang Xiaoling

When the outside world thought that Huawei really went down to build a car, Ren Zhengfei poured cold water.

On March 31, in an internal document released by Ren Zhengfei, he reiterated that Huawei does not build cars, and clearly demanded that the Huawei brand be strictly prohibited from appearing in front of car brands or as car brands.

Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, also bluntly said at the March 31 earnings conference that some departments and partners are abusing the Huawei brand.

This series of actions all point to Qianjie, as well as Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Automotive BU.

On March 8, the promotional materials of Qianjie changed from "AITO Qianjie" to "HUAWEI Qianjie", and the market was filled with the voice of Huawei's car manufacturing; Many car owners also cheered that they could finally put Huawei's logo.

They rejoiced too early. Wall Street News learned that after Huawei's internal publication, the Qianjie store has removed all Huawei-related promotional materials from April 1.

Yu Chengdong was unwilling to do this. On the evening of March 31, Yu Chengdong posted in his real name in Huawei's voice community, "This era has changed, and this will only make it more difficult for us!" Everyone will understand it in a few years, leave it to time to test! ”

Between the lines, it reveals unwillingness and helplessness.

At the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum on April 1, Yu Chengdong once again frankly said that Huawei invests more than 10 billion yuan in intelligent vehicle business every year, of which the majority is intelligent driving. Without the large-scale use of Huawei's solution car sales, it is impossible to form a closed loop of commercial monetization.

In Yu Chengdong's view, Huawei wants to be a parts supplier in the automotive field, but this era puts forward higher requirements for parts suppliers. In particular, intelligence is not the sales path of standardized components in the past, but in-depth cooperation with car manufacturers.

This turmoil has exposed the route dispute of Huawei's internal automotive industry to people. The phased contradictions in Huawei's automotive business are highlighted, should we first sell cars to survive and achieve profitability, or should we insist on only being a supplier?

According to Ren Zhengfei's idea, Huawei does not build cars, but wants to be a technology and solution provider for smart cars. He emphasized this several times internally.

In the past few years, Huawei has tested three paths in cooperation with automotive companies: component supply mode, solution integration HI model, and smart car model.

The smart car model, led by Yu Chengdong, is the most in-depth cooperation with car companies, in addition to providing basic components and intelligent car full-stack solutions, but also participating in the design, management, marketing and sales.

Among the models of the three modes of cooperation, only the top model was released. Therefore, with the suspension of Wang Jun, Huawei's cooperation with car companies is becoming more and more inclined to the smart selection model.

But since the beginning of this year, sales have fallen sharply. In order to boost sales, Yu Chengdong has appeared frequently since the end of February, standing for Cialis, the manufacturer of the industry, and it was he who led the transformation of "AITO Question" into "HUAWEI Question".

According to Yu Chengdong's idea, it is necessary to build "Huawei Question" into an ecological brand. Starting with cooperation with Cialis, it will also cooperate with Chery, Jianghuai and other car companies to produce various Huawei models.

Internally, Huawei's automotive business is the only loss-making business. In the 2022 financial report, Huawei disclosed for the first time that the revenue of its automotive business was 2.077 billion yuan, accounting for only 0.3% of the total. At the same time, the relevant R&D expenditure exceeded 10.3 billion yuan, and the investment was far from covering the output.

MARKING "HUAWEI" UNDOUBTEDLY GIVES THE WORLD A DIRECT ENDORSEMENT OF THE HUAWEI BRAND. In this way, the more "Huawei cars" are sold, the more Huawei will share, and it can achieve profitability as soon as possible.

But this is a dangerous move for Huawei's ambition to be a supplier. Yu Chengdong obviously crossed the line.

The name change to "HUAWEI Qianjie" made the outside world think that Huawei's car manufacturing was close to the door, and some car companies with strong control over their own industrial chain were wary, and cooperation with Huawei began to waver.

On March 27, GAC Group announced that GAC AION's AH8 project has been changed from joint development with Huawei to in-house development. Huawei has downgraded from the original HI mode to component mode.

In the eyes of many people in the automotive industry, Huawei is a supplier with a strong voice in the automotive industry chain. Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, once bluntly said that he was unwilling to hand over his "soul" to Huawei; Xiao Yong, deputy general manager of GAC AION, said that cooperation with Huawei basically has no bargaining power.

Huawei's reiteration of "not building cars" this time is still based on the hope of dispelling the concerns of partners and striving to cooperate with more car companies. Huawei still insists that in the era of smart electric vehicles, it will surpass the Tier1 (Tier 1 supplier) model of Bosch and car companies and become Tier 0.5.

Neither Ren Zhengfei nor Yu Chengdong seems to be wrong. One is a strong supporter of strategy, and the other is profit-oriented; This is a long-term and short-term issue.

For the current Huawei, it is still necessary to maintain a difficult balance between the two, infinitely close to "car manufacturing" in cooperation with car manufacturers, and dispelling external doubts and expanding customers.

In the era of electric vehicles, where the industrial chain and supply chain pattern are being reshaped, will a top supplier Huawei surpass Bosch be born, or will a super automotive group Huawei appear?

The answer can only be left to time.

This article does not constitute personal investment advice, does not represent the views of the platform, the market is risky, investment needs to be cautious, please make independent judgment and decision-making.