On May 26, the 100,000th vehicle of the AITO brand was held at the Chongqing Cialis Smart Factory, and the model that rolled off the production line this time was the M5 high-end intelligent driving version.
Since March 5, 2022, AITO has reached the 100,000-unit delivery mark in 15 months.
At the offline ceremony, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Device BG and CEO of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, re-elaborated the definition of "Huawei does not build cars": "The accurate explanation is that Huawei does not build cars alone, we build cars together with partners."
So, what is the significance of AITO's 100,000th car to the brand, what is the significance of the new definition of "Huawei does not build cars", and where is the confidence and momentum for AITO brands to achieve higher sales in the future?
Start our interpretation now.
The 100,000th vehicle
As a new car brand, the output of 100,000 units is a threshold that needs to be crossed and a ticket to open up a broader world.
Zhang Xinghai, chairman of Cialis Group, described this in his speech, "This is a phased victory for cross-border business cooperation between Cialis and Huawei".
AITO asked the boundary, it took 15 months to enter the "100,000 Club", which is much shorter than Wei Xiaoli's 35 months, 30 months, and 24 months, and 3 months faster than Extreme Krypton, which also reached the goal of 100,000 vehicles this year.
There are three main reasons why AITO was able to achieve an output of 100,000 in 15 months:
The first reason is that Cialis' previous technology accumulation, including the previously launched SF5 model and range extension, pure electric platform, etc., can be used in the brand, which helps shorten the R&D and production cycle.
The second reason is the improvement of the new energy supply chain and the improvement of consumer acceptance of new energy. In terms of supply chain, when the M5 was released, compared with the first generation of "Wei Xiaoli" when developing the first generation model, the supply chain level of new energy vehicles and other fields, both product performance and production capacity, have been greatly improved, which is conducive to improving product strength and delivery level.
On the consumer side, taking the three "Wei Xiaoli" companies in 2021 as a comparison, the sales data of new energy vehicles given by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers for that year was 3.521 million units, with a penetration rate of 13.4%.
In 2022, the annual sales of new energy vehicles will be 6.208 million units, with a penetration rate of 25.6%. The significant increase in consumer acceptance of new energy vehicles has also contributed to sales growth.
The third reason is the cooperation between Huawei and Cialis. Huawei's control and empowerment of products and "own halo" naturally enhance users' recognition of products.
AITO's process of achieving production of 100,000 vehicles can also be roughly divided into three stages.
The first phase is the ramp-up period, which will take place from March to July 2022, with deliveries of more than 3,000 units in March and April, climbing to more than 5,000 units in May and more than 7,000 units in June and July.
The second stage is the stable delivery period, from August to December 2022, in August, the official delivery of the M7, the monthly delivery volume of the AITO brand finally exceeded 10,000 units for the first time, during this period, except for the November sales fell to 8,260 units, the rest of the monthly deliveries were more than 10,000 units.
The third phase is the delivery decline period, which runs from January to the present. During this period, AITO's monthly deliveries were basically below 5,000 vehicles.
For the situation faced by the world since this year, Yu Chengdong said that it is now in the period of capacity climbing, and the exhibition car will not arrive in the store until late June, and it will take time to complete the sales growth.
In March this year, the AITO brand was also hung up with the name "HUAWEI Question", and there were rumors that Huawei's commitment not to build cars expires this year and will personally build cars.
At the end of March, Ren Zhengfei reiterated that "Huawei does not build cars", and Huawei's rotating CEO Xu Zhijun explained the reiteration that "Huawei does not build cars". He said that some departments, individuals and partners have abused the Huawei brand, Huawei has not built cars, will strictly prohibit the Huawei brand from appearing in front of any car brand, and will clean up and rectify directly operated stores, sales stores, and promotional materials.
Therefore, less than a month after entering the publicity channels, the brand name of "HUAWEI Question" was changed to AITO Question.
So, Huawei reiterated that it does not build cars, what should be the next step? How will the cooperation between Huawei and Cialis unfold in the future? Both the market and consumers want to get a clear answer.
At the AITO Q&C 100,000th vehicle off the production line, Yu Chengdong once again defined "Huawei does not build cars", saying that its accurate interpretation is "Huawei does not build cars alone, we build cars together with partners".
Is this sentence a play on words, or is it reasonable?
Huawei does not build cars "alone"
As a company that has cooperated with many car companies in the automotive business, Huawei's previous definition of automobile-related business was "Huawei does not build cars, but helps car companies build good cars".
At the 100,000th car off the production line ceremony of AITO, Yu Chengdong made a new explanation of "Huawei does not build cars": "Do not build cars alone, but build cars with partners."
From "helping car companies build good cars" to "not building cars alone, but building cars with partners", it shows that Huawei's cooperation with automotive OEMs has changed from the previous assistance to the current full participation.
The car company with the closest cooperation with Huawei is naturally Cialis, and the close cooperation between Cialis and Huawei can also be felt from the speeches of the leaders of the two sides at the ceremony of asking 100,000 vehicles off the line.
Zhang Xinghai said that "the cooperative relationship between the two parties is deeply bound, regardless of you and me", while Yu Chengdong said that he "believes that our cooperation model is the best business model".
For the cooperative car manufacturing model between the two parties, Yu Chengdong used "giving full play to the strengths of the two companies" to describe that Huawei has software capabilities and network connection capabilities, while Cialis has vehicle factories, and the two complement each other.
Based on the speeches of Zhang Xinghai and Yu Chengdong, it can confirm the previous point that Huawei has changed from auxiliary to full participation in the field of car manufacturing.
In the previous era of Huawei's "helping car companies build good cars", the overall definition and development of vehicles was completed by car companies, and Huawei only helped car companies complete the development and adaptation of technologies such as cockpit intelligence and advanced assisted driving, and even only participated as suppliers, such as Cialis Huawei Smart SF5, Extreme Fox Alpha S HI Edition, etc.
In terms of the AITO brand, Huawei "covers the entire process from product demonstration, definition, to user service".
In the process of "building cars with partners", Huawei no longer acts as a simple technology provider, but as a joint research and development participant, as a participant in the whole process of the vehicle life cycle, integrating Huawei's various technologies and concepts into cooperative models, so as to create "more Huawei" cooperative models.
Of course, the decision to work together means that the fate of the AITO brand has been closely linked to Huawei. However, judging from the recent sales trend, Huawei's addition to AITO in terms of brand seems to be declining.
So, if the AITO brand wants to develop for a long time and hit higher sales targets, what is the source of its future confidence and stamina?
Q: Do you want to be the main player?
At the offline ceremony, Zhang Xinghai, chairman of Cialis, announced the goal of Cialis' mid-term business plan: "To be the head brand of Chinese new energy vehicles and create another 5 million market in 10 years."
Yu Chengdong also set up a flag, that is, "to be the main player". Yu Chengdong's definition of the main player is the sales volume of tens of millions of units. He said that reaching production of 100,000 vehicles a year has "created an industry miracle", but its goals are much more than that.
As for how to achieve its goal, Yu Chengdong said frankly that "the choice of direction is often more important than diligence", that is, the direction of cooperation between Huawei and Cialis is still the right option, and continuing to move forward on the route of cooperative car building is the optimal solution for both parties.
As for the long-term development of AITO, Yu Chengdong said that it is "the support of Huawei's strong R&D investment and the close cooperation with Cialis".
Turning our focus from the long term to this year, Huawei and Qianjie plan to significantly upgrade the M5 and M7 this year, and each will launch intelligent driving models, of which the M5 intelligent driving version will be delivered to the store around June 18.
The M9 will be launched at the end of the year, Yu Chengdong said, "The M9 will become the best SUV within 10 million."
According to the sales performance in the past six months, the sales ratio between M5 and M7 is about 3:2, and the sales ratio of the two has been close to 2:1 this year. According to this trend, the main shipment force of this year's Qianjie will still be the M5 series.
Compared with last year's competition in the 200,000-300,000 price segment, this year's competition in this price segment will be more intense. Competition for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y in this price range is still strong, and the champion versions of BYD Han, Tang, and Seal have also improved their competitiveness compared with the old models.
In addition, Xpeng will launch the Xpeng G6 equipped with the new Fuwu architecture this year, and the intelligent driving performance is expected to be in the first echelon, or it will compete with the intelligent driving version of the M5.
It is worth looking forward to whether the M5 Smart Driving Edition can have a high sales performance in this year's fierce competition and help Qianjie return to the delivery level of 10,000 vehicles.
The M7 intelligent driving version will face the competition between the ideal L7, L8, NIO ES6, and even Denza N7 and other models in the 30-400,000 price segment in the future. In addition to the Qianjie car machine and intelligent driving hardware, it is also worth paying attention to how it enhances its competitiveness.
As for the price range of M9, 50-600,000, it is more for the consideration of improving the overall style of the brand, but at present, in this price segment, domestic new energy does have little layout here, perhaps Qianjie can quickly occupy the market within 50-600,000 yuan as ideal in the range of 400,000-500,000?
Is it really enough to rely on only three models to hit the market? Especially in the price range of 200,000-300,000, is it a little weak to rely only on the M5? If products complementary to M5 can be launched in this price segment and occupy more market segments, perhaps the sales performance can make another breakthrough?
In general, the stamina of the brand is the firm cooperation and long-term R&D investment between Huawei and Cialis in the long run, and in the short term, it relies on the replacement of M5 and M7 and the launch of M9, and relies on continuous OTA and continuous optimization to achieve continuous improvement of product strength.
From a long-term perspective, consistency of routes and sustainability of investment are important for long-term development, but at present, how to get out of the painful period of the brand, increase brand sales, and give confidence to the market and partners.
Although the stamina of Qianjie is sufficient, how to bring it into play needs to be continued.
Write at the end
100,000 vehicles is a goal to achieve, but also a new starting point.
At the new starting point, whether the AITO brand can continue to give full play to the advantages of Huawei and Cialis in the cooperation between Huawei, continue to improve the performance of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, and get out of the slump in sales, is the most important place to think about and work hard at this stage.
AITO asked whether the brand can continue to gain a firm foothold in the new energy market and consolidate its position, and this year's sales performance is very important.
Looking forward to a good result on the "report card" at the end of the year.
(End)