On September 12, a shell financial reporter came to a Huawei experience center in Beijing and saw that the new M7 had been placed in the store. Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi/Photo
Yu Chengdong once again stood for the boundary platform.
"We have invested far more than 500 million this time, whether it is the body, chassis, performance, have been upgraded, the new M7 vehicle system will be as smooth as the Mate 60 PRO", on September 12, the five-seat SUV - M7 was officially released. Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device BG, and CEO of Intelligent Vehicle Solutions, appeared at the press conference.
Although Huawei publicly emphasized that "no cars are built", on September 12, shell financial reporters came to a Huawei experience center in Beijing and saw that the new M7 had been placed in the store, and passengers came to the store one after another to see the car and book a test drive. The sales staff told the shell financial reporter that this car is made of deep cooperation between Huawei and Cialis, "so the car will be placed in Huawei stores, and the press conference will also be introduced by Mr. Yu."
"Qianjie is the real son who can be sold in Huawei stores", the salesperson told reporters, Qianjie is Huawei's deeply empowered, co-designed with car companies, and contains the highest amount of "Huawei".
Spent 500 million new upgrades, what are the Huawei black technology figures in the new M7?
Where did 500 million burn? Yu Chengdong talked about the high cost of the car at the press conference, "For the design of our battery packs and other solutions, many partners think that the solutions we use are too complicated and too lossy, but we must ensure safety at the expense of costs."
"We have cloud management control for the battery, which is Huawei's advantage, if the battery is at risk, you can call the owner as soon as possible" "At present, the function of unmanned parking has also been tested internally", Yu Chengdong announced many advantages of the new car this time.
Despite this, the price of new cars is still lower than many people expected. The five-seat rear-drive version of the new M7 Plus is priced at 249,800 yuan, the five-seat four-wheel drive version is priced at 284,800 yuan, and the six-seat rear-drive version is priced at 269,800 yuan. The new M7 Max five-seater smart driving version is priced at 309,800 yuan, and the six-seat smart driving version is priced at 329,800 yuan.
"We often forget where we parked our car in the parking lot in the mall, with the Hongmeng intelligent cockpit, we can directly find the car on the mobile phone", at the press conference, Yu Chengdong introduced the advantages of the new M7, including Huawei.
According to the above-mentioned sales staff of Huawei Experience Center, Huawei currently has three modes for automotive business. One part is to provide parts to BMW, BYD and other car companies, and the other part is to rely on Huawei's intelligent solutions to cooperate, such as Beiqi Extreme Fox, Avita, etc., and more car companies will cooperate in the future. And the third is the smart car mode.
An Guangyong, an expert of the Credit Management Professional Committee of the All-Union M&A Association, told the Beijing News shell financial reporter that as intelligent networked vehicles become a trend, Huawei can jointly provide users with a better experience by cooperating with car companies with its advantages in intelligence and electronic technology, but in general, crossover car manufacturing needs to solve manufacturing and compliance problems in order to succeed in the competitive market. For Huawei, even if it does not directly build cars, industry barriers and technology research and development still need to be overcome by a lot of investment.
Once a dark horse of new energy vehicles
At the end of 2021, with the release of the first model, the M5, the company was established. Looking back at 2022, Qianjie has achieved good results and once became a dark horse of new energy vehicles. According to the annual report released by Cialis, the revenue of new energy vehicles reached 25.934 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 482.8%. The cumulative sales of Cialis new energy vehicles reached 135,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 225%.
According to data released by Qianjie, after the first vehicle sales exceeded 10,000 in August 2022, they remained stable at more than 10,000 units in September and October, fell to 8,000 units in November, and stabilized at more than 10,000 units in December.
Cialis happily announced at that time that the company's revenue growth was mainly due to the higher price of new energy vehicles M5 and M7 units, and the increase in sales. 2022 is the first year that the company's high-end new energy vehicle products are put on the market, comprehensively promoting channel construction and increasing investment in publicity, creating a record of nearly 80,000 units launched and sold in the first year of the new brand.
However, the dark horse road to the world is not smooth. For the sales of Qianjie, Yu Chengdong said earlier that he expected to reach 300,000 vehicles, and then changed his words to say that in the case of global core shortage, 300,000 vehicles is no longer possible, and it is already a miracle to sell 100,000-200,000 vehicles.
In order to boost sales, after Tesla announced a sharp price cut on January 6 this year, Qianjie became the most responsive brand this year, and on January 13, it announced that some models of its M5 EV and M7 products were reduced in price, with the highest discount reaching 30,000 yuan.
At that time, some institutions predicted that as the first competing car company in China to reduce Tesla, Qianjie is expected to quickly exchange price for volume. However, according to the production and sales data released by Cialis Group, sales of new energy vehicles have declined year-on-year for five consecutive months so far. In March this year, Cialis new energy vehicle sales were 8,511 units, a year-on-year increase of 14.23%, and in the following five months, brand sales continued to decline year-on-year. Among them, sales in April were 6,917 units, down 19.12% year-on-year. May sales were 8,562 units, down 18.08% y/y. June sales were 9,348 units, down 24.72% y/y. July sales were 6,934 units, down 47.83% year-on-year.
Ask the new M7 interior. Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi/Photo
Losing the aura of "Huawei", how to counterattack sales in the world?
Today's new energy vehicle market is rising together, Tesla and Wei Xiaoli and other new car-making brands have formed a "one super many strong" pattern, and traditional car companies that have returned to the taste have also bet on new energy models, including luxury brands such as BBA.
Farther away, technology companies like Xiaomi and Baidu are also entering the game. This is an unprecedented lively scene, which not only means broad prospects for the future, but also means the market battle between major manufacturers and brands.
For a long time, one of the biggest highlights of the Qianjie industry is that it is infinitely close to "Huawei car". In 2021, it can be said that it has created a new attempt to deeply integrate new energy vehicle companies and ICT technology companies, and at the same time, this integration has also brought new value to all aspects of production, sales and research. At the beginning, the M5 was first equipped with the HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit, which was the first time that Huawei's HarmonyOS system appeared in the automotive ecosystem.
According to Haitong International Research Report, as the crystallization of the in-depth cooperation between Cialis and Huawei, the Qianjie brand was considered by the market to be a new car model with high gold content at the beginning of its birth. Huawei's exclusive empowerment in Hongmeng cockpit, core components, product definition, vehicle tuning, channel sales, brand marketing, etc., benefited from the highest "Chinese content", and after the launch of the M5 and M7, sales were booming.
However, just half a year ago, Huawei clarified this statement. Whether the benefits previously brought by Huawei's brand strength and sales network will disappear are "branded" in the minds of consumers.
On March 31, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei once again issued the "Resolution on Huawei Not Building Cars", emphasizing that "Huawei does not build cars" and does not allow the "Huawei" or "HUAWEI" logo to appear on the publicity and appearance of the vehicle, and the document period is five years.
Xu Zhijun, vice chairman and rotating chairman of Huawei, said that the term "Huawei car" in the market is that some departments and individuals abuse the Huawei brand. Huawei will ensure that the Huawei brand is not abused.
Xu Zhijun stressed that Huawei does not build cars, nor does it have any "Huawei cars". Huawei will clean up and rectify all flagship stores and authorized stores, and return to Huawei's strategy and positioning. He said Huawei's decision not to build cars had just been reissued and was valid for five years. "Huawei does not build cars, but helps enterprises build good cars and become incremental parts suppliers."
Zhang Xiaorong, president of the Deepin Research Institute, pointed out that Huawei's entry into the automotive industry, but not directly manufacturing cars, has become a bottleneck in opening up the market. In order to get the stepping stone, Huawei chose to master the core technology of automobile manufacturing and cooperate with other car manufacturers, this model has not yet reflected the expected power.
In his view, if it competes with technology giants, such as Apple, Google, Tesla, BYD, etc., Huawei's current participation is not enough, and it still needs to increase investment in technology, market, brand, etc., in order to be expected to gain a place in the highly competitive automotive market.
It should be noted that cross-border car manufacturing became a trend in the early years, and Huawei's "not building cars" seems to be going in reverse. In this regard, An Guangyong said that the current threshold for crossover car manufacturing has indeed been lowered from some perspectives. The core competitiveness of new energy vehicles no longer depends solely on engine technology, but more on intelligence, interconnection and user experience. This provides tech companies such as Xiaomi with the opportunity to enter the automotive market.
However, there are still manufacturing, safety, regulatory and other challenges in crossover manufacturing, which can pose obstacles for some new entrants. Despite the potential opportunities for crossover manufacturing, sufficient capital, technology and strategic cooperation are still required to successfully enter the market.
In An Guangyong's view, at present, one of the biggest bottlenecks and difficulties faced by Huawei in car manufacturing is the competition and barriers of the traditional automotive industry. Automotive manufacturing is a technology- and capital-intensive industry that requires significant R&D investment and manufacturing experience. Although Huawei has advantages in intelligence and electronic technology, they may lack the relevant manufacturing experience and supply chain advantages compared to traditional automakers. In addition, regulatory and certification requirements in the automotive industry can also be difficult obstacles to overcome.
As for whether the world can turn around, Zhang Xiaorong said that it depends on the market's acceptance of the car and the performance of competitors. At present, it seems that the upgrade point of Qianjie this time mainly lies in Huawei's blessing, and through Huawei's halo, the new car may achieve good sales results.
Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Editor Yue Caizhou Proofreader Liu Baoqing