2023 is undoubtedly a year full of challenges and opportunities for the car-making industry. Price war has always been a traditional means of competition between automobile manufacturers, and this year's price war has run through the whole year, so that many manufacturers feel the pressure and intensity of the market.
At a time when the market is becoming more and more demanding, automakers have to seek new competitive strategies and value growth points. Entering the second half of the year, the concentrated outbreak of "Huawei" has brought new vitality to the entire industry and quickly seized the visual focus of the car manufacturing circle. Huawei, which has a unique influence in the smartphone industry, is now replicating that influence to the smart car industry, which is seen as the next smart device field.
At the end of the year, the industry's attention once again focused on Huawei's HarmonyOS Zhixing. From Huawei's point of view, with the hot sales of the Wenjie and Zhijie series models, Huawei's smart car business will continue to accelerate around Hongmeng Zhixing in the future. On December 26th, at the Wenjie M9 and Huawei's winter all-scenario press conference, Hongmeng Zhixing's most important product of the year, and the current undisputed "Huawei complete body" - Wenjie M9 was officially released, with a total of 4 models and a price of 469,800-569,800 yuan.
What is Huawei's complete body?
In recent years, Huawei has been promoting the in-depth integration of the automotive industry and information and communication technology with its profound technology accumulation and forward-looking strategic layout. It not only promotes the development of new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles, but also promotes the entire Chinese automobile industry to move towards intelligent innovation.
The M9 is the best proof carrier of Huawei's strategic foresight, system combat capabilities, and technology research and development capabilities, and provides a standard answer to the future commercial development model of China's smart cars and the R&D and implementation of future innovative technologies.
Subverting tradition, the future of Hongmeng Zhixing can be expected
During this period of time, Huawei's "appearance rate" in major hot searches has been unprecedentedly high.
From the explosion of the new M7 in Wenjie, to Huawei's announcement of the independence of the car BU business, to Yu Chengdong's public invitation to Cialis, Chery, JAC, BAIC and FAW to join the new joint venture. Although Huawei does not make cars, its every move will attract the attention of the entire automotive industry. Never before has a tech company been able to make such a huge impact on an entire industry.
The reason why Huawei can have this kind of popularity that is unique in the industry is largely related to the subversion of the traditional business model of Hongmeng Zhixing. For a long time, the business logic of traditional car companies has been less in tune with the emerging car-making philosophy. From the industrial layout based on fuel vehicles to the Internet-based and intelligent ecological construction, the automotive industry is undergoing an unprecedented change. In this critical period of change, Huawei's new model has undoubtedly injected new vitality and direction into the industry.
Since the previous Guangzhou Auto Show, Hongmeng Zhixing participated in the exhibition with an independent booth, and Huawei began to build momentum for its smart car model. In fact, this year is an important turning point for Huawei's smart car model, or a "monetization moment" accumulated over the years.
Huawei's HarmonyOS Smart Mobility is a strategic upgrade of the smart car model, and the concept of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility is not only a smart car, but also a new ecosystem. To this end, Huawei and Ceris Automotive have created a new situation in cross-border cooperation, breaking down the barriers between the traditional automotive industry and the high-tech field. Through this cooperation, Huawei will not directly build cars, but will provide vehicle solutions, including core technologies such as intelligent driving and Internet of Vehicles, as well as 2C capabilities in the consumer field, in order to promote the upgrading and transformation of the intelligent automotive industry.
Leveraging Huawei's 30 years of experience in the fields of communications and information technology, HarmonyOS helps partners better integrate and utilize these cutting-edge technologies to build a highly collaborative and resource-sharing industry chain. This model not only effectively revitalizes production capacity and provides partners with room for growth, but also conforms to the development trend of China's automotive industry, making Huawei's smart car series stand out in the highly competitive market.
In this context, the advent of the M9 is particularly timely. As the annual flagship product under the HarmonyOS strategy, the M9 integrates Huawei's latest technological achievements in the ICT field, which not only reflects Huawei's technical strength in the field of intelligent and connected vehicles, but also demonstrates its far-reaching insight into the future automotive business model.
The launch of the M9 is the best proof of the integration and practicability of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution, and it is also a powerful product that deeply collaborates with all parties in the industry chain and promotes a win-win situation for the industry.
From the perspective of business model, Huawei has taken a "completely different" development path based on Hongmengzhi. Judging from the results, in addition to the popularity of models under the smart car system, it has also shown enough attractiveness for the entire industry.
The last one that could set off such an effect in the car circle was Tesla before 2020. At that time, Tesla, as a recognized "catfish" in the new energy vehicle industry, indirectly triggered the wave of car manufacturing that rose around 2014 and the subsequent market value carnival of new cars.
Now, the emergence of HarmonyOS has not only improved the market influence of China's intelligent networked vehicles, but also provided an example for the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry. We have reason to expect that with the further development of HarmonyOS Zhixing and Wenjie M9, Huawei will set off greater waves in the automotive industry and lead the industry to a new development node.
Generational leadership, Huawei's "technology core"
With the rapid growth of the new energy vehicle market, China's auto industry has also begun to shift from the first half of "electrification" to the second half of "intelligence". At the same time, a game around independent brands has also quietly started.
It is not difficult to find that this year, independent brands have created a number of high-end intelligent pure electric vehicles to impact the high-end market. Without exception, these models have full technological content: high computing power, lidar, intelligent cockpit, and air suspension, which have almost become the standard configuration of "high-end".
As a new player, Huawei's catfish effect in the car circle has also begun to appear, and the game between this "new player" and "big guy outside the circle" has also entered a white-hot stage, and who can occupy the "top stream" of the car circle for a long time will become the main attraction in the future.
However, unlike the high-end sub-brands incubated by traditional car companies, Huawei's leading position is reflected in its scarcity as a global advanced ICT solution provider. Compared with traditional car companies that lag behind in the accumulation of intelligent technologies, Huawei has established a generational leading position in the core technology of automotive intelligence by virtue of its accumulation in the digital field.
This leadership is due to Huawei's high R&D investment over the years and the large number of top talents focusing on ICT technologies. Ten years ago, when intelligence and connectivity were still in their infancy, Huawei recognized this trend and began to invest heavily in R&D in the field of automotive intelligence. With an annual R&D investment of more than 10 billion yuan and 7,000 engineers directly involved in R&D, Huawei attaches great importance to this field.
In particular, the continuous investment of 5,000 R&D personnel in intelligent driving technologies and solutions demonstrates Huawei's leading position in the core automotive technologies such as intelligent vehicle control, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent electric vehicles. This technology precipitation has ensured that Huawei has been able to maintain its leading position in the field of automotive intelligent core technologies for several generations, and compared with traditional car companies, Huawei has demonstrated more comprehensive and advanced technical support capabilities.
Huawei's solid progress in the field of smart cars is a natural extension of its position as a global ICT solution provider, and it is also a testament to its leading role in scarcity in the digital era. Through in-depth exploration and large-scale investment in technology research, Huawei has not only promoted the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry, but also injected innovation momentum into the global automotive market.
With the support of a series of policies, the mainland's new energy vehicle industry has seized the development opportunity and risen rapidly. From the perspective of the industry, with the continuous introduction of new models with intelligence as the selling point, consumers' purchase demands have gradually changed from the initial search for freshness to rational shopping around. In the face of the general trend of increasing the penetration rate of new energy year by year, the common issue facing many car manufacturing groups is how to use the change of user needs as the anchor point to create an experience innovation that can bring real benefits to users.
At this point, the M9 is indeed firmly on the key node. This smart car is not only a demonstration of Huawei's technical strength, but also represents a high-level realization of full-stack technology solutions in practical applications. For the M9, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Device BG and chairman of the automotive intelligent solution BU, once said that it "will redefine the best intelligent SUV within 10 million yuan".
The M9 is equipped with Huawei's full-stack technology solutions for smart cars, including HUAWEI XPIXEL megapixel smart projection headlights, a 10-screen HarmonyOS cockpit, HUAWEI ARHUD, HUAWEI ADS 2.0 high-end intelligent driving assistance system, ultra-dimensional security system, Huawei Turing intelligent chassis, HUAWEI Giant Whale 800V high-voltage electric platform, new Xiaoyi smart assistant, HUAWEI SOUND series, Huawei's top 10 smart car technologies, including the super range extension platform, have all been put on the car.
In the M9, Huawei's technology core has been fully displayed, from hardware to software, to every detail of the user interface, revealing the coordinated development of technology and innovation. Thanks to Huawei's all-round technology investment, the M9 not only fills the market gap, but also is equipped with Huawei's latest technology to rewrite the industry standard for smart cars.
The launch of the M9 not only highlights Huawei's long-term layout in the deployment of smart car products, but also shows its potential to leverage a larger market space. Through the promotion of the M9, Huawei not only brings new innovation directions to the industry, but also provides consumers with more choices and higher product value.
What Huawei is showcasing this time is not just a product, but a revolution in new experiences and lifestyles led by intelligence. With the launch of innovative products such as the M9, Huawei will play a more central role in the future development of the automotive industry, and will continue to bring unprecedented changes to the industry and society as a whole.
Boost the whole industry chain and expand the "boundary" of smart cars
At present, the competition of new energy vehicles is becoming more and more fierce, and intelligence has become a new position for major brands to compete, in addition to traditional car manufacturers, Wei Xiaoli and other new forces in car manufacturing, to Wenjie, Jiyue, Xiaomi and other car brands backed by Internet giants have also joined the battle.
In the past, under the traditional logic, the automotive industry often focused on volume design, volume configuration, and volume cost performance. In this all-encompassing competitive environment, automakers often sell cars at low prices in order to compete for market share. In the eyes of industry insiders, price war is not a sustainable competitive strategy, and enterprises need to consider more important competitive factors such as quality, technology, and service to achieve long-term development goals.
In fact, in order to stabilize their market share and achieve the annual sales target, new energy vehicle manufacturers have carried out multiple rounds of price wars this year. Since Tesla's price cut at the beginning of the year, the competition of low price discounts has continued to this day, and the background of the year-end impulse is expected to make a new round of combination boxing competition more intense. It can be said that the current sales of new energy vehicles have formed a strong path dependence on the strategy of price reduction.
So, when the domestic auto market enters the "second half" of intelligent competition, what should car companies do?
Judging from the explosive sales of the 250,000-level new M7, the performance of Huawei intelligent technology in the car side is beyond doubt. As Huawei's year-end finale, the flagship ace model of Wenjie, Wenjie M9 will be the best demonstration of Huawei's all-technology strength on the automotive platform. Up to now, the order volume of the M9 has reached 54,000 units.
From the perspective of the industry, the technological leadership of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, combined with outstanding product definition and design, user experience construction, coupled with strong marketing and sales capabilities, constitute the "strength puzzle" that major car companies are currently chasing after each other. Together, these factors determine the competitiveness of a brand in the future market.
Huawei's "boost" on the intelligent track has brought the competition in the new energy vehicle market from the first half of "electrification" to the second half of "intelligence", and the core theme of the automotive industry has changed from focusing on scale expansion, cost control, and efficiency optimization to focusing on intelligent competition. This new track will not only give birth to more innovative supply chain and service systems, but also inject new vitality into the continuous growth of the entire industry.
Taking the top ten black technologies carried by the M9 as an example, these technological innovations are not simply technology shows, but will gradually shape the development of the entire intelligent automobile industry ecology. These black technologies, from autonomous driving systems to intelligent Internet of Vehicles technology, to innovative battery technology, to interactive intelligent cockpit design, are setting new technology and experience benchmarks for the new energy vehicle industry. At the same time, they will also drive technology upgrades and business innovation at every link in the supply chain to explore and realize new value.
This intelligent inflection point is both a challenge and an opportunity for the automotive industry. Under this new competitive system, only those enterprises that can grasp the opportunity, continue to innovate technology, closely integrate user needs, and have strong implementation capabilities can benefit from the wave of intelligence and ultimately win the favor of the market.
In the future, with the advancement of technology and the evolution of consumer demand, intelligent technology will become the leading force driving the transformation of the automotive industry. The M9 is just an important milestone in the history of this evolution, and the black technology it is equipped with and the experience revolution it brings will accelerate the pace of the entire industry, providing the prerequisites and demand foundation for the vigorous development of the entire intelligent vehicle industry chain.
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"Volume" is the key word of China's auto market in 2023. From the competition of product functions, to the competition of technology and iteration capabilities, the competition in the auto market has entered a white heat. In such a market environment, it is not easy for new entrants to break the existing market pattern, and those brands that have achieved the deep integration of car companies and technology giants seem to have found a shortcut to accelerate their breakthrough.
Just as the sale of domestic Tesla a few years ago led to the explosion of the new energy vehicle market. Now, Huawei's smart car ecosystem may play the role of Tesla's "catfish", driving the smart electric vehicle industry into a new stage of the game.
Huawei's advanced ICT technology is a catalyst for China's automotive industry to enhance its global competitiveness, which is also in line with the national strategy to promote the development of new energy vehicle consumption to a higher level and more intelligent direction. While taking advantage of the core technologies in the upstream of the industrial chain, Huawei is helping partner companies and the entire industry to re-engineer and upgrade the value chain, which will undoubtedly promote the long-term development of the global intelligent automotive industry and truly achieve a leap from quantitative expansion to qualitative growth.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media APP)