Lei Jun is gradually losing absolute control of Xiaomi cars.
Don't ask me why, what is the Xiaomi SU7 like in the past week after it was launched, everyone knows what it is. 88,898 units were ordered in 24 hours, setting an industry record, and the 40% unsubscription rate also broke the industry record. This is the sequelae of "fast-moving consumer car manufacturing".
Is the more than 100 billion cars on Xiaomi's account enough? The reason why I say this is because it is not unrelated to the control mentioned earlier. 100 billion yuan in other industries may rewrite the fate of the industry, but the automobile is an asset-heavy and high-risk industry, not necessarily.
Xiaomi car, not bad for money?
On March 30, 2021, Xiaomi announced its entry into the automotive industry. What impressed me the most about that press conference was Lei Jun's sentence "We have money, we can afford to lose". Xiaomi Group's cash balance as of the end of 2020 was 108 billion, which sounds astronomical.
Hearing this, my first reaction was surprisingly consistent with the views of many netizens. How much is Huawei's R&D investment in a year? I really checked it, and in 2023, Huawei's R&D investment will be 161.4 billion, and the cumulative R&D investment in the past ten years will exceed 1.11 trillion! 100 billion yuan is indeed not enough for Huawei's R&D expenses in a year.
In the automotive industry, Weilai Automobile, which has faced a life-and-death situation several times, has accumulated losses of more than 80 billion, and Hengchi Automobile has lost more than 84 billion in only two years, as well as Gaohe and Weimar...... I won't give examples here, tens of billions of losses can only be said to be common for the automotive industry.
There is an indisputable fact that after Tesla entered China, the perfect new energy vehicle industry chain has greatly lowered the technical threshold for car manufacturing. There is Tesla in front of the road, BYD, Geely, and Chang'an in the back, although Xiaomi Auto did not seize the opportunity, but it ushered in the best opportunity.
Because of this, the cost of building a car is no longer a secret. The source cites the relevant data statistics of "the forefront of intelligent driving", including materials, parts, manufacturing costs, research and development, molds, logistics, including the average cost of Xiaomi SU7 vehicles is around 300,000, if it is true, even the lowest Xiaomi SU7 will lose more than 80,000 yuan per unit sold.
It seems that Mr. Lei said that "selling one and losing one" is right, but don't think that this has anything to do with his "pet fans", the pricing of the car must be a commercial behavior, and it is impossible to have any relationship with feelings.
Of course, this cost estimate is also dynamic, it will change with the change of scale effect, enough orders, the stronger the bargaining power to negotiate with suppliers, and the cost of research and development, public relations, channel costs, etc. will naturally be gradually diluted.
Do you think that the cost of building a car is so high, and it is the most cost-effective to buy Xiaomi SU7 at this time?
Is a Xiaomi car of more than 200,000 expensive?
As soon as the Xiaomi SU7 press conference ended, the real "rice noodles" were full of disappointment with the price of 215,900, although it was close to 90,000 units in one day, but a large part of these people were not "rice fans". In other words, the people who buy Xiaomi cars and those who use Xiaomi mobile phones are not necessarily the same people, at least most of the current orders are not.
Back then, the 1999 yuan Xiaomi mobile phone made Lei Jun famous in the mobile phone circle, and all the copycat mobile phones went out of business overnight, and his killer feature was "cheap". However, is the Xiaomi SU7 cheap? The answer is yes, it is certainly not cheap.
Xiaomi SU7 is positioned as a "C-class luxury technology car", which is the same level as Mercedes-Benz E-class and BMW 5 series, if you follow this logic, the price of 200,000 is really not expensive. But compared with the space of the executive-level car, Xiaomi SU7 is particularly embarrassing, the rear space is not even as good as the B+-level Magotan and Passat, and there is a C-class car positioning, and the space applicability is only a decent B-class, and the riding experience in the rear row is really not very good. Obviously, there is no way to compare with Mercedes-Benz E-class and BMW 5 Series, and it is not as practical as Magotan and Passat, and the key is that even the price is at a disadvantage.
Some people may say that Xiaomi SU7 should not be compared with fuel vehicles, but the actual situation is that compared with new energy vehicles, its advantages are not obvious.
Let's take the highly overlapping price of ZEEKR 007 as an example, the price of this car ranges from 209,900 to 299,900, and there are a total of 5 models on the configuration, which is more selective than only 3 models Xiaomi SU7. We compare the rear-wheel drive enhanced version of the entry-level model ZEEKR 007 with the standard version of Xiaomi SU7, the most significant difference is that the former is equipped with 800V high-voltage system as standard, while Xiaomi SU7 is only the top MAX model is 800V, the other two models are 400V, 400V and 800V There is a big gap between the cost, charging speed, design and safety of the three-electric system, even so the standard version of Xiaomi SU7 is still thousands of dollars more expensive.
If compared with the extreme krypton 007, the gap is not so exaggerated, then the 159,900 Changan Qiyuan A07 true fragrance version 710km flagship version is compared with the 215,900 Xiaomi SU7 standard version, which will definitely shock your jaw. The gap in the specific configuration can be seen in the comparison of the configuration table in the figure above,Here are a few core data,Changan QiyuanA07Using77Degree7Ternary lithium battery,XiaomiSU7It is73.6Degree lithium iron phosphate battery,Changan QiyuanA07It is also equipped with electric suction door、16Speaker、Seat massage、8Airbag,50InchHUD...... Not only is the configuration much higher, but the price is also more than 50,000 cheaper.
It seems that the starting price of Xiaomi Auto 215,900 obviously failed to meet the most simple expectations of rice fans, on the contrary, the products of professional car manufacturers such as Geely and Changan are more sincere when you look closely, and I believe that 40% of the unsubscription is just the beginning.
In addition, from the market feedback of Xiaomi SU7 on the market for a few days, there are indeed a lot of negatives - test drive out of control, abnormal noise, aluminum wiring harness instead of copper core wire, etc., and there was even a situation where the tires of the test vehicle were reversed, which can only be seen on the surface, and there will be more problems in those places that cannot be seen? No one knows.
As for saying that you have money and can afford to lose, it's better to talk about it behind closed doors. If you speak publicly, you lose. Back then, when Jia Yueting built a car, his financial strength was no worse than Xiaomi, and more importantly, when people's sense of innovation far exceeded Xiaomi, even after a few years, Xiaomi is still not at the same level as FF. As Cheng Shisheng, vice president of public relations of FF, said frankly in an interview with "The Car is Obedient": "Although FF did not succeed, it is on a road of innovation. "Jia Yueting's failure is temporary, even if it fails, it is still the object of plagiarism, he is still a generation of heroes, we have reason to believe that even if it is another ten or twenty years, as long as there is a breath left, Jia Yueting will make a comeback.
The voice is boiling VS the door is full of birds, is there a cat behind the high traffic of Xiaomi cars
For Xiaomi cars and SU7, it is definitely the top stream of the current automotive circle, whether it is frequently on the hot search or high-speed traffic jams to change into SU7 auto show, it has proved its high traffic. Especially during the Qingming Festival holiday, "The Car is Obedient" saw a group of people in Shenzhen lined up for a long queue to see SU7, and was indeed shocked, after all, this is too exaggerated, in the automotive field was born for more than 100 years, such a long queue to see the car is the first time in my impression.
Looking at the scene of the buzzing voice, I posted pictures and videos to other media Lao Shi, they also gave their own opinions, compared to my exclamation, he said that Lei Jun as the god of marketing, once used hunger marketing to make the newcomer Xiaomi become the top three in the industry, as Liu Qiangdong said: Don't compare marketing with Lei Jun, we can't compare with him! In this context, so many people queuing up to see the car is considered to be another marketing method of Mr. Lei, whether the people in the queue are "scalpers", so that people look very lively.
I don't think so about the views given by the media. No, on the first working day after the Qingming holiday, we came to the Beijing Xiaomi Automobile Experience Center to visit the store. Indeed, there is no such a long queue as above, after entering the store, although it is a working day, there are still many people in the Xiaomi store looking at the car, although it is not as "exaggerated" as Shenzhen, but you can also see its high traffic. I also briefly asked the staff, and he said: Although there are many users who come to see the car every day, it is not as exaggerated as on the Internet, at least there has been no queue at the door to see the car in their store. As a comparison, we also came to the opposite Wenjie experience store, to be honest, the car people are not much less than Xiaomi, it can be seen that the high traffic is not only Xiaomi cars.
In the process of visiting the store,I also found a problem,Everyone knows that Xiaomi SU7 is for young people,But in the process of experience,I found that there are more people over 40 years old than young people,I don't know if it's because young people are at work on weekdays,I also randomly interviewed a few people who looked at the car,Everyone's opinion is almost the same:That's the second car I want to buy a pure electric model,Xiaomi is so hot now that it's a bit unreasonable not to see,But through the actual experience,This car is not amazing enough,Or Lei Jun didn't convince me to place an order immediately,Or you have to look at the actual experience of others who bought it before deciding。
In general, the automotive industry is a high-tech-intensive industry, and the advantages of FMCG car manufacturing are obvious, in any case, we still hope that Xiaomi can be more rigorous in making cars, and there will be no "car repair queue" situation, after all, the greater the traffic, the higher the possibility of being counterattacked.