21st Century Business Herald reporter Song Doudou Beijing reported that on the eve of the opening of the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Huawei has made frequent moves.
On April 23, the new M5 was launched, and all models are equipped with lidar and high-end intelligent driving systems as standard.
On April 24, Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU (hereinafter referred to as "car BU") made its debut after "going independent" last year, and released a new intelligent vehicle solution brand with intelligent driving as the core - Huawei Qiankun, bringing new and upgraded solutions such as "Qiankun ADS", "Qiankun Vehicle Control", and "Qiankun Car Cloud", and announced that the new generation of HarmonyOS cockpit has evolved again.
"Qiankun, metaphorically piercing the sky upwards to lead the industry, down to the roots, mastering hard-core technology. At the press conference, Jin Yuzhi, who made his debut as the CEO of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU, said that "Qiankun" and "Hongmeng Cockpit" are the two core brands of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solutions, aiming to bring intelligence into every vehicle and lead the second century of global automotive transformation.
On the afternoon of April 24, Dongfeng's new energy brand VOYAH announced more details of its cooperation with Huawei's intelligent car solution, and the model of VOYAH and Huawei will be equipped with Huawei's newly released Qiankun ADS 3.0 system and HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit.
A new brand is born
"Since the establishment of Chebu in 2019, the cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 30 billion yuan, and the number of R&D personnel has reached 7,000. "Car BU is currently in a period of rapid growth, with more than 3 million sets of smart components shipped in 2023, 7 strategic cooperation models on the market, and more than 300 upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain." ”
Based on the BEV+GOD network architecture of ADS 2.0, Huawei's ADS 3.0 was upgraded to a GOD (Universal Obstacle Recognition) network, and upgraded in the fields of mapless intelligent driving, omnidirectional collision avoidance, and all-scenario parking. At the same time, Huawei's Qiankun ADS 3.0 is the first high-precision 4D millimeter-wave radar in China, which improves the ultra-long-range by 35% and the latency by 65%, improving the perception capability of intelligent driving. In addition, the new generation of HarmonyOS cockpit HarmonySpace was unveiled, equipped with innovative technologies such as the Qianwu engine, Qiankun audio and the strongest ecology in the car.
Jin Yuzhi believes that 2024 is the first year of large-scale commercial use of intelligent driving, and it is expected that by the end of the year, more than 500,000 vehicles will be equipped with Huawei's intelligent driving system.
With the penetration rate of smart electric vehicles in China crossing the watershed of 40%, the inflection point of kinetic energy conversion in the automotive industry is infinitely closer. Under the consensus of "electrification is the first half, intelligence is the second half", the competition of car companies in the battle for intelligence has accelerated significantly.
The competition of intelligent automobiles is becoming more and more fierce, and cost reduction has become an inevitable trend. It not only requires car companies to be able to quickly reduce the cost of intelligent driving, but also requires them to have more flexible upgrade capabilities in intelligent driving and provide users with products with a better experience. At the same time, consumers' declining willingness to pay for autonomous driving and the ongoing price war are forcing the cost of intelligent driving solutions to fall.
According to the 2024 McKinsey China Automotive Consumer Insights, Chinese consumers' interest in autonomous driving functions in different scenarios has increased compared to last year, but their willingness to pay has decreased, especially among respondents in first-tier cities.
"It's crazy, it's too fierce, this industry is too volatile, and we are under a lot of pressure to reduce costs, because now the price of cars equipped with Huawei's high-end intelligent driving system is less than 300,000 yuan, which is a loss. Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device Business, and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said frankly at the launch conference of the new M5 on April 23.
"Who is currently the iPhone 4 in the era of smart cars, maybe there is no conclusive conclusion, it may be 'far ahead', or it may be Tesla. But I believe that the iPhone 4 of the smart car must be born in China. Some people in the auto industry told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that in the next 2-3 years, the model market below 200,000 yuan is the direction of various car companies to exert their efforts and roll each other, and it is also the price segment of the "thousand yuan machine" of smart cars.
At the end of the press conference, Jin Yuzhi officially announced the first batch of seven partners of the Qiankun brand. Among them, Dongfeng's VOYAH and Mengshi brands will be launched within the year, in addition to Changan's Deep Blue and AVATAR, GAC Trumpchi, BAIC's Jihu and Xiangjie, Cialis Wenjie, Chery Zhijie, and JAC's new brands, a total of ten strategic models will be listed.
However, in the eyes of the industry, these seven partners are only the beginning of the grand blueprint of the Qiankun brand.
"As a supplier of incremental components for intelligent connected vehicles, we hope to empower our products to various car companies. After Huawei signed cooperation with many car companies, some car companies did not want to announce it now, so the final official release shall prevail. Chi Linchun, vice president of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that Huawei has launched a variety of models such as full-stack mode, component mode, and module mode, in order to facilitate customers to choose Huawei's products and technologies, "Whether it is a joint venture brand, an independent brand or an overseas brand, Huawei provides high-quality, high-price products and services, which is our pursuit." ”
At the meeting, Li Wenguang, President of Huawei's Intelligent Driving Solution Product Line, quipped, "Chi (Lin Chun) always receives orders beyond our R&D capabilities, and we don't have so many R&D resources to take on so many jobs."
"At present, the proportion of intelligent driving in the cost of the car is gradually rising, and the intelligent driving configuration of 150,000 yuan and 250,000 yuan models is different, and the cost is low, and many things cannot be done. We want to build various capabilities such as data and algorithms, focus on more scenarios such as high-speed and parking, and let more consumers experience the technological progress brought by intelligent driving. Li Wenguang believes that for intelligent driving, Huawei's concept is to create productivity-oriented rather than cost-oriented intelligent driving, that is, to allow users to use it better and better, and at the same time develop and improve more functions and features.
Is Huawei's car BU profitable in sight?
In fact, since Huawei's strong entry into the automotive industry in 2019, the automotive industry has generally believed that Huawei can empower the automotive industry through cross-border integration and change the pattern of China's automotive industry.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2019, Huawei made its debut as a Tier 1 company. A month later, Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, signed Huawei's organizational change document, officially announcing the establishment of Huawei's car BU, which is a first-level department along with the carrier BG, enterprise BG, and consumer BG, demonstrating the importance of the automotive business.
At that time, Huawei's car BU planned two routes: one was to sell parts and technical solutions to vehicle companies as a traditional Tier 1 and Tier2 as a parts supplier, and the other was to apply Huawei's full-stack intelligent car solutions to products in the Huawei Inside (HI) model, and authorized the use of the HI logo on the car body.
At the end of 2020, the automotive BU and consumer BG were integrated. Huawei has realigned the business jurisdiction of the intelligent vehicle solution BU from the ICT Business Management Committee to the Consumer Business Management Committee, appointed Yu Chengdong as the director of the IRB of intelligent devices and intelligent automotive components, and began to plan a third model in addition to the above two models, smart cars. In May 2021, Yu Chengdong was appointed CEO of Che BU, directly managing Huawei's smart car business and opening the smart selection cooperation model.
Although Huawei has repeatedly emphasized that it does not manufacture cars, Huawei's tentacles in the automotive industry chain have expanded from the beginning to the end, and it hopes to occupy a leading position in the industry. A number of insiders of car companies that have in-depth cooperation with Huawei described to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter: "Huawei is a strong partner".
"Huawei's car BU has always been a banner in the domestic industry, and its unique business model has always attracted the attention of the industry. Huawei still adheres to Ren Zhengfei's principle of not directly manufacturing cars, but it wants to give Huawei's smart car solutions, which have been continuously invested heavily for many years, a commercial name and capital export. An analyst told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
On the other hand, without more car companies choosing Huawei's smart car solutions, it will be difficult for Huawei to recoup the huge investment in the project within a few years. Moreover, any technical solution will reduce the marginal effect of technological advancement with the delay of time, and other companies may launch more advanced technical solutions at any time.
Therefore, the split of the car BU can not only reduce Huawei's financial burden, but also eliminate the problem with automakers, and at the same time, Huawei will continue to master R&D technology and smart car business, which can also leave more room for development.
At present, Huawei's car BU is accelerating towards independence. In January this year, Shenzhen Yinwang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. was established, which is wholly owned by Huawei. In March, Shenzhen Yinwang also established subsidiaries in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Dongguan, Nanjing, Suzhou and other places. Some analysts pointed out that Shenzhen may be loaded with Huawei's car BU technology and resources, and will become a technology open platform with diversified equity in the future.
"In the past few years, Che BU has lost 10 billion a year, then 8 billion, and 6 billion last year. Due to the high sales of mid-to-high-end models built with partners, we will be able to achieve the goal of turning the car BU business into a profit this year. Yu Chengdong revealed at a forum in mid-March that Huawei's smart car business has turned losses into profits in the first three months of this year, and the car BU is close to the edge of breakeven, and it is expected that it should be able to turn losses into profits from April onwards, forming a benign positive development.
For the latest progress of profitability, Jin Yuzhi told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that Huawei car BU is not worried about profitability, "We believe that the direction of intelligent driving is right, profitability is sooner or later, and it doesn't matter which year it is profitable." ”
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