Recently, Meizu, which has been silent for a long time, suddenly became popular because of making cars.
According to a report by Phoenix.com Technology, two models were exposed in the fully customized Flyme Auto on the official website of Meizu Unbounded Zhixing, namely the upcoming Lynk & Co Zero, and Meizu's MX, the first Meizu MX car named after the Meizu brand, which aroused market expectations.
BT Finance landed on the official website of Meizu Unbounded Zhixing on the 14th, but failed to find the relevant models. Such a quick "emergency repair", allegedly because the name of the vehicle was not officially determined. Just over a month after the release of the Xiaomi SU7, Meizu released a new car, once again pushing the grievances between Lei Jun and Huang Zhang to the forefront.
Meizu founder Huang Zhang was once called the "godfather of Chinese smartphones" in the mobile phone circle, and Meizu released the Meizu M8 in 2009, which almost created a precedent for domestic smartphones. Meizu was in the limelight in the domestic market, and then Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and VIVO, the four kings of Chinese smartphones, Meizu was a well-deserved smartphone king at that time.
Huang Zhang did not initially make mobile phones, but started with MP3, in 2006 Meizu took three years to become the first in China's MP3 industry, but at that time the MP3 market was in decline, Huang Zhang knew that it was time to transform, but he didn't know what to do, just in January 2007, Jobs amazed the world with the iphone, which found the direction for Huang Zhang to change careers - to make smart phones. Two years later, in the summer, the Meizu M8 was launched, a phone that attracted huge attention in the Chinese mobile phone market, and even attracted the attention of Steve Jobs, who claimed that the Meizu M8 was "Stole our ideas and intellectual property".
At this time, Lei Jun also set his sights on the mobile phone business. Huang Zhang welcomed Meizu and unreservedly discussed with Lei Jun, according to Huang Zhang's later post, the discussion included "from the overall concept to how and why the mobile phone is done, the development process to supplier selection, production and sales, the company's status and plans to the introduction and contact of core personnel and financial statements." Lei Jun saw a number of extraordinary technologies of Meizu mobile phones, as well as the development process to supplier selection, as well as production and sales, and had the idea of investing in Meizu, but was rejected by Huang Zhang. But Lei Jun soon established the Xiaomi mobile phone company, according to media reports at the time, Lei Jun may have poached Meizu's R&D team, which made Huang Zhang very annoyed, and the two began to fight each other from intimacy.
On the third day of the launch of Xiaomi's first mobile phone, Huang Zhang posted on the Meizu interactive community: "Lei Jun, as an angel investor, used the leadership relationship of the high-tech zone to contact and arbitrage Meizu's trade secrets. Lei Jun did not respond to this, but Huang Zhang then became the most ruthless person who scolded Lei Jun.
Whether Lei Jun took Meizu's trade secrets, it has also become an unsolved case in the mobile phone circle, coincidentally, a similar scene has been staged again, some media reported that after Xiaomi announced the car, Lei Jun visited Geely Automobile, and by the way, the president of Geely Automobile Research Institute and some members were dug into Xiaomi.
Interestingly, the protagonists of the two incidents, Meizu and Geely, turned out to be friends, and Geely officially acquired Meizu on July 4, 2022. Geely's purpose in acquiring Meizu is very simple, to complete the integration of vehicles and machines as soon as possible. Meizu's announcement to build a car is not only a strong alliance between Huang Zhang and Li Shufu, but also the easiest way for Meizu to quickly realize its dream of building a car.
After Meizu announced the new car, Geely's share price ushered in two consecutive gains, with the latest market value of HK $102.8 billion.
The first custom car was more than just a gimmick
In 2023, after Geely acquired Meizu Technology, Geely held more than 70% of the shares, and Li Shufu became the actual controller, and he merged Xingji Times and Meizu into Xingji Meizu Group, which involves three major tracks: smartphones, smart cars and XR (extended reality). Today's new Meizu has become a new intelligent brand with deep integration of cars and mobile phones.
Li Shufu set the goal of "sales volume of no less than 650,000 units in 2025, and the global market share of high-end smart electric vehicles will reach the top three in the industry", Li Shufu's expectations for new energy vehicles are very high. Previously, in 2015, Li Shufu's five-year plan of "Blue Geely Action" had planned that Geely would account for 90% of new energy vehicle sales by 2020, but this plan was not realized, and only 5.2% was completed by 2020, which also made Li Shufu increase the importance of new energy vehicles.
After Lei Jun's high-profile announcement of the car, the mobile phone manufacturer is also accepted by the market, Meizu as an old rival with Xiaomi, the mobile phone business in 2015 once shipped as high as 40 million units, the mobile phone market share of about 20%, although Meizu has declined in recent years, but its core technology and industrial supply chain are still alive, which makes Meizu have a very big advantage.
It is worth noting that Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Xingji Meizu Group, is another identity of a bigwig in the automotive industry. According to the data, Shen Ziyu was born in the car circle. Previously, he worked for Shanghai General Motors. He has extensive experience in the field of Internet of Vehicles business. In 2012, Shen Ziyu worked for PATEO Group, providing intelligent network systems for many car companies. In 2017, he founded ECARX to provide intelligent cockpit system-level solutions, central computing platforms, and intelligent driving software for vehicles. Subsequently, he served as the director of SiEngine Technology, focusing on the automotive electronic chip business. This is another plus point for Meizu to build a car.
At the autumn press conference in November 2023, Shen Ziyu, then chairman and CEO of Meizu Group, said that Meizu would combine Geely's manufacturing capabilities to launch its first car, the MEIZU DreamCar MX. The car will be deeply customized by users, and Meiyou can co-create and define a large number of personalized details such as its livery, interior, and car theme. This is also the first model in China to accept user customization. Shen Ziyu said that Meizu's first model can not only be customized, but also equipped with the Flyme Auto system, and will also integrate Meizu's experience into software, design and interior and other aspects, and will only be sold in the Meizu Group channel after its launch.
At present, Meizu has not officially disclosed the specific price of the model, but the official outline of the appearance, the main intelligent and technological sense of pure electric car, the collection of Geely's most advanced industrial system, SEA vast architecture, as well as from ECARX's EcarX chassis and full blood Flyme Auto cockpit solution, Meizu MX price may be and Xiaomi SU7 stiff, some market participants expect the price to be between 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, this price range is just the price range of Xiaomi SU7.
Whether Li Shufu and Huang Zhang did it intentionally or purely coincidentally caused speculation, it has to be said that Xiaomi SU7 has another strong competitor in the region.
Meizu, which is backed by Geely, has greater ambitions?
Geely sold 153267 units in April 2024, up 39% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles were 51,428, a year-on-year increase of about 75%. From January to April, the Group's cumulative sales exceeded 620,000 units, a year-on-year increase of about 47%; The cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were nearly 200,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 120%. Geely's sales soared, surpassing BYD to become the world's tenth largest car company in one fell swoop, which is inseparable from Geely Automobile's intelligent process.
Li Shufu said in an interview with the media that whether mobile phone companies start to build cars, or automobile companies try to build mobile phones, the ultimate goal is to create a better user experience, through the collaborative optimization and upgrading of the industry, to achieve the integration of mobile phones and car machines. Emphasizing that "the car will become the next intelligent mobile terminal". Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Meizu, believes that "car manufacturers without mobile phone software will gradually fall behind." Li Shufu and Shen Ziyu's public statements almost paved the way for Meizu to build cars.
It is undeniable that compared with the old rival Xiaomi announced the construction of a car in 2021, Meizu made a car 3 years late, which is a difficult time gap to make up. But fortunately, although Meizu made a car late, it moved relatively quickly, which is directly related to the backing of Geely, after all, Geely wants resources to have resources and technology, and most importantly, Geely can provide a steady stream of financial support.
Investor Shi Baogang is more optimistic about Meizu's car-making, "Geely's industrial chain in the automotive field has been completely opened, Li Shufu has more than 30 years of experience in making cars, although Meizu's mobile phone business is declining, its smart phone technology is not bad, especially Meizu's Flyme system still affects the mobile phone industry, Geely + Meizu is likely to form a 1+1>2 situation." ”
Unlike Lei Jun's "layman" car-making, Shen Ziyu, who was the chairman and CEO of Xingji Meizu Group, has a deep industry background in the automotive industry and the mobile phone industry. He is familiar with the two popular tracks of mobile phones and smart cars, and has been named "2023 Industry Leader".
The award gave Shen Ziyu the reason for "accurate insight into the current cutting-edge trend of deep integration of the automotive industry and consumer electronics industry, committed to opening up core technologies in key fields, and empowering a group of innovative "pathfinders" in China's automotive industry." He profoundly foresees that mobile phones and automobiles are the two major smart terminal entrances in this era, and their deep integration will not only bring consumers a new experience, but also create industrial opportunities for geometric growth. ”
Since announcing the construction of the car in November 2023, Meizu has promised to create an exclusive "DreamCar" for "Meizu friends", and claimed that all users who buy the Meizu 21 can directly use the original price to deduct the purchase price of the car when buying the car, which is equivalent to buying a car and getting a mobile phone.
Judging from a series of measures after the establishment of Meizu, Meizu's automotive business is a bit like Huawei's route, but the market influence of Meizu smartphones is far less than that of Huawei and Xiaomi, and now the market share of Meizu mobile phones has fallen from 20% all the way to 0.1%, while the market share of Huawei and Xiaomi is more than 15%, which forms a huge contrast. Shen Ziyu is also aware of this, and started a store expansion plan, at present, Meizu has only about 500 stores nationwide, and Huawei and Xiaomi stores are as high as 33,000 and 10,000 respectively, the gap is huge, and it is almost impossible for Meizu to catch up with competitors in the number of stores in the short term.
Unable to directly empower car companies like Huawei, Meizu needs car companies to empower them, which is why Shen Ziyu has repeatedly emphasized that he is backed by Geely. Geely needs to make up for its own shortcomings in the field of intelligent cockpit and vehicle-machine interconnection, as well as to cope with the impact of Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing, and Meizu is the best section to supplement.
A war with Xiaomi is inevitable
Past grievances aside, Meizu MX's market position is in the same price range as Xiaomi, and it is difficult to get along peacefully. Xiaomi SU7 has recently successfully broken the circle, with more than 100,000 locked orders, which has made friends in the domestic new energy automobile industry extremely anxious, which is why Wei Jianjun, Yin Tongyue and Li Shufu have gone live one after another.
The big sale of Xiaomi SU7 also gives Meizu a reference and learning sample, which will make more people realize the convenience brought by intelligent cars and the importance of vehicle-machine integration. Although Meizu has declined, it has accumulated a large number of users and has become a representative of "small and beautiful" mobile phones, which also has a certain amount of traffic, and the first model named after Meizu will also receive a lot of attention. And the competitive advantage of the Meizu MX model lies in the Flyme Auto. With the advancement of Meizu in the field of AI, Flyme Auto has evolved perception and understanding capabilities that are more in line with the concept of intelligent cockpit, and will enrich the car machine with the help of mobile phone software, and the mobile phone and the car will appear novel car-machine interconnection, becoming a new experience.
Industry insiders pointed out that Geely may put wheels on the "mobile phone", while Meizu continues to do its old job to make the car look more like a mobile phone. The integration of the two is more in line with market demand.
Meizu MX needs to treat Xiaomi SU7 as an opponent and as an object of learning at this time, after all, models like Xiaomi SU7 that can sell well are not common among new car manufacturers, although it has Geely's fully equipped industrial manufacturing system and core technology and Meizu's smartphone-related technology, it may be too early to say that this can replicate the success of Xiaomi SU7.
One of the major selling points of new energy vehicles is the interconnection of vehicles and intelligent cockpits, which requires the coverage of smart phones, with Meizu's current mobile phone market share, Meizu needs to quickly increase its market share, and at the same time, Meizu mobile phone users will identify with such a model, there are uncertain unknown factors.
Of course,The price of the product is the weapon to impress consumers,Now the price of MeizuMX has not been officially announced,MeizuMXThe pricing is really in conflict with XiaomiSU7,Or it is not a wise choice,After all, XiaomiSU7It has been certified by the market,In this price range, it is hard Xiaomi,Meizu may need to pay more to improve marketing。
Meizu's car-making speed is very amazing, Meizu MX has attracted enough attention, and whether these concerns can be converted into traffic and sales, in addition to looking at the price positioning of Meizu MX, it also depends on the loyalty of "old Meizu friends" to the Meizu brand, it should be emphasized that Geely's market share has surpassed BYD to become a real international auto giant.
Author | Mowgli