Exclusive Interview with Yu Chengdong: Smart Cars and Car BU have turned losses into profits

High beams

2024-05-21 06:30Published on the official account of Hebei Tencent Automobile's "High Beam" column

Tencent Automobile's "High Beam" is written by Guo Yifei and Shi Ding

In the past five years, Huawei has invested a total of 30 billion yuan, and Huawei's car manufacturing has ushered in the dawn of comprehensive profitability.

"Especially the big sales of the world, in the first quarter of this year, our smart car BU and car BU have all turned losses into profits." Recently, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, made the above statement on Tencent Automobile's "High Beam".

In the past two years, Huawei's automobile-related business has made frequent moves and created the "HarmonyOS Zhixing" smart car model, with four car companies, including Celis, Chery, JAC, and BAIC, respectively creating brands such as "Wenjie", "Zhijie", and "Xiangjie".

For the distinction of the four major brands, Yu Chengdong explained that the "ask" of the world is the meaning of asking and exploring the way, we cooperated with Cialis for the first time, focusing on the full range of SUVs, Zhijie is to hit the mid-range and high-end products, covering sedans and SUVs, the products will do some differentiation and differentiation to meet the needs of different groups of people, and the enjoyment of the world is the main executive high-end users, IKEA, "like the S9 interior space exceeds the D-class, D+-class luxury car, this is not only the first car for young people, the future of children, There are elderly people, and the family is very comfortable to sit."

In September 2023, the facelifted and upgraded Wenjie M7 ushered in a sales explosion, and as of April this year, it has received 174,000 large orders, and Huawei's smart car model has been initially recognized by the market.

It is precisely with the sharp increase in the sales of the Wenjie series products that in 2024, Hongmeng Zhixing has occupied the first position among the new forces of car manufacturing for 4 consecutive months. In addition to the world, a number of Huawei's products are accelerating the intensive listing in the second and third quarters of this year.

At the Beijing Auto Show, Huawei and BAIC jointly built the Xiangjie S9 officially unveiled, which is expected to be released in July-August this year. This is the first executive-level luxury flagship sedan of HarmonyOS Zhixing, which attempts to form a "double 9" flagship with the M9 and change the pattern of the traditional luxury car market. Previously, on April 11, the first car it cooperated with Chery, the Zhijie S7, had just been launched for the second time, and the price was slightly reduced while the configuration was upgraded.

Regarding the progress of the "Fourth Realm", Yu Chengdong said that the brand name of the cooperation with JAC has not yet been decided, and it may be made to be million-level and very high-end, and the benchmark far surpasses the Maybach and Rolls-Royce Phantom, which is a 15 million price level car, which is more luxurious, more high-end, and more comfortable than them.

In the increasingly involuted automobile market, after Huawei and Xiaomi have crossed over to enter the game, in addition to price, the competition is not only in the performance of products such as battery life and intelligent driving, but also in traffic. The founders and CEOs of major car companies are going live one after another, among them, Yu Chengdong, who is popular out of the circle with his "far ahead", is obviously at the forefront of the traffic tide.

"We have been fighting side by side with Mr. Lei in the mobile phone industry for more than ten years, we know each other well, and we know that they will bring strong traffic, which traditional car companies can't do at all, maybe two or three orders of magnitude." Yu Chengdong believes that Huawei's shortcomings are that the color and wheels are not rich enough, too single, this we have to improve, the internal things, intelligent far ahead, cockpit, large space, luxury, comfort is also very leading, pure electric mileage achievement rate is also industry-leading.

As a science and engineering man, Yu Chengdong self-perceives himself as "not very good at words" and "I don't like to show off every day in my bones", but under the corporate style of "not wanting to admit defeat", as the leader of the company, he must force himself to go out and show up and release products in order to have a traffic economy.

He said, "That day, Lao Zhou (Zhou Hongyi) said that I saved the company more than a billion marketing expenses. Our team said that billions of dollars are not enough, because you can't buy the same traffic for billions. ”

But Yu Chengdong also has his own troubles. He said that he had never read the manuscript at the press conference, and it was all played on the spot, "I don't know how to speak, I speak a little straightforwardly, our hometown is called" half tone ", that is, which pot is not opened and which pot is mentioned, there are often problems, sometimes the speech is not so rigorous, others to intercept a paragraph of my words and send it to the end, as soon as I hear the taste is not right."

The following is a transcript of the conversation:

Zhijie S7 is a very good product, before the main problem was delivery

Tencent Auto: On April 11th, our Zhijie S7 was listed for the second time, and now half a month has passed, how is the feedback from the market? (Note: The interview will be conducted at the end of April)

Yu Chengdong: At present, the feedback is quite good. Because when this car was released last year, it was actually quite hot. Because this product is a very good and good product, I am also opening it. Last year, the popularity of the listing was still quite high, and after the listing, there was a problem, a new factory was relocated, which affected production. Coupled with some other parts supply problems, the heat did not last. Now, on April 11th, the product was relaunched because the product supply capacity was resolved. So this product is a very good product, I have been driving it myself, I am driving M9 and S7, and the two are switching back and forth.

Our cars are built for young people and for young families. Why? Because its appearance is very dynamic, sporty, youthful, and at the same time beautiful and easy to open. Especially intelligent, it is Huawei's latest generation of advanced intelligent driving and Turing chassis, which has good handling and stability. Our latest generation of ADS high-end intelligent driving, even the lidar is the latest and highest specification, and it is the same grade as the M9. Unmanned parking and substitute parking are the first to be launched. This car is a great car.

Tencent Auto: To sum up, what is the core selling point of this car or the point that can touch users?

Yu Chengdong: Our car not only has a very good Tuling chassis, but also Huawei's new generation of intelligent digital chassis, which makes the car's handling very good. Our intelligent driving is the latest advanced technology and the performance is very good. And the design of our car is very special, it is the design concept of OneBox, which moves the front cabin forward and the rear cabin backward, so that the whole space is very large. The front cabin is equivalent to buying a 100-square-meter house and giving a 30-square-meter terrace, which is equivalent to becoming a 130-square-meter house, and the large terrace is very large. The rear space cockpit has been moved back so that the passenger compartment space is very large, and your family of 5 people can sit comfortably. The angle of the rear row can be adjusted, and the sedan can be adjusted to 31 degrees, which is only available in high-end sedans. There is 1 meter of space for the front and rear seats, 1 meter for each of the two, and there is nearly 2 meters of room for the member cabin, which is very large. This is not only the first car for young people, but also a car that caters to young families. In the future, when there are children and elderly people, it is very comfortable for a family of five to sit.

Tencent Auto: Our slogan has always been the first car for young people or young families.

Yu Chengdong: Yes, it can even be used as the only car in the family, because the cruising range is very long, our cruising range can reach 855 kilometers, and our cruising achievement rate is 10% higher than others. The lower range we claim is 705 kilometers, we have 855 kilometers, and we have a minimum range of 705 kilometers, and consumers can actually drive more than 500 kilometers. Other cars claim a mileage of 750 kilometers or more, but in fact they only run just over 400 kilometers. We have an ultra-long endurance of 855 kilometers, and the actual endurance achievement rate is also very high. Basically, there is no problem in making the first car in the family, because all use an 800-volt system, 800-volt high-voltage silicon carbide has high energy efficiency, and fast charging speed. The 800 volt system is faster than the 400 volt system, which is very much more efficient and efficient. Because we don't invest much in marketing and publicity, many people don't know such a good car.

Tencent Auto: Actually, the last wave of traffic was very good, I remember that it instantly reached more than 20,000.

Yu Chengdong: The most important thing is that there was a problem with delivery at that time, because the relocation of the factory and the shortage of parts made this cold, which is a big problem. Of course, the design of our car is very distinctive, after moving the cockpit forward, the dashboard is placed at the far end, and a small steering wheel is used, which is very sporty to drive. When I drive, most of the time I'm on autopilot, and sometimes I want to drive on my own, and it feels very sporty and very comfortable. After driving this, I turned on the traditional large round steering wheel, which I felt was too bulky.

Tencent Auto: How many days a week can you drive this car?

Yu Chengdong: I open it every day. Except for sometimes for work reasons, such as receiving customers and drinking for entertainment, I let the driver drive. Other than that, I do it all the time.

Tencent Auto: We noticed that after the launch of this car, the three versions with lidar were reduced by 20,000 yuan. What was the reason for the price reduction?

Yu Chengdong: Because in the face of fierce market competition, our product marketing and publicity investment is insufficient, and many people do not know such good products. There are also some young people who are afraid that they can't afford high-end intelligent driving, in fact, our 192-line high-end lidar intelligent driving system, the experience is getting better and better after the recent software version upgrade, and we are really ahead of the entire industry. And it does not depend on high-precision maps, the whole country can be opened, like many rely on high-precision maps, in a limited small area with high-precision maps can be opened well, but the entire wide range is not good, which is our very big advantage. We've all gone with the mapless version and discarded the high-definition map. Because HD maps are very restrictive, such as roads that are often maintained. Moreover, high-precision maps cannot cover the whole country, only individual places, and the scope is very limited. At this point, I think our advantage is very clear.

The products cooperated with JAC are benchmarked against Maybach and Rolls-Royce

Tencent Auto: We saw that the latest cooperation with BAIC has also been launched, which is equivalent to the concept of "Three Realms" on the same stage.

Yu Chengdong: There is no problem with the appearance of the S9, but the inner is more powerful. The core is on the inside, not on the outside. The exterior dimensions of our car do not exceed those of the Mercedes-Benz S long wheelbase version, but the interior design will surprise you. The EFF is absolutely large. Moreover, the design is comfortable, luxurious, and luxurious, and has been greatly improved in terms of comfort, privacy, and safety, far exceeding the level of D-class cars in the industry. Therefore, the core technology inside will be decrypted in July and August. Our appearance is quite popular.

Tencent Auto: Now that the "Three Realms" are on the same stage, how does the "Three Realms" distinguish between positioning and price range from the perspective of our design?

Yu Chengdong: The question of the world is the meaning of asking and exploring the way, and we cooperated with Cialis for the first time to make a full range of SUVs. Zhijie is a mid-to-high-end, mid-range car, there are sedans, there will also be SUVs, and the products will do some differentiation and differentiation to meet the needs of different people. Xiangjie is an administrative high-end user, which can be used for business or at home. Like the S9, the interior space exceeds that of the D-class and D+-class luxury cars, but the appearance size is more than 5 meters, and it can also be driven at home or commercially, which is more luxurious than others.

Tencent Auto: It is said that there is still a fourth world?

Yu Chengdong: Yes, there is still a name with JAC that has not yet been decided, and this may be a million-level, very high-end. Our benchmark far surpasses the grade of Maybach and Rolls-Royce Phantom, which is more luxurious, more high-end, and more comfortable than them. JAC is positioned as an ultra-high-end, Xiangjie is positioned as a high-end car, and Zhijie is positioned as a wide range of mid-range and mid-to-high-end, which is a car that a wide range of people can afford. However, the main focus is on SUVs.

Tencent Auto: Just now, when you released the Zhijie for the second time, you used a very appropriate adjective to say that Zhijie is a combination of Huawei and Chery's "spirit and flesh", for such a perfect combination, what is the overall sales expectation of Zhijie this year?

Yu Chengdong: Let's take it step by step, because there will be SUVs on the market this autumn in Zhijie, and the combination of sedans and SUVs will develop step by step. Because for consumers, many people don't know about the new brand of Zhijie, and brand education takes time. Because it is not Huawei, it is Zhijie, and it is a new member of the Hongmeng Zhixing family, and consumers need to be familiar with it. Unlike Mr. Lei's Xiaomi SU7, which is a Xiaomi brand, if you play a new brand, it will be problematic. This is a good thing, but because it is a new brand, we need time to let consumers know, so I hope to let more consumers know that this is a very good car.

Chery has been working in the vehicle industry for decades, and Mr. Yin himself has been working in the automobile industry for decades, and Chery's exports rank first in China's automobile exports. It used to be ranked second in exports, but recently it has risen to first in exports.

Tencent Auto: When we were doing a live test with Mr. Yin that day, Mr. Yin said that he often sent text messages to communicate with you.

Yu Chengdong: Yin and I have always been good friends.

Tencent Auto: What are the general communication problems between the two of you?

Yu Chengdong: Including products, cooperation, and management.

Tencent Auto: How often?

Yu Chengdong: Every day.

The world sold well, so that the smart car turned all losses into profits in the first quarter

Tencent Auto: What are the goals you have set for the team this year?

Yu Chengdong: I don't want to announce this goal, of course there is a goal. But I want to tell you that since the beginning of this year, the first quarter of this year has achieved a turnaround, and all losses have turned into profits, because of the big sales of smart cars. Because of the big sales of Wenjie, Zhijie, especially Wenjie, Zhijie has just started to sell, because there was no goods before March, and it only began to be shipped in April. Because this product was a big seller, we turned all the losses into profits. This is bombshell news.

Tencent Auto: This is very rare.

Yu Chengdong: So this is exclusive news.

Tencent Auto: From the perspective of extraction, what kind of concept or confidence should Huawei's partner brands convey to users?

Yu Chengdong: Where is the confidence we provide to consumers, making driving safer and intelligent driving more comfortable. The safety of our people is because some people doze off while driving and have accidents. AEB traditionally only has a speed of a few tens of kilometers per hour, and when the speed is high, it cannot work at all, that is, it is beyond the working range. We now increase the speed of AEB to 110 kilometers per hour and 120 kilometers per hour, which greatly improves the safety of human driving. Reduce driving fatigue when driving intelligently.

At this point, I now drive by myself and don't let the driver drive. First, I also want to find out what problems there are to improve; Secondly, it's really safe on its own, so I can handle work while I'm driving.

Tencent Auto: What are some of the parts of your experience on mobile phones that can be applied to the car? You mentioned earlier that you're the biggest product manager.

Yu Chengdong: The first one is user experience, and we pay great attention to user experience on mobile phones. Like today's mobile phone industry, for example, everyone pays attention to communication performance, good signal, long battery life, and good photography. If today's intelligent driving experience is not good, it is equivalent to the same as the camera performance of the mobile phone, which is similar. If there is no good intelligent driving, it is equivalent to the ability of the mobile phone to take pictures, then it will be scrapped, so these are the core selling points. From the toC industry, we have accumulated the greatest user satisfaction and user reputation. User word-of-mouth is the core of our long-term development, many companies test KPIs, I don't focus on the team's internal management of Care KPI, Care NPS (Net Promoter Score, user net promoter score), to put it bluntly, user satisfaction. I believe that user satisfaction is the first industry in the toC industry, and it is the largest and largest industry.

The second is quality and service, the product quality should be absolutely leading in the industry, and it cannot be said that the product does not have any problems. But we used to just enter the mobile phone industry, and when I took over the terminal business, the FFR reached more than 10%, which was much higher than the leading ones like Apple, which was several times higher. Later, after two years of hard work, we are a fraction of others, and the FFR is 1%, or even less than 1%. Friends are several times higher than ours, which refers to international brands, the best quality products in the past. Like apples, we are several times better than the quality of apples, and this is a big reversal of quality. There is also after-sales service, when I do the terminal, we have been the first in after-sales service satisfaction in the Chinese market for more than ten consecutive years. I said that the first place is not enough, and the gap with the second place must be widened.

The first is consumer satisfaction, all the technology, innovation and experience we do should be able to truly create value for customers, which is the value of customer experience and improve consumer satisfaction. The second is quality and service. I think these two points are the core. If we can support consumer satisfaction, our core technologies should be strong, such as photography technology, chips, algorithms, machine design, experience, appearance design, and industrial design. Our products are designed to stand up to long inspections and feel durable for a long time. Like a beauty, it looks good at first glance, but it doesn't look good when you look at it more. The more we look at this "beauty", the more we look at it, the more durable it is, and the more comfortable it is, so that it can stand the test of time and years, so this design has a long-term precipitation of aesthetics, humanities and arts, and cultural design. Therefore, our team should improve our appreciation, aesthetic accomplishment, and understanding and grasp the integration of fashion and art.

The total flow of thunder is too strong, and traditional car factories can't do it at all

Tencent Auto: What do you think of this year's price war?

Yu Chengdong: It's more rolled.

Tencent Auto: What is Huawei's strategy in the automotive sector?

Yu Chengdong: Our partners are actively responding to the battle, and there is no way to do this, so we can only actively respond to the battle. Because in today's era, you can see that after our mobile phone counterpart, Mr. Lei, brought a strong traffic capacity, which is a capability that traditional car companies simply do not have. Because we have been fighting side by side with Mr. Lei in the mobile phone industry for more than ten years, we know each other and know that they will bring strong traffic capabilities, and he is the chairman, CEO, and founder of the company.

I also see our shortcomings. In addition, our shortcomings are that the color of the car is not rich enough, the color is too single, the color and the wheel hub are not rich enough, and we need to improve this.

Our internal things are good, intelligence is far ahead, cockpit, large space, luxury, comfort is also very leading, pure electric mileage achievement rate is also industry-leading, product design has its own original style, like the instrument screen forward, the cockpit forward design style is unique. Because it is particularly good to drive, the HUD of our car is good in cloudy days and normal conditions, and the front side has backlights, sunlight and forward-facing taillights, and the HUD cannot be seen so clearly. But the instrument screen is moved forward, like driving a fighter jet, that is, the direction of vision is on the road ahead, so it feels very comfortable.

Tencent Auto: What it gives to young people is to be bright, and if it is bright, there will be natural traffic on the road.

Yu Chengdong: Yes, it is a moving, walking billboard, so we have suffered in this regard, we have to learn a lesson, and we must make the colors more beautiful. Of course, our car has good performance, good quality, large space, high degree of intelligence, and long mileage, which are our advantages. We still want consumers to know our value after using it more. I also hope that through you to help us publicize, more people will know this value. After all, we have been working for more than three years and have accumulated experience.

"I'm still a quieter person at heart"

Tencent Auto: Compared with last year's auto show, this year's auto show has undergone earth-shaking changes, and many bosses have personally come down to lift each other's traffic. Including Mr. Yin, when we were live broadcasting, he also said that he wanted to learn from you.

Yu Chengdong: I can't help it, my personality is not very good at words, that's my style in the past. I remember when I was at a teacher and class reunion, I found that I was back in time and that the most silent person at the dinner table was me. Because I'm not very good at expressing myself, my brain is a science and engineering brain, and when I was in school, I wasn't good at liberal arts, and I didn't like to talk or talk very much. But after being a business, there is no way, you have to force yourself to speak, to convey the vision, to pass the requirements, and to put forward the goals to the team, you have to speak. Then after making a toC product, I had to be forced to speak and go to the press conference, and I never read the script during the press conference, and I played it on the spot.

Tencent Auto: This is well-known in the industry.

Yu Chengdong: Actually, I can't help it, because my language is not good, and I can't write anything that is brilliant, because I am a science and engineering brain. But I think in this industry, you have to show up, so I can't help it. My personality and bones don't like to show my head outside, I don't like to show off outside every day, that's not my style. I just don't want to admit defeat in what I do, I have to do my best in everything, that's my style. To force yourself in this industry, you have to go out and show up and speak, there is no way. Because the rules of our industry are the number one boss, as the leader in this field, we must go out to talk about our own products and release our own products, so that there is a traffic economy. That day, Lao Zhou said that I had saved the company more than a billion in marketing expenses. Our team said that more than a billion is far more than a billion, and dozens of billions are not enough, because you can't buy the same traffic for billions, so this industry is also quite funny.

Of course, I don't like this myself, I'm still a relatively quiet person at heart, that is, everyone has their own characteristics. I'm not very good at talking, I speak a bit straightforwardly, our hometown is called "half-tone", that is, which pot is not opened and which pot is mentioned, and there are often problems. Sometimes the words are not so rigorous, and the words expressed will make others take advantage of the loopholes, and others will intercept a paragraph of my words and send it to the end, and the taste will not be right. It's OK to put it together with the context, and the meaning of one of the paragraphs changes.

Tencent Auto: At this Beijing Auto Show, CCPIT put forward the concept of "new automobiles" or "new automobiles in the new era", which is that consumers' recognition of their own brands and their own national brands is better than that of joint ventures, especially in the era of new energy.

Yu Chengdong: Yes, because we found that the younger generation, because they were born and raised today, are in the stage of China's economic development and the people are moving towards a prosperous life, and they are confident in their bones. When the older generation was young, they lived in an era when China was poor and weak, and they were not confident in their bones. Today's new generation of young people are more confident and patriotic, so they are more receptive to independent brands and national brands. Because why are the older generation so superstitious about foreign brands? At that time, China was very poor, and it was not good in all fields, and it was an era when China was really poor and weak. In all fields, we have found that the older generation is not confident, and I will give you an example, we have come into contact with the older generation, these leaders of the older generation who are older than me, they are still not confident in their bones, they think that China is not good at this, that is not good, and only the West can do it. They don't know that China is now very good, it has surpassed the developed countries of the West in many fields, and its capabilities are getting stronger and stronger in many fields, so they are not very clear.

In addition, because the understanding of the industry is also different, because the automobile used to be the era of the mechanical industry, but today it has entered the electronic age, and the automobile is very simple. In the past, the core control points of the traditional automobile brand were the engine, gearbox, gearbox, especially the gearbox was the most difficult gearbox, as well as the mechanical part of the whole vehicle. But today it has been greatly simplified, and today after entering this era, the engine is gone, the gearbox is gone, the motor torque is very large, the horsepower is very large, and the current and voltage are added immediately. After moving towards the era of electrification, the traditional martial arts are completely wasted, but the replacement requires software, chips, algorithms, clouds, and AI, which are not available to traditional car manufacturers. Traditional car factories have brand marketing and product design, but this is something that Chinese manufacturers learn very quickly. Like our new car design, for example, the M9 is newly built, the S7 and S9 are all newly built by Huawei, and everyone has no doubts about this design, and now it is the original design of the team with the mobile phone.