Text | Wendao Business School
1. 17 years of dormancy, the east wind
On June 27, 2003, a joint venture automobile company called Dongfeng Yu'an was established.
This is a small matter, but it has unexpectedly created several industry precedents.
On the one hand, the well-known Dongfeng Motor and Dongfeng Industry are on the one hand, and the little-known private enterprise Yu'an Group on the other side.
What is even more surprising is that Yu'an Group only invested 50 million yuan to obtain 50% of the company's shares. Naturally, Zhang Xinghai, the helmsman of Yu'an Group, also became the general manager of this company.
Twenty years ago, there were almost no cases of private enterprises and large state-owned car factories joining forces to build cars. What's more, it can take control of state-owned enterprises.
So much so that after the signing of the contract between the three parties, a person in charge of Dongfeng Motor praised Zhang Xinghai: "You won the battle in this negotiation." ”
The creator of the miracle is Zhang Xinghai.
Unlike early private entrepreneurs such as Li Shufu, Wang Chuanfu, and Wei Jianjun, his car-making concept is slightly alternative.
Zhang Xinghai understands that the automobile industry has a large investment and a long chain, and no one can enter if they want to, but must have product, brand, talent and technical advantages.
In other words, Zhang Xinghai firmly believes that private enterprises cannot rely on alone. This concept will run through Zhang Xinghai's entire car-making process in the future.
In this way, Zhang Xinghai fell into the top three Dongfeng car-making forces in China at that time, and entered the bend in the form of a joint venture.
Zhang Xinghai's argument that he borrowed the east wind and relied purely on luck is untenable. The trust and popularity accumulated over the past 17 years may be the key.
In fact, Zhang Xinghai has a deep relationship with Dongfeng.
In 1986, Zhang Xinghai took out a lot of 8,000 yuan at that time to create Baxian Phoenix Electric Spring Factory. Since then, it has been producing seat springs for Changan Automobile.
In 1996, Zhang Xinghai founded Chongqing Chang'an Shock Absorber Co., Ltd. to produce shock absorbers for motorcycles and automobiles. Soon he broke into a reputation, and his company produced motorcycle shock absorbers, which have been the first in production and sales for 13 consecutive years.
With this foundation, Zhang Xinghai decided to take it a step further: in 2002, he entered the field of motorcycle manufacturing and built his own motorcycles. But the heavens were not beautiful, and the subsequent "motorcycle restriction order" bankrupted the plan.
But at this time, Zhang Xinghai caught up with Dongfeng Motor Company to find a partner. In the face of the olive branch thrown by Dongfeng Motor to the society, Zhang Xinghai smelled an excellent entrance to enter the automobile and seized this golden opportunity in one fell swoop.
From car seat springs to shock absorbers, from folding motorcycles to mini cars manufactured by Dongfeng United Motors, Zhang Xinghai has gradually entered the core field of passenger car manufacturing.
Although he was lucky, Zhang Xinghai paid a great price. From 1986 to 2003, it took Zhang Xinghai, a private entrepreneur, 17 years to reach the threshold of car manufacturing.
Second, the well-off has succeeded, and the new energy has failed
Although he wants to build a car, Zhang Xinghai has good results in every track.
In 1996, when he made motorcycle shock absorbers, his company ranked first in the industry in terms of production and sales for 13 consecutive years.
After 2003, he cooperated with Dongfeng to manufacture Dongfeng Xiaokang brand minivan, which was once divided into three parts of the world with Wuling Hongguang and Chang'an Star.
In 2007, Chongqing Xiaokang Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was established and renamed Chongqing Xiaokang Industrial Group Co., Ltd. in 2011. This is the well-known well-off shares, and now Cialis has evolved from this. In 2011, Dongfeng Xiaokang mini car sales exceeded 1 million.
Five years later (2016), relying on the small subdivision of mini cars, Zhang Xinghai sent Xiaokang shares to the capital market and listed in one fell swoop.
But this is far from enough for Zhang Xinghai, who is committed to building cars. What's more, at this time, Zhang Xinghai already has greater confidence and strength, and he plans to show his ambitions in the broader passenger car market.
Just like seizing the opportunity of Dongfeng Motor's cooperation, Zhang Xinghai smelled the tuyere of new energy. But with it comes crises and challenges.
In 2016, Zhang Zhengping, the son of Zhang Xinghai, who was only 27 years old, established a new energy vehicle company called "SF Motors" in Silicon Valley, USA, and then SF MOTORS changed its name to SERES (this is the origin of Cialis).
At that time, not many people were optimistic about Cialis, but it was a car-making farce of the "second generation".
But Zhang Zhengping's next big move quickly slapped everyone in the face. Cialis not only recruited Martin Eberhard, the first CEO of Tesla, but also acquired his company and team to obtain "three electrics" technologies such as electric drive systems, control systems, and battery systems.
In a sense, Eberhard is the true "father of Tesla". Not only is he the founder, but he also derives the brand name from Tesla, and he also built Tesla's earliest prototype, the Tzero.
Since then, SF Motors has established an autonomous driving research center in cooperation with the University of Michigan, and has obtained an autonomous driving road test license issued by the State of California.
In China, "Jinkang New Energy", a subsidiary of Xiaokang Co., Ltd., has also launched a 2.5 billion yuan pure electric passenger car construction project. In 2017, Xiaokang Co., Ltd. obtained the eighth new energy production qualification in the country, and new energy vehicles became the company's core strategy.
How do you look at it, Zhang Xinghai, Zhang Zhengping and his son are going to do a big job on the new energy track.
Just do it. On the evening of March 28, 2018, Zhang Zhengping held a meeting at the Silicon Valley headquarters to showcase his four-motor technology platform and launch two pure electric SUVs - SF5 and SF7.
At that time, Zhang Zhengping proudly said that SF had developed its own core three-electric technology and autonomous driving technology, "technology is the core competitiveness of SF".
But reality is playing another joke. Until 2020, the annual sales of the Celis SF5 were only 791 units.
The output is very small, the movement is huge, and the input is amazing. SF, which was established in 2016, was originally invested in Xiaokang shares. It is the huge financial support of Xiaokang Co., Ltd. that SF was able to complete the R&D layout in China, the United States, Japan and Germany around 2018, and build dual manufacturing bases in China and the United States, completing the production capacity layout of 200,000 vehicles.
However, the new energy strategy soon dragged down the well-off shares. According to incomplete statistics, from 2016 to 2022, Xiaokang shares have successfully issued 3 additional shares (failed 1 time), with a cumulative net fundraising of 13.573 billion yuan. These funds are mainly invested in the field of new energy vehicles.
Counting 6 billion yuan of equity investment, nearly 10 billion yuan of R&D expenses, and nearly 4 billion yuan of production capacity investment, Xiaokang shares will invest at least 20 billion yuan in the field of new energy vehicles in the six years after listing.
Zhang Zhengping's new energy globalization strategy has suffered a major setback.
3. Commit to Huawei and tear up the world
Father and son soldiers on the car-building array.
Zhang Zhengping's overseas car manufacturing was not smooth, and Lao Tzu had to go out in person.
Just like when he was on Dongfeng Motor, Zhang Xinghai began to look for a new variable that could be relied on for a well-off new energy.
It was at this time that a national brand more famous than Dongfeng appeared.
In 2019, Huawei's BU business was established, and Huawei positioned itself as not to build cars, but to focus on ICT technologies to help enterprises build good cars.
In 2020, Yu Chengdong was appointed as the Director of the IRB for Intelligent Terminals and Intelligent Vehicle Components, and later served as the CEO of the Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, becoming a veritable leader in Huawei's automotive business.
Yu Chengdong led Huawei's smart car BU to explore three paths, namely parts supplier, HI mode, and smart car mode.
The component supply model has been around for a long time. Before the establishment of Huawei's BU business, it sold motors, lidars and other components globally. In HI mode, Huawei provides full-stack integrated solutions for car companies. Previously, Huawei and BAIC Blue Valley launched Jihu, and Changan launched AVATAR, but the market performance was mediocre.
The smart car mode is the highlight of Huawei's car manufacturing. Under this model, Huawei hopes to further control the entire design, R&D, and sales process of its partner car companies, and deeply participate in car manufacturing.
Huawei is urgently looking for OEMs to realize their dream of building cars, and Celis is also in urgent need of large manufacturers to empower technology and brands. Two manufacturers and one mentality converged and completed the deep bundling in an instant.
After two years of cooperation, the M5 and M7 were born in 2022.
Zhang Xinghai won the bet again. In March 2022, the M5 accounted for 41% of the Group's NEV deliveries in its first month of listing. Since then, the entire Wenjie series once accounted for 9% of the group's new energy vehicle sales.
Perhaps because of the strengthening of the new energy brand and strategy, Xiaokang was directly renamed Cialis this year.
On the other hand, the hot sales of the world have also caused Cialis to be highly dependent on Huawei.
A discussion about whether the surname Hua or the surname is Sai is quietly brewing. Even, many people directly characterize that Cialis is the "foundry" of the world.
On the official website of Wenjie, the detailed introduction page based on the model is "joint design of Cialis and Huawei", with Cialis in the front and Huawei in the back.
But Yu Chengdong once said unabashedly that AITO is Huawei's ecological car, and the ecological brand of Wenjie is Huawei's leading ecological brand.
This extremely delicate and uncertain relationship was finally passed on to the sales side of the question.
At the beginning of 2023, the sales volume of Wenjie will be cut in half. In February, Wenjie simply stopped announcing deliveries. From August to December last year, the average delivery volume exceeded 10,000.
Coincidentally, at this time, the voice of Huawei's independent car manufacturing is noisy again.
On March 8, 2023, AITO's official Weibo posted a promotional poster. Among them, "AITO Wenjie" has become "HUAWEI Wenjie". Huawei's terminal quickly reprinted Weibo, but Cialis, as a real OEM, did not say anything.
At the end of March 2023, Huawei voted by a show of hands, and Ren Zhengfei signed a resolution on the automotive business: "Huawei does not make cars" and "it is valid for 5 years".
In this way, both sides end up pulling. The Question Realm began to grow upwards again.
Fourth, 38 years of car building, the end of the world
From April to May 2023, the sales volume of Wenjie increased by more than 20% for two consecutive months.
On September 12, 2023, the new M7 was officially launched. The total number of vehicles in the first month of the market exceeded 60,000, and the cumulative number of vehicles exceeded 80,000 in the 50 days of listing.
This is of course related to the vigorous propaganda of Huawei and Yu Chengdong. In October 2023, at the most tense stage of Wenjie's production capacity, Yu Chengdong even appeared at the Cialis Smart Factory to personally supervise the speed and quality of vehicle production. At that time, Yu Chengdong said: "We are working overtime and starting work continuously, so that everyone can drive the new car home as soon as possible!" ”
With the help of Wenjie, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023 will be 82,700 units, an increase of 253% from the previous quarter. The revenue of Cialis in the fourth quarter accounted for 58% of the full year. In the first quarter of this year, Cialis sold 114138 vehicles, a year-on-year surge of 172%.
On the morning of June 26, Hongmeng Zhixing officially announced that the sales volume of M9 in the first half of the year exceeded 100,000 units, topping the list of luxury cars with more than 500,000 yuan.
According to the data of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the total sales of 500,000 vehicles in China in 2023 will be 560,000 units, and the half-year estimate will be 280,000 units. According to this data, the market share of the M9 may reach 35.7%.
What is more shocking than the market sales is the belonging.
On the evening of July 2, Sailis announced that its holding subsidiary, Sailis Automobile, intends to acquire 919 registered or applied series of text and graphic trademarks held by Huawei and its affiliates, as well as 44 related design patents, with a total purchase price of 2.5 billion yuan.
According to the asset appraisal report released by Celis, the market value of the trademarks and design patents related to Wenjie to be transferred by Huawei will exceed 10.2 billion yuan as of May 31, 2024.
In response, Huawei's response was, "We will transfer a series of trademarks such as Wenjie to Cialis, and will continue to support Cialis to build and sell a good Wenjie." ”
Cialis spent 2.5 billion yuan to win not only a trademark, but also the ownership of the entire Wenjie brand. This also means that Huawei's car manufacturing has taken a step back and moved into the background, while Cialis has strode to the front of the stage.
In addition to the large-scale acquisition of the Wenjie trademark, Sailis Automobile previously announced that it would repurchase 55% of the equity of Sailis Electric held by Jingyun Chuangfu and Sailin Fund according to the agreement, with the corresponding purchase price exceeding 1.254 billion yuan. According to the valuation of the net assets of Cialis Electric at the end of March of 785 million yuan, the equity acquisition premium exceeded 190%.
Not only that, but Celis also had a previous accounting estimate change that adjusted the amortization period of non-patented technology from 8 years to 5 years. This adjustment alone will dilute the profit of more than 400 million yuan in 2024.
Cialis, who spent thousands of dollars, showed that he was not short of money and was not afraid of spending money.
In the first quarter, Cialis not only surpassed Ideal in terms of sales, but also became the fourth new energy vehicle company in the world to start making a profit after Tesla, BYD and Ideal! At present, the hot sales of the new M7 and M9 have given Cialis greater confidence.
"Looking back on the development of AITO, if it is expressed in a timeline, it is: eight years of lying on the salary, three years of cross-border integration, and three smart electric vehicles." Zhang Xinghai once summed it up like this.
If you change to a longer time latitude and make a summary from the day of Zhang Xinghai's entrepreneurship in 1986, it is:
· 38 years ago, we manufactured saddle springs and became a supplier of Dongfeng Motor;
· 28 years ago, the production of motorcycle shock absorbers, to be the first in the industry;
· 22 years ago, he built a motorcycle by himself, but unfortunately died;
· 21 years ago, Dongfeng Automobile made mini cars, three points of the world;
· 8 years ago, new energy vehicles were opened, costing tens of billions of yuan and struggling;
· 4 years ago, he was committed to Huawei, opened up the situation in the world, and won many firsts;
· 3 days ago, I bought the trademark and really took the question world into my own hands.
Everything seems to be moving towards the broad road of car building planned by Zhang Xinghai.
Since 2003, Zhang Xinghai has been building cars for 21 years. However, if it is counted from the initial entry into the automobile industry chain in 1986, Zhang Xinghai has been laying out the automobile track for 38 years.
For more than 20 years, Zhang Xinghai first cut into mini cars by the east wind, and then relied on Huawei to build the Wenjie brand, creating an alternative car building road for private entrepreneurs.
This car-making road is not only long and tortuous, but also relaxed, singing and crying.
But Zhang Xinghai's challenge also followed. Leaving Huawei's question world, is it still the same question world?