On October 29, SAIC Motor issued an announcement that it intends to invest in the establishment of Feifan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., and separate the R brand of SAIC Motor's Passenger Car Branch, and carry out market-oriented operation by Feifan Automobile in an asset-light manner.
From "R" to "Feifan", with the announcement of the Chinese name and the independent operation of the brand, the brand positioning of R Automobile will be clearer and the brand image will be sharper, which also reflects SAIC's determination to accelerate the development of high-end intelligent electric vehicles.
New ideas for breakouts
According to the relevant person in charge of SAIC, R Automobile will carry out market-oriented operations through Feifan Automobile as an independent brand and an independent company, and will continue to rely on SAIC's strong strength in core technology research and development, supply chain management, intelligent manufacturing, quality assurance and other fields to explore new models of data-driven and industrial co-creation and quickly respond to market changes. Wu Bing, former CEO of SAIC's mobile travel strategy brand "Xiangdao Travel", will be the CEO of Feifan Automobile.
In the initial stage, Feifan Automobile will fully integrate the superior resources of SAIC Motor in the fields of research and development, manufacturing and service, provide all-round technical support and solutions by SAIC Motor Technology Center, and carry out OEM production by passenger car branches, so as to quickly seize the high-end segment of new energy vehicles.
In recent years, many independent brand car companies have launched independently operated new energy vehicle brands, such as BAIC ARCFOX Polar Fox, Dongfeng Lantu, GAC Eian, Geely Krypton and so on.
Analysts believe that in the tide of industry change, the model of "large-scale leading enterprises + small and medium-sized innovative enterprises" can bring unique competitive advantages: the parent company with strong capital and technology accumulation can be made into an incubator for intelligent electric vehicle projects, and a new type of smart electric vehicle brand will be created with open capital and institutional ideas.
Positioned as a "user-oriented data-driven technology company", Feifan Automobile will take "science and technology to honor imagination" as its brand proposition, through improving "automotive intelligent experience and user scene mining ability", using innovative operation methods and market-oriented incentive and constraint mechanisms, to achieve independent operation, self-financing, create a new engine for innovation and development, and promote the "brand upward" of independent brands.
The key to the success or failure of "Innovation²"
Since its establishment more than a year ago, R Auto has continued to exert efforts in many fields such as technological innovation, product iteration, new retail channel network layout, user service, and user operation around user needs, and has gained more than 10,000 seed users and 2 million fans in the intelligent electric vehicle market, initially forming a certain scale and reputation.
R car has a certain innovation gene, and now, it is given the name of "Feifan", and the key to the success of this "innovative²" development model lies in the opening of capital, system and incentive mechanism.
In terms of equity structure, Feifan Automobile will be invested by SAIC Motor for 6.65 billion yuan, accounting for 95% of the shares; the employee shareholding platform will subscribe to contribute 350 million yuan, accounting for 5% of the shares, and fully stimulate the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the innovation team through market-oriented methods.
In terms of core technologies, SAIC's world-class new energy sandian core technology, the mature experience of L4 level automatic driving projects, the five innovation centers of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, network security and software, the industrial chain layout across more than 70 countries and regions around the world, and the top strength in the field of intelligent manufacturing are the most powerful endorsements of Feifan Automobile.
Previously, R Auto released the world's first "all-weather, ultra-visual distance, multi-dimensional" high-end intelligent driving solution PP-CEM™, as well as a new technology brand "R-TECH high-energy intelligent body", which can realize the hardware "pluggable and replaceable", the software "can be bought and sold and defined", the battery is "rechargeable and replaceable", and can continue to tap the value of data, giving intelligent cars the ability to continuously evolve.
Intelligent three electric, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, the "new three major pieces" of electric vehicles, R car has long been laid out, waiting for a bumper harvest.
In terms of user experience, R car has also accumulated a certain reputation. Up to now, R Auto has laid out 70 R STATION service centers across the country, and launched a "one-click in place" service in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other places, so that users can enjoy convenient and efficient maintenance services without leaving home.
Behind these user-centric intimate services is the support of technology and teams. R Auto has set up a dedicated user operation team to meet all the needs of car owners before, during and after sales. It is reported that R Car has built a separate group for each car owner, and there are more than 10 service personnel such as R assistants, R housekeepers, service consultants, charging /replacing, etc., providing "many-to-one" customer service.
Broad-minded and approximate, thick and thin. In the future, Feifan Automobile will shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading SAIC to directly connect users to intelligent and electrified, combining the profound heritage and technical strength of mature enterprises with the user thinking of emerging enterprises to find market opportunities more efficiently.