Xiaomi started the mobile phone brand cross-border smart pure electric automobile industry.
Author: A star fly
Xiaomi built a car. Public relations denied that Lei Jun directly announced that he wanted to build a car. The crowds who ate melons and watched the large-scale face slaps were also very likely to have a “double reed” effect. After all, Xiaomi has always been relatively kou and men in its promotion. This is also used to produce results. For example, Lei Jun said before that Xiaomi would not consider listing in five years, and then it went on the market in mid-2018. The plan can’t keep up with the changes.
Whether to build an electric car has become a consideration for many Internet traffic companies. In fact, Xiaomi wants to build a car sooner or later, and Lei Jun wants to build a car more urgently than Xu Jiayin and Li Yanhong. It is not that he will not do it, but have to do. There are three reasons:
(1) First of all, Xiaomi’s own model is an integration of software and hardware. Xiaomi’s mobile phone is equivalent to the cost of customer acquisition. Therefore, the Xiaomi model is an e-commerce model with self-operated OEM products and private domain brand traffic. The cost of acquiring customers is larger than that of e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and JD. In addition, selling mobile phones affects people’s judgments on their models. In fact, many e-commerce companies are also making smart hardware. If Xiaomi says that it is engaged in e-commerce, various e-commerce platforms will not be willing to sell goods with Xiaomi. In fact, when there is not much room for imagination in mobile phones, the logic of Xiaomi making cars is the same as Xiaomi making smart TVs and smart speakers. What’s more, smart cars are now “four-wheel mobile phones”, which only burn more money, but the profits are also attractive.
(2) Secondly, the actual application scenarios of 5G on mobile phones are a little bit better than nothing. The biggest application scenarios on the C-side are autonomous driving and smart cars. Everyone knows that the domestic market competition between Huawei and Xiaomi is extremely fierce. Both of them belong to the Android development camp’s software and hardware integration rivals. Although Huawei Ren Zhengfei said, “Whoever proposes to build a car will be fired”, but “the shopping mall is like a battlefield.” If Huawei launches a finished car before 2022, and Apple also launches a finished car, at that time, Xiaomi is still thinking about whether to do it or not. At that time, it means that Xiaomi will have to do it in the next wave of competition. Out of the game, this Lei Jun really can’t afford to gamble. A Xing has learned that, in fact, Huawei has always been recruiting in the field of new energy vehicles and laying out its automotive business in a low-key manner. You must know that Ren Zhengfei is very good at “self-critical” in management.
(3) Finally, Lei Jun has not given up on the new energy track, and Shunwei is the investment institution of Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile. Lei Jun has a good personal relationship with Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, and He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Motors. Lei Jun’s investment logic is “investment is investment”, but there must have been detailed due diligence on who acquaintances invest. In the past few years, Lei Jun must have followed to see Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile stepping on the pit in front, and after paying the tuition fee, he will prepare for the post-production. Rebs has always been relatively “stable”. When making mobile phones, he first tried the waters with Meizu Huang Zhang as an investor, including cadres from major mobile phone manufacturers in the past few years, and basically formed a network transmission in Xiaomi “League of Losers”. Lei Jun himself is a master who is very good at absorbing the experience of stepping on pits in other projects. This particularly stable style makes it difficult for Lei Jun to seize the opportunity to become the leader of the market in any project, but it is also very difficult to get the bottom or be eliminated. of. This may be the reason why Lei Jun has not announced that it will be a pure electric car for a long time.
(In December 2018, Weilai Automobile released ES8 Lei Jun attended; Lei Jun has supported Xiaopeng Automobile many times)
The car made by Xiaomi is a major industry event after Evergrande and Baidu. This is also the first time that a mobile phone brand has made it clear to enter the field of smart pure electric cars. The influx of capital into this market will be a major issue for the entire Chinese market. The improvement and iteration of the energy automobile industry are very valuable. Xiaomi itself has improved a lot of technological processes after entering the field of small home appliances, but can he continue to make brilliant achievements in the field of automobiles?
Of course, the weaknesses of Xiaomi’s cars cannot be ignored. The public account “Reliable Axing” believes that there are at least 3 points:
1. The industry recognition threshold and the difficulty of repositioning for mobile phone brands to enter the automobile industry are unprecedented, and Xiaomi’s marketing advantages will fail
On the one hand, mobile phone manufacturers make cars. In the next ten years, you will see such a scene on the street. You drive a Huawei car and chase the Apple car in front. After overtaking, the Xiaomi owner honks the horn and oppo is a female driver. Still learning to reverse the car on the side of the road. This feels very magical. In people’s minds, automobiles are the peak of a civilian industrial level, and they must be professional. No car manufacturer is also selling in other daily necessities markets. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, and Tesla have not done it. Maybe the only thing that can be used for reference is BYD, butIt itself started as a physical industrial production line and battery.
In addition, Xiaomi itself is a well-selling brand, but it is not responsible for providing users with a sense of compelling display. The car is a chain that highly emphasizes brand honor and contempt. Even in luxury brands, the car itself is a The standard can be purchased for 100,000-200,000. For example, the Mercedes-Benz standard is the core competitiveness of all cars below the Mercedes-Benz S-class; for example, Lexus can correspond to the powertrain and three basic components with Toyota products, but the price is expensive. At around 250,000, selling a car means selling the bid, which has basically become the biggest obstacle for mobile phone manufacturers to make cars, especially for Xiaomi.
Plus, Xiaomi’s participation marketing and fan culture are actually very popular in the car circle. I have to admit that Xiaomi has a strong marketing charm, and Xiaomi’s fan marketing and online sales strategies have actually been imitated and thoroughly digested by many smart hardware industries. Li Bin had a deep chat with Lei Jun when he founded Weilai. I specifically ask Xiaomi’s sense of participation marketing. In fact, NIO now defines itself as a platform for user development and branding and providing Haidilao-style services to car owners, whether from the NIO House user activity community organization or user feedback Interacting and finding product manager-style iterative methods all have some shadows of the pinnacle of Xiaomi.
Second, it is difficult for Xiaomi’s explosive product model to make long-term strategic investment to support the research and development of core technologies, and lack of money will be a major problem
It’s hard to say that making mobile phones is a cool thing, but making cars is an asset-heavy area. Although Xiaomi announced that it will invest 10 billion US dollars to build cars in the next 10 years, this cost is not considered for the new energy car industry. Many; Weilai has a net loss of 37.6 billion from 2018 to 2020; Tesla has been losing money for more than a decade. A lot of the money they burned is the money of various investment institutions, and the money is mainly invested in factory hardware investment and three-electric system research and development. As well as the upgrading of autonomous driving technology and the establishment of its own market system service system; the loss of money has formed a certain barrier. For example, when people mention NIO, they think of its power station swap, when they think of Tesla, they think of autopilot technology, and when they think of BYD, they think of blade batteries. With core technology, they don’t worry about getting stuck.
Lei Jun once made a conclusion when he was making Xiaomi mobile phones. To make things happen, you need to find a large enough market and still have enough money to spend. At present, new energy vehicles are indeed large enough, but it is difficult to rely on the blood transfusion of Xiaomi Group alone if the capital investment required to innovate the vehicle is not available.The law will give enough money to invest before Xiaomi makes a subversive molding car. Xiaomi itself has not been looking for breakthroughs in the fields of operating systems, chips, and self-built automated assembly lines for many years as a mobile phone itself. This has caused its brand reputation to be suppressed by Huawei, which has the ability to attack in these two areas.
The difficulty of making a car itself is obviously N orders of magnitude higher than that of making a mobile phone. There are more suppliers involved, and the lack of core supply chain will inevitably affect quality control and product strength. Therefore, it is only from other car manufacturers In terms of technology R&D and manufacturing capabilities, Xiaomi still lacks a “killer”, which actually lags behind Baidu, which has a deep plow in the field of autonomous driving. Of course, Jia Yueting, who burned money to make cars and suffered a loss of tens of billions, is better.
The selling point of Xiaomi that can pin its hopes now is to reactivate mobile phone users, and find ways to improve user experience from mobile Internet, home networking, Internet of Things, and Internet of Vehicles. Of course, there are many more in the future in terms of user privacy protection and security protection. The experiment of the company still needs to be perfected. Making software is Xiaomi’s advantage, but whether Xiaomi has more breakthroughs in the automotive field than Apple is indeed a big challenge.
3. It is difficult for Xiaomi to replicate the price-performance miracle in the highly competitive automotive market
Part of the welcome is that Lei Jun can beat the price of the car, so that young Chinese people can own a car and live a life with a car, just like they hoped that Lei Jun would enter real estate many years ago.
But in fact, as long as the car does not pursue luxury brands, it is actually not expensive. Even in some third-tier cities, a parking space is sold for 120,000, which is more expensive than a car; this makes many young people think before buying a car. Buy a house first, so you know the pressure.
Domestic Geely, Changan, Great Wall, Chery, etc. have been cultivating for many years. In fact, the main models are basically A-class cars with about 100,000. When Xiaomi’s mobile phones are close to tens of thousands, even if Xiaomi does another Wuling Hongguang MINIEV and To grab the market, Wuling’s brand and market advantages have accumulated for more than ten years, and it is difficult for Tesla to get a bargain. Moreover, Tesla itself is to be a Volkswagen or Ford in the field of new energy vehicles, buying cars into mass consumer goods. Rather than making it into a luxury smart car, this is bound to collide head-on with Xiaomi itself.
(The domestically produced Tesla and Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, which sell more and more cheaply, have taken away Xiaomi’s most promising young market)
Xiaomi is bound to enter the A to B market of about 100,000 to 200,000 in the future.Many joint venture car companies have the most intense competition in the field. After Xiaomi Motors comes out, the fuel car manufacturer Toyota Volkswagen BMW has mature electric vehicle products and a stable user population. It is difficult for Xiaomi to take a share in such a fiercely competitive market. Revolutionary battery life breakthroughs. For example, before charging for 1000 kilometers in half an hour, and after exploding the product power of other rivals, the “newcomer” of Xiaomi Motors may be ruined, and it is regarded by rational consumers as a diversified operation that drives the investment market and market value. behavior.
To sum up, Xiaomi is the publicization of mobile phone brands entering smart pure electric vehicles, but mobile phone manufacturers represented by Xiaomi will face brand marketing barriers, product development and funding barriers, market sales and gross profit barriers, and the opportunity to become a market leader Has disappeared, I can only say that I got the admission ticket. The entry of Xiaomi is a great benefit to China’s automobile industry. my country’s manufacturing industry has a good foundation. The corresponding autonomous driving is relatively mature and applied at the L2 level. Coupled with the Internet and capital investment, the process of automobile intelligence and pure electrification has accelerated. The Chinese market is the world’s largest consumer market for young people. At least half of the people do not have a car. The potential is huge. However, how to overcome the above obstacles and if mobile phone manufacturers can occupy a place in smart cars, this will be a classic business miracle!