The new round of car building pays more attention to industrial chain integration
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Daily Economic News” (ID: nbdnews), Reporter: Sun Lei , Editor: Pei Jianru Xia Zhijian Xiao Yong,Proofreading: Cheng Peng,published with authorization .
Tech companies are accelerating their entry into the car-making camp.
On April 6, according to a report by “LatePost”, it learned from multiple independent sources that Didi had started a car-building project. The person in charge was Yang Jun, the vice president of Didi and the general manager of Xiaoju Car Service. At the same time, Didi has recruited relevant personnel from car companies. At present, Didi has not commented on this matter.
On the same day, after announcing the construction of the car, Lei Jun, Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, responded to the car project. Lei Jun revealed that in a survey conducted by Xiaomi, 45% of users hope that Xiaomi’s first car will be a sedan, 40% of users hope it will be an SUV, 7%~8% of users hope it will be a sports car, and another 5%. ~6% of users want to be RVs. For the price range, most users tend to be priced from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan. In this regard, Lei Jun said, “Fans want us to make mid-to-high-end cars, so the price range of the first Xiaomi car is 100,000 to 300,000 yuan.”
Technology companies such as Didi and Xiaomi have joined the smart electric car track one after another, which has also made the field more and more popular. In this regard, Xiaopeng Motors Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng once said on social media, “As far as I know, there are probably several technology companies that may become new forces in different models of car-making this year, which will affect the smart car market and the new mobile ecosystem. The real arrival of this will have a very positive impact”.
“Car + Internet” began to shift to “Internet + Car”
It has been nearly a decade for technology companies to gradually penetrate into the automotive field.
From 2014 to 2015, a group of tech internet people, represented by Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai Automobile, Li Xiang, founder and CEO of Ideal Motors, and He Xiaopeng, came to build cars and transferred the genes of tech internet companies. Brought into the automotive field.
In 2016 and 2017, technology companies headed by BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) developed their strength in the automotive industry, successively deployed autonomous driving and Internet of Vehicles, and also increased their commitment to NIO and Ideal Car. , Xiaopeng Motors and other new power car manufacturers.
In 2020, as the marketization of electric vehicles deepens, technology companies will get more involved in the automotive industry. This year, Huawei released smart car solutionsBrand HI; Changan Automobile has teamed up with Huawei and CATL to create a new high-end smart car brand; Alibaba, SAIC and Pudong New Area announced that they will jointly build a smart car; Didi and BYD have teamed up to create a customized online car D1.
In 2021, as Baidu and Xiaomi officially announced the production of cars, technology companies gradually moved from behind the scenes to the front stage, and their voices in the automotive field became more and more intense. “The previous’car + Internet’ has already turned to’Internet + car’. In the future, the intelligentization and networking of automobiles is the common understanding of the industry, and Internet companies will have more and more power to speak.” Well-known analyst Yan Jinghui believes.
As for the rapid penetration of technology companies into the automotive industry, Liu Zongwei, associate researcher at the School of Vehicles and Transportation of Tsinghua University and assistant to the dean of the Institute of Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy, once publicly stated: “Crossovers are often not The restriction of’fences’ makes it more likely to produce highly disruptive innovative ideas. The key to winning the competition in the smart car market lies in who can take the lead in producing automotive products that truly meet the needs of future users and society. From this perspective Look, the entry of technology companies will make new and old car companies face challenges.”
Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicles Association of 100, also believes that the soaring stock price and market value are related to the innovation of new car companies’ Internet genes, product technologies and business models. “This reflects the recognition of the capital market for new energy vehicles, and also shows that the auto industry has entered a period of great change, and the market position of auto companies is being reshuffled. This also provides opportunities for latecomers.” Chen Qingtai said.
The new round of car manufacturing pays more attention to the integration of the industrial chain
At present, with the addition of technology companies such as Xiaomi, Baidu, Huawei, and Apple, the automotive industry, especially the field of smart cars, will accelerate development. Some people believe that in the “software-defined car” era, software and services will become the main profit point, which may become the foundation for technology companies to gain a foothold in the field of smart cars.
Shi Weiran, a researcher at the Transportation Research Center of Central South University, said: “New technologies for smart cars such as autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Vehicles have become industry trends and hotspots, as well as new profit growth points. Smart phones and Internet companies There is a good technical’gene’, and its development of new technologies is not surprising.”
It is worth noting that the current technology companies involved in car manufacturing and smart car ecosystems are mostly based on cooperation with car companies. For example, Baidu chose to establish a joint venture with Geely Holdings to build cars; Didi may again cooperate with car companies to start new car-building projects.
“Automotive intelligence and networking have given technology companies new opportunities. Automakers are at a disadvantage in the field of software research and development, so they need the support of technology companies. At the same time, the value of the automotive field is high, which is more important for technology companies. It’s a new profit growth point.” Auto industry analyst Zhong Shi told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that traditional car companies welcome technology and Internet companies to increase their profits.Enter the automotive industry, and technology Internet companies are also willing to penetrate their business into the automotive business sector.
It is worth mentioning that the new round of cross-border integration of the automotive industry pays more attention to the complementary advantages between enterprises and the integration of industrial chains. Take Baidu’s car manufacturing as an example. So far, Baidu has cooperated with more than 70 auto companies and more than 600 models. The cooperative models include family cars and self-driving buses. Baidu’s entry into the vehicle manufacturing field is seen as a further extension of its artificial intelligence strategy in the field of smart travel, and it is a supplement to the smart travel industry chain.
Lei Jun said on April 6 that the smart ecology is a whole, including smart bracelets, smart phones, smart home appliances, and smart cars, which is a closed loop. At present, Xiaomi has built a mature intelligent ecological environment, and the arrival of Xiaomi cars will complement the key part of Xiaomi’s intelligent ecological scene.
As technology companies enter the new battlefield of smart cars, a new round of “Smart Car Wars” may begin. At the same time, the development trend of smart cars has gradually become clear. The IHS Markit report predicts that by 2025, the penetration rate of smart cars in the global automotive market will increase to 60%; by then, the penetration rate of smart cars in the Chinese market will reach 75%, 15 percentage points higher than the former.