Questioning the world, understanding the world and joining Huawei.

Text |Proud insight　Renee

Edit | Sun Yue

Avoiding Huawei is becoming the common cognition of new forces.

Ideally, after Huawei played the slogan of being far ahead, the countermeasures discussed were-avoidance.

In the recent AEB incident, Tucki and Huawei went from tit-for-tat to shaking hands. On November 1st, Tucki bluntly said-friends talked about AEB, and I think 99% of it is false, and it is a fraud. After 8 days of discussion and verification, a letter from Tucki put an end to this controversy. In the letter, Tucki expressed his gratitude to Lao Yu for his advice and generosity. Sometimes it is easier to become good friends after misunderstanding.

In the automobile industry, there are many cases of boasting, raving and tit-for-tat. This time, the firepower is so fierce that it is the key to intelligent driving becoming the second half of the car, which has already flown into the homes of ordinary people:

Huawei’s sales said that it was unexpected that the reference rate of smart driving would be so fast. In the past, it was difficult to have one of the 10 customers. Now there are 5-6 people who can take the initiative to mention their interest. On the other hand, the models of the smart driving version are also the most. In the customer’s words, I buy Huawei’s car, why don’t I buy him if I don’t choose smart driving?

According to Tucki Sales, the selection rate of Zhijia’s stores is above 50%, and there is no need to take the initiative to recommend it. Most customers will take the initiative to ask. When customers accept new energy vehicles, they also acquiesce that new energy vehicles must have intelligent driving, even if I don’t use them, I have to.

At this moment, whoever can define smart driving will win more cakes, and Huawei undoubtedly won a staged victory at the beginning of the smart driving competition.

Therefore, partnering with Huawei has become the choice of traditional car companies at this stage, such as Cyrus, Jianghuai and Chery. Changan chose to go further. In addition to empowering Aouita with the Huawei HI model, it also started to establish a company in partnership:

On November 26th, Changan Automobile announced that, through joint negotiation with Huawei, Huawei intends to set up a company engaged in R&D, design, production, sales and service of automotive intelligent systems and component solutions, and Changan Automobile intends to invest in the company and carry out strategic cooperation.

A few months ago, Huawei’s car-making model was still controversial because of the low sales volume in the first half of the year.

In just a few months, the automobile industry seems to have changed, and the canoe has passed through Chung Shan Man. With the release of Smart S7 and Aouita 12, Huawei has stood at the C position in the public opinion field.

PART-01 Questioning the Boundary

As of September, 2023, the industry and consumers have never stopped questioning Huawei’s smart car selection model and its brand.

(Overview of Huawei’s automobile business cooperation model Source: Pacific Research Institute)

Among the three models of Huawei’s automobile business, the smart selection model has become the only target.

No one doubts the model of parts supplier, because Huawei is far ahead in vehicle communication module and has rich experience. He has 10 years of working experience and working experience for Mercedes-Benz and BMW: in 2013, he launched the in-vehicle communication module ME909T, and in 2015, he got orders for communication modules from Audi, Mercedes-Benz and other car companies.

Few people refute the cooperation with traditional car companies to build Huawei HI model. The reaction in the industry is that with Huawei’s software and hardware solutions, traditional car companies will become smarter. Huawei has a complete set of smart car solutions, and its resume is also very rich:

In the field of car networking, we have maintained long-term cooperation with Peugeot Citroen, Beiqi New Energy and Changan Automobile.

In the field of 5G driving, in 2017, the German Aerospace Center will complete the 5G autopilot test, and in 2020, 18 car companies will jointly build a "5G car ecosystem";

In the field of cloud computing, the 1873 Davidson Innovation Laboratory was jointly established with BAIC to conduct research in cloud computing and other related fields.

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Over the years, today’s Huawei has gradually established a smart car "kingdom"-a full-stack intelligent networked car solution, covering intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, intelligent electric, intelligent networked and cloud services.

As for Huawei’s intelligent selection model, the industry can be described as "verbal criticism": Is Huawei really qualified to define and design a product?

In short, Celeste is responsible for shaping the body, and Huawei injects soul into it. Under this model, traditional car companies have felt the loss of the right to speak. Some people don’t cooperate at all, and some people run away after a long time of cooperation.

In March 2023, the board of directors of Guangzhou Automobile Group passed the Proposal on the Change of Guangzhou Automobile Ai ‘an AH8 Project, announcing that the joint development of Guangzhou Automobile Ai ‘an AH8 project will be changed from Huawei to independent development. After the adjustment, Huawei will participate in the development and cooperation of Guangzhou Automobile’s own brand vehicles as an important supplier. GAC obviously took the lessons of Cyrus into consideration, and intended to take back the dominant position and stand up.

Since it was released, there have been slightly fewer high-light moments and more low-light periods.

In August-October last year, with the concept of enclosed pricing, targeted play, superimposed smart cockpit and Huawei’s brand effect, the industry made a good start.

First of all, in terms of pricing, Huawei asked the price of M5 (259,800 yuan-331,800 yuan) and M7 (319,800 yuan-379,800 yuan) to surround the ideal group at that time (the ideal price was 349,800 yuan);

Secondly, aiming at the ideal weak point, it provides a better solution-whether it is an engine or a generator, the core configuration of the boundary is over the ideal one;

In addition, Huawei’s broader marketing channels, strong brand influence and intelligent cockpit that realizes the interconnection of vehicles and machines have also added a lot of pressure to the ideal.

All of the above have made the world eat a lot of markets lost in the ideal replacement period-in August and October of 2022, Huawei’s sales in the world far exceeded the ideal.

However, because the ideal has gone out of the painful period of replacement, the intelligence of the world has not formed intergenerational differences, and at the same time, there are problems such as vague positioning and Cyrus’ failure to provide after-sales service. This counterattack was successful, but the time was not long.

Huawei’s sales volume from this year to August also made the above questions about the intelligent selection model intensified. It can be seen that in the first half of this year, the sales volume of the industry was only 6000, which has been hovering in the trough.

When the sales volume reached the lowest point, Huawei also tried to stop loss in time to reduce the loss of its brand power: in April this year, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, proposed that the words Huawei /HUAWEI should not be used in the publicity and appearance of the whole vehicle, and that "Huawei asks the world" and "HUAWEI AITO" should not be used.

As mentioned above, the world of buying and asking is to buy intelligence. When Huawei’s intelligence does not show its unique advantages, the decline in sales is inevitable.

Therefore, before August 29, 2023, we will even question why Jianghuai and Beiqi Blue Valley saw the sales of the industry and knew Huawei’s toughness, but also moved closer to Huawei.

PART-02 understanding the boundary

And after August 29th, 2023, we have to understand Sellers.

Huawei’s far-reaching lead in 5G and advanced manufacturing processes has seized consumers’ minds, and the temporary lead of NOA in the city has also made Huawei smart and even Huawei smart, becoming the scent of the current market.

The most direct signal is that the overall sales volume of the world has gradually climbed, and the rise has become a fixed trend: the new M7 and M9 in the world are sure to be happy.

With the synchronous growth of sales, there are more and more landing models of car companies and Huawei, and the olive branches thrown.

On November 9, Huawei and Chery’s Zhijie S7 officially landed, and the price range was 258,000-358,000 yuan. The next day, Aouita 12 of Huawei and Chang ‘an was officially released, and the price range was 300,800-400,800 yuan. According to the relevant person in charge of Beiqi Blue Valley, the new model of its smart car with Huawei will be launched in 2024. This model is based on the Mercedes-Benz platform and is positioned as an executive-class car of around 400,000.

Why do more and more car companies prefer to risk losing their right to speak and be tied up with Huawei?

This is because the market demand has exploded, and it is the best policy to learn from Huawei first.

The first is to occupy the user’s mind first. Whoever mentions it early and does it early is more likely to win the favor of consumers when market demand breaks out.

A OEM staff believes that intelligent driving is not just a simple function increment. When users depend on it and directly affect the purchase decision, the rules of the game of the whole industry have changed. For example, after users get used to intelligent driving, the selling points of traditional car companies’ emphasis on control, chassis and driving pleasure are no longer within the scope of consumers’ consideration. In a big way, it will force some enterprises to rebrand.

Second, smart driving requires driving data. The earlier it goes online, the greater the advantage.

Huawei has in-depth cooperation with car companies through HI mode and smart selection mode to provide overall solutions for smart cars. In this mode, relying on many models of many car companies, data collection will have advantages.

When the number of cooperative and empowered car companies and models gradually increases, the magnitude of data generated in this mode will greatly jump. Combined with the advantages of Huawei’s data closed-loop links such as data processing and model training, Huawei’s automatic driving ability will be greatly improved over time. After the gap between the automatic driving ability of the model and the industry companies is formed, it will be fed back to the sales volume of the model on the consumer side, forming a positive cycle.

(Huawei Autopilot Positive Cycle Source: Pacific Research Institute)

The situation is urgent, but it is not easy to drive intelligently. It is not easy for someone to throw money at it overnight. The behemoths started late and lagged behind the new forces:

(China Expressway and Urban Auxiliary Driving Landing Situation Source: Pacific Research Institute)

Three routes of Geely Zhijia are still being explored: the mature scheme of Mobileye for NZP is being tested in high-speed and elevated scenes, Lotus is self-developed by a joint venture subsidiary, and Geely Bo Yue L uses a completely self-developed system, which only supports high-speed NOA at this stage. NOA, SAIC Zhiji City, is also being tested:

(NOA planning source: SAIC Zhiji)

At present, the Great Wall, which is progressing rapidly, is half a year behind schedule: it will realize the NOA function of the city in the third quarter of this year and land in 100 cities in the first half of next year. On the other hand, Guangzhou Automobile Aian is busy going directly to L4: According to the plan, Guangzhou Automobile Aian will realize L4-class automatic driving in 2025.

Large manufacturers with abundant capital and related technology accumulation are still lagging behind in the city NOA. If manufacturers with slightly mediocre qualifications want to make a comeback, they need to take Huawei’s express train to catch up with the early tide of intellectual driving.

Chery, Jianghuai, are understanding Cyrus, want to build a world of inquiry, take the lead in intellectual driving and seek a better future for themselves.

PART-03 Joining Huawei

There is no doubt that Huawei has achieved phased success.

First of all, the old brand is rejuvenated, and the sales volume of the world is worry-free: On November 9, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG, announced that the new M7 series of the world has been listed for 50 days, with a cumulative total of 86,000; The number of reservations for M9 that have not been officially listed has exceeded 25,000.

Then the new brand started smoothly: two days after the launch of Zhijie S7, the cumulative order volume exceeded 10,000 units; Aouita 12 has accumulated a total of 11,128 units in three days of listing, and the average order price exceeds 350,000.

There are many factors contributing to this success. The most basic thing is to spend a lot of money on technology and "learn art" from many car companies.

Huawei BU far exceeds other competitors in terms of personnel size and R&D investment: the accumulated investment is as high as 3 billion US dollars, and according to the company’s plan, it will maintain R&D investment of more than 10 billion RMB every year from 2023.

Since 13 years ago, Huawei has started from the communication of the old bank, worked for several car companies and jointly set up laboratories, and gradually formed a complete set of full-stack intelligent networked car solutions, covering intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, intelligent electric, intelligent networked and cloud services.

On this basis, with this wave of brand potential, Huawei has put new concepts such as smart driving and urban NOA into consumers’ cognition, and in contrast, Huawei has the fastest progress.

So, how long can this success last?

First, let’s see if the NOA (Clear Road) landing in the city can be completed as scheduled by the end of this year, and it is also the first car company to complete the NOA landing in 100% cities. As mentioned above, smart driving needs a lot of driving data, so what we need to pay attention to is the sales gap between the brands in the world, the brands in the world, and even the cooperation models of Beiqi Blue Valley and Jianghuai and the new NOA forces who are also actively expanding the city.

The second is to see if Huawei can avoid the problems that have occurred and are emerging in the world.

In the previous cooperation between Huawei and Cyrus, after-sales was a big shortcoming.

At the front end of publicity and sales, from Yu Chengdong to front-line sales staff, they are trying their best to label Huawei as a "pro-son", but in after-sales service, Cyrus is responsible for the user center. The after-sales system of Cyrus used to mainly serve low-end models, but now it is turned to provide services for high-end cars, which is inevitable.

(Three sales channels of Huawei Auto Source: china galaxy Securities Research Institute)

At the same time, the experience center (mobile phone shop) provided by Huawei and the user center (4S shop) provided by Cyrus are based on their own interests, so it is difficult to be happy.

The most classic situation is that the seller of the car does not care about the delivery and repair of the car, and the collector does not care about the after-sale. Store sales are full of hype, and the quality of service is not felt at all after delivery/after-sales, and selling cars has become a one-time deal.

Although the business in the world is generally like this, the automobile industry is even worse. As a brand that has just started, the contradiction between pre-sale and after-sale affects the brand power to a great extent if it wants to develop sustainably.

To solve this problem, Huawei and Cyrus jointly set up the "AITO Joint Working Group on Customer Service" in July, which is fully responsible for the marketing, sales, delivery, service and channels of customer service brands. But at present, many problems in pre-sale have not been solved. The black cat complaint platform shows that there are a total of 618 complaints, especially in the near future, mostly because the deposit is not refunded and the delivery is delayed.

Third, it depends on whether the brands with "Chinese content" can coexist harmoniously when Huawei has many children.

At the end of Huawei’s automobile sales channel, there are three types at this stage: the flagship store wholly owned by Huawei, the smart life museum or authorized experience store led by dealers, and the AITO authorized user center led by Cyrus. At present, it is also very fast to open up Xinjiang and expand its territory. According to the official data of the international community, by the end of August 2023, there were 206 user centers and 903 experience centers (Shangchao stores).

But nowadays, the media, intellectual circles and Aouita are all competing for Huawei’s sales channels. However, there are less than 1,000 Huawei stores, and most of them can only put one car. Because of the need of exposure, it is inevitable to have disputes.

According to the current news, the intelligent world S7 is only authorized to Huawei’s large-scale direct-operated stores, and some dealers and customers with great strength and service execution are all in Shanghai Nanxiang Impression City. The customers M5 and M7 are sold in Huawei stores, while Aouita 11 is sold in the temporary exhibition hall downstairs.

Chen Zhuo, senior executive vice president of Aouita Science and Technology, revealed that it is expected to enter about 20 Huawei stores in the first half of this year, mainly in first-and second-tier cities. Up to now, there are more than 200 channels in Aouita, and most of them are self-built networks.

Huawei is also aware of the above problems, opening stores and recruiting people, and making the smart selection model bigger and stronger with the capital-oriented model. According to several reports, Huawei Smart Car Service is building a car sales store different from the current mobile phone store, which is dedicated to selling Huawei Smart Car Eco-Alliance models, including the AITO series already on sale, as well as the planned Chery, Jianghuai, Polar Fox and other cooperative models.

If we want people in the world of inquiry, intellectual circles and Aouita to have enough to eat and live in harmony, Huawei will first have to bear the high cost of stores and manpower, but can Huawei survive?

Nowadays, Huawei has been carrying a heavy load: in 2022, the revenue of Huawei Car BU was only 2.1 billion yuan. According to Yu Chengdong’s previous statement, the annual investment of Car BU was more than 10 billion yuan, which shows that the net loss last year was about 8 billion yuan.

Huawei is in a dilemma: while spending a lot of money, the ddl of profit is not far away. Previously, Yu Chengdong made clear the profit time of Car BU, saying that Huawei Car BU would make a profit in 2025. However, at present, Huawei is still in the early stage of expansion, and besides R&D investment, the consumption of sales channels will further expand its losses.

In the automobile market, living is fundamental, and "profit" is winning.

At this point, Huawei must make a trade-off. It can’t do anything but "car shell" and is full of ambition. Instead, we should grasp the core business such as autonomous driving, so that Huawei can grasp its soul without letting the cooperative car companies completely lose their souls.

When Huawei leaves room, more traditional car companies with their own sales channels and their own traffic will throw olive branches.

It is not easy to become Huawei, and it is more difficult for Huawei to achieve more success.