Automobile Industry Media Owned by BaiRenHui Focuses on the Evolution of the Automotive Industry Chain

Authored by Zhou Pei

“I will reach for the moon, and even if I fail, I will still be among the stars.” On the occasion of Wen Fei’s transfer to Salon Zhixing, he wrote this quote on his WeChat Moments.

It is widely known that Salon Zhixing is highly important to Wei Jianjun and Great Wall, so Wen Fei was selected to take on this task.

Wen Fei’s achievements at Haval are well-known. He led the young brand to success in marketing and branding. This is what attracted Wei Jianjun to his unique “breakthrough sense”.

Yes, Salon Zhixing, which arrives late to the game, needs swift and decisive action, which differs greatly from Haval and WEY.

The experiences available from any one of Great Wall’s brands are markedly different from the thinking and strategies Salon Zhixing needs. This has created both positive and negative implications for Wen Fei as he tries to operate within Salon Zhixing.

On the positive side, this new startup brand has no restrictions imposed by a mature system, giving Wen Fei’s thinking greater freedom to flourish.

On the negative side, there is a limit to what Wen Fei can accomplish, given he moved from Haval to Salon Zhixing. This allows for more skepticism.

Wen Fei is, of course, aware of these challenges. When he said “reaching for the moon” and “even if I fail, I will still be among the stars,” it was somewhat melancholic.

Does Wei Jianjun Need to “Join the Game”?

“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

It is foreseeable that the resources and personnel of Great Wall’s brands, including Haval, are difficult for Wen Fei to directly transfer to Salon Zhixing. The insiders of Salon Zhixing have hinted at this.

When Wei Jianjun personally took charge of the WEY brand, it meant something significant.

At that time, there was talk when WEY and Lynk & Co. emerged together. People questioned why Wei, unlike Li Shufu, didn’t allow professional managers with more operational experience to take the helm of the brand.

Wei personally took the helm of the WEY brand’s chairman, was not only because of his passion for it, but also because, under the “centralization” process, the internal system were quite “conservative”, and each brand was accustomed to fighting on their own.

Wei was the only one able to rally Great Wall forces and build a new brand in the era when independent brand premiumization began to take shape.

Thus, it is frequently commented that “Wei Jianjun’s image is at odds with the philosophy conveyed by WEY’s brand,” which undermines WEY’s brand foundation, making it less clear and precise compared to the Lynk & Co. brand.

“Wei Jianjun should hide behind the WEY brand,” this logic has sometimes been used when WEY has changed direction three times.

Now, at Salon Zhixing, Wei’s position behind the brand is not considered current.One the one hand, Wenfei is unable to mobilize the resources of Great Wall and build a new brand. On the other hand, times have changed.

From the birth of the WEY brand in 2016 to the recent emergence of Salon Zhixing, unconventional new competitors have emerged one after another, enough to make traditional automobile companies experience the “ups and downs” brought about by the times.

From the likes of Musk, who likes to make “arrogant comments” on Twitter, to Li Bin, who frequently appears in public, and to Lei Jun, who gambles with his personal reputation to enter the car-making industry, each of them has a strong and distinct personal brand.

The technique of marketing the “founder” has become an important means of brand marketing. In the survey of young consumers, liking Tesla may be due to Musk’s distinctive personality, while liking NIO may be due to Li Bin’s affability.

“These vivid and lively leading figures are what traditional automobile companies lack.”

The leader must be an outstanding product manager with a prominent personal brand, which is necessary to attract consumers in the era of intelligentization. This is also true for Salon Zhixing. After all, even An Conghui said at a recent media communication meeting of ZEK, “Don’t call me Mr. An, just call me Cong Cong”, attempting to eliminate the distance between traditional automobile companies and consumers.

Throughout the entire Great Wall Motors, the only one who can integrate resource mobilization and personal brand into one is Wei Jianjun.

If WEY does not necessarily need Wei Jianjun, then Salon Zhixing does need him. Leading the overall situation and establishing a brand image are both crucial matters. Wei Jianjun needs to “get involved in the game”.

After more than thirty years of involvement in the automobile industry, Wei Jianjun has never lacked the pioneering spirit of breaking through difficulties. However, all old ideas are now in a state of upheaval. Wei Jianjun needs to take off his suit and establish a “POLO concept”, which is favored by big names in the internet industry.

The giants in suits and leather shoes are often cautious. It is common for engineers to discuss the replacement of a software button with WEY Mocha, and it can take a long time.

Entering the Game is Vital

Wei Jianjun is behind the scenes, strategizing, and mobilizing troops and resources on the front lines with Wenfei. It’s not that there’s nothing to work with, but so far Wenfei has limited resources at his disposal.

Wenfei’s abilities are obvious. He has led the Haval brand to success in both brand building and user transformation during a comprehensive transformation, showcasing his exceptional management skills for branding, user management, and outstanding marketing talents.

Wei Jianjun attaches great importance to these skills and hopes to see further play in the new brand that carries the Great Wall’s transformation mission in providing support for Salon Zhixing.After 994 days as the general manager of Haval brand, Wen Fei will be promoted to CEO of Great Wall Motors’ Salon Intelligence (Salon Zhixing), according to recent news.

The move is seen as a risky one, as it means leaving a mature brand with an annual sales volume of millions to start from scratch with a new, startup brand. The risk stems from the fact that Wei Jianjun is determined to succeed, and Wen Fei’s strategies may not be adequate to match his vision.

Wei Jianjun has stated that Salon Intelligence will target the market above RMB 300,000. The statement has a dual meaning: that the brand will follow WEY’s footsteps to create an independent, high-end brand and that it marks a crucial step in Great Wall Motors’ comprehensive transformation toward electrification to challenge the mainstream car models in the market.

An important question arises concerning the origin of the brand’s first car model. Will it be a new model developed from scratch, or will it be an upgrade of an existing WEY model? Currently, there is no available information.

In 2021, WEY will offer electric vehicle options for all its car models. This raises an important issue that remains unresolved: how Salon Intelligence and WEY will differentiate their markets. Is Haval and WEY’s problem now also Salon Intelligence’s?

Currently, Great Wall Motors has six brands under its umbrella: WEY, Ora, Haval, Wingle, Tank, and the recently established Salon Intelligence. The question now is, will Wei Jianjun and his million-unit system be able to manage all six brands effectively?

Li Shufu is also grappling with the same question and has stated that it will not be easy.

Managing multiple car models is already a difficult task, but managing multiple car brands is something that even established car makers struggle with.

On top of that, strong new energy vehicle players such as SAIC IM, Geely Jikua, Dongfeng Voyah, GAC Aion, and BAIC Arcfox are already on the rise, making it difficult for a new high-end brand like Salon Intelligence to gain a foothold.

It seems that Salon Intelligence has missed the first-mover advantage as its competitors have already taken the lead. When will Salon Intelligence play its first card? Even the internal team has no clear answer as things remain chaotic.

Salon Intelligence, registered and established in Shanghai, is reportedly preparing to move to Beijing. However, some team members oppose the idea since it may destabilize the team, similar to what happened when Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen moved out of Beijing. The stability of the team has become a pressing issue for Wen Fei.

Wei Jianjun emphasizes that Salon Intelligence aims to capture the market above RMB 300,000. As a latecomer, Salon Intelligence must have a unique selling point to break into the market where established and emerging players are competing fiercely.

Thus, intelligence is the key factor in this competition. However, this is also the weak point of traditional car makers in their transformation. The traditional car makers and emerging automobile forces have already had their qualification match, and now they are set to have the final showdown. To date, not a single independent brand of traditional car makers has achieved true success.Selling intelligent cars with the mindset of selling fuel cars is hard to gain true competitiveness. The mistake made by WEY’s first new energy car P8 was not capturing the consumers’ needs.

Salon Smart Travel must break with the current mindset and strike hard.

The financing structure of Salon Smart Travel is led by Great Wall Motors and fully managed by Li Peng, the founder of FairyBean Intelligence. With the sentence “The tide is coming, we must enter the game”, Great Wall Motors is accelerating its transformation into an intelligent technology company.

However, Li Peng left Salon Smart Travel after only three months, and was replaced by Wen Fei. Li Peng has over 15 years of experience in the field of automotive intelligent electronics, which Wen Fei lacks, and is also a field that Great Wall Motors has not yet had widespread market testing in.

Great Wall Motors has always been regarded as a “latecomer” in the field of intelligence. How to make Salon Smart Travel, a blank slate, go from zero to one in the field of intelligence, is extremely critical.

“We have fully developed the technology stack in the field of intelligent driving,” said Great Wall Motors engineers, covering perception, fusion, prediction, and planning decisions, except for the OS and chip, all of which were done by Great Wall Motors.

Honeycomb Energy was established to focus on power batteries. With huge investments, Great Wall Motors has accumulated a certain technical reserve and R&D strength in key core technologies such as power batteries, hydrogen energy, and unmanned driving.

In July of last year, Coffee Intelligence was publicly announced, positioned as “Great Wall Motors’ whole-vehicle intelligent brand”, and currently leads the Mocha model under the WEY brand, integrating the three major scenes of intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent services.

In terms of hardware, it is equipped with a vehicle-standard, all-solid-state lidar; in terms of software, Mocha has the ability to actively learn and evolve independently based on AI, big data, and FOTA, with high-precision maps.

The L2+ intelligent auxiliary driving system carried by the Mocha is touted as the “most comprehensive intelligent driving function in the industry”, encompassing safety redundancies in six domains: perception, controller, architecture, power supply, braking, and steering.

Afterwards, Coffee Intelligence will also serve as the basic model for Salon Smart Travel cars. Whether it can stand out remains to be seen by the market. Currently, Mocha is in the pre-sale stage, in other words, Coffee Intelligence has not yet undergone large-scale market testing.

In 2014, Tesla launched its Autopilot, which took six years of upgrades and iterations, the efforts of thousands of people, and the accumulation of data from millions of vehicles, to achieve its current leading position.

To this day, Volkswagen has withstood pressure from all sides, and invested heavily in software, in the hope of taking the initiative in the competition for intelligent large screens and autonomous driving technology. The reality of the later arrivals surpassing the former is urging Volkswagen to push its software department to a more important position than hardware.”马斯克跑在前面，整个时代累得气喘吁吁。” This joke sums up the reality of the current situation.

As major technology companies enter the market, the original competition between the new powers has become complicated. However, given the differing levels of technological expertise and strategy, Shine Robotics’ entrance into the market could be a game changer.

“How could Shine Robotics accomplish in such a short time what others have been struggling with for years?” This question is understandable.

Staff Wanted!

In this era of transformation, there is a huge talent gap. Data shows that the supply-demand ratio of intelligent industry talent in China is 1:10, a severe imbalance. “All of the talent is working for companies like NIO and Tesla, who offer high salaries.”

This phenomenon is more severe than ever for traditional car companies, especially those without constraints on poaching talent with high salaries.

“Tesla and NIO have got it all sorted out.” Smart move.

This simple statement sums up the situation in the industry.

Behind the flow of talent, the changing landscape of the industry is also at play. Those who hire the most talent have the biggest advantage. In this brutal arena, Great Wall Motors has been forced to provide better conditions to attract talented people.

Great Wall Motors has struggled with upgrading to high-end production, in part because talented people do not want to stay in Baoding. Many people come to Great Wall, but just as many people leave.

On Friday night at 7:40 pm, a train from Beijing to Baoding carried one-fourth of its passengers as Great Wall employees jumping ship to Beijing for the weekend. “A company from Baoding came to our school and didn’t recruit any students.” This is not just a problem for Great Wall, but also for the city.

To stop the loss of talent and secure its roots in Baoding, Great Wall must reposition itself. Its flagship brand, WEY, caters to the luxury market and the soil in Baoding is not suitable for that. This is a warning sign. Should Shine Robotics discover a new model to take the front line, it will secure the key to the talent war.

Xiaomi is starting its own car company, with Lei Jun leading the charge. They are investing heavily and poaching talents everywhere. Headhunters who are already swamped said that recruitment for autonomous driving R&D, intelligent cockpit design, and software engineers has increased two-fold compared to before, with “the sky’s the limit for salaries and becoming a millionaire is a normal thing.”

The race to recruit is in full gear.

Currently, Shine Robotics is still in its preparation phase, with a team of less than 100 people; Wen Fei must accelerate recruiting efforts.The advantage of Euler in electrification is evident, and WEY has rich experience in the high-end market. The combination of these two makes it not a zero-start for Salon Smart Travel.

However, this is still not enough to help Wen Fei “reach for the moon”.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.