Media under the Outing 100, Focusing on the Evolution of the Automotive Industry Chain
Author: Zheng Wen
Fast or slow, perhaps from fast to slow, or from slow to fast, is a story that is played out every day, the dimension of time is magical.
Is it better to be fast or slow?
In the year when Nissan launched the Leng Feng, and Tesla had just gone public with only the Roadster, facing performance pressure, Musk was struggling. In that year, traditional car companies were still having a good time.
In 2020, Nissan’s electric car sales worldwide only accounted for 10% of overall sales. The entire Japanese car camp was criticized for being slow-moving. So they had to speed up.
On the other hand, in the new car-making force camp, even as we approach the end of 2021, there are still new brands emerging. Onlookers have mixed feelings about these new brands, some praise them and some criticize them.
In the online car-hailing industry, Didi, which was once a leader in the industry, suffered a heavy blow after rushing to the American stock market. Soon after, as fast as Didi, it encountered more troubles, and the market it had operated for many years was being eroded step by step, helpless, forced to switch from the fast lane to the slow lane. Meituan, on the other hand, lost its chance after years of vacillation, and instead seized the opportunity to stand up after Didi fell. It was being slow, but wanted to speed up.
Is it really a step-by-step slow process?
Perhaps fast and slow have never been the most important issue, having the ability is.
Huawei Does Not Care About the Title of the Car Maker
On December 2nd, Saic’s brand AITO was officially launched. The brand is positioned as a high-end smart car brand, and the first model will be equipped with the latest Harmony OS smart cockpit, which will be officially released on December 23rd. Along with the AITO brand, Saic also launched the pure electric drive-extended range platform DE-i.
Compared with the few car-making forces we are familiar with, Saic’s name is not so loud. In 2016, Zhang Zhengping, the son of the chairman of Xiaokang Group, established a car company called SF Motors in Silicon Valley, USA. After SF Motors released the SF5 in 2018, Zhang Zhengping transferred all his shares to Xiaokang Group and announced his entry into the Chinese market. SF Motors was officially renamed Jinkang Saic.
At this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, SF5 attracted attention after being labeled “Huawei Selected”. After cooperating with Huawei, with the help of Huawei’s halo, the little-known brand, Jinkang Saic, suddenly gained recognition. However, even with “Huawei Selected”, the SF5 of Jinkang Saic is not popular anymore after a period of sweetness.Thus, we saw that Seres launched a new brand, and of course, Huawei’s presence was still very strong at the new brand launch event.
On the day the new brand was launched, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director and CEO of the Consumer Business Group and CEO of the Intelligent Car Solution Business Unit of Huawei, as the representative of the partner of Seres, appeared at the conference through video to deliver a speech. He said, “Huawei will use the core technology accumulated for more than 30 years in the communication ICT field to help AITO create a medium-sized luxury SUV.”
When the new brand was launched, some industry analysts believed that Huawei might play a comprehensive leading role in the AITO brand, and it would rely on AITO to create a car from start to finish with its own concept.
An insider at Seres said, “Huawei is deeply involved in the research and development, manufacturing, and sales services of AITO, and Seres’ smart factory has also introduced Huawei’s product quality control system.”
“Some comments directly said that this car is Huawei’s true first car in a sense.”
Although Huawei has repeatedly stated that it will resolutely not make whole cars, from the perspective of business layout, Huawei is getting closer and closer to making cars except for whole car design and development. In other words, Huawei doesn’t care about whether it makes cars or not, as long as it captures the core discourse power.
The slogan “In 5 years, AITO will become one of the Top 3 global new energy vehicle brands” seems to have the confidence it has because of Huawei’s support.
Didi Returns from the U.S. to Hong Kong
On December 3, Didi Chuxing announced on its official Weibo account that, after careful study, the company will initiate the process of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and prepare to go public in Hong Kong.
On June 30 of this year, Didi went public in the US in a low-key way. Three days later, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) suddenly announced a cybersecurity review on Didi. Subsequently, all Didi apps, mini-programs, etc. were removed due to serious illegal collection and use of personal information. 14 days later, the CAC jointly with seven other departments including the National Security Department entered Didi for the cybersecurity review.
Under the blow of the review, Didi’s stock price was almost halved from the issue price, and its market value evaporated by tens of billions within a short period of time. At the same time, many competitors seized the opportunity to expand.
109 trading days after its listing, Didi announced the above “returning from the US to Hong Kong” news. It surprised Hong Kong investment bank analysts: “We always thought that Didi’s return to the Hong Kong market was not going to be so fast, and at the earliest, there would be news after next year’s Spring Festival.”Yes, DiDi needs to shorten the duration of this disaster as soon as possible.
Like a silent tacit understanding, DiDi has reached some kind of reconciliation. After a few hours of the delisting announcement, some DiDi software on system download platforms such as Apple and Android has quietly resumed downloads.
Of course, for DiDi, “Returning to Hong Kong from the US” is just the first step, and the remaining tasks in the market are still arduous. In just over three months, it has become the defending side in the online ride-hailing industry.
Cheng Wei used to like to describe DiDi’s situation as a bloody wolf’s den. In his view, the power of wolves is not only in howling and biting, but also in long-distance running and snow-night lurking. And what DiDi needs to do next is snow-night lurking. There is no era for enterprises, only enterprises for the era.
DiDi still has a long way to go.
Meituan Dache and Unmanned Vehicle Business Division are Independent
This year, with the strict supervision, DiDi’s investigation by relevant national departments has clearly left opportunities and imagination space for the market.
Meituan recently split its Smart Transportation Platform, and the unmanned vehicle delivery and ride-hailing business units under the original platform were separated and led by Xia Huaxia and Zhang Xingyuan, respectively, both reporting to CEO Wang Xing.
The focus of the adjustment is the “ride-hailing business.” After ups and downs, it has regained attention within Meituan. For a long time in the past, the status of the ride-hailing business within Meituan has been wavering.
As early as February 2017, Meituan launched the ride-hailing business in Nanjing, and later promoted it to cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Xiamen. A year later, Meituan’s ride-hailing business obtained the “Online Ride-hailing Operation License” in Shanghai and Nanjing. At that time, the business model of Meituan’s ride-hailing business was completely the same as that of DiDi, mainly self-operated, and the subsidy in Nanjing reached as high as 2 million yuan in a single day.
However, after radical subsidies, Meituan failed to change the market structure and gave up its aggressive expansion strategy. In April 2019, the Meituan Dache App functions were incorporated into the Meituan App, and soon afterwards, the Meituan Dache App was removed from major application markets.
Soon after, Meituan launched a “conglomerate business” similar to Amap Dache in 15 cities, where the platform provides orders and multiple travel brands provide transportation services. This also means that the ride-hailing business is being marginalized.
In July of this year, the Meituan Dache App was re-launched in major mainstream app stores, balancing both self-operated and conglomerate modes, and was launched in more than 100 cities.# Analysis of the ride-hailing industry: Can Meituan catch up with Didi during Didi’s hibernation period?
The ride-hailing industry analyst said that in the past 4 years, Meituan was unsure about its business model, switching between aggregation and self-employment. Meanwhile, Didi insisted on self-employment, and Gaode Dache insisted on aggregation, and both achieved a good market position. In contrast, Meituan has been left far behind.
The restructuring of the ride-hailing business reveals a signal that Meituan has already considered the future development model of “self-employment + aggregation”. However, can it seize more market opportunities during Didi’s hibernation period, having missed many opportunities in the past?
The answer still needs time to prove.
Nissan’s 2030 vision: can it break away from the one step slow pace?
Nissan also needs time, but it has wasted a lot of time.
On November 29, Nissan released its long-term development strategy-“Nissan Automotive Vision 2030”. Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said that through “Nissan Automotive Vision 2030”, Nissan will usher in a new era of electrification.
According to this long-term development strategy, within the next 5 years, Nissan will invest 2 trillion yen (about RMB 112.84 billion) to accelerate the layout of electrified products and technological innovations; by 2030, Nissan will launch 23 electrified models, including 15 pure electric models, and electrified models of Nissan and Infiniti brands will account for more than 50%.
Until the 2026 fiscal year, Nissan will increase the proportion of electric vehicle sales in core markets, including: over 75% of electrified vehicle sales in the European market, over 55% of electrified vehicle sales in the Japanese market, over 40% of electrified vehicle sales in the Chinese market, and over 40% of electrified vehicle sales in the US market until the 2030 fiscal year.
In addition, Nissan plans to launch an electric vehicle with an exclusive all-solid-state battery (ASSB) by the 2028 fiscal year and plans to build a pilot plant in Yokohama, Japan in 2024. By the 2028 fiscal year, the cost of the all-solid-state battery can be reduced to $75 per kilowatt-hour. Nissan’s ultimate goal is to reduce the cost to $65 per kilowatt-hour, achieving cost parity between electric vehicles and combustion vehicles.
In 2010, Nissan launched the world’s first pure electric vehicle, LEAF, with cumulative global sales now exceeding 500,000 units. In 2020, only 1% of Nissan’s global sales were electric vehicles. Nissan clearly wants to try to turn the situation around. The perception of Japanese companies’ electrification is undoubtedly “slow.”# Japanese manufacturers: followers instead of pioneers
Japanese business news hits the nail on the head. “During the 11 years since the launch of the Leaf, Japan’s automobile manufacturers have been seen not as pioneers in decarbonisation, but as followers who can’t catch up with the latest trends.”
The situation can be cruel. Those who were once chasing after the wind have turned into defenders overnight. Just like Didi, and just like Nissan.
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.