Goingout Media, focused on the evolution of automotive industry
Author: Roomy
Let’s start with a story from the IT industry.
In 2012, Kodak went bankrupt. Ten years later, history repeated itself when the Canon Zhuhai factory shut down in 2022. At that time, the words of former Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila rang out once again, “We did not do anything wrong, but we lost for unknown reasons.”
Everyone knows that these giants became “tears of the times” not because they lost to anyone, but ultimately because they missed the new offer handed over by the times and lost to the rolling forward times.
The tears of the times once again show that technology is the main theme of progress.
Against the anxiety of the change of times that will not spare any company, an unprecedented transformation is also taking place in the automotive industry.
In the past two years, Wei Jianjun, the leader of Great Wall Motors, has also changed his style, taking off his suits and leather shoes, and using keywords related to technology in his speech.
Although Wei Jianjun once said, “Change is our only choice,” those who know him and Great Wall Motors know that this is not a company that will wait for the times to offer them something, but will choose to actively provide the times with a new offer.
From the sentence “Can Great Wall Motors survive next year” on their thirtieth anniversary to “Chinese auto brands have only one chance” at thirty-one, Wei Jianjun, who has been leading Great Wall Motors for many years, once again stands at a time node. And from the “life and death question” to the “only chance,” it reflects the profound sense of crisis and the urgency of deep transformation of Great Wall Motor.
Wei Jianjun promised solemnly that “We must undergo a ‘rebirth’ change and complete the transformation from a ‘Chinese auto manufacturing company to a globalized technology travel company.'”
This rebirth change has had rich annotations in 2021.
Great Wall Motor’s 2025 Strategy Capitalizes on the New Era
The founder of Hillhouse Capital, Zhang Lei, predicts that hard technological strength will become the winning hand of enterprises, and sales will reflect the correctness of the technology innovation strategy.
If we measure the technological strength of Great Wall Motors in 2021 with sales data, it is the best explanation of their technology innovation strategy.
The data shows that Great Wall Motors’ total vehicle sales in 2021 reached 1.28 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%, setting a historical record; overseas sales of ready-to-ship vehicles reached 142,793 units, a year-on-year increase of 103.7%; cumulative sales of new energy vehicles reached 136,953 units, accounting for 10.7% of total sales.
It is well known that in the automotive industry, sales volume is a fundamental factor for capital market evaluation. Further, the logic of the capital market puts significant importance on whether an enterprise can seize the opportunities of the times and whether the technologies released by the enterprise possess the necessary imagination.
For instance, Tesla, which is renowned for its three electric vehicle technologies and intelligent driving system capabilities, has a market value that exceeds that of Volkswagen and Toyota, both of which have sales volumes exceeding ten million units.
In 2021, the capital market introduced two new indicators for measuring Great Wall Motor’s performance: “creating popularity” and “technological innovation.”
With the creation of sub-brands including Wei (for pick-up vehicles) and ORA (for electric vehicles) dominating their respective market segments, the establishment of Tank and Salon brands, and the release of multiple models that have become hot sellers, Great Wall Motor has become adept at creating popularity.
At present, the focus of the capital market on Great Wall Motor centers on technological innovation.
In 2020, Great Wall Motor instantly established its technological strength by releasing three noteworthy technologies: “Lemon, Tank, and Coffee Intelligence.” These technologies, rooted in profound accumulation, forward-thinking technological layout and innovative technological philosophies, have attracted attention throughout the industry and have formed a technical ecology that integrates “new energy, high-efficiency gasoline, autonomous driving, and intelligent cockpit.”
At the 8th Science and Technology Festival in 2021, Great Wall Motor further established its “technology intelligence” label and, driven by the goal of achieving carbon neutrality, firmly launched its “2025 Strategy.”
“By the year 2025, global sales will reach 4 million units, with 80% of them being new energy vehicles, and revenue exceeding 600 billion yuan. Over the next five years, cumulative R&D investment will reach 100 billion yuan,” said Wei Jianjun, who has set these targets as a part of the Great Wall Motor 2025 strategy.
In the current era of rapid change, the goals, weight, and possible variation of the strategy exist as uncertainties. As Wei Jianjun said, “We’re facing an uncertain time.” Great Wall Motor only has one shot to make it right, and this time frame is within three to five years.
To successfully navigate this uncertain market, companies that have a strong standing should move ahead quickly while also pushing forward with reforms. However, companies should strive to grasp the pace of change, be open to disruptive ideas and break away from the traditional, steadfast approach of the automobile industry completely transitioning into electrification.
Great Wall’s transformation path is determined by its strategy that combines hybrid, pure electric and hydrogen energy vehicles, actively advancing toward electrification development while investing in targeted research and development initiatives.# Three Technological Routes Progress in Parallel
Balancing and handling the scale are testing Wei Jianjun’s wisdom. It can be said that every major decision he makes now is responsible for Great Wall Motors’ next thirty years.
As the starting year of the 2025 strategy, 2021 is crucial, and Great Wall Motors needs to “make a big push.”
The Battle of Technology, No Partial Battles
How to advance the three technological routes and handle the scale? The more doubts there are, the clearer Wei Jianjun is. In his view, “there are always more ways than difficulties.”
The old adage reiterated again, to seize the technological heights, technological layout is still the top priority.
This priority, Wei Jianjun had already considered when the Haval H6 had not yet launched in 2009. At that time, China’s car sales had just surpassed the United States, ranking first in the world market. Great Wall Motors established a new energy vehicle group, specializing in the technical difficulties of new energy.
Layout, it cannot be said to be too early.
More than 12 years have passed. Great Wall Motors has already completed layout in many fields and owns core technologies independently. Still, as always, Great Wall Motors has always been committed to giving the times an offer, just like how the Haval H6 changed the position of the Chinese car SUV market.
If, before the age of thirty, Great Wall still maintained the modesty of “only showing 70% to the market,” Great Wall Motors after that can be described as “fully blooming,” no longer fighting partial wars.
2021 is a year of concentrated change for Great Wall Motors.
In terms of hybrid technology routes, as Lemon Hybrid DHT technology-equipped models are launched one after another, model performance is outstanding.
Lemon Hybrid DHT’s “0 Anxiety Intelligent Electric” new technology has opened up a new track for zero-anxiety intelligent electric travel and become the representative of China’s first fuel vehicle to complete the transformation to new energy.
The so-called “0 Anxiety” means that compared with fuel vehicles, there is no right-of-way anxiety; compared with electric vehicles, it can use both gasoline and electricity, with no mileage anxiety; compared with extended-range electric vehicles, it has lower electricity and fuel consumption, better acceleration, and compared with PHEVs with a pure electric range generally below 120km, it has created a new era of 200km+ pure electric range.
In just one year since the release of Lemon Hybrid DHT technology, it has been implemented in Wei Coffee’s Mocha, Macchiato, Latte product lines, and has been used in Haval H6S, Haval Chitu, and other products, fully covering HEV and PHEV architectures, 1.5L + DHT100, 1.5T + DHT130, 1.5T+DHT130+P4 three powertrain.
Through the development of WEY, the power of technological innovation is fully reflected. The Lemon Hybrid DHT system not only won the “China Heart” Top Ten Engines of the Year in 2021, but also won the “World’s Top Ten Transmissions” award again. Meanwhile, WEY Mocha equipped with this transmission has become the award-winning model.
The significance of this award is not only the industry’s recognition of the technology, but also a deeper level that in the era of strong perception of technology, choosing a product series with strong technological attributes becomes the choice of consumers.
WEY CEO Li Ruifeng said, “After so many years of precipitation, WEY’s technological reserve is already sufficient to support the full-range transformation to PHEV. Therefore, we firmly and decisively switch tracks, fully transform, and rely on this trend to make a breakthrough.”
In terms of technology route, Great Wall Motor’s breakthrough is not a single breakthrough, but always maintains the strategic thinking of “not seeking a corner, how to seek the whole field”.
In terms of pure electric, the first high-performance mecha racing car, Mecha Dragon, landed with the release of Dayu Battery Technology, realizing a rapid transition from technology to product.
Thanks to the power of Dayu battery technology, Mecha Dragon not only guarantees the high-temperature resistance of 1037℃ without catching fire or exploding, but also has excellent performance such as zero to one hundred acceleration of 3.7 seconds, CLTC range of 802km, the world’s leading 800V/480kW efficient energy supplement technology, and associated APA wireless charging function, pushing the performance of electric vehicle products to new heights.
It is worth mentioning that Dayu Battery has opened dozens of technology patents for free, which is of great significance for the rapid development of the industry, the improvement of battery safety standards, and the acceleration of user access to safe driving experience.
In terms of hydrogen energy strategy, Great Wall Motor has built an international “production-storage-transportation-supply-application” integrated supply chain ecological system, launched the internationally leading vehicle regulation-level “hydrogen power system” all-scenario solution-the Hydro Citrus technology.
In March 2021, Great Wall Motor’s Baoding Hydrogen Detection Branch officially obtained the laboratory accreditation certificate issued by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS), and the “Hundred Hydrogen-Powered Heavy Trucks” of Unison Energy officially entered the construction of Xiongan.## In terms of intelligence, the layout is more sophisticated. In addition to the new digital engine “Coffee Intelligence” created by Great Wall Motors, the world’s first intelligent line control chassis has also been released, integrating five core chassis systems including line-controlled steering, line-controlled braking, line-controlled shifting, line-controlled throttle, and line-controlled suspension. In addition, Great Wall Motors has also released intelligent cockpit platform and IDC3.0 autonomous driving computing platform technologies…
Whether it is the Dayu battery technology, which is open for patent, the industry-leading 70Mpa pressure hydrogen storage tank, or the 3.0T+9AT powertrain, which makes tanks into the world’s most powerful off-road vehicles, and includes 112 technological innovations such as cobalt-free batteries, intelligent cockpits, hydrogen engines, photovoltaic technology, etc., all of them demonstrate Great Wall Motors’ determination in transformation and preparation.
“We focus on making cars, not making phones or going to space,” Wei Jianjun has previously stated openly, “Great Wall Motors has not entered any business that is not related to cars for many years. For example, some people invest in real estate or finance, but we have been working hard in the automotive field.”
Whether it is desperate or determined, it is not enough to describe Wei Jianjun’s firm determination. Actually, as he said, to achieve real breakthroughs, there is only this window of three to five years.
Moreover, opportunities only come once.
“There is no way out, only a way through”
“A new era is quietly coming to us, with new technologies, new things, new contradictions, and new problems emerging endlessly. It is certain that competition has become a confrontation, and the battle has long begun,” Wei Jianjun judges.
Yes, the battle has already begun, perhaps starting from the autumn of 2014.
At that time, the World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen for the first time, the first group of Tesla owners in China had just received their car keys from Musk, and Li Bin and Li Xiang were preparing to launch their own car brands… From then on, the seeds of the conflict between the new and old forces had been sown.
However, in just seven years, with the sales of Wey and ORA frequently breaking through 100,000 units, there have been loud voices that traditional automakers cannot compete with Wey and ORA in new fields. Wei Jianjun disagrees with this, and his confidence comes from his confidence in technology.
Great Wall Motors’ successive layouts cannot be separated from a key core-technology. The innovative technology system is the first step in transformation and the core driving force of this revolution.
The 2025 strategy dares to set a sales target of 4 million units, of which 80% are new energy vehicles. Wei Jianjun’s confidence comes from “continuously carrying out precise R&D investment”.
He firmly stated, “I believe this is the ‘sincerity’ that enterprises should have. There is no turning back, only by going forward can we see the way.”
Like when Wei Jianjun talked about the future of the Haval H6, he was straightforward: “In five years, the brand value of the H6 will be negative because the competition has changed. If you are still producing fuel-powered cars while others have switched to new energy, you will fall behind.”
Facing the future and daring to innovate has always been a prominent characteristic of Wei Jianjun.
“What will the future of Great Wall Motors look like? In my opinion, our fate hangs by a thread. If we believe we have succeeded, each success may hinder our future. If we cannot see disruptive changes, we will undoubtedly be disrupted.”
Wei Jianjun’s words, from a deeper analysis, express confidence above crisis. This confidence stems from his persistent and difficult technical practice. Within Great Wall Motors, there is a group of people who persist in their technical obsession behind their products.
From the reinvention of traditional engines, transmission systems, and transmissions to intelligent driving, intelligent networking, and the three-electric system and hydrogen energy behind the change in energy, every breakthrough in these areas is thanks to this group of talented technical staff.
Li Shufu said, “If Geely has any magic weapon, it is talent and innovation.” The same goes for Great Wall Motors.
Do you remember the three major intelligent technology brands, Lemon, Tank, and Coffee, which were released? An engineer once said, “Within Great Wall, General Wei spends the most on research and development and talent development.” He believes, “If we do not build a strong technological heart, hidden dangers will follow us.”
The fundamental reason why Great Wall Motors continues to be at the forefront of technological innovation is that it is willing to invest heavily in research and development.
Since 2015, Great Wall Motors has continuously increased its research and development funding. By 2021, Great Wall Motors’ research and development expenses exceeded RMB 20 billion. In the 2025 strategy, Wei Jianjun raised the R&D investment for the next five years to a cumulative RMB 100 billion.
The picture of “Technological Great Wall” constructed by Great Wall Motors has also been recognized by the capital market. Its market value once surpassed RMB 600 billion, making it one of the top-ranked Chinese automotive companies in terms of market value.
In fact, from its current layout and investment in the industrial chain, the transformation of Great Wall Motors is far from being a simple conversion of a traditional automaker. Wei Jianjun has established some key words for the future of Great Wall Motors, including “global strategic layout,” “large R&D investment,” “company-wide transformation,” and “user-centric operations,” as it shifts towards becoming a global smart technology company.Compared to the past, Wei Jianjun has become busier, with endless stories to tell and things to do every day.
“Do you know who among all the leaders of car companies has contacted me the most this year?” asked the China region president of an international automotive parts company to the media.
“It’s Wei Jianjun, the chairman of Great Wall Motors. He has visited me six or seven times in the past year.”
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.