Article by | Leng Zelin
Edited by | Wang Pan
“At the Stack-up Summit 2022: Future Automotive Innovation and Integration Forum held on May 28th, Huawei Terminal BG CEO and Intelligent Automotive Solution BU CEO, Yu Chengdong, boasted that the AITO AITO M7 will completely surpass million-dollar cars such as the Toyota Alphard and Lexus LM.”
This is not the first time that Yu Chengdong has made a stunning statement, and certainly not the last.
Earlier this year, Yu Chengdong set a target of 300,000 units for the AITO AITO brand, while Wei Xiaoli and his team have been struggling for several years and their total sales last year were only 300,000 units.
Of course, in subsequent interviews, Yu Chengdong changed his mind to 100,000 units, but he believed that Huawei could help car manufacturers who work closely with them become China’s number one and then the world’s number one.
Turning back to the Winter New Product Launch of Huawei, Yu Chengdong also frequently used words such as “comparable to million-dollar luxury cars” to describe the M5. Excluding the era of mobile phones, he has said many shocking things this year alone in the field of automobiles.
In fact, those who know Yu Chengdong well basically understand his marketing rules, which are called “Yu-style”.
However, this time, the chairman of XPeng Motors, He XPeng, couldn’t sit still. “Yu Chengdong said that the M7 will surpass the million-dollar luxury car experience. I would like to ask what he will say about the next car? If he said this at the Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference, there would probably be a lot of shoes thrown at him. Just now, I wanted to throw a shoe at him.”
He XPeng is not the first person to “sprinkle” Huawei. Last year, Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan, also made a sarcastic comment: “Tesla has finally encountered an opponent whose technical strength and ability to deceive are on par with them.”
This statement is brilliant, not only affirming Huawei’s technical capabilities, but also making fun of its marketing approach.
Although Wang Xing is a shareholder of Ideal Motors, he did not personally participate in the entire car manufacturing process, so he is still an “outsider”. He XPeng has been fighting in the new energy market for eight years and naturally has more weight in his words than Wang Xing.
As for why? You can look at the event in which Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Motors, attacked Tuanche a while ago.
Earlier this year, Tuanche CEO Wen Wei claimed that there was an external team of over 100 people, and the cars they made could be sold for between RMB 200,000 and RMB 5,000,000, with a car manufacturing cycle of 18-24 months and production planning costs reduced to around USD 50 million.
Almost every sentence goes against the basic common sense of the automobile industry and the facts experienced by Wei Xiaoli and other new car-making forces.
Li Xiang also bluntly stated, “It is most likely a scam.”This type of people had the most time a few years ago when they cheated on PPT subsidies, which disrupted the industry and lowered trust for new car manufacturing. The car companies that talked big eventually went bankrupt, and only the surviving OEMs were able to rebuild consumer trust.
However, this doesn’t mean that Huawei isn’t good at car manufacturing, it’s just that Yu Chengdong’s words were too full and left no room for doubt. Wei Xiaoli didn’t say things like “selling cars with marketing” or “factory better than Porsche” without any explanation or clarification.
Huawei’s previous cessation of production of the Seres SF5 was a real-life negative example, which caused many consumers to lose trust. If Jie M5 doesn’t do well, will it become the next Seres?
Furthermore, strictly speaking, Huawei is not yet an OEM but a Tier 1 supplier. Wei Xiaoli has already taken responsibility for brands like LeEco and Seres, and naturally does not want to be harmed.
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.