About CX100 Media, Which Focuses on the Evolution of the Automotive Travel Industry

Author: Roomy

With a passion for cars, I, a novice in the automotive industry, initially aimed to entertain everybody with the scene of “building tall buildings and banqueting guests,” but it turned out that September was as temperamental as ever.

The 12th-level typhoon swept through the sky, and the weather was drizzly and gloomy, but not as gloomy as the mood of Lei Jun and Tim Cook. Apple, which has been in the auto-making circle for 7 years, taught Xiaomi, which had just entered the game six months ago, a lesson. To build high-rise buildings, you cannot rely on money alone, but also need to be able to wait it out.

Can Lei Jun, known as the “Chinese Steve Jobs,” stand the test of time compared to Tim Cook? Both of them claim to have enough funds. Previously, Elon Musk, who said, “Tesla’s biggest competitor is not Google, but Apple,” had the answer: it’s tough.

Xiaomi Cars: Traffic or Real Car-Making?

“For the Sake of Xiaomi Cars” has been a slogan in the auto-making circle for three months now, and when everyone was getting impatient, Xiaomi cars finally had new news. On September 1st, Xiaomi cars completed their registration and formalities, officially marking the beginning of their journey.

However, there was an incident at the beginning that affected their reputation.

Xiaomi, which is good at interacting with its fans, recently uploaded an event on its official Weibo called “Mi Fans Imagining Xiaomi Cars.” Originally intended to create a hot topic to increase the voice of car-making, it turned out that the topic wasn’t popular among Mi Fans, but was “stolen” by WM Motor.

Xiaomi’s imaginary picture of a Xiaomi electric car called “M1” was reposted by WM Motor, with the caption “Heard that WM Motor Maven has twins? Would Mi Fans like to create together with us?” and attaching WM Motor Maven’s long design picture.

A comparison shows that WM Motor Maven and Xiaomi’s electric car M1 are almost identical. Is it a coincidence or not? I have a knack of putting myself in an awkward position, even a castle can be torn down using my toes.

For a moment, both Xiaomi and Lei Jun were placed in the limelight. A title reads, “Do you want to be a pig in the spotlight again? Don’t lose your way.”

In the past, Lei Jun had described himself as “extremely conservative in his recklessness” and “when the general direction is relatively clear and risk controllable, Xiaomi moves forward rapidly. In contrast, when the situation is reversed, decisions become more restrained and careful.”

From this incident, it can be seen that Lei Jun hopes to “move faster” with the creation of Xiaomi cars, claiming land before tech companies such as Apple and Huawei enter the industry.Since June of this year, Xiaomi has released a large number of self-driving recruitment information, including positions in data platforms, control, perception, positioning, various algorithms, and HD maps. From June to August, in just three months, Xiaomi has accelerated its pace of “buying, buying, buying”, which is also the main strategy of Xiaomi’s pre-car production period, as “without car-making experience and with little technical reserves”.
Currently, Xiaomi has invested in five self-driving companies, including ADAS technology manufacturer Zongmu Technology, self-driving vehicle companies, and self-driving car system development companies. The number of patents related to the automotive industry held by Xiaomi has reached 834.
Although automobile manufacturing involves thousands of components and cannot be achieved by acquiring a few companies alone, plus, the technical barrier of autonomous driving technology makes it difficult for outsiders to perceive the mysteries and to overcome technical bottlenecks.
However, Lei Jun, who has “risked his entire career and reputation”, will obviously not settle for just one small target. There is speculation that Xiaomi has set a “small goal” to launch its first car in the first half of 2024 and to sell 900,000 cars in three years.
However, from the current situation, the time window may be the biggest shortcoming of Xiaomi’s auto business. As for whether or not they will succeed, investors have set three possible judgments for Xiaomi’s future:
If sales exceed expectations, the market value will soar.
If sales fall short of expectations, costs will be too high, leading to a broken funding chain.
If they cannot produce the car at all, Lei Jun will fall from grace.
So, of course, Lei Jun wants to be the first to succeed.

Apple Car, after 7 years of struggle, failed miserably

If Xiaomi’s car, which is scheduled to be launched after three years, possibly faces the pressure of a decisive battle as soon as it is launched, there is a sense of tragedy to it. However, Apple, with more money than Xiaomi, is even more tragic in the car-making business.
After years of delay, Apple still hasn’t launched its car product that people have been waiting for since 2014.
Seven years later, Tesla, also from Silicon Valley, sold 500,000 globally, and Nio Automobile, established in the same year in China, is about to launch its third model.
As for Apple’s car production? It seems to be still a long way off. Moreover, the head of the project has left to join Ford, which seems to be “biting the bullet”. According to foreign media reports, Doug Field, head of Apple’s self-driving car project, has left to join the Ford Motor Company. Later, Ford confirmed this on September 8, stating that it had hired Doug Field, the head of Apple’s car project, as its chief advanced technology officer.This is the fourth head of the Apple Car project who has left in its seven-year history, turning the highly anticipated Apple Car project into a cloud of doubt. The departure of Doug Field has raised concerns from experts in the industry and Apple investors alike regarding its effect on the progress of the project.

Field played a significant role in the Apple Car project, having helped the company recruit multiple former Tesla executives upon his return from Tesla to Apple. He was considered as one of the turning points for the project’s vehicle development. However, how exactly the project will continue after his departure remains unknown.

Apple plans to start car production in 2024. Several media outlets, including Nikkei Asia, reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been negotiating with traditional car manufacturers such as Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen about outsourcing the production of the Apple Car. Surprisingly, as of now, no car manufacturer has explicitly expressed interest in being its contract manufacturer.

In addition to its difficulties in finding a contract manufacturer, Apple has also faced challenges in searching for a power battery supplier. Bloomberg reported that Apple proposed Hyundai to produce batteries, but the process has not been going smoothly.

Amid these setbacks, Apple has restarted its car development laboratory and begun contacting global automotive component manufacturers to obtain component quotes. Industry insiders speculate that Apple may end up developing the Apple Car on its own despite the considerable cost and difficulty of creating a car company from scratch.

In the meantime, the former project head responsible for the Apple Car, Doug Field, has been poached by Ford. To add to Apple’s misery, two autonomous driving accidents were reported in August.

Meanwhile, in every quarter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mobilizes his employees to speed up deliveries, and this quarter is no exception, as Musk urges his staff to work harder than ever to compensate for this season’s production challenges and ensure delivery for Q3.It’s the familiar 22 days again, with the familiar “challenge of production.” What’s even more familiar is Musk’s usual flamboyance. In an email, Musk revealed that the end of the third quarter will see an unusually high volume of deliveries, making it Tesla’s biggest end-of-quarter delivery wave ever, but it will require some effort to achieve.

As a result, some Model Y owners who were forced to postpone their deliveries were unable to sit still.

On September 11, Tesla’s official Chinese website showed that the price of the Model Y Performance high-performance version increased by 10,000 yuan to 387,900 yuan, and the delivery time is expected to be in the fourth quarter of this year. Customers who have already placed orders will be unaffected by the price increase.

The specific reason for the price increase wasn’t stated, only a sentence was left behind: “Tesla adheres to the principles of pricing transparency and will continue to bring you better quality products and experiences.”

According to the official website, the delivery period for the Standard Range version is 6-10 weeks, and the delivery time for the high-performance version is expected to start in the fourth quarter. It’s worth noting that the word “expected” is used.

“In the end, you promised the third quarter, from July to September, and then suddenly changed it to the fourth quarter, still an estimate.” “So, Musk, to whom did you promise the third quarter delivery volume?”

It’s still unclear whether it’s a battery issue or a chip shortage. However, there is some clear information in Musk’s email: “Chip supply is basically the determining factor for our production volume. It’s hard to predict how long this situation will last, as it’s beyond our control.”

According to the U.S. official website, delivery times for all models except the Model 3 and Model Y have been delayed until the end of this year or even next year. This shows that the delivery of the locally produced Model Y is also related to the shortage of parts.

Musk once said at a financial report meeting that he encountered “crazy difficulties” in the supply chain, and that the pressure came from a global shortage of electronic chips. Today, the shortage of parts supply has caused production slowdowns, which is the plight currently facing global car companies.

When Toyota Cuts Its Target by 300,000 Cars

It’s needless to say the severity of the global chip shortage.

After all, even Toyota, which previously insisted on “unchanged targets” and was good at risk investment, has recently had to announce that it will cut its global production by 40% in September due to the shortage of automotive chips, with a global reduction scale of about 300,000 vehicles.The world’s largest car manufacturer has lowered its annual production target by 300,000 vehicles due to the severity of the supply chain crisis. Not only Toyota, but also major players in the global auto industry have announced a reduction in vehicle production in different parts of the world, with General Motors and Ford announcing temporary factory closures.

Previously, American auto analysts attributed the failure of American brands to chip supply issues. They believe that Japanese car manufacturers represented by Toyota have handled this crisis better than American car companies.

Toyota has always been praised by the industry for its “not putting all its eggs in one basket” risk investment strategy. After the earthquake in northeastern Japan in 2011, the affected Toyota began to accumulate a large number of key components in the supply chain, “being prepared for the worst-case scenario.”

In fact, Toyota has maintained its conventional style in the chip shortage. In the first half of the year, Toyota achieved good results globally with 5.41 million vehicles, surpassing Volkswagen again. Apart from the strong performance of the Chinese and American markets, Toyota also benefited from its strong supply chain and inventory management system.

However, the extent of the chip shortage has exceeded expectations. With the pandemic constantly fluctuating and chip supplies remaining abnormal, coupled with the Southeast Asian market where Toyota has long invested, component factory production has slowed down significantly. Even the wealthy landlords can’t escape from the situation of having no “extra food” left.

Therefore, the expected annual vehicle production was reduced from the initial 9.3 million vehicles to 9 million vehicles, which was inevitable. Although facing a production cut, Toyota still maintained its forecast of an operating profit of 2.5 trillion yen for the fiscal year.

The problems exposed by Toyota are not only the shortage of chips and production cuts. The slow strategy of electrification, setbacks in intelligent layout, and capacity crisis will all be the obstacles for the company, which many car manufacturers regard as a model, in the future.

Just as Volkswagen is now considering not surpassing Toyota in sales, but focusing on the all-in electric transformation, Toyota also needs to consider how to build stronger electric vehicles, rather than just aiming for the global number one position.

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.