-"A Brief History of Mankind" Herari
This year, the world's first and possibly last auto show opened in Beijing. In the post-epidemic era, the door suddenly opened, and the mainstream car companies fully deployed electrification, which forced China car companies to accelerate their growth. Between the advantages and disadvantages, whether it is a traditional new energy vehicle enterprise or a new force to build a car, at the moment of "software-defined car", the intelligence of products and the high-end brand are particularly important.
After all, cars, as the largest single consumer goods, have always been competing with each other.
The Beijing Auto Show in 2020 will be more difficult than any previous year.
Cancel paper tickets and on-site ticketing points. The media should not only register in advance, but also verify their ID cards, wear masks and take their temperature. The daily ticket price of the official website media exceeds 65,438+0,000 yuan ... but this has not reduced the enthusiasm of the media or manufacturers at all. Masks can't hinder people's enthusiasm for the auto show, and even the isolation of 14 days can't prevent Polaris CEO Thomas Ingrat from appearing at the Beijing auto show.
As the only global automobile event with weathervane significance this year, the "trial" of this Beijing Auto Show is more cruel than ever.
People can't see the ideal, zero running, clouds, Aichi, these new forces that have been mass-produced or even listed. No new actions have been found in traditional weak car companies such as Zotye, Lifan, Cheetah and Baowo.
Whether it is to save costs, hide strength, or there is no new technology and product to be judged by the market and the public, they either choose to be absent actively or passively, which is equivalent to giving up the opportunity to hit the 2020 sales ranking for themselves in the spotlight.
2020 is an era of comprehensive innovation in the automobile industry. Whether it's fuel vehicles or new energy sources, whether it's mass brands or luxury markets, they are all fighting fiercely.
You will find that every car company, with knives and shields, crosses the river through the forest to find the direction of a new life.
For example, German car companies that are proud of the world and have a sense of superiority have also begun to "cater" to China, the largest car market, under the impact of the global epidemic.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class is recognized as the best luxury car in the world, which can best represent the peak level of the automobile industry. However, the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class abandoned the dual-screen layout and the traditional buttons on the central control, and replaced it with the 12.8-inch organic light-emitting diode central control screen, and began to embrace new things.
With the domestic version of Audi e-Tron off the assembly line, China auto market has gathered all the domestic electric vehicles of BBA Big Three: Mercedes-Benz EQC and BMW iX3? , Audi e-tron; Nissan, which has changed its brand-new logo, has an Ariya pure electric SUV, Toyota has an e-Palette concept car symbolizing the new four modernizations, and Honda has a Honda? SUV？ e:？ Concept appeared at the Beijing Auto Show, and their world premiere reflected the determination of Japanese to fully bet on electrification.
It is not so much because German automakers represented by Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler lost 2.4 billion euros, 666 million euros and 65.438+90.6 million euros respectively in the second quarter that they had to find a way out. Rather, German and Japanese automakers who missed the best opportunity of intelligent and electrified transformation had to turn to China, which was at the forefront in the field of automobile electrification and intelligent development, for help.
However, it is not easy for an elephant to turn around. Choosing transformation means giving up the technological advantages accumulated in the previous century and starting from scratch. This advantage can't be seen in ID.4, ID.3, Mercedes EQC, BMW iX3 and Audi e-tron, or compared with China brand electric vehicles, Japanese German pure electric vehicles are not outstanding.
However, when mainstream brands such as Volkswagen, BBA and "Two Fields and One Production" are all trying their best to enter the new energy vehicle market and seek intelligent and electric transformation, people send out the strongest voice that "China trend is the world trend".
There is also a set of interesting data in this auto show: 785 vehicles were displayed this time; Among them, there are 82 first-time cars in the world, including multinational companies' first-time cars 14; 36 concept cars; New energy vehicles 160, including China Automobile Enterprise New Energy Vehicles 147.
Compared with 20 18, the total number of exhibition cars decreased by 237, but the number of new energy vehicles in China automobile enterprises increased from 124 to 147, accounting for 9 1.8%, while the number of new energy vehicles in foreign enterprises was only 13.
This growth is not only a specific type of new energy vehicles, but also a global and all-round growth in the field of new energy vehicles.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association recently announced that the sales of electric vehicles in Europe more than doubled to 6.8% in the first quarter in the context of the overall decline in registration; Among them, it is estimated that the sales of electric vehicles in the UK will account for 365,438+0.8% of the market in 2020, much higher than 0.9% in 2065,438+09.
Although Tesla will be the most powerful competitor of new energy vehicle enterprises in China at present and for a long time to come, this situation is not unbreakable.
According to the latest report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Global Electric Vehicle Outlook in 2020, by 2040, electric vehicles will account for 58% of the global passenger car sales, which means that the future new energy vehicle market will be trillions, and China, which accounts for over 50% of the global market, will be the largest garage.
If we say that the performance of global sales is the best annotation of the "take-off" of new energy vehicles, Tesla with a market value of 300 billion US dollars; Weilai obtained a credit of RMB 0/0 billion from the central bank; The ideal of IPO in the United States, Tucki; Weimar, which won the largest single round of financing of 654.38+000 billion yuan in the history of new car-making forces; And Evergrande allowed Ma Yun and Ma Hua Teng to buy shares at the same time for the first time, which can better explain the carnival of the new energy automobile industry in the current capital market.
After attending this auto show, I still have a strong feeling: China brand is "promising", and everyone has their own car-making platform, especially pure electric platform.
At Beijing Auto Show, you can see VOYAH, the world's first concept car of Dongfeng. I-Land ESSA local intelligent electrical building; Geely's brand-new horizon pure electric architecture; There is also the ME pure electric platform first released by Great Wall Motor earlier; Gac new energy GEP? 2.0 pure electric platform, etc.
You may have heard that Volkswagen has platforms such as PQ35, MQB and MEB, but the platforms are still different.
Because of the compatibility of car models, the ordinary traditional car-calling platform is subject to many restrictions in design. For example, the Volkswagen PQ35 platform is limited to the evolution of A-class cars. If enterprises want to occupy multiple market segments and develop different models, they must develop more subdivided platforms.
In order to meet the personalized demand of the automobile market and to output more efficiently, modular platforms were born, which are commonly used platforms for fuel vehicles, such as Geely's CMA, Toyota's TNGA platform, Volkswagen's MQB and Nissan's CMF.
Compared with the traditional integration of design and production, the "modular platform" is to divide each subsystem of the automobile into modules for standardized design and production, and finally "assemble" according to the positioning of different models. Its principle is similar to Lego. If you want an SUV, you have to fight for an SUV, and if you want an A-class car, you have to fight for a car, which is very efficient and reduces costs.
The exclusive platform for pure electric vehicles is different, because pure electric vehicles do not need to consider the location layout of engines, gearboxes, transmission shafts and other parts, and can focus more on the optimization of body structure, thus greatly improving the user's experience in all aspects.
* The picture shows GAC New Energy GEP? 2.0 Pure electric exclusive platform
Those so-called platforms that are compatible with fuel and pure electricity still have the shadow of "changing from oil to electricity". The vehicle design is not as reasonable as the pure electric platform, and the comprehensive performance is not high enough.
The automobile platform strategy has experienced a long evolution from single vehicle development, platform development, platform lean and modularization. On behalf of the public, implement the first stage of platform strategy around 1974, and establish the second stage of PQ series platform around 1995. It took 2 1 year to form a highly derivative and compatible MQB platform in 2008. From MQB to MEB, Volkswagen also spent nearly five years.
* The picture shows the ESSA building platform in Lan Tu.
However, in 2009, China car companies proposed that China use new energy vehicles to overtake in corners, but it was only 10 years before and after. Now, almost every car company has its own dedicated platform for fuel or pure electricity. In the field of new energy vehicles, China automobile enterprises have finally turned their first-Mover advantage into technological advantage.
Whether it is the new four modernizations or the new five modernizations, in this era, without innovation, it will become the dinosaur of the times.
Huawei, an enterprise that insists on not making cars, once again stood in the center of the stage of China's top auto show after making its debut in the auto industry at the 20 19 Shanghai Auto Show, and set up its own booth. Huawei tells us that in the era of "software-defined cars", concepts create miracles, and driverless driving is the direction.
Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, stressed that "Huawei mainly provides the underlying core technology of autonomous driving research and development, which can provide computing power for different levels of autonomous vehicles."
With the approaching pace of 5G commercialization, in addition to Internet giants and telecom hardware manufacturers trying to build an application ecosystem through independent research and development of chips and systems, vehicle manufacturers like GAC New Energy are also trying to build a smart travel future.
Gu Huinan, general manager of Guangxin Automobile, once stressed in an interview that the biggest challenge at present is actually driverless: "If you are too fast, you will be abandoned by the times."
It is understood that GAC New Energy is already in AION? V has achieved L3 intelligent driving technology, and its ADiGO3.0 autopilot system can support hands-free autopilot of high-precision maps. AION？ V's L3 autopilot technology, I just had a deep test drive a week ago, and the word is "really fragrant".
Trust is mutual. On the premise of excellent software and hardware technology, believing in driverless technology is more convincing than believing in yourself.
This auto show also has a great comparative experience. In the past, when we mentioned China automobile brands, we always thought of cost performance. However, with the decrease of luxury brands and the rise of new forces, there is no market for cars that rely on "cost performance".
China car companies seem to have smelled the crisis, so you will find that more and more China brands are on the rise.
For example, the newly-built high-end electric brands such as Weilai, Ideality and Tucki, and the first new car, Gaohe HiPhi, which was just launched by Chinese Express two days ago? X, with a subsidy price of 680,000-800,000 yuan, has surpassed Weilai ES8 (468,000-624,000 yuan) and become the most expensive production car among the new car-making forces in China.
For example, Lan Tu, the top brand of Dongfeng Group, ARCFOX, Geely's Link and Geometry, BYD's dynasty series, and Chery's Star Road. Traditional car companies form an independent system for a certain model and strive to achieve brand upward.
It seems that the tighter the economy is, the less the price is the main factor that drives consumers to buy cars, and people are willing to pay better prices for high-quality products.
The feedback from the market is also true. In recent 65,438+00 years, the driving force of China passenger car market has been SUV+ luxury car. In recent years, the growth rate of SUV has slowed down, but domestic luxury cars have continued to strengthen at a high speed. In recent years, they have maintained a growth trend stronger than the industry average growth rate of 20%.
If some cars can't sell better than BBA, Cadillac or Lexus in China, it's not because they are expensive, but because their prices can't support such a high brand premium.
There is still light at the end of the tunnel, but not every company can come to the end.
China's new car-making forces have stepped out of the mass production threshold, but IPO does not mean entering the safe zone. In the future, it will face an observer with a magnifying glass.
Especially in the era of intelligence, unmanned driving and brand upgrading, the ultimate carrier of all software is hardware. If the vertical combination of software and hardware cannot be achieved, high-quality automobile products cannot be brought.
After all, the core of the dream of building a car is the car. Whether users are satisfied or not, and whether the market accepts it, are the only criteria to test the success of overtaking in China corners.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.