Text /Zoe
Since the beginning of this year, the national teams of independent brands have taken the high-end route one after another. After GAC Ai 'an, BAIC ARCFOX and Dongfeng Lantu, Changan, Huawei and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited also made high-profile announcements to build brand-new high-end smart car brands. Within a few days, SAIC also officially announced it.
On the top floor of the Shanghai Central Sightseeing Hall, which is known as the tallest building in China, SAIC, Pudong New Area and Alibaba announced the establishment of Zhiji Automobile, a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand, with an investment of up to 1 billion yuan. Among them, SAIC took out 5.4 billion, Pudong Zhangjiang took out 1.8 billion, Ali and others contributed 2.8 billion, SAIC and Pudong New Area held 72%, Alibaba held 18%, and the remaining 1% was held by employees and users.
compared with other newly built cars, Zhiji Automobile is a properly rich second generation, and the fathers behind it have a strong background. It seems that it is difficult to succeed if you want money, land, technology and experience.
however, at this time, I have to say a disappointing but, the matter of building smart electric vehicles is really not that the bigger the ostentation and extravagance, the stronger it will be. Especially the combination of SAIC and Ali, there has been a lesson before.
It's understandable that the "national team" is attacking the high end.
Why are several state-owned automobile groups rushing to attack the high end all of a sudden? Actually, it's not hard to understand.
Take a look at the market value list of global listed car companies a few days ago. Tesla topped the list with crushing advantage, Weilai and Tucki both surpassed SAIC, and other independent car companies were also left behind by LI.
The sales data of passenger cars are more telling. Weilai ES6 and Li ONE can both squeeze into the BBA team. An independent car can sell for 3, to 4, yuan, and thousands more cars can be sold every month. This is the wish of many teenagers in several major automobile groups. After spending so much money, they failed to get it, but several new cars that once failed to enter their eyes were made.
No matter whether the market conditions were not mature enough a few years ago or whether China users didn't know the goods before, the "national teams" failed to hit the high-end business with their own brands, and they were robbed by new cars. Now they must make up for it quickly by the light.
Although SAIC Passenger Cars just announced the independence of R brand which takes the high-end route at Guangzhou Auto Show, it ranks as the three major brands of SAIC Passenger Cars along with Roewe and MG, and it has not stopped SAIC from launching Zhiji brand with higher positioning from the whole group level.
This project has been secretly planned for 19 months. The first models have been polished, and the winter test will begin at the end of the year. It will be released globally in January next year, and it feels close to mass production delivery.
so SAIC definitely came prepared this time, not on a whim, and the two partners it found were also very well-connected. Zhangjiang, Pudong has a world-class high-tech industrial cluster ecology and technical resources such as AI and chips, while Alibaba has the technology of Dharma Institute and ecological circles such as Alibaba Cloud.
such a perfect combination, why should I add a "but"?
the pit that zebra has walked through
In terms of vision, SAIC is definitely the best and most forward-looking car company. As early as 214, people were the first to put forward the concept of the new four modernizations, and soon began to lay out in the aftermarket, intelligent networking, * * * travel, e-commerce and other fields, and successively set up business segments such as car enjoyment, zebra network, EVCARD, and road enjoyment.
After only a few years, the stall has been spread very large, and the actual effect can only be described as unsatisfactory. As mentioned earlier, Zhiji Automobile is the second cooperation between SAIC and Alibaba. The first cooperation was the launch of Zebra Network in 214.
The establishment of Zebra six years ago can be said to have led the upsurge of intelligent networking in the entire automobile industry. In July 216, the Zebra Intelligent Driving Link scheme was launched, and the Roewe RX5, the first product jointly developed by SAIC and Ali, went on the market, which sold more than 2, units in the first month, making the Roewe Intelligent Networking SUV a hit.
However, behind the hot sale of Roewe RX5, the differences between SAIC and Ali in the development direction of Zebra began to appear, and the battle for the right to speak escalated. The internal integration effect of the two teams was not good. The final result was a reshuffle of the Zebra team, with former CEO Shi Xuesong, CTO Huang Youyong, CFO Fan Li, vice presidents Zhou Ping and Xie Pingsheng, chief product officer Pan Jiahua and R&D director Gu Zhilei leaving one after another.
Therefore, in the two years when the intelligent networking technology thrives, zebra's R&D and innovation capabilities have not been greatly improved, and the expansion of cooperative brands has not made much progress, all of which have been consumed by internal friction.
In the summer of p>219, the game was finally concluded. Alibaba and SAIC announced the reorganization of Zebra Network, and Ali became the major shareholder, occupying absolute control, and at the same time, Yun? The overall intellectual property rights and business of OS are injected into Zebra Network. In May of this year, Zebra officially completed its strategic reorganization with AliOS.
Now Zebra can finally start again under the compromise of SAIC, but it also missed the most golden development period.
in the third-party organization IHS? According to Markit's "China Intelligent Networking Market Development Trend Report", in the market share of new car sales from January to July this year, Baidu's car networking actually carried new cars accounted for 49%, Tencent accounted for 35%, and Ali accounted for 16%, ranking last.
and it's not the first time that SAIC has attacked smart high-end electric vehicles. As early as 217, SAIC Roewe announced that it would launch a smart electric car that can compete with Tesla. MARVEL in 218? X went on the market, and the price directly entered the range of 2,-3,. The car was amazing, but the terminal performance was bleak.
since its listing, roewe MARVEL? The cumulative sales volume of X is only over 5, units, and it could not be found on the sales list at the end of last year. MARVEL? Why X can't be sold is still a mystery. As a self-owned brand, the same battery life is not as good as Tesla, and some people are willing to pay for Weilai ES8, which is more expensive than Tesla.
SAIC's new four modernizations encountered many potholes
Apart from the first cooperation with Ali, and the failure of its own brand in the first battle of high-end, the same is true of SAIC's own attempts to travel in the aftermarket OTO and * * * in recent years.
The OEM is an aftermarket OTO, and SAIC is also an early adopter. In 214, Chexiang was established, and in 215, Chexiang was launched. It should start from maintenance and extend to insurance, new cars, used cars and other businesses, and lay out a big ecology.
in just two years, Chexiang's direct-operated stores exceeded 1,, becoming the first in the industry. However, since 218, the expansion of Chexiangjia has slowed down. Now, there is no data on the profit or loss of Chexiangjia in SAIC's financial report, and there is no relevant information disclosed in public news interviews.
In October this year, the number of factory stores has exceeded 2,, and it is said that the profitability of a single store is good, and the monthly average gross profit of factory stores is over 15,.
*** SAIC is also the first one to set foot in the automobile factory. In May 216, SAIC launched the time-sharing business of EVCARD new energy vehicles. In 218, it launched the online car-sharing brand, and in 219, it launched the car-sharing business, covering the time-sharing business, online car-sharing business and car rental business, creating a "new travel complex".
however, the industry has never been able to understand the profit model of * * *. Uber abroad and Didi Chuxing at home are both big brothers in the field of travel, but they have not achieved full-line business profit so far. Burning money and relying on group blood transfusion have always been the status quo that domestic travel platforms can't get rid of.
it is also difficult to see public data on the profit and loss of these travel businesses under SAIC. In the Group's financial report in 219, there was a description: "Enjoy the road trip in Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Suzhou, Kunshan, Hangzhou and Ningbo. By the end of 219, the number of registered users had exceeded 7 million, and the average daily order was stable at more than 1,. The user satisfaction rate was as high as 98%. In 219, Xiangdao Travel also released the "Xiangdao Car Rental" brand for enterprise-level car rental services, which has successfully turned losses into profits. "
There is no public data on the profit and loss of the time-sharing business EVCARD. In a previous report in national business daily, an unconfirmed person in the car industry revealed that "EVCARD has a very large loss, and the specific figure will not be less than 4 billion yuan."
*** It is not easy to enjoy the travel business. Of course, it is not a problem encountered by SAIC, but SAIC's stall in this field is particularly large. For the automobile factory, when can * * * enjoy traveling to make money? I don't know, the biggest contribution at present may be to help the group digest a lot of new cars, especially new energy vehicles.
Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, said that since they first put forward the concept of "new four modernizations" in the world in 214, they have made a lot of in-depth layout in terms of technology, business forms and foreign cooperation, and formed pearls, but they have not yet been strung into a pearl necklace, and now Project L (that is, Smart Car) is a rope for strung necklaces.
this idea is really beautiful, but it is not possible to string these pearls together by finding a rope. I hope SAIC will take fewer detours after stepping on so many pits this time.
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.