Although late, Changan’s high-end electric brand is here.
On November 14, in the first episode of CCTV's "First Release", Changan Automobile announced that it would join hands with Huawei and CATL to create a new high-end smart car brand. Changan Automobile said that the contents of the three-party cooperation include Smart electric vehicle platforms and products.
In addition, Changan also disclosed for the first time its evolvable intelligent architecture - Changan Ark Architecture, covering all models from the A0 to C class. Changan officials stated that this architecture can achieve centralized control in the future and reserves high-end autonomous driving capabilities, including 36 sensors, high-precision maps and positioning, 5G modules and high-computing domain controllers.
One is the leading force of independent brands, the other is the top spot in the power battery industry in the country and even the world, coupled with world-class software and information technology companies than Google, there is no doubt that this is all-round. "National Team". After major brands have already established independent electric vehicle brands one after another, Changan is belatedly joining hands with two big guys this time. What unexpected winning strategy is planned in Changan's abacus? Should this tripartite combination work well together to ensure long-term peace and stability in Chang'an? When the three armies join forces, who will be in charge
According to the conventional cooperation model, Huawei and CATL, as leaders in their respective fields, should be suppliers of components. However, Changan's official statement is that it is "jointly built with Huawei and CATL", which means that the two are not just suppliers, and may even have certain decision-making power in brand product strategy.
As a beneficiary of China’s new energy vehicle national strategy, CATL has become the world’s leading lithium-ion battery R&D and manufacturing company just nine years after its founding, holding the banner of the domestic power battery industry. However, as the new energy vehicle market expands, the battlefield of the power battery industry is gradually becoming more and more fierce. There is BYD domestically, and Panasonic and LG abroad.
As a result, CATL began to be unwilling to remain a single supplier. On August 11, CATL issued an announcement stating that the company planned to focus on its main business and invest in domestic and overseas industrial chains through securities investment. When investing in high-quality upstream and downstream listed companies, the total investment shall not exceed 50% of the audited net assets at the end of 2019, that is, it shall not exceed 19.067 billion yuan (exclusive) in RMB or its equivalent currency, of which the total overseas investment shall not exceed US$2.5 billion. Validity period is 12 months.
Subsequently, on August 20, Ningde Times, NIO and other companies jointly established Wuhan Weineng Battery Assets Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of 25%.
On September 3, CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile, and it was signed by Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong, Executive Vice President Tan Benhong, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun, President Zhou Jia, etc. Senior executives of the company attended the signing ceremony in person. The two parties did not disclose the specific content of the cooperation at the time, but stated that they "will establish a long-term and in-depth partnership in the fields of intelligent connected electric vehicles and smart energy ecology."
Since Huawei announced its entry into the automobile industry in 2019, it has been claiming that "Huawei does not build cars, but focuses on ICT technology to help car companies build good cars." In the past six months, Huawei has been studying autonomous driving systems and 5G network technology. In mid-May, Huawei joined forces with 31 automotive industry-related companies to establish a 5G automotive ecosystem. In early July, it announced a number of technologies involving autonomous driving and electric vehicles. New patent.
According to current media announcements, Huawei’s current in-depth cooperation companies are mainly BAIC New Energy and Changan Automobile.
In the past two months, Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun, Huawei’s smart car solution BU president Wang Jun, Huawei’s consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong and other senior executives have met with Liu Yu, general manager of BAIC New Energy, on several occasions. Yu Liguo, deputy general manager of BAIC New Energy and president of ARCFOX?BU, met with others.
Previously, officials also revealed that the in-depth cooperation model between BAIC New Energy and Huawei is planned to be launched on the market at the end of 2021 or early 2022. This model uses Huawei's full set of solutions.
As for cooperation with Changan, the two parties have also had frequent exchanges in the past two years - on January 11, 2018, Changan Automobile signed an agreement with Huawei, China Mobile Communications, and China Mobile Internet of Things Co., Ltd. in Chongqing. Strategic cooperation agreement to comprehensively carry out joint development research on LTE-V and 5G Internet of Vehicles; on July 4, 2018, Changan Automobile and Huawei signed a strategic cooperation agreement to focus on the development of intelligence and new energy; from July to December 2018, The two parties focused on comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in intelligence and new energy, defined comprehensive strategic implementation projects, and signed a project cooperation agreement. In January 2019, Huawei and Changan Automobile comprehensively deepened their strategic cooperation and officially established a joint innovation center at Changan Automobile's Chongqing headquarters. The unveiling ceremony was held grandly at Changan Automobile's headquarters in Chongqing.
Although Huawei has always been operating as if it is determined to be an "incremental parts" supplier, in the case of Changan, the term "jointly built" has made the masses confused. More room for imagination.
In this official announcement, Changan did not announce the official name of the new brand, nor did it disclose the specific model of the three-party cooperation, nor did it disclose whether Huawei and CATL would hold shares at the capital level. Therefore, specific information such as the division of labor and positioning of the three in the new brand and the mass production schedule of the cooperative models still needs to be answered by more official announcements.
However, judging from the investment plan previously announced by CATL, CATL will most likely hold a certain amount of shares, and Huawei is naturally no exception. It can be seen that the alliance between leading companies in the three major fields is not a simple industrial chain cooperation.
Can the latecomer Chang'an catch up?
In the past, under the "market for technology" approach, independent brands could only compete with each other at the low end. But today, as the core technologies of independent brands mature, high-end transformation has become the path that independent brands have to take to reverse their brand image.
In terms of fuel models, Geely Automobile and Volvo jointly created a new brand "Lynk & Co" in 2016 to benchmark against mainstream joint venture brands. Great Wall Motor also launched its high-end SUV brand "WEY" in the same year, while Chery launched its high-end brand "Xingtu" in 2018.
In 2020, the domestic Model 3 began to be delivered, and Tesla began to aggressively occupy the domestic electric vehicle market. Stimulated by Tesla, many companies released high-end new energy vehicle brand plans.
In July this year, Dongfeng Group released the high-end new energy passenger car brand "Lantu"; in addition, shortly after the Beijing Auto Show ended in late September, there were rumors in the industry that SAIC was plotting to launch a high-end electric vehicle project According to the news about "L", Chairman Chen Hong is still in charge personally, with President Wang Xiaoqiu as the commander-in-chief; in late October, there was news that GAC New Energy plans to operate the "Aian" brand independently, and the specific details will be announced in November New energy vehicle brand night will be announced in detail.
As early as 2017, Changan announced the launch of the "Third Entrepreneurship-Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan" and stated that it planned to invest 100 billion yuan in the entire industry chain by 2025 and mobilize 10,000 people for Research and development in new models, new energy, autonomous driving and other fields.
Although the "Beidou Tianshu" intelligent strategy and the "Shangri-La" new energy strategy were successively announced in 2018, there has been no substantive action in the planning of actual vehicles, which makes people begin to speculate about Changan's plans. Are high-end electric vehicle brands building on their momentum, or are they still in the making?
At the Beijing Auto Show in September, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, said regarding high-end brands that news will be released soon, but the company is very cautious and consumers will not just because "I am a high-end new brand." Buy my product”.
Zhu Huarong’s statement positively responded to those speculations about the failure of Changan’s high-endization, which means, “We are not slow, but more cautious.” It is conceivable that Changan must have experienced a lot of self-denial behind this "late arrival". But this does not mean that latecomers are expected to catch up, and it may be a more difficult catch-up.
In the current environment where the new energy vehicle sector continues to rise and industrial planning continues to tilt towards new energy and intelligence, no matter how difficult it seems to be, independent brands will eventually embark on the journey of electrification. Stay firm on the path.
This step is just the beginning for Changan. In competition with major independent brands and being crushed by new forces like Tesla, Changan's electric route will have to go through many rounds of bloody battles.
Can the joining of Huawei and CATL provide the necessary cooperation for Changan? Can the three of them achieve a tacit understanding of each other's strengths and achieve peace and harmony? It remains to be seen further.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.