The first car was "cool" after 8 months on the market? Huawei only pampers the world celis busy with the aftermath

Economic Observation Network reporter Pu Zhenyu on the one hand is Huawei's channel began to fully turn to the sale of AITO Q&A M5, on the other hand, Cyrus Huawei Smart Selection SF5 (hereinafter referred to as "Cyris SF5") is deeply involved in the public opinion storm of suspension of production and suspension of sales. The chaos of the product sales system has made the Xilis brand the object of complaints from many car owners and prospective owners recently.

On January 5, in response to the suspension of the SF5 production of Cyrus SF5 caused by the inability to make a reservation operation, Cyrus issued an open letter saying that Cyrus SF5 will continue to accept user orders. After the user places an order, Xilis will arrange for a special person to follow up and assist in delivery in a timely manner. The first owner of the Sf5 series of the Cyrus SF5 that has been delivered will enjoy an additional lifetime warranty of the vehicle and range extender in addition to the 8-year / 160,000 km warranty of the three-electric system.

Although Cyrus responded with a positive statement that the rumors of the discontinuation of Cyrus SF5 ended in the form of "oolong", it did not completely dispel the doubts of the outside world about Cyrus SF5 and even the Cyrus brand.

This doubt is reflected in the fact that the "same disciple" asked the world whether the M5 sales are hot, will the Cyrus SF5 be substantially marginalized by the market? As the AITO brand is seen by more and more people as Huawei's "pro-son", will Xilix consider rebalancing its partnership with Huawei?

The Cyrus SF5 awkwardly exists

Recently, some Cyrus SF5 owners posted on the Internet that shortly after buying a car, the vehicle was stopped and sold and was "abandoned" by the manufacturer, and he was also "cut leeks".

The basis of these owners includes that Huawei's offline experience stores around the world have been renovated, and the in-store display models have been replaced by the Cyris SF5 to the Q&C M5, and the booking of the Cyrus SF5 is no longer accepted. At the same time, the Huawei online official store also did not see the Cyrus SF5, replaced by the promotional elements of the AITO brand and the product page of the Q&I M5.

In addition, according to the previous description of some car owners, a large number of Cyrus's own sales stores are also undergoing renovation, and the LOGO of many stores has also been replaced by the logo of "ATIO", and the Cyrus SF5 is no longer displayed, and the car is no longer booked.

It is understood that there are also some Cyrus SF5 prospective owners to form a "rights protection" network group, there are prospective owners on the Internet said that they paid a 10,000 yuan Cyrus SF5 deposit on December 12, and after selling their old cars, they were told that they could not pick up the car, and now the deposit cannot be refunded, and the new car cannot be mentioned.

On January 7, relevant people from Xilis told the Economic Observer Network reporter that the suspension of the SF5 of Xilis was subject to the response in the official open letter.

According to media reports, the online sales channel of Cyrus SF5 was briefly closed earlier, but it has now been restored, and in the future, Cyrus SF5 will continue to sell in Cyrus's self-built channel.

Today, Xilis announced that the Cyrus SF5 will continue to sell, although it has largely calmed the doubts of the outside world, but the market prospects of the car are still not optimistic.

With the endorsement of technology giant Huawei, as the first product of the second-tier brand Cyris, the SF5 has gained high market attention in 2021. The car is equipped with Huawei's electric drive system and HiCar and other functions, and has entered Huawei's sales channels.

However, on December 24, 2021, Huawei officially released the M5, the first model of AITO, a new high-end brand under Cyrus, as a supplier. With the release of the Q&C M5, the Huawei selling point on the Cyris SF5 began to be weakened, and the situation became "embarrassing".

From the price point of view, the minimum pre-price of the Q&I M5 is only 33,200 yuan higher than the starting price of the SF5, and the sales staff of the Huawei experience store told the Economic Observer Network reporter that the official price of the Q&I M5 will most likely be lower than the pre-price.

In the case of limited price gap, the Q&I M5 is equipped with more and stronger Huawei advanced technology, which is the first time that the Hongmeng smart cockpit is "on the car", and according to Huawei, the Q&I M5 also adopts the brand concept of Huawei consumer BU (business unit) high-end, fashionable and young at the design level.

Some auto industry analysts told the Economic Observer Network reporter that choosing to continue to sell SF5 may be a stopgap measure for Cyrus to deal with consumer rights protection. After the official listing of the Q&I M5, the market competitiveness of the Cyrus SF5 will be further weakened, and unless the price is reduced, the potential consumers of the car will be diverted to the Q&C M5 on a large scale.

"It's better to let the market choose." If the sales of the M5 gradually replace the SF5, then from the perspective of car companies, there is no reason to continue to produce the original model. It is a very normal commercial operation for a new facelift to replace an old model. Of course, SF5 consumers are more worried about after-sales and second-hand car discounts, and I think this requires car companies to bear corporate responsibility. Bai Yiyang, manager of the international research department of CMB and an analyst in the automotive industry, told the Economic Observer Network reporter.

According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles quoted by some reports, from April to November 2021, the sales of the SF5 of Xilis were 129, 204, 1097, 507, 715, 1117, 1926 and 1385, a total of 7080 vehicles, which can only be called mediocre performance in the entire domestic new energy vehicle market.

Introduce state-owned assets to balance Huawei's influence?

Although the Cyrus SF5 suspension of production has come to an end, this round of turmoil has also further seen the weak position of Cyrus in cooperation with Huawei.

In fact, for the cooperation between Cyrus and Huawei, more and more industry views believe that with the passage of time, Huawei's influence in cooperation has increased day by day and gradually dominated. Especially around the AITO brand, there is even a speculation in the industry that "Xilis is a Car Foundry of Huawei", but this speculation has been explicitly denied by Xiaokang, the parent company of Xilis.

It is worth noting that at present, the binary cooperative relationship of "Xilis-Huawei" has emerged in a new situation, and Xilis has begun to build its own industrial chain and introduce new car-making partners.

On January 4, Xiaokang co., Ltd. announced that the special fund fund funded by Jingyun Chuangfu and Chongqing Development Investment Co., Ltd. signed an "Investment Agreement" with the company, the company's controlling shareholder Xiaokang Holdings and Jinkang New Energy, and jinkang new energy, a joint venture between Jinkang new energy, special fund and Jingyun Chuangfu to establish Xilisi Electric to build and operate the "Xilisi Intelligent Electric Vehicle Parts Assembly Project".

The biggest attraction of this round of joint ventures is that Chongqing Development and Investment Co., Ltd. is a state-owned asset, which was established in August 2018 as a wholly state-owned company approved by the Chongqing Municipal People's Government, and the Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau performs the duties of an investor on behalf of the Chongqing Municipal Government, with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan.

According to the announcement, the purpose of the establishment of Xilis Electric is to improve the company's high-end intelligent electric vehicle intelligent manufacturing level and enhance the company's high-end intelligent electric vehicle mass production capacity. In the eyes of the outside world, the "high-end intelligent electric vehicle" mentioned in the announcement of Xiaokang shares refers to the AITO brand created by Xilis and Huawei.

From the perspective of brand planning, AITO does have a strong demand for capacity. In December 2021, at the AITO brand conference, Xu Lin, president of Xilis (rotating), announced the goal of the AITO brand: to become the world's top 3 brand of new energy vehicles within 5 years.

Some analysts believe that the establishment of the new joint venture company related to Xilis and the introduction of state-owned capital, in addition to the consideration of improving the ability to build cars, may also be a means for Xilis to balance Huawei's influence (or balance Huawei).

However, in Bai Yiyang's view, the introduction of state-owned assets by the new joint venture company related to Xilix cannot be said to balance Huawei, because fundamentally Xiaokang does not have the technical capital to balance Huawei. This time, Xiaokang may be more likely to set up a parts company, hoping to earn more foundry income in the industrial chain.