Special Issue | New Automakers: Who Are the New Opinion Leaders?

Liu Xiaolin/Wen At the beginning of 2022, two collisions of thinking in the automotive industry have already been staged. First, "lever head" Li wants to shell the CEO of the group car network is a liar, the latter has just hyped up his omnipotent car-making team. The second is that Wei Jianjun angrily rebuked the questioning of traditional brands, "Wei brand products have no problems at all, which technology is leveraged." Wei Pai did not sell well after the transformation, only because the ability to engage in marketing and the whole concept was not as good as 'Wei Xiaoli'. ”

The former is the confrontation between "new forces" and "new new forces", and the latter is the traditional giants' defense of their own strength and interpretation of the path of new forces.

On the surface, the mud and sand of the car-making outlet and the release of the new brand competitiveness list are the main reasons for the new and old auto people to "not spit unhappy". But in fact, behind the "hot search" of the automotive industry in 2021, the automobile industry has fully "broken defense". This kind of defense is not only reflected in the new definition of the car by smart electric vehicles, but also in the collective influx of Internet technology companies, and more "topic figures" with their own traffic on the stage. This has quickly diluted the industrial manufacturing background of the automobile industry, and the "opinion leader" dispute in the new car manufacturing era has come to the forefront.

Lei Jun, Li Yanhong, Zhou Hongbao, Xu Jiayin, Li Yinan, these outstanding car-making newcomers, together with their representatives of Xiaomi, Baidu, 360, Evergrande, Niu Chuang, but also with the first generation of new car opinion leaders - Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, Li Xiang, so that China's automotive industry has a new "personality", and Chen Hong, Zhu Yanfeng, Wang Chuanfu, Wei Jianjun and other mainstream car companies as family, are also trying to remove the "traditional" armor.

At the end of 2021, the share of Xiaomi mobile phones fell out of the top three in the country, but the heat of Xiaomi's car manufacturing has been running at a high level. Since the official announcement of the car in March 2021, Lei Jun has become the most popular star figure in the automobile industry in 2021, from the "last entrepreneurship" declaration of "betting on all the achievements and reputations accumulated in his life", to the dispute between the six cities where Xiaomi Automobile settled, and then to the silicon Valley light that Xiaomi Automobile Factory has illusioned in Yizhuang demolition village. Lei Jun's high-profile entry and Huawei's 8 "no car" clarifications are in stark contrast.

Two mobile phone manufacturers stand on the "C position" of public opinion in China's auto industry in 2021. Although Lei Jun fully demonstrates a clear path compared with Huawei's overall transformation topic and complex internal genre disputes, before the launch of its first car in 2024, the discussion of cross-border car manufacturing paths and product advancements will continue to be in an atmosphere of "limited trust".

Another star of an Internet technology company standing in the center of the stage is Robin Li, the progress of Baidu car manufacturing is much earlier than Xiaomi, and the marriage with Geely has also given Li Yanhong's vision of intelligent transportation a new rhythm, but in the case of the enthusiasm for cooperation between car companies is lower than expected, there is still no clear answer to when the highlight moment of Apollo's unmanned driving will come.

In addition to these two top-notch figures who have been in the spotlight for many years, Zhou Hongxia of 360 and Li Yinan, the founder of Xiaoniu Electric Vehicle with a new car project, reported seizing the wind of the times and projecting their half-life entrepreneurial experience on the expectation of the car.

Downstream of the outlet, in the huge traditional automobile manufacturing industry, the real "big guys" are also not calm. In February 2021, when the rumors of Xiaomi car manufacturing were just fermented, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile, the representative of the private independent camp of traditional car companies, stood up and said a sentence: "The new force is not Apple, and the traditional car company is not Nokia." In the past few years when the new car stars have written stories of struggle, Li Shufu's words have become less and less, and this sentence is considered to be "forced". After all, toyota boss was hatped by Tesla, one glory and one loss, as the first generation of "opinion leaders" of China's independent car companies, this breath can be swallowed by others, and "comfortable brother" cannot swallow.

As it turns out, Li Shufu is just the beginning. The CEOs who are in charge of China's mainstream car companies and the big men who once decided the direction of the automotive industry have not lost their fighting spirit. The challenges and decisions made in this year may not have been predetermined in the previous decades or twenty years. "No longer erupt in silence, perish in silence" – although there is no final life and death, the helmsman of traditional Chinese car companies will begin to take the stage in 2021.

SAIC Chen Hong, Dongfeng Zhu Yanfeng, the sense of "life and death crisis" hanging high, abandoning and accepting, insisting and changing, becoming the only way to live. Set up their own "new forces", full-stack investment in full-stack research and development, reshape the "personality" of the enterprise - they used the traditional team and began to start a business again. With the launch of high-end electric sub-brands at a pace far beyond the past, they have also begun to have the confidence and need to stand on the center of the stage.

It is not only a hundred schools of thought, but also a lack of "blockbusters". Chen Hong can be regarded as one of them. As the chairman of SAIC Motor, a leading state-owned car company group, Chen Hong reviewed the pleasure of regaining the right to speak with a golden sentence that "you cannot give your soul to others". The "soul theory" also pushes the topic of cooperation between car companies and intelligent driving system suppliers to the front of the stage. At the end of 2021, Huawei released a high-profile "Ask the Boundary", and people in the industry looked back as if they saw Chen Hong's prophetic gesture when standing at the shareholders' meeting calmly reminding Mo to give his soul to others.

When Chen Hong insisted on full-stack investment and created the "new soul" of SAIC, Dongfeng Motor, located in Jingchu Dadi, also had continuous internal wind and thunder. Zhu Yanfeng, who has ended 20 years of "loneliness", is pushing the slimming and transformation of Dongfeng into the implementation period. High-end intelligent electric vehicle brand Lantu has become the most active person in the independent high-end camp in 2021. However, the clean-up of system obsolete scale and industrial transformation are synchronized, and whether there is a "Dongfeng" to help "Lantu" take off smoothly, the challenge of Zhu Yanfeng has just begun.

Another active practitioner of the full-stack investment route, the Great Wall under Wei Jianjun has become a star enterprise in 2021. As for his rare anger in order to maintain the Wei brand, according to the relay of the on-site witnesses, Wei Jianjun carried out "on-site teaching", pointing out that Li Xiang, who came from a product manager, was good at product definition, Li Bin, who studied sociology, gave Weilai a user philosophy, and He Xiaopeng understood software and focused on automatic driving. These are not what traditional automakers are good at.

In the media's impression, the last time Wei Jianjun was angry was more than three years ago in condemnation of the smear of the "water army". In contrast, this "anger" seems to have more helplessness about the deviation of public understanding.

The clash between the old and new Automakers is not only staged in China, in 2021, Volkswagen Group CEO Diess, Toyota Motor helmsman Akio Toyoda and General Motors CEO Marie Bora fought Tesla founder Musk in different ways. While it's more of an "interaction" on social media, it's enough to see through the unsettling of the automotive business empire.

Behind the controversy of auto people, there are new quality requirements for car helmsmen brought about by the new format of intelligent electric vehicles, as Wei Jianjun summarized, software, new product definitions, and even fan economy may become key factors in competition. The new growth cycle has changed the rhythm of competition.

On December 15, 2021, CATL sent a video to celebrate its 10th anniversary, and three days later, NIO announced its global strategy at the 7th NIODAY. How long does it take for a company to go from its inception to the top seat and attract global attention? The two companies gave new answers.

And the future (Weilai), the future, the blueprint (Lantu), the ideal, the extraordinary (Feifan) - these words that symbolize the beautiful vision, at present, have been requisitioned by car brands, or with the original word, or with a harmonic sound, behind which is the car helmsman and car companies full of hope for this new brand, but also indicates that it is not easy for the new brand to survive: the new wilderness looks rich, but it has yet to be reclaimed, and there are many sheep.

Enterprises are the most basic units of the industry, and behind the birth of new brands, talents are the "soul". More car builders who have walked in the wind will bring about the appearance of more diversified "opinion leaders", which will wipe out what new brilliance will be brought to the "crown" of the manufacturing industry, which is worth looking forward to.

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