The term "MediaTek Moment" comes from the article "MediaTek Moments of New Energy Vehicles" by Teacher Chen Shuai of Yuanchuan Science and Technology Review in the article "MediaTek Moments of New Energy Vehicles". At the time of writing, I would like to borrow once.
Because I really can't find a word that can describe the current transformation of the automotive industry than "MediaTek Moment".
"MediaTek Moment" can be understood as a closed-loop ecology built by leading players in the market, and new players want to break the game by building an open ecology, reducing thresholds and costs, and enhancing market vitality with quantitative victory.
For example, against Apple, the smartphone market supported by Android + Qualcomm chips.
After a fight for the head of new energy vehicles, the "MediaTek Moment" of smart electric vehicles is also being staged. If the matter of making intelligent electric vehicles is dismantled, it can be roughly divided into the production of intelligent electric vehicle bodies + research and development of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit + marketing and user operation.
That is, let the car run, let the car run on its own, and let the car reach the user.
At present, it may be the best era to build a car, tesla experienced a poor and white, Weilai has experienced doubts, in today's existence. There are many companies in the market that are committed to "making the world have no difficult cars to build".
In order to "let the world have no difficult cars to build", the first need to be solved is "to let the car run on its own", there are currently about 20 companies on the market, which can provide a whole package of point-to-point assisted driving capabilities.
There are technology companies, such as Huawei ADS, Baidu Apollo ANP, Millima Zhixing, Momenta, SenseTime, Smart Drive Technology, Horizon, Nuumai Technology, and traditional Tier1s such as Bosch, Aptiv, ZF, etc.
The software development ability of intelligent driving has long been an obstacle to car building.
To solve the need to make the car run, there was a pure electric platform made by Magna before, and in 2021, there were "skateboard chassis" technology companies such as Yo-Run Technology and PIX Moving in China, which further realized the freedom of car-making by integrating electric drive, battery, transformation, brake, suspension, etc. into the "car body".
Enterprises that solve the problem of "letting the car run on its own" have become the guests of the car companies, and the car companies have at most expressed their attitude of "holding the soul in their own hands". And the skateboard chassis to solve the resistance is mostly, Huawei and Baidu hit me, I serve, teach me to build a car? Where did you count the little cookies that came out?
It's like, you take a taxi, teach the driver how to use the mobile app, and the driver will thank you. But you take a taxi and teach the driver to drive.... The driver must not give you a pressure cooker with his backhand.
What exactly is that skateboard chassis? What is the meaning of its existence?
Skateboard chassis is a trend under the trend of technology
Here I don't want to move the development history of the skateboard chassis, because I think this is a collection of current productivity, matching the current development needs of smart electric vehicles, yo-yo products look like this,
Yo-yo tube it is called "UP super chassis", the upper space can be flexibly mounted, flexible layout, can be SUV, can make a car, can be mini bus, can also be in line with the regulations and physics on the basis of their own customization of any form of space.
The core skill of the UP super chassis is "integration", and the difficulty is how to integrate the large chassis parts of the three electric, suspension, steering, and braking in a limited space. You can compare the difference between an ordinary pure electric chassis and a UP super chassis.
If you are an automotive practitioner, you can imagine a scenario, a project management manager, tell the engineer of the chassis, you have to squash the chassis, and the upper body is developed separately, but it has to be an integrated body... (I feel mad just typing this line)
I believe that this project management manager is either complained about leaving, or someone in the chassis integration department, seeing one fight at a time, hitting the departure. Anyway, the car circle can't tolerate him anymore.
The UP super chassis is a product solution that meets the "unreasonable needs" of the project management manager. The advantage of this is that it leaves a more flexible layout space for the cockpit, and the difficulty lies in how to "squash", how it has been developed separately, and how it must be an integrated body.
How to squash? In fact, it is a trend under the development of technology, specifically from the miniaturization of the motor, battery CTC, steer-by-wire, and in-line chassis.
Suspension this piece, double wishbones naturally solve the problem, supercar is to rely on it to reduce the body posture, Ferrari and Lamborghini everyone has at home, right? Just squat down and look at it, no hassle, here is not too much explanation.
Let's talk about motor miniaturization, because the head of the motor is the most difficult to press. The trend of motor development is to improve the energy volume ratio density, Zhiji L7 and modern E-GMP platform for the motor, have been able to use a small volume of motor output high power, the main solution is through more precision oil cooling heat dissipation, volume unchanged case to increase the motor speed, to achieve high power.
The up super chassis is currently displayed with a motor from BYD, but I guess this is just a Demo, does not represent the final form when the product is delivered, and it is certainly not enough to achieve the ultimate performance.
In addition, there is battery CTC, which is not a new technology, and it is not a technology that can be used at the moment. The official information of up super chassis is the integrated design of battery chassis with integrated thermal management system. I have only seen the PPT in this piece, and I have not seen the horizontal screenshot of the chassis and dare not comment.
In terms of pictures, CTC is a design of 6 large modules, with two beams in the middle to provide lateral support. BMS also uses Tesla's N-way valve heat pump heat management, integrating the heat source of the motor battery.
The transformation of switch-by-wire and brake-by-wire technology comes from Bosch, which is also one of the investors in Yo-Run. But there is a little doubt that whether the yo-yo has retained mechanical steering and brakes, and if so, it is not possible to talk about the statement that the upper control chassis makes the chassis layout more flexible, because my understanding is not like an extender with one more system?
If the mechanical steering and brakes are not retained, it is not possible to provide a redundancy scheme for high-level assisted driving, and the redundancy of the wire control at this stage is because there is a mechanical hydraulic conduction part, if it is removed, it is still only a conduction path of the wire control. The redundant upper position squeezed out the main palace, then there is no redundancy.
In addition, the UP super chassis has also done the arrangement of wire control, standardized the hardware interface in the VIU area, and flexibly undertaken the signal access of different sensors on the body. Regarding the electrical and electronic architecture, up has not yet released detailed information.
On how to achieve the development of the upper body split, but it must be an integrated body, the current caliber of this piece of Yo-Yo is: "The UP super chassis and the upper body are rigid connections, and the specific process details are inconvenient to disclose, but Yo-Run has applied for 46 patents for the connection scheme."
Through the professional patent inquiry website Wisdom Bud Inquiry, at present, Yo-Run Technology is the legal entity and does not have any patents in China. However, the subject of UPOWER INT HLDG (not sure whether it is an overseas subject of Yo-Run Technology) has 15 patents overseas, but the latest one of them was also applied for in 2006, and the rights have been terminated.
It is expected that the follow-up yo-yo can release more information about the connection patent.
What is the significance of the existence of the skateboard chassis?
Li Peng, founder of Youpao Technology, believes that the future car brand should first be a user enterprise, and operation and marketing are also the core competitiveness of car companies. Therefore, what Youpao wants to do is the tedious work of building cars, so that car companies can devote themselves to serving users, understanding needs, and establishing channels.
Yo-Pao not only released the "UP Super Chassis", but also released the "UPSPACE Super Cabin", and more importantly, Yo-Tro will also cooperate with car companies with qualifications and production capacity to provide foundry services for the chassis and body of the car brand.
The simple understanding is that the matter of to B is all inclusive, and the matter of to C is left to the car company. This relationship is like the division of labor between the product manager and the development team in software development, the car company is responsible for being the product manager, establishing channels to understand user needs, defining the product form, and Yo-Yo is responsible for achieving it.
What are the advantages of this?
Li Peng gave an example of a valuation model, the profit model of asset-heavy enterprises is to rely on production and then sell a hardware product, the profit margin is generally not high enough, and the valuation will not be too far from the scale of assets. For example, the current Mercedes-Benz BMW, to make money by selling cars, want to make more money to produce more and sell more.
Enterprises with asset-light models, such as Internet companies, most of the benefits are based on hardware delivery (or even no hardware), the provision of software paid services throughout the life cycle to make a profit, and then want to increase revenue, do not need to increase hardware costs, the theoretical gross profit is 100%. Enterprises with asset-light models, such as Internet companies, generally have high valuations and high profit margins.
From this logical point of view, Yo-Pao is like a Lei Feng, running over to tell all car companies, assets I come to carry, heavy assets of the work I took, you do a good job in products to engage in operation channels, do light assets.
Although it is a good thing to learn from Lei Feng, car companies may not appreciate it, because it means completely subverting the profit model of the century-old automotive industry. GM, Volkswagen, Ford are sitting in rows eating, you run over to take away other people's rice bowls, hand over a cup of milk, said that it is healthier to drink milk in the future, brown rice let me eat it. Who can not cry?
You can see that the skateboard chassis currently sounds like some goose girls, and the resistance is huge, but it is undeniable that there is a market.
The first is companies that don't have engineering capabilities, but need to build their own smart mobility tools, such as Robotaxi Technology. At this stage, I want to build a car, heavy assets can't afford to play, find car companies to cooperate with it, not only rely on people's sniffles, but also limited space can not meet their own definition of product needs.
At this time, Yo-Yo tells you, don't 998, just 88, you can be your own dad, a rowing boat!
As for car companies, although Yo-Pao said that there are already car companies becoming partners, I think car companies want to accept the skateboard chassis and accept the new business model, the resistance is very large, and the time required will be very long. After all, everyone has spent so much time to develop the platform, and there is a huge engineering research and development team.
The first to try may be weaker new entrants, or traditional car companies with slower electrification will pull out a branch to trial and error through the skateboard chassis. Of course, skateboard chassis players also need to be stronger.
The result of this may be more mixed capital into the car industry, but this is not a bad thing, before the rise of China's mobile phones, did not it also experience the great prosperity of Huaqiang North Cottage products?