Yesterday, at the Innovation Harbor Conference Center on Antuo Road in Shanghai, Feifan Automobile held a media co-creation exchange meeting.
When it comes to taking off a car, everyone may feel a little strange. It seems that this brand appeared suddenly, but in fact, its predecessor is the SAIC R brand.
On October 30, 2021, SAIC Motor announced that it intends to invest in the establishment of Feifan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., and will separate the R brand as a passenger car branch of SAIC Motor, and will be market-oriented by Feifan Automobile in an asset-light manner.
The registered capital of Feifan Automobile is RMB 7 billion, of which the company subscribes to contribute 6.65 billion yuan, accounting for 95% of the registered capital, and the employee shareholding platform subscribes to contribute 350 million yuan, accounting for 5% of the registered capital.
Wu Bing became ceo of Feifan Automobile. Wu Bing has been the CEO of SAIC's mobility brand "Xiangdao Travel", co-founded SAIC Insurance, and served as the director of Chevrolet's marketing business department, etc., and has worked in SAIC for more than 20 years, with sufficient experience in internal entrepreneurship.
This media co-creation meeting is also led by Wu Bing, and the relevant information about the brand's first flagship SUV , the Feifan R7 and the logic behind the independent operation of the Feifan brand can be answered in this article.
01
The Feifan R7 is configured with sincerity
On February 23, Feifan Automobile's official website opened the R7's down-to-earth channel, and only the appearance and part of the configuration information were announced.
According to the introduction at the co-creation meeting, the Feifan R7 sample car rolled off the production line in March this year, unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April, and opened for delivery in July-August.
The Feifan R7 is the brand's first model since independence, and the new car is positioned as a medium and large SUV. Body sizes:
Length, width and height: 4,900 mm × 1,925 mm × 1,655 mm, wheelbase 2,950 mm.
For reference, the body dimensions of the NIO ES6 are as follows:
L/W/H: 4,850 mm × 1,965 mm × 1,758 mm, wheelbase 2,900 mm.
In addition to the body width and height slightly inferior to the NIO ES6, the Body Length and Wheelbase of the Feifan R7 are 50 mm more than the ES6.
THE INTELLIGENT DRIVING SYSTEM PP-CEM UNDER SAIC'S 20 BILLION R-TECH TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM IS ALSO EQUIPPED WITH 33 SENSORS, INCLUDING LUMINAR'S LIDAR (THE FIELD OF VIEW AND DETECTION RANGE ARE CURRENTLY OPTIMAL), 192-CHANNEL 4D MMWAM RADAR FROM ZF, NVIDIA Orin's autopilot chip, and so on.
In terms of smart cockpit, the Feifan R7 is equipped with Qualcomm 8155 chip, and the interior has a 43-inch large screen and a 70-inch giant screen with a visual focus of 7.5 meters away. The sound adopts BOSE's 14-channel audio system, the first model in China to support BOSE EVSE engine sound wave simulation technology, and officially said that it can simulate the sound wave effect of Lamborghini and other supercars.
In terms of motors, Feifan said that the maximum power of the four-wheel drive model is 400 kW, the maximum torque is 700 N·m, and the acceleration of 100 kilometers is about 4 s. And the motor of the Feifan R7 adopts oil-cooled heat dissipation technology, which will have better heat dissipation performance when driving intensely.
The capacity of the battery pack is not officially disclosed, but it is determined that the listing will provide two kinds of battery capacity. The high-end model officially says that the battery life is 600+ km, and the expected battery pack capacity is 90-100 kWh.
There are two interesting things about batteries:
Feifan R7 supports quick disassembly and replacement, and the official said that the entire power exchange process can be completed in 2.5 minutes at the earliest;
Fei Fan said that in the future, it will consider the solution of vehicle and electricity separation.
However, at the co-creation meeting, Feifan only showed us his planning on the charging station, and did not mention the layout plan of the replacement power station. According to them, in the future, Feifan will deploy its own power exchange system.
If that's the case, Fei Fan must speed up his pace. If there are not enough substations to meet user needs, this function will naturally become a gimmick, and the convenient experience will not be able to speak.
02
Where are the advantages of brand independence?
SAIC's methodology for success
The meeting has just begun, Wu Bing did not rush to introduce the brand concept of Feifan, but told everyone a concept: "the theory of the gap".
After the emergence of a new technology or new product, the 16% penetration rate will be a gap. Once this barrier is overcome, the technology or product can be rapidly popularized to the mass market.
It is worth noting that since September last year, the monthly penetration rate of domestic new energy passenger cars has exceeded 15%, and if according to the theory of the gap, we have entered a period of rapid growth in the new energy market. This is also the timing of Feifan Automobile's consideration for action.
Wu Bing has worked at SAIC for more than 20 years and has successfully created many projects from 0 to 1 within SAIC. In his methodology, SAIC's past successful experience has become an indispensable part of it. As if to see everyone's doubts, Wu Bing took the initiative to introduce why SAIC Motor changed from R to R brand, and finally to now operate independently.
Looking back at the history of SAIC, the multi-brand strategy has always been the dark line of its development. In the process of SAIC-GM from 1997 to 1998, many people expressed their incomprehension: there is already SAIC Volkswagen, why should another SAIC-GM be established? Is the market capacity enough for this multi-brand development route?
And the facts have proved that the multi-brand strategy is correct. From SAIC Volkswagen in 1980 to SAIC-GM in 1997 to Roewe in 2006, the multi-brand strategy has allowed SAIC to occupy a 25% market share in the Chinese market. In 2004, SAIC-GM-Wuling was born, and many people once again asked the same question: Is it really necessary to engage in so many brands?
Sales have once again proved necessary. Today, SAIC-GM-Wuling is already a large group with an annual output of 2 million vehicles.
Wu Bing concluded that when a market is in the process of rapid development, the needs of consumers can be better met through different brands, different positioning and different business models. Looking forward to the new energy market, SAIC motor has set itself the goal of selling more than 2.7 million new energy vehicles by 2025, accounting for no less than 32% of the total vehicle sales.
For this goal, Wu Bing believes that SAIC needs to lay out more competitive products in the mid-to-high-end market, and behind these products need to be supported by differentiated brands and unique business models. And in the face of the new energy market, which has great potential, independent operation can release potential and make unique products.
So now look back at the independent operation of Feifan Automobile, everything has traces.
Unleash productivity: asset-light + co-creation + independent operation
Focusing on the business logic and operation ideas of Feifan Automobile, Wu Bing emphasized two key points: one is light assets, and the other is independent operation.
The so-called light assets refers to the innate advantages of Feifan Automobile in integrating the technology, resources and capabilities of SAIC Group, and compared with other car companies, Feifan Automobile's pressure on technology investment and production facility construction has been greatly reduced. Specifically, SAIC's latest electronic and electrical architecture technology, the latest design language, the latest intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit technology can be used for the first time in Feifan Automobile.
Feifan Automobile and SAIC's core business units have set up co-creation centers. For example, SAIC's design department will be assigned to the Feifan co-creation team to participate in the entire design process; the intelligent driving team of SAIC Technical Center and the zero beam of SAIC Intelligent Cockpit Team will also have co-creation teams to participate in the research and development of Feifan Automobile; SAIC's intelligent manufacturing base in Lingang, Shanghai will also be used by Feifan Automobile.
In the traditional sense, asset-light means "no technical accumulation", which means "buying solutions to find FOUNDC", but with the endorsement of SAIC, the asset-light model allows Feifan Automobile to have more energy to focus on the three major strategies of user-driven, digital-driven and extremely intelligent, which is also the benefit of the co-creation concept.
Independent operation can make the organizational structure of Feifan Automobile more clear and efficient. As an independent company, Feifan Automobile is divided into 10 departments to achieve flat management. Wu Bing said that all departments are directly managed and responsible by him to ensure that information is transmitted as quickly as possible.
Three survival pivots
Wu Bing defines "user-driven", "digital-driven" and "extremely intelligent" as the company's three fulcrums for survival. Through the co-creation model, the pressure of design, research and development, and production is reduced, and the three strategic cores of Feifan Automobile's independent operation also have sufficient productivity support.
The meaning of user-driven is actually to improve the user experience. Since Weilai set a precedent in this field, it has also become one of the battlefields for everyone to compete on the new energy vehicle track. Feifan Automobile's understanding of "user-driven" does not simply mean that the company has only one user operation department, they subdivide and subdivide the user's experience process, and divide it into various departments such as experience center, delivery center and service center within the company to ensure that each link has enough manpower to support the user experience.
At the heart of digital drive is "data". Similar to the concept of the "user-driven" strategy, Feifan also subdivides in this link, and collects and integrates the data of the car, the data of the user, and the data of the experience in the future. The results derived from this data will feed back the development, positioning and adjustment of the model. Wu Bing explained that through this data, we can also understand the needs of users more directly and agilely, and we can also provide exclusive and differentiated services in the future. In order to achieve these goals, the company size of Feifan Automobile will reach about 600 people by the end of the year, and one-third of them will be in charge of the digital team.
Jizhi Drive refers to intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, and the core driving force of research and development is the co-creation team established by SAIC Technology Center and SAIC Software Company Zero Beam and Feifan Automobile respectively. Under this section, Feifan Automobile feedback the user opinions collected by the technical requirements, digital team and user operation team to the co-creation team.
Asset-light operation of Feifan Automobile can understand the user and market demand in more detail, while the co-creation team targeted technology research and development iterations, and the three strategic components complement each other.
03
Where has the Retail & Replenishment System gone?
The retail system and the energy replenishment system are also important dueling grounds for new energy vehicle companies.
For the new powers, starting from 0 to build a retail system will undoubtedly require a huge investment and a long time to achieve considerable coverage. For Feifan Automobile, although the brand is very new, with the help of SAIC's early layout, the current retail system has been quite impressive.
In terms of retail system, Feifan Automobile currently has 188 experience centers across the country, covering the core business districts of 85 cities such as Shanghai, Sanya and Harbin; 18 delivery centers nationwide, and the delivery center in Shanghai was put into use at the end of December 2021; and 123 after-sales service outlets were laid out nationwide, covering 80 cities.
However, on the self-built energy network, Feifan Automobile still has a lot of room for efforts.
The idea of Feifan Automobile is to lay out together through brand charging stations, equity charging stations, and third-party cooperative charging stations. At present, Feifan Automobile has laid out 144 brand charging stations, 1,006 rights charging stations and existing charging piles connected to brands such as Special Call and State Grid nationwide.
In contrast, The goal of Extreme Kr Automobile in 2021 is to lay out 290 self-built charging stations nationwide, 607 Khmies charging stations participated in by Volkswagen Group's joint venture by the end of 2021, and WEILAI has a total of 1,200+ charging stations and 605 supercharging stations in 2021, covering 226 cities.
04
Write at the end
At the co-creation meeting, Wu Bing said that the first new car, the Feifan R7, will achieve the delivery target of 10,000 units this year, in addition, Feifan Automobile will launch at least one new model every year from 2022 to 2025, covering core markets such as cars, SUVs, MPVs, etc., and hopes that by 2025, Feifan Automobile can become a profitable mid-to-high-end intelligent electric vehicle head enterprise.
The SAIC Group behind Feifan has long been laid out in the field of intelligence and electrification, and the R-TECH technology platform has taken five years, 20 billion yuan and completed development. Huayu, a listed company under SAIC Motor, also has Yanfeng, a leading company in the field of intelligent cockpits, and ranked 17th in the 2021 Top 100 Global Parts and Components Enterprises List.
The combination of asset-light independent operation and co-creation concept also allows Feifan Automobile to have enough energy to do a good user experience and not to worry too much about R&D and production capacity. You can also see that Feifan has mature thinking and complete planning for car manufacturing, and software and hardware and intelligence also have enough support.
But the biggest problem at present is that the compact cars ER6 and MARVEL R launched by Feifan Automobile's predecessor, the R brand, have not delivered satisfactory answers. How can Feifan Automobile establish brand recognition in the mid-to-high-end market is an urgent problem that they need to solve at present.
However, we can expect that they will give the answer to the problem at next month's Feifan Auto Technology Festival.
Author: Mingming
Edit: Reinhardt
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