"Sleepless Night" in the automobile circle: Huawei and BYD have made big moves
On November 9, the first sedan in Huawei's smart car mode, the Zhijie S7, officially opened pre-sale, with a pre-sale price starting at 258,000 yuan. According to Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device BG, and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, the four versions of the Zhijie S7 are currently "sold at a loss", hoping to reduce costs through large-scale production in the future.
On the same night, BYD's first product of the new personality brand Formula Leopard, the Leopard 5, was also officially launched, with a starting price of 289,800 yuan for the exploration version, reflecting BYD's entry into the mid-to-high-end field of automobiles. After watching the press conference of Huawei and BYD, some netizens sighed: "Chinese cars are now going their own way, so that the joint venture car has no way out." ”
Huawei's Automotive Business Expands the "Circle of Automotive Friends"
In the automotive field, Huawei's "name" is getting louder and louder. On November 9, Huawei unveiled a new smart mobility solution strategy, which will be equipped with three operating systems: HarmonyOS, Intelligent Driving System (AOS), and Intelligent Vehicle Control System (VOS), to provide four "intelligent ceiling" capabilities: intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, intelligent driving control, and intelligent networking.
Yu Chengdong said, "Huawei will take root in core technologies such as intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent driving control, continue to lead the strongest technological innovation in intelligent vehicles, and promote the intelligent development of the automotive industry. It is also necessary to break the experience to the sky, and provide users with the ultimate smart travel experience with good technology and good products! ”
At the above-mentioned press conference, Yu Chengdong also announced that the new M7 series has reached 86,000 in 50 days after it was launched, and the number of reservations for the M9 that has not been officially launched has exceeded 25,000.
According to the announcement of Cialis, the company's new energy vehicle sales in October were 17,600, a year-on-year increase of 12.84%, of which the sales of Cialis cars were about 14,500, a year-on-year increase of 20.41%.
In recent years, Huawei has continued to expand its "car circle of friends". At the launch of Huawei's smart mobility solution and the pre-sale of the S7 new product on November 9, Yu Chengdong said that there are three modes of cooperation between Huawei and car companies: one is the parts supply model, which provides standardized modules for car companies; The second is the solution model, which provides full-stack integrated solutions for car companies; The third is the smart car model, which provides innovative ecological cars. From the parts supply model to the smart car model, Huawei's "participation in car manufacturing" has gradually increased.
According to Yu Chengdong, there are currently four partners in Huawei's smart car model, in addition to Cialis, Chery, JAC, and BAIC. The Zhijie S7, which opened for pre-sale on November 19, is a product jointly launched by Huawei and Chery.
Zhijie S7 benchmarks Tesla, and the smart car mode reproduces the "fierce general"
On November 9th, Zhijie S7 opened pre-sale, and in the pre-sale activities, Zhijie S7's benchmarking against Tesla can be seen everywhere.
According to Yu Chengdong, in terms of performance, the Zhijie S7 has achieved an acceleration of 100 kilometers in 3.3 seconds, and the CLTC comprehensive range is more than 800km, while the Model S dual-motor version has a range of 715km and the Model 3 long-range version is 713km. In terms of power saving capabilities, the power consumption of the Zhijie S7 is 12.4 kWh per 100 kilometers, the new Model 3 rear-wheel drive version is 13.2 kWh, and the Model S dual-motor version is 17.5 kWh.
With the word "Zhi" in its name, the Zhijie S7 has also made a breakthrough in intelligence, becoming the first car equipped with Huawei's new "Turing" intelligent chassis. In addition, Zhijie S7 is also the first to be equipped with HarmonyOS 4 intelligent cockpit, and the intelligent voice assistant Xiaoyi is also connected to Huawei's Pangu model, incarnating as "understanding car technology", helping novice drivers quickly locate and solve problems, and become a user's personal car consultant.
In the face of daily parking problems, Zhijie S7 debuted the "parking on behalf of driving" function. Yu Chengdong said that everyone usually shops, carrying large bags and small bags, and it is inconvenient to park, and sometimes they have to put things at the elevator entrance and then run to park. With the "parking for driving" function, you can get off the car at the elevator entrance and let the car go back to park by itself.
In addition to intelligence and performance, Zhijie S7 has also worked hard in safety, with 10 layers of battery protection, 3 layers of special protection at the bottom, thickened side impact beams, and high-strength impact beams under the car. According to Yu Chengdong, the Zhijie S7 battery adopts an ultra-high integration of minimalist circuits, which reduces the wiring harness by 80%, and also realizes the non-spread of single cell thermal runaway, and achieves automatic early warning, millisecond power failure, active cooling, barrier-free exhaust and other functions.
Yu Chengdong said: "Our battery pack cooperates with CATL, and CATL has done a good job in the battery field. And we at Huawei have the highest requirements for battery safety. He said that the strict demand for safety has also brought about an increase in cost, but safety is the greatest luxury, and all the costs are worth it.
From the price point of view, Zhijie S7 is divided into four versions: standard version (Zhijie S7 Pro), long voyage version (Zhijie S7 Max), super aviation version (Zhijie S7 Max+), and four-wheel drive flagship version (Zhijie S7 Max RS), with a pre-sale price of 258,000 yuan. If you book during the pre-sale period of Zhijie S7, you can also enjoy rights and interests worth 40,000 yuan, which is valid from November 9 to November 28.
Yu Chengdong said that buying the Zhijie S7 "is equivalent to buying a high-end sedan with higher specifications and higher intelligence than the Model S at the price of buying the Model 3." He also said that he had argued with colleagues about the price before the press conference, and that this "aggressive price" had gone through multiple rounds of cost calculations, and that all four versions were "all loss-making". In the future, the company will reduce costs by increasing the number of shipments and reducing costs through economies of scale.
BYD launched the Leopard 5 and continued to focus on the mid-to-high-end
On November 9, BYD's personalized brand Formula Leopard also released its first product, the Leopard 5, with prices ranging from 289,800 yuan to 352,800 yuan, and the top model is equipped with the Yunlin-P intelligent body control system.
In August this year, BYD officially released the professional personalized brand Formula Leopard for the mid-to-high-end market, and the first model Leopard 5 is positioned as a super hybrid hard SUV. On October 30, the official Weibo of "Formula Leopard Automobile" posted that the first batch of 70 directly-operated stores of Formula Leopard Auto officially opened for trial operation, and the first model Leopard 5 has arrived in stores one after another.
According to reports, the Leopard 5 is positioned as a hard-core off-road SUV, adopting a non-load-bearing architecture that is more suitable for pickup trucks and off-road models, equipped with BYD's new hybrid technology platform (DMO) and CTC battery-chassis integration technology, with a comprehensive range of more than 1,200 kilometers.
In addition to Equation Leopard, BYD also launched the DENZA and Yangwang brands to continue to focus on the high-end market. In September this year, the Denza D9 sold 10,249 units, ranking first in the luxury MPV market of more than 300,000 yuan for nine consecutive months with an average transaction price of 420,000 yuan, and the Denza N7 sold 1,810 units, becoming the second largest model among Chinese brands in the sales of pure electric mid-size luxury SUVs of more than 300,000 yuan. Yangwang U8 was officially launched in September this year, opening up the market of BYD's "million-level luxury car".
According to Haitong International Securities Research Report, BYD Group has built a multi-brand matrix composed of BYD brand, Denza, Yangwang and Equation Leopard. In the midst of the great changes in the global new energy vehicle market, Chinese automakers led by BYD have demonstrated strong innovation capabilities and brand confidence, and are expected to continue to reshape the global automotive landscape.
The overall recovery of the automobile market has formed a "silver nine gold ten"
Overall, Huawei and BYD's innovations in the automotive sector reflect the "blossoming of a hundred flowers" in China's automotive industry. Since October, the sales volume of China's auto market has recovered significantly, forming a trend of "silver nine gold ten".
According to the data of the China Passenger Car Association, the retail sales of China's passenger car market reached 2.033 million units in October 2023, a year-on-year increase of 10.2% and a month-on-month increase of 0.7%, and the cumulative retail sales this year were 17.267 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.
The Federation of Passenger Cars said that in October this year, the retail sales of the auto market strengthened month-on-month, forming a strong trend of "silver nine gold ten", which is also a common trend in recent years, because the growth momentum of new energy vehicles is driven by the strong month-on-month growth. In October, the promotion of the auto market continued to increase, and the promotion of fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles increased month-on-month, and the consumer demand for car purchases was released.
Among them, the market share of self-owned brand vehicles continued to increase. In October this year, the retail sales of China's own brand cars were 1.13 million units, an increase of 20% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month, and the domestic retail share of independent brands in the month was 55.6%, a year-on-year increase of 4 percentage points, and in the first 10 months of 2023, the cumulative market share of China's own brand cars was 51%, a year-on-year increase of 4.9 percentage points.
According to the Passenger Association, independent brands have achieved significant growth in the new energy market and export markets, the transformation and upgrading of leading traditional car companies have performed well, and the brand share of traditional car companies such as BYD, Chery, Changan, and Geely has increased significantly.
Editor-in-charge: Ren Haopeng | Review: Li Zhen | Supervisor: Wan Junwei
(Source: Securities Times)