The impact of Chinese automakers on the high-end market is a long journey for Sisyphus.
More than 20,000 of them. This is the number of large orders received in two days after the release of the M9 on December 26.
The M9 is the first flagship SUV model of Hongmeng Zhixing, considering that the M9 has accumulated 54,000 blind orders, the conversion of large orders will continue to increase.
If the question of the world in OctoberM7 won 70,000 orders in one go, it is the explosion of Huawei's flagship machine traffic blessing, ultra-high product cost performance, when the question world M9 is sold at a price of 469,800 yuan, it can also become an order bomb, which is undoubtedly another proof of Huawei's smart car technical strength.
According to the information of the press conference, the M9 is a panoramic smart flagship SUV, in terms of size, the length, width and height of the car are 5230/1999/1800mm, and the wheelbase reaches 3110mm, and the vehicle is equipped with Huawei's full-stack technology solution for intelligent vehicles.
First of all, Huawei's best intelligent technologies, including the HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit and the HUAWEI ADS 2.0 high-end intelligent driving system supported by multi-sensor fusion perception.
In terms of safety, the M9 is also equipped with a super strong basalt body and a 9,000-ton integrated die-casting process, as well as a nuclear submarine-grade 2,000MPa hot-stamping steel and nine airbags.
In terms of power, the M9 provides two power forms: extended range version and pure electric version.
Among them, the extended range version is equipped with a 1.5T range extender and dual motors, with a maximum power of 365kW and a 0-100 acceleration time of 4.9 seconds, a battery pack capacity of 42kWh, and a pure electric range of up to 225km in CLTC mode and 1210km in WLTC mode.
In addition, the extended-range version can be equipped with an optional 52 kWh battery pack, which increases the all-electric range to 275 km.
The all-electric version is also equipped with dual front and rear motors, with a maximum power of 390 kW and a 0-100 acceleration time of 4.3 seconds, a battery pack capacity of 100 kWh, and a pure electric range of up to 630 km in CLTC mode.
In the era of fuel vehicles, joint venture car companies have been entrenched in the mid-to-high-end market of China's auto market for decades, earning milk and honey, and in the era of new energy vehicles, China has sufficient resources to charge the mid-to-high-end market by virtue of the sudden rise of the automobile industry chain. Weilai and Li Auto are all in the market of about 400,000 yuan, and have achieved monthly sales of tens of thousands of vehicles, which not only establishes brand image, but also achieves scale effect.
Huawei's Wenjie brand set the starting price of the model at more than 250,000 yuan at the beginning. Wenjie M9 directly raised the price to 469,800-569,800 yuan, and the orders are still hot, which reflects Huawei's high-end path in the mobile phone era.
However, even if they are both high-end, they are also different, NIO has established service barriers around user care, and the ideal image of family cars is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. There is no doubt that the M9 was born in Huawei's technology bonanza, and its high-end path is a high-end technology supported by hard-core technology.
In the past, this may be more of Huawei's proprietary advantages and barriers in the mobile phone terminal industry, but today, under the open alliance of Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing ecosystem, it is obviously based on Huawei to empower the overall high-end upgrade of China's automobile industry.
M9, the high-end technology of automobiles
The impact of Chinese automakers on the high-end market is a long journey for Sisyphus. The root cause lies in the fact that the core technology stack and industrial chain of traditional fuel vehicles are not in China.
In the smart electric vehicle industry, it is almost China's base camp, CATL has been entrenched in the world's first power battery shipments for many years, BYD is the world's first sales of new energy vehicles, and the annual production capacity construction of a second-tier battery factory in China is almost a three-year plan for Europe's leading battery companies.
In the ICT field, there are a large number of technical and engineering talents, as well as technology giants such as Huawei.
Therefore, when the tide of the smart electric vehicle industry is surging, it is a matter of course for China's independent brands to launch a charge towards high-end. Huawei's blessing of Hongmeng Zhixing is the most obvious example. In the field of digital cockpit and intelligent driving, which is the core and most obvious of automotive intelligence, Huawei has complete and systematic technical reserves.
As the world's leading ICT solution provider and a leader in the digital field, Huawei began to invest in intelligent and connected automotive technologies as early as 10 years ago, with an annual R&D investment of 100+ billion yuan and 7,000 direct R&D personnel.
Among them, in recent years, more than 5,000 R&D personnel have been continuously invested in intelligent driving technologies and solutions, and thousands of R&D personnel have been continuously invested in intelligent cockpit, intelligent electric, intelligent vehicle control and intelligent vehicle optical products.
Therefore, in less than 3 years, Huawei has delivered almost overflowing intelligent technology features on the M9.
First of all, the intelligent cockpit equipped with HarmonyOS 4, with the full configuration of 10 screens in the whole car, can realize multi-person multi-screen and multi-voice interaction in the car. In particular, the three rows of the M9 also have independent screens, which can be used to expand new gameplay methods in the car with the help of HUAWEI Maglink, and realize seamless connection of multiple devices.
At the same time, it will continue to support the seamless flow of mobile applications and desktop layout, so that the collaboration between the car and the machine will be smoother.
In other car companies, each additional screen will test the cost structure of the whole vehicle, and for Huawei, which has a full range of intelligent terminals, it uses 10 screens almost at a time, occupying the commanding heights of multi-screen products in the car.
In addition, the M9 is also equipped with the industry's first automotive-grade projection system, 32-inch lifting projection screen, which wants to reproduce the cinema-level viewing experience.
Huawei's new HUAWEI SOUND series is also equipped on the M9, with 25 units of professional-grade audio and an amplifier output of 2080W.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaoyi's smart assistant is equipped with an AI large model for the first time, and it has also been equipped on the M9. In the scenario of multi-person driving, through the voiceprint semi-supervised self-learning Xi model, Xiaoyi can identify the owner of the voiceprint according to the sound emitted by each sound area, and use the nickname to make personalized responses and complete the command task.
The continuation and expansion of intelligent experience between different devices is the internal driving force of automotive intelligence, and from this underlying logic, Huawei is bound to get stuck in its technical position faster.
In addition to the digital cockpit, Huawei's ADS 2.0 has also been fully upgraded in terms of intelligent driving. According to Yu Chengdong, on the basis of the GOD (General Obstacle Detection Network) and RCR2.0 (Road Topology Inference), Huawei has launched the first PDP prediction and planning network.
Intelligent driving has been rapidly marching to the city, and the leading car companies have shouted out the digital competition of 100 seats in the city in the first half of the year. Huawei, on the other hand, jumped out of this number and set the goal of opening it in all urban areas across the country.
The difficulty in implementing intelligent driving in cities lies in the recognition of complex traffic elements, in addition to pedestrians, vehicles, and static road elements, as well as a large number of special-shaped elements such as construction sections.
The variety of traffic elements means that the behavior trajectory is complex and changeable, so a reliable behavior prediction and planning network is also indispensable, which is the core meaning of Huawei's new PDP prediction and planning network.
With the integration of network technologies such as GOD, RCR, PDP, etc., Huawei's "nationwide open" intelligent driving technology in urban areas can be implemented. Of course, the technical configuration of the front-end of high-end intelligent driving has gradually converged, and the resources of the back-end data closed-loop are the barriers to future industry competition.
According to data released by Huawei, the computing power of its intelligent driving computing cluster has reached 2.8EFLOPS, compared with less than 1EFLOPS for domestic car manufacturers. The abundant computing resources also support Huawei's high efficiency of 5-day iteration of the algorithm model.
At the M9 press conference on December 26, Yu Chengdong announced that Huawei's ADS2.0 intelligent driving system, which can be opened nationwide, has officially opened OTA. This means that the battle for high-end intelligent driving in China will enter a more fierce competition.
"The competition in the first half of the car is electrification, and the second half is intelligence. "Regarding the competition rhythm of new energy vehicles, the industry has long had a consensus.
Huawei's centralized implementation of intelligent technologies through the M9 will also strongly promote the process of upgrading the automotive industry to intelligence.
Huawei that goes deep into the whole vehicle
Intelligent technology is Huawei's "housekeeping skill", and three years after the implementation of the smart car business, Huawei's ability to penetrate into the whole vehicle has also begun to show its edge.
The first is the control of space. According to Yu Chengdong, the overall occupant space of the M9 is the largest in the same class, with the sum of the front, middle and rear rows reaching 2725mm, of which the front row space is 1045mm, the second row space is 1230mm, and the third row space is 950mm, and the sense of vision and space is comparable to mainstream MPV models.
Of course, behind any innovation and upgrade is the support of technology, and Huawei is familiar with this.
In the structural design of the M9, Huawei also uses a 9000-ton integrated die-casting body, coupled with the body positioning of the D-class luxury car, which can make the SUV achieve the same flat floor as the MPV on the M9, and the third row enters and exits the farewell steps, making the ride more calm.
On the basis of the flat floor, the M9 can also provide 3, 4, 5 and 6 seats in the "Variety Seat" mode, which users can freely combine according to the travel needs of different scenarios.
In the Chinese market, the demand for "big cars and space" has always been strong, and Li Auto has made a small number of models into popular models by virtue of its understanding of space.
Huawei's understanding of the interior space can be seen from the M7, which is a 5-seater SUV with a total space of 2605mm in the front, middle and rear rows, and a total of 14 23 storage spaces in the car.
And on the M9, this concept is strengthened again. The whole car has as many as 41 storage spaces in the car, including fully enclosed central lockers, privacy storage boxes for the main driver, and dump design storage boxes for the co-driver, etc., to achieve hidden storage through various forms.
In addition to body and space design, Huawei has also developed in-depth knowledge of automotive chassis with its software engineering capabilities.
According to the official introduction, the M9 is equipped with Huawei's Tuling intelligent chassis, using front double wishbone rear multi-link independent suspension, and the whole system is equipped with intelligent closed air springs and CDC variable damping shock absorbers as standard.
Huawei has developed its own software algorithms for this hardware, including the multi-modal fusion perception system, the HUAWEI DATS dynamic adaptive torque system, and the HUAWEI xMotion intelligent body cooperative control system.
If hardware is the foundation of the chassis of the whole vehicle, then Huawei uses the lever of software capabilities to stimulate the mechanical quality of hardware again, bringing an enhanced driving experience.
In addition, Huawei's optical department also provided a number of optical black technologies such as the HUAWEI ARHUD system and the HUAWEI XPIXEL megapixel smart projection headlamp for the M9.
Security is the core value proposition of Huawei's high-end positioning products. On the M9, Huawei has made a vivid presentation from active to passive security.
According to reports, Huawei's forward AEB technology supports active braking at a speed of up to 120km/h, and the first ESA emergency lane change assist system can also automatically control the steering to assist the driver to avoid collisions.
Active safety depends on technology, and passive safety depends on materials and adherence to quality standards.
According to reports, the Xuanwu body of the M9 adopts extremely strict design standards, the body aluminum volume accounts for 80%, the body weight reaches 2.02, 9000 tons of die-casting equipment is used, and a total of 12 places in the whole car are made of 2000Mpa nuclear submarine grade hot stamping steel.
At the same time, the sill beam has up to 11 protective cavities, reinforced with 6 series aviation aluminum material, which can better absorb side impact energy and improve the safety of occupants and batteries.
For the battery, which is the core component of new energy vehicles, Huawei has also designed capabilities such as active warning, active cooling, and millisecond power failure based on its own software advantages to avoid thermal runaway in extreme situations.
At the same time, more than 150 rigorous tests have been carried out in the research and development stage for the battery pack to ensure that the water wading characteristics of the battery pack meet the IPX8 level and the IPX9K level in the spray characteristics of the high-pressure water gun.
Huawei's automotive technology capabilities have rapidly evolved from being able to "make smart cars" to "making cars that are intelligent, controllable, spatial, and safe". This also means that the pace of the automobile industry towards high-end has begun to accelerate significantly.
One small step for Huawei, one big leap for the automotive industry
The growth rate of new energy vehicles in the domestic market has exceeded all expectations.
From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the overall automobile market has shifted from increment to stock, but at the same time, it is also tilting towards the demand side, and the driving comfort, intelligence and environmental protection brought by smart electric vehicles have become an irreversible direction. According to industry data, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in mainland China has reached 40.4% in November.
As early as 2019, Huawei smelled the signal of industry change. In May of that year, Huawei confirmed the establishment of the Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU department to position incremental components and help car companies build better cars.
By 2021, on the basis of incremental parts, Huawei integrated the capabilities and resources of the entire system, launched the smart car model, and worked with Celis Auto to create a precedent for cross-border cooperation between Huawei smart cars.
In 2023, Huawei's smart car camp has grown to large alliances such as Cialis, Chery, JAC, and BAIC. Huawei also took advantage of the trend to launch HarmonyOS Intelligent Mobility and launched a new Huawei Smart Car ecosystem, which will bring together the superior resources of Huawei and its partners to promote and accelerate the development of new energy vehicles in China.
It was not until December 26 that the most important product of the year, the luxury technology flagship Wenjie M9, was officially released, announcing that Huawei's smart car ecosystem has entered a new technological milestone.
The automotive industry is complex and never works alone. Ren Zhengfei, Chairman of Huawei, said many years ago that the competition of enterprises in the future will not be the competition of individual enterprises, but the competition of one ecosystem and one ecological chain.
While Huawei has more than 30 years of experience in incremental components and technical solutions for smart vehicles based on ICT, as well as experience in quality control, sales and service, and brand marketing accumulated in the consumer business of Huawei devices over the past 10 years.
Nowadays, under the leadership of new car companies, the automotive industry is thriving in intelligent self-research investment, but the construction of intelligent technology research and development capacity requires not only decades of resource investment, but also efficient organization and management capabilities to adapt to data-driven intelligent experience iteration. These are Huawei's unique advantages.
Therefore, in the wave of accelerated intelligent electrification, only by in-depth cooperation between Huawei and car companies, and empowering car company partners with Huawei's technology and operation resources, can Huawei revitalize industry resources and quickly adapt to the fast-paced development of the industry.
This is also the only way to realize the technological upgrading of the automobile industry and even the high-end upgrading of China's automobile industry.