Some netizens once ridiculed Lei Jun's car with his name, "There is electricity in the thunder, there are cars in the army, and it is destined to build new energy vehicles." On December 28, 1003 days from the official announcement of the car
Xiaomi Auto held a press conference that did not announce the price. In three hours, Lei Jun gushed about the technology behind smart cars, the design, configuration and feelings of Xiaomi cars. This is not so much a press conference, but a large-scale "Lei Jun Science Popularization Class", in a short period of time, netizens have seen a lot of professional names and parameters of smart cars. And Lei Jun, who previously claimed to not understand cars, now seems to be very expert, when he is talking eloquently about those awkward professional terms and technical parameters, he also asks the audience from time to time: Can you understand?
Although before the press conference, he paid tribute to his friends and thanked the first chain at the press conference, but it can be seen that Lei Jun still wants to talk about all the advantages of his own products, which are internationally leading, internationally advanced, and world-first.
First, the only most such words are endless, so that many people begin to worry about whether this is a violation of the advertising law. Obviously, everyone knows that in order to avoid exaggerated publicity, the domestic advertising law has very strict restrictions on limit words, and if the reasonableness of limit words cannot be proved, it is very likely to violate the law. But Lei Jun is still willing to take risks, because Xiaomi cars are too important to him, because he has blocked all his net worth.
As the first appearance of Xiaomi Auto, or a technology conference, how can it attract investors and consumers without gimmicks?Therefore, Lei Jun said that at the end of 2022, Xiaomi Auto had developed the fastest Xiaomi super motor V6 in the world at that time, with a maximum speed of 21,000 rpm, surpassing Tesla
Huawei has previously released a 22,000-rpm motor, so this time Lei Jun brought a self-developed and self-produced super motor V8, with a maximum speed of 27,200 rpm, which is the pinnacle performance of global motors. But Lei Jun said: This motor can only be installed in 2025.
In addition to the electric motor, the core component of an electric car is the battery. Battery packs are expensive, accounting for about 40 to 50 percent of a car's cost, and also affect power, space, and vehicle safety. The battery pack of Xiaomi cars was cooperated with CATL, and it took two years to create an 871-volt high-voltage platform, which is actually a not-so-bright highlight. Although there are still many brands that have not yet entered the 800V era, in fact, the 800V high-voltage platform is not too new technology, especially for new brands.
Now there are many car companies and leading companies that have begun to research and develop the 900V high-voltage platform, so the 800V high-voltage architecture of Xiaomi cars has caught up with the times, but it has not surpassed the times. In terms of battery technology, Xiaomi has a fun new technology: battery cell inversion, with the blessing of this technology, even if the battery is accidental, it will also be sprayed downward, protecting the safety of the occupants in the cockpit to the greatest extent. Of course, cross-motors and batteries are a regular step for all manufacturers. And this time Xiaomi's more eye-catching is the big bet of "big die-casting". Lei Jun said that the maximum locking force of Xiaomi's super large die-casting is 9,100 tons, while Tesla's Shanghai factory is only 6,000 tons, and the U.S. factory is 9,000 tons, so Xiaomi won.
The so-called large die-casting is a weapon that Tesla is proud of to reduce costs and increase production capacity, the integrated body. From the moment it was proposed, it was a technical route with extremely obvious advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the integrated body, the first is that the space layout is more compact.
The second is the fast mass production speed of one-piece molding.
The third is to reduce the number of parts and components, and the technical support is more convenient.
The fourth is the one-piece body and the pressing machine in one step, which improves the production efficiency and increases the production capacity rapidly.
Since the integrated body has such a big advantage, has it replaced the traditional modularity?But in fact, the non-integrated body is still the mainstream in the new energy vehicle market, because the integrated body also has obvious disadvantages that cannot be escaped, such as the module body only needs to replace parts in case of small accidents, and the integrated body needs to be repaired by the whole vehicle. The second is that the modular body can share some of the technology of traditional fuel vehicles, but the integrated body is completely self-developed, and the risk is also borne by itself.
Of course, this time Xiaomi is promoting the integrated body, while deliberately emphasizing the special design of the rear section of the anti-collision, and the special design of only the rear end during the general impact, so as to avoid large-scale damage to the integrated body. However, Xiaomi also deliberately emphasized the "traditional car-making process route" as a candidate in the big bet link this time.
Obviously, whether the final production car is a big die-casting or not, Xiaomi still leaves an opening.
At the end of the one-and-a-half-hour technical conference, Lei Jun announced that he would simply follow up the pre-press conference of Xiaomi's first mass-produced speedo.
The Su7 is a standard C-segment sedan in size, with a length of nearly 5 meters and a wheelbase of 3 meters. And the appearance is now on the Internet**and**There are a lot of them,Many people said beforeSu7The appearance lines are smooth and elegant,Jianghu people call it"Baoshi rice"。 And the headline of the Chinese Entrepreneur Magazine with a neck of 800 actually came to the title "Lei Jun built a Porsche for young people", which is also quite damaged.
But Lei Jun didn't announce the ** of Xiaomi Su7 until the end, just said that Xiaomi's pricing is a bit expensive, but it makes sense that it will be expensive, beyond everyone's expectations.
Before the press conference, Lei Jun had launched a poll on Weibo, asking fans "what is the approximate price of Xiaomi's first car". The results show that about 40% of the voting users want to be less than 100,000, and 58% want to be less than 150,000. Weibo's voting results are also in line with one of the labels that Xiaomi has created over the years, low price and cost performance. When ordinary consumers think of Xiaomi entering the market as a latecomer, they must open the market with low price and cost performance just like Xiaomi mobile phones did back then. But this time, they are probably going to be disappointed, because the tram industry is not the mobile phone industry of the year, the first chain does not have so much room for integration, and the competition has long been fierce.
And the current electric vehicle industry is obviously not such a track. So the ** of Xiaomi cars is actually not difficult to guess. For example, the battery and battery life of low-end models are similar to BYD's sweat, while the latter's pure electric model can reach a minimum of about 170,000. However, Xiaomi does not build its own car, but uses the ** chain, so from the perspective of cost, the price will be about 200,000 yuan. As for the calculation of high configuration, if all the elements of new energy vehicles, such as radar, visual assistance, and driving chips are complete, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion of 300,000 with reference to other brands.
Of course, a possibility cannot be ruled out, at the beginning, low allocation to sell at a loss, the car as an entrance, wool out of the pig, through value-added services and other channels to profit, and after the output comes up, it is possible to dilute the cost and reach the profit and loss line. However, for a medium and large pure electric car, the material cost is here, and it is actually very limited to explore it. Unlike most companies that take the initiative to enter the tram market, Xiaomi is actually very passive in making cars.
In September 2022, in an interview with CCTV's "Genting Dialogue", Lei Jun said that Xiaomi's decision to build a car was a forced decision. Although smartphones are still a mass computing platform, with the pressure of the economy, consumers' motivation to change phones is decreasing, and the dividends of the smartphone industry are disappearing at an accelerated pace. According to the data, global smartphone shipments in 2022 will be 12100 million units, a year-on-year increase of **113%, the lowest since 2013. The agency expects that global smartphone shipments will continue to decline by 5% year-on-year in 2023, the lowest level in a decade.
In the context of the disappearance of dividends in the mobile phone market, the shipments of Xiaomi mobile phones have also fallen endlessly. According to official information, the global shipment of Xiaomi mobile phones in 2022 will be 15.3 billion units, a year-on-year increase of **198%。In the first and second quarters of 2023, Xiaomi's global mobile phone shipments will be 23 year-on-year5% and 16%. Xiaomi's financial report shows that in 2022 and the first three quarters of 2023, Xiaomi's revenue will be 280 billion and 197.7 billion respectively, a year-on-year increase of **147% and 76%。Obviously, the existing business has struggled to drive Xiaomi's continued growth.
In this context, Xiaomi chose the new energy vehicle track, but it jumped from one red sea to another. Since Xiaomi's official announcement of the car, China's auto market has undergone earth-shaking changes. There was a ** war set off by Tesla in the past, and there was a luxury car interview with a pile of materials to nearly 500,000 yuan, and there were wolves and tigers in front of them, and even Lei Jun himself, it seemed that Xiaomi was a little late to enter the game at this time.
Of course, the entry bowl has its own benefits of the entry bowl. Over the years, major brands have made countless attempts, touched almost every blind spot, and eliminated countless mines. OEM or self-built?Pure electric or hybrid?To change the battery or not to change it?High-end or low-end?Do you want lidar?Is silicon carbide cost-effective?How do you do navigation?What is the psychology of consumption, etc., these questions now have standard answers.
Xiaomi's car building is equivalent to looking at the strategy, and you can speed run according to the optimal mode, not only do you not have to pay the cost of exploration, but you can also avoid some strategic and irreversible mistakes. Obviously, if you enter too early, the cost of technical investment and trial and error is too high, but if you enter too late, you will have to face a room full of expensive brothers and sweat. Looking at it now, the top few domestic new energy vehicles are more noisy than the other, and they are torn more ruthlessly. In a highly competitive industry, there is no such thing as a quiet time. According to Wall Street**, there were more than 487 electric vehicle manufacturers in China in 2018, but by 2023, only 50 remain, and even fewer will be in the future. After eliminating the old man and squeezing out the PPT car companies, it is not a good stubble that can survive.
On the same day, the Hong Kong stock **, Xiaomi's share price also rose and fell, rising more than 2% in early trading, but I never thought that it would eventually close down 025%。It also seems to be a bad omen for Xiaomi's future.