After Wenjie and Zhijie, Huawei and BAIC's X-World project has gradually surfaced.
On December 30, the 1865 trademark announcement of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office showed that Huawei Technologies recently transferred a number of "stelato" trademarks to BAIC New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. It is reported that AITO, Luxeed, and Stelato corresponding to Wenjie and Zhijie are the English names of Huawei and BAIC Zhixuan brands.
In this regard, an industry source close to BAIC New Energy revealed that the prototype of Huawei's cooperation with BAIC Smart Selection Model has been released, positioned as a medium and large pure electric car, and is expected to be released in the first half of 2024. However, with the continuous emergence of various "circles", whether Huawei will focus on it is also a matter of concern.
The price of the new car may be 300,000-400,000 yuan
In fact, since Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei, CEO of terminal BG, and chairman of intelligent vehicle solution BU, personally admitted that in addition to the question world and the intelligence world, there will be two "worlds", which are from BAIC and JAC, respectively, and the trends of BAIC and Huawei have attracted much attention from the industry.
A few months ago, a "BAIC Blue Valley Investor Relations Activity Record Form" leaked out of the Internet, confirming that BAIC and Huawei are closely promoting the implementation of the smart car project. According to the relevant Q&A records, the Huawei Smart Selection model cooperated by the two parties will be produced by the Beijing High-end Intelligent Ecological Factory, and the factory relocation and change project will be approved by the company's general meeting of shareholders on August 30, 2023, and the technical transformation will be started, with a construction period of 10 months.
It is reported that BAIC plans to invest 1.6 billion yuan in the construction of high-end intelligent ecological factories in Beijing, including the purchase of equipment assets of the Miyun factory 75.2 billion yuan (excluding tax), and other new investments 8600 million yuan (excluding tax). According to the construction schedule, the construction of the plant will be completed in mid-2024.
In addition, an in-depth industry report released by China Merchants Securities revealed more details. According to reports, the first car of the smart car model cooperated by BAIC and Huawei, the internal code name is BAIC X4, and the new car will be launched in 2024. As the first new car of Huawei and BAIC, the new car may be positioned as an executive-class pure electric car, and the price range is expected to be 300,000-400,000 yuan.
The cooperation model between BAIC and Huawei has been upgraded from the HI model to the smart car model, which is also to launch more competitive products. According to the analysis of industry insiders, BAIC has tasted the "sweetness" of cooperation with Huawei, and is trying to offset the decline in the advantages brought about by the growth of Huawei's "circle of friends" through more in-depth cooperation.
According to the data, in 2022, thanks to the addition of Huawei elements, the cumulative sales of the JiHu brand increased by 144% year-on-year. In December this year, the sales volume of JiHu reached 8,004 units, and the cumulative sales of the whole year reached 30,016 units, a year-on-year increase of 138%.
"Boundary" is also different from "boundary".
Although the sales of Jihu are rising steadily, it is undeniable that with the successive efforts of other car companies in the field of assisted driving in NCA urban areas, Huawei's HI model alone is not enough to open a gap with other car companies. What's more, BAIC's new energy sector is still in a state of loss.
According to official data, BAIC Blue Valley had a net loss of 32 percent in the first three quarters of this year5.1 billion yuan, and the cumulative loss since 2020 has reached 2044.2 billion yuan. Against this backdrop, it is clear that deepening cooperation with Huawei is a smart move. By upgrading to Huawei's smart selection model, BAIC BJEV can not only significantly improve product competitiveness and expand sales channels, but also increase product quality and rapidly achieve sales growth.
However, it is not that if you join Huawei's smart car model, you must sit back and relax.
It is understood that a large number of new cars cooperated by Huawei will be launched in 2024. In addition to the X4 in cooperation with BAIC, there is also the JAC X6 (internal codename), which is also a smart car model, which will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024 and is positioned as a million-level sedan.
In addition, the SUV model, codenamed S9, under the Zhijie brand that has partnered with Chery, will be launched in the second quarter of 2024. The AVATR 15 and AVATR 16 using Huawei's HI model will also be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, and the price of these two new cars may be less than 200,000 yuan.
Not only that, after a three-year business exploration period, Huawei's car BU has also clarified its future development direction and set a goal of achieving profitability by 2025. To this end, Yu Chengdong, Huawei's Executive Director, CEO of the Device Business Group, and CEO of the Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said that to achieve this goal, Huawei must first help car companies sell 1 million vehicles.
In order to achieve this goal, Huawei has adopted a strategy of "having more children", that is, cooperating with more auto brands, which can not only gain more orders and market share, but also accelerate the iteration and innovation of its technology through cooperation, and further enhance its position and influence in the auto parts market.
But there is a question, how will Huawei allocate resources and core technologies?Previously, Yu Chengdong said that the first pure electric coupe of Huawei's smart car business will be the first to be equipped with HarmonyOS 4, referring to the first model in cooperation with Chery. This is obviously a loss of first-mover advantage for other cooperative car companies. In other words, in the future development process, BAIC will inevitably compete with other "circles" to compete for the market and Huawei's resources.