How many Meizu are still a few miles away from Huawei and Geely?

Text|Leopard becomes Zhu Xiaoyu.

Edit|Xing Yun.

Mobile phone manufacturers who can't make cars these days are not good companies.

Meizu officially announced that it has been building the car for less than 30 days, and it is understood that it has entered the B-sample test stage. According to this rhythm, the Meizu car backed by Geely, the time to build the car is also quite short.

Xiaomi Auto held a technology conference on December 28, and Meizu refused to miss the hot spots, first choking back when Xiaomi warmed up to pay tribute to its car peers. On the day of the press conference, Meizu Technology's official Weibo said that the large deposit has been prepared and is ready to become the first owner of SU7. Some netizens commented: Is Meizu cutting the wrong number?

A month ago, Meizu held an autumn conference in Wuhan, in addition to the release of mobile phone products, Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Meizu Group, also announced the launch of the "Unbounded Intelligent Travel Open Platform", and at the same time launched the DreamCar co-creation plan, Meizu will combine a series of manufacturing capabilities of Geely Group to launch the first car - Meizu DreamCar MX. This means that Meizu has officially entered the automobile market.

Like Huawei's HarmonyOS Open Platform, the "Unbounded Zhixing Open Platform" does not require partner car companies to unify car brands. In addition, Unbounded Zhixing can also provide car companies with Flyme Auto, the in-vehicle operating system, as well as operating system-based system applications, framework services, ecological applications and other services.

Judging from Meizu's officially announced plan, Meizu not only has its own brand of cars, but will also access more electric vehicle brands like Huawei to help car companies move towards intelligence. The parallel advancement of the two lines may seem beautiful, but it may not be smooth in practice.

The fundamental reason why Huawei has repeatedly reiterated that it will not build cars in person is that the cooperative car brands are worried about handing over the core market competitiveness to Hongmeng Zhixing, and will form a direct competition relationship with Huawei in the future, so they will actively choose to go to self-development. Huawei is in a dilemma and can only choose one or the other. Problems that Huawei can't solve, Meizu can't escape.

Because of the continuous expansion of Huawei's car-making circle of friends, a battle has been staged between his own son and godson. Meizu's car itself is a shell of Geely, which is completely strongly bound to Geely, and whether the circle of friends can be expanded has to be a question mark.

Meizu makes cars, copy and paste on the day of the press conference, when faced with questions about how to compete with Huawei, Shen Ziyu said that compared with the cooperation between other mobile phone companies and car companies, Meizu knows more about cars, backed by Geely's strength, Meizu's development capabilities and efficiency are more prominent than other mobile phone manufacturers.

As Shen Ziyu said, Meizu is backed by the big tree of Geely, and the progress of car manufacturing has started at a rapid pace.

In terms of prototypes, according to people close to Meizu, Meizu cars have entered the B sample test stage. The b-sample test stage means that Meizu has already started testing whether the components and systems meet the design requirements, and then can conduct road tests and market evaluation tests.

In the automotive industry, samples A, B, and C represent different stages of the production and sales process of a vehicle, respectively. A sample refers to the first batch of vehicle samples made throughout the development process, mainly for engineering verification and trial verification. Sample B, also known as acceptance prototype or design prototype, is a prototype car modified according to the results of sample A, and the appearance and function of sample B vehicle have basically reached the standard of mass production vehicles. At the C-sample stage, it can be produced and sold.

According to a parts supplier, in order to quickly promote Meizu's car manufacturing, Geely chose to let its other smart car electric brand Zeekr and Meizu Automobile share several core parts and components, and the parts used by Zeekr and Meizu Automobile are roughly the same, but the main promotional selling points are different.

For Geely, building a car is not a difficult task. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, once said, "Isn't a car just four wheels, a steering wheel, an engine, a body, and then two sofas in it?"Li Shufu also won the title of "car madman".

In fact, the "car maniac" is not for nothing. Up to now, Li Shufu has received 7 listed companies including Geely Automobile, Volvo Cars, Polestar, ECARX, Qianjiang Motorcycle, Hanma Technology and Lifan Technology, in addition to Cao Cao Travel and Zeekr Automobile, two IPOs that are being promoted, more than half of which are vehicle manufacturing companies.

To a certain extent, as a major shareholder who has many years of experience in car manufacturing, Geely guides Meizu to build cars. All you need is Li Shufu to copy and paste.

According to people familiar with the matter, Meizu's production plant is also shared with Geely's sub-brand companies, and the car-making qualification is also attached to Geely.

Whether it is in terms of the complexity of car manufacturing or the parts and components, the threshold for Meizu to enter the field of car manufacturing has been greatly reduced. From another point of view, purely in terms of car building, the gold content of Meizu's car is not so high, it is more like Geely making a car with the Meizu brand, and more importantly, testing the platform of Unbounded Zhixing.

Meizu +, Geely's intelligent ambition "On the surface, Meizu is making cars, but in fact, the main direction of the car is still controlled by Geely. The above-mentioned people close to Meizu said that whether Meizu makes cars and whether it does an open platform system has been roughly set at the beginning of Geely's acquisition of Meizu mobile phones.

On September 26, 2021, Geely established a mobile phone branch - Hubei Xingji Times Technology***, and since then, Geely has publicly stated that it will acquire Meizu mobile phones. By July 2022, Hubei Xingji Times completed the acquisition of Meizu Technology, and Geely holds 7909% controlling stake.

Meizu, which was born as a mobile phone, has also had a glorious moment. As early as 2009, Meizu's first self-developed smartphone, M8, was well received and was once crowned the "iPhone killer". In 2012, Meizu's self-developed system Flyme, with its simple operation logic and smooth UI design, became one of the models of domestic operating systems at that time.

After the completion of the acquisition, Xingji Meizu has the blessing of Geely and has been initially recognized by the market. In November 2023, Meizu completed Series A financing, with investors including Asia Investment Capital, Harvest International, Qichuang Capital and the old shareholder Chutian Synergy Venture Capital. Coupled with the previous angel + round of financing, Xingji Meizu has raised a total of 2 billion yuan in half a year, and its valuation has reached 10 billion yuan.

It has to be said that at the beginning of the acquisition of Meizu, Geely set the tone for Meizu's automobile business - imitating Huawei and taking the route of intelligent car solutions.

In April 2021, the first model of Huawei's cooperation with Celis Huawei Smart SF5 was launched, becoming the first model to enter Huawei's sales network. At the end of 2021, the two sides cooperated deeply with a new brand, which also allowed Cialis to rush to the ranks of star new energy vehicles in half a year.

In terms of sales, the new M7 has been on the market for just over 100 days this year, with a total of more than 120,000 units, and the market's response to the new M7 has also verified the feasibility of Huawei's intelligent car solutions.

A person close to Meizu said that since Huawei's mobile phone business was blocked and it was changed to the intelligent car solution business department, Huawei's self-developed intelligent car solution has led to a significant increase in sales driven by Cialis, and it has also created a new way of "making cars", which has brought great inspiration to Geely.

On the day of the official announcement of the car, Meizu Group said that the unbounded Zhixing open platform it has developed can be flexibly selected by car companies according to their own needs, and access to modular capabilities to join the Flyme Auto circle of friends at a lower cost.

In the face of competitive problems, Shen Ziyu believes that Huawei does have an advantage in intelligence, but Xingji Meizu Group is also not lacking in accumulation, and Xingji Meizu is characterized by a deep understanding of the automotive industry, which has more advantages than other mobile phone manufacturers.

But Shen Ziyu was only half right. From a practical point of view, Meizu's in-depth understanding of the automotive industry comes from Geely's experience in car manufacturing, but it is still unknown whether Meizu has more advantages than other mobile phone manufacturers and whether it can become an "open platform" chosen by many car companies.

What are the odds of winning?In Shen Ziyu's view, as long as there is the blessing of a big man with experience in making cars, the transformation of Meizu's car manufacturing will be smooth. Shen Ziyu even emphasized that in the future, Meizu Automobile will also adopt the model of grid-connected sales in Geely Auto dealer channel and Meizu 3C channel.

Shen Ziyu's confidence also comes from Geely's strength. At the end of October 2022, shortly after the establishment of Meizu Group, Meizu launched Flyme Auto, an intelligent cockpit system adapted to cars.

The Lynk & Co 08 released this year chose the Flyme Auto operating system developed by Meizu for the car machine. The Lynk & Co 08 can be connected to the Meizu 20 series mobile phone. As of the end of November, the cumulative sales volume of Lynk & Co 08 in three months reached 220,000 units.

Perhaps, the saddest hurdle for a car named after the Meizu brand is not whether the car can be built, but how much influence the "Unbounded Intelligent Mobility Open Platform" similar to Huawei can get.

In 2022, Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution business revenue will be 20With a total investment of RMB 7.7 billion, the R&D team of smart car solutions has reached 7,000 people, with a cumulative investment of more than RMB 20 billion since its establishment, and the automotive business is currently Huawei's only loss-making business.

From an objective point of view, in addition to Huawei's in-depth cooperation with the new M7, M9 and Zhijie S7, Huawei's car business also needs more partners to increase car sales and dilute development costs. But at present, Huawei is still trying to figure out how to attract more car companies to join Huawei's car business.

On the other hand, Meizu, after being acquired by Geely, has gradually lost its voice in the mobile phone business, and the release of the Meizu 20 series flagship smartphone has disappointed fans, and Meizu's folding screen mobile phone plan has also been confirmed to have been shelved in the middle of this year. By August, Meizu announced the suspension of the chip business, accompanied by corresponding organizational adjustments and personnel optimization.

The above-mentioned people close to Meizu said that car companies want to target the Internet of everything between mobile phones and cars, and Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. are working hard for it, and no one wants to lag behind at this point, so as to lose a better market. On the other hand, Meizu, which was acquired by Geely, has insufficient market influence, and car companies and friends are not willing to become Geely, in general, the Meizu system has a low mobile phone share compared to Xiaomi, Huawei, etc., and cannot be converted into a car share. And Xiaomi, Huawei and other companies have a huge number of mobile phone supporters, "which is why Meizu said that buying a car and giving away a mobile phone, that is, in order to better increase the number of users, and then complete the Internet of Everything."

Even Huawei, to maintain such a high investment and mobile phone market share, it still needs to make various attempts to expand the circle of friends of car companies. At the end of November this year, Huawei announced the establishment of a new company, and packaged Huawei's BU car business into the new company, and introduced car companies to take a stake in the new company.

Ren Zhengfei has repeatedly reiterated that "Huawei does not make cars", and once issued a Huawei resolution stating that Huawei does not make vehicles, and the resolution is valid for five years. To a certain extent, it is also to dispel the concerns of other car companies and increase their trust in Huawei, so that Huawei's intelligent solutions can be promoted to more partners.

As Ren Zhengfei said, Huawei has indeed not become a car company, but it is still a little bit away from becoming an enterprise that car companies can't do without. What Huawei has not yet completed, what is the probability of Meizu's success?