As 2023 comes to an end, Geely once again rolls up to the "sky". On December 27, Geely's second orbital satellite of the Future Mobility Constellation officially set out for the expedition, and it is planned to launch 11 satellites, including the "Geely Galaxy" satellite, in early 2024 to further improve Geely's "space-ground integration" intelligent travel ecology.
The "Future Mobility Constellation" is the world's first commercial integrated communication, navigation and remote sensing constellation independently developed by Geely's Spacetime Daoyu. According to the plan, Geely will complete the deployment of 72 satellites in the first phase of the constellation in 2025, which will provide satellite application services for global users. After the launch of the satellite, Geely Galaxy E8 will be the first to be equipped with Geely's self-developed satellite communication technology to provide users with two-way satellite messaging services.
Echoing this, Musk's "Starlink Project" aims to build a new low-orbit satellite network. Geely and Tesla have thus become the only two technology companies in the world that "make cars with one hand and stars with the other".
At a time when reducing costs and increasing efficiency has increasingly become a consensus, it costs a lot of money to build an orbital satellite networkAs the new energy race enters the second half, will this become a new variable that will leverage the market pattern?
Build space-ground integrated satellite interconnection, so that cars will never lose contact
To answer the first question, we first need to understand what "satellite interconnection" is. As we all know, from voice and text transmission in the 1G and 2G eras, to the first and second transmission in the 3G and 4G eras, and then to the global interconnection in the 5G era, information transmission has gone through a road of rapid development. The biggest feature of 6G communication in the future is to interconnect with satellites and build a communication network that integrates space and earth, so that global users will "never lose contact".
In this sense, we can imagine the significance of the "space-ground integration" satellite interconnection for intelligent travel in the automotive industry. Geely's strategic investment in 2018 is a leading private aerospace company in China, which provides strong technical support for the application of satellite technology in the automotive industry. According to Geely's "Future Mobility Constellation" plan, the first phase of the constellation will complete the deployment of 72 satellites by 2025 to provide high-precision positioning services for high-level intelligent driving and accelerate the commercialization, large-scale and global development of satellite applications.
As an early achievement, in June 2022, the first orbital nine satellites of Geely's future travel constellation were successfully launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the form of nine satellites with one arrow and nine satellites, and have been operating stably in orbit for one and a half years. In September this year, Spacetime Daoyu introduced satellite communication into consumer-grade mass-produced new energy vehicles, equipped with Spacetime Daoyu's self-developed on-board satellite communication terminal - Geesy Xun's Zeekrypton 001 FR, becoming the world's first mass-produced satellite communication passenger car, which can support two-way satellite messages and satellite calls.
During the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, Geely's self-developed "Geely Future Mobility Constellation" satellite provides satellite-based high-precision positioning services for all officially designated vehicles of the Asian Games, so that the location information of each vehicle can be displayed on the map in real time and accurately, so as to achieve accurate management and scheduling of vehicles. Geely not only fully guarantees the safety of travel in the Asian Games, but also makes its unique "space-ground integrated smart travel ecology" attract the world's attention.
Obviously, Geely's daring to go to the sky to create stars is by no means an impulsive decision on a whim, nor is it a disregard for cost control. If we transform our skeptical gaze into forward-looking thinking, we can clearly see that Geely is in the next big picture.
Competing for the layout of the aerospace field, who is the real king?
As new energy vehicles enter the second half of intelligence, satellite communication that provides "centimeter-level" high-precision positioning for intelligent driving has become an important part of it. There are signs that Xiaomi, Nezha, Great Wall, Changan, GAC and other car companies are also involved in the aerospace field in different forms.
One of the mainstream ways is title cooperation support. On December 25, Nezha Automobile named the 14th star of the Tianmu No. 1 constellation and named it "Tongxiang Nezha Automobile". Earlier, in fact, the Great Wall WEY brand also helped the first sea launch of the Long March 11 carrier rocket in the form of a title, Changan Auchan X7 had landed in space with a rocket, and GAC Trumpchi had also named the "Trumpchi GS4" rocket. The title cooperation meets the short-term marketing needs of car companies, but it cannot meet the long-term strategy of intelligent driving.
Another way is to invest in the acquisition of aerospace technology companies and make stars in person. At present, in addition to Geely, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, has also invested in Galaxy Aerospace. In March 2022, Galaxy Aerospace successfully launched 6 self-developed low-orbit broadband communication satellites, and together with the first satellite, it formed the first low-orbit broadband communication test constellation in China. However, Xiaomi cars have not yet been put on the market for mass production, making Geely the only car company in China to achieve mass production of passenger cars equipped with satellite communications.
It is worth noting that in addition to satellite research and development, Geely has also made extensive layouts in other scientific and technological fields, and has now become the world's first automobile company with a fully intelligent terminal layout such as automobiles, satellites, chips, aircraft, and mobile phones. For example, the Geely Star Smart Computing Center has become a computing power base that opens up the "vehicle-road-cloud network map" and realizes the integration of heaven and earth and the interconnection of all thingsThe new in-vehicle system FlyMeAuto created after the acquisition of Meizu also provides strong technical support for Geely's intelligent cockpit.
It can be seen that Geely's investment layout, after time accumulation, has forged Geely's unique technical moat. Behind the "one-handed car and star-building" is Geely's forward-looking layout of the "space-ground integration" intelligent travel ecology, which not only empowers the direct connection of autonomous driving, intelligent networking, mobile phones and IoT devices to satellite communications, comprehensively improves the intelligent travel experience of Geely's new energy vehicles, but also sets a good demonstration role for Chinese car companies to transform into world-class technology enterprises.
Undoubtedly, these key technical variables are becoming the fulcrum for Geely to leverage the market pattern in the second half of intelligence.