"Fierce?xx and xx were officially announced?See you soon!The old enemy turned out to be the Great League of the Century”
Recently, such a feeling is no longer exclusive to the entertainment industry, but frequently occurs in the automobile circle, so netizens have sighed that under the general trend of electrification transformation, under the endless ** war, and in the market that is "rolled" to the extreme, both new power brands and century-old automobile brands have begun to seek new cooperation opportunities, even with the former "old enemy".
On November 30, Mercedes-Benz and BMW announced the signing of a cooperation agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture in China to operate a supercharging network in the Chinese market and jointly meet the growing demand for luxury charging services from Chinese customers.
Figure Mercedes-Benz.
Although the competition between the two giants has always maintained a decent situation, and there is no mutual tearing plot that the public likes to see, after all, it is the "old enemy" that has been fighting in the world luxury car market for a hundred years.
And such accidents have been common in the automobile circle recently: on November 21, Changan Automobile and NIO signed a cooperation agreement on battery swap business in Chongqing;On November 29, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and NIO signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery swap in HangzhouFollowing Cialis, Huawei has cooperated with Chery to launch the Zhijie brand and its first model, and has been developing cooperative models with JAC and BAIC, and has also sent invitations to FAW GroupPrior to this, SAIC-GM and Tesla China started cooperation on charging network interconnection, Volkswagen joined hands with Xpeng, and Stellantis Group acquired a 20% stake in Leapmotor and established a joint venture.
At the critical moment when the involution of China's new energy vehicle market is serious and the knockout competition is intensifying, it has obviously become a common choice for car companies. This also profoundly explains that in the automotive field, no matter how strong the company is, the saying "there are no eternal friends and no eternal enemies in the world" is also applicable.
"Century Hand in Hand"?
Compared with the cooperation between automobile companies, people are always more familiar with the mutual disclosure between enterprises, the mutual confrontation between founders and executives, and the open and secret competition between competing products at the same level. In fact, joint ventures and cooperation between large automobile companies are not uncommon, and in addition to overall competition, "local cooperation" is the norm.
The reason why the recent cooperation is surprising is more because the two sides of the cooperation are unexpected, either "breaking the circle" or "breaking the ice".
For example, Mercedes-Benz BMW's joint venture to jointly operate the supercharging network in the Chinese market is like a "century hand-in-hand" in the eyes of netizens, largely because the current situation and atmosphere of the automobile market are just very suitable for such an "icebreaking" cooperation. As early as 2019, BMW and Mercedes-Benz successively announced cooperation in the two fields of automotive mobility services and autonomous driving, and jointly developed L4 autonomous driving technology based on highway application scenarios.
But at that time, the automobile circle had not yet become a frequent visitor to the hot search as it is now, and such news did not attract much attention.
Of course, in addition to "eating melons", what everyone wants to know more is what the two major luxury car brands, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, want to "hold hands" to deal with
According to official information, Mercedes-Benz and BMW will use their charging operation experience and insights into China's new energy vehicle market to tailor fast, convenient and reliable charging solutions for Chinese consumers. The two parties hope that this cooperation will further enhance the public charging experience for customers.
BMW cars.
According to the plan, by the end of 2026, the joint venture plans to build at least 1,000 state-of-the-art supercharging stations and about 7,000 supercharging piles in China. The first batch of charging stations is planned to start operation in China's key new energy vehicle cities from 2024, and the subsequent construction of charging stations will also cover other cities and regions across the country.
It is understood that as of the end of November this year, Mercedes-Benz public charging services have been connected to more than 500,000 public charging piles across the country, covering more than 340 cities and the "ten vertical, ten horizontal and two ring" highway fast charging network. In October this year, the first batch of Mercedes-Benz super charging stations were completed and put into use in Chengdu and Foshan. Mercedes-Benz plans to expand its global charging network to more than 2,000 charging stations with more than 10,000 superchargers by the end of 2030. The announced charging joint venture is also part of the program.
BMW also said that as of the end of October 2023, 600 BMW authorized dealers have been equipped with charging facilities, and BMW's public charging network has access to more than 580,000 charging piles across the country, including 320,000 DC fast charging piles, covering more than 320 cities. The network of Superchargers has covered nine major cities since August, with around 50 stations expected to be built by the end of 2023.
On the basis of what the two parties have already laid, the supercharging network built by the follow-up joint venture will increase the coverage and coverage of supercharging for both companies, which will also empower Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the future electric vehicle competition and speed up the charging infrastructure at the same time.
After all, compared with the rapid coverage of self-built piles of Chinese brands, not only Mercedes-Benz BMW, but also foreign brands have a big gap.
According to the data, NIO has 2,110 battery swap stations and 3,407 charging stations, and has built more than 20,000 charging piles (as of November).Xpeng Motors has launched more than 2,200 free charging stations for applicable car ownersMore than 1,000 Xpeng self-operated charging stations (including 233 S4 ultra-fast charging stations) (as of August);ZEEKR's self-built charging stations have been deployed in nearly 850 stations in 136 cities across the country, including 2,261 ultra-fast charging piles (as of November).Li Auto also officially announced the "dual-energy strategy", including the start of self-development, self-construction and self-operation of the 5C super charging network.
NIO.
In the eyes of industry insiders, self-built charging stations by car companies are an important part of improving user services and shaping brand image. Brands with self-built piles can give consumers a better charging experience. Especially for luxury brands, self-built piles have become an important factor in brand competitiveness and brand premium.
Therefore, Mercedes-Benz and BMW's cooperation in building supercharging piles is also regarded as a form of counterattack in the face of competition from new forces. Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz, once said: "The cost of electrification transformation is huge, and it is difficult for car companies to cope with it alone, so everyone must join forces." ”
More than just replenishing energy
In the past two years, with the further intensification of competition, coupled with the fact that most electric vehicle businesses are still in a loss-making state, "huddle for warmth" is becoming a mainstream trend, among which the energy supplement track seems to be particularly favored by both sides.
On November 21, Changan Automobile and NIO signed a cooperation agreement on battery swap business, under which the two parties will cooperate in promoting the establishment of battery swap standards, the construction and sharing of battery swap networks, the research and development of battery swap models, and the establishment of an efficient battery asset management mechanism. At that time, there was news from Weilai that in addition to Changan Automobile, Weilai was also negotiating cooperation with 4 to 5 automobile companies.
On November 29, Geely Automobile also announced a comprehensive cooperation with NIO in the field of battery swapping. The cooperation with Changan Automobile is slightly different, Geely and NIO will work together to build two battery swap standard systems of "private cars" and "commercial vehicles" through the model of "co-investment, co-construction, sharing and co-operation" on the battery swap network, accelerate the connection and coordination of the vehicle, station, battery and operation ends, and expand the scale of the battery swap network.
At this point, NIO, which has always been considered to be difficult and lonely in the field of battery swapping, has finally begun to "fight in a group". The mutual benefit of the two sides is quite obvious, NIO is currently the largest operator of electric vehicle swap stations in China, Chang'an and Geely are equivalent to directly owning more than 2,000 battery swap stations, and the infrastructure construction can be said to be greatly acceleratedThe NIO battery swap station, which previously only served its own models, has also expanded the number of users several times, which is more conducive to the circulation and development of the battery swap station.
Cooperation on the energy supplement track can quickly achieve the effect of "1+1>2", which is one of the main reasons why most car companies choose to take the lead in "breaking the ice" in this field. Among them, there is also the intention of exploring the cooperation between the two sides, in order to further deepen the cooperation after the smooth cooperation of the energy supplement track, which is relatively easy to achieve a win-win situation.
Of course, there are also some more daring or eager auto companies that have opted for a more direct and thorough way of cooperation.
On November 26, Huawei and Changan Automobile announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Investment Cooperation. After negotiations, Huawei plans to establish a new company to focus on the R&D, production, sales, and service of intelligent driving systems and incremental components for intelligent and connected vehicles. According to the MOU, Huawei intends to integrate the core technologies and resources of the intelligent vehicle solution business into the new company.
At the Zhijie S7 and Huawei all-scenario press conference held on November 28, Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei and chairman of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU, said that Huawei has issued an invitation to Celis, Chery, JAC, and BAIC to open their shares, and hopes that China FAW Group will join. These companies have no outstanding performance in the field of new energy, and the cooperation with Huawei is undoubtedly more conducive to opening up the market.
In the face of the trend of intelligent and electrification in China's auto market, Volkswagen has also had to make multiple attempts: in July this year, Volkswagen announced a partnership with Xpeng Motors, and the two companies have reached a technical framework agreement to jointly develop two electric models for the Chinese mid-size car marketIn November, Cariad China, a software company under the Volkswagen Group, announced that it had reached a cooperation agreement with vivo to establish a "joint innovation laboratory for hand-car integration" to continue cooperation in the field of smart car x smartphone connectivity.
Traditional automotive companies need to obtain software assistance and intelligent solutions from new brands or companies like Huawei, and at the same time, they also hope to directly gain the leading advantages of these brands in the electric vehicle market, such as charging network constructionNew brands, on the other hand, need to obtain strong financial support from traditional auto companies, system management experience to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and a large user base.
Under the tide of electrification, the contradiction between rapid expansion to seize market share and expanding sales losses is still intensifying, and some brands have paid a painful price in the process, whether it is a new power brand or a traditional car brand, some have gone bankrupt and liquidated, some have withdrawn from the market, and some are struggling on the edge.
The "involution" is far from over, the ** war is still going on, and in the cold winter, "huddling together for warmth" seems to be the best way to deal with it at the moment.
Author: Zheng Yu.