Still hasn't gotten rid of the fate of "making a car from the end".
Recently, according to Meizu Technology Weibo, the Meizu brand will officially enter the automobile marketThe first Meizu DreamCar MX will launch the DreamCar co-creation program in the first quarter of 2024. At that time, users can co-create a large number of personalized details such as the vehicle's livery painting, interior color matching, and Flyme Auto theme.
At the same time, Meizu announced that it would use Geely's manufacturing power, Geely's vast architecture, Flyme Auto and other parts to jointly complete the dreamcar in Meizu's heart.
Meizu is being reborn.
As a veteran of the mobile phone industry, Meizu has been up and down in the domestic mobile phone market for many years, and is one of the earliest enterprises in the domestic smartphone industry, and in 2008, Meizu launched the smartphone M8, which is regarded as the earliest domestic smartphone in China.
However, after the change of technological trends and market competition, Meizu, which takes the "small but beautiful" route, has continued to decline in its share of shipments, leaving its glory in the past. Data shows that at the beginning of 2021, the market share of Meizu mobile phones was only 01%, completely reduced to the "others" brand, and has been repeatedly rumored to be acquired.
Soon, the rumors landed. In July 2022, Xingji Times announced that it held Meizu Technology 7909% controlling stake and obtained sole control of Meizu Technology. And behind the Star Age era, it is Geely and Li Shufu.
However, the development path planned by Geely and Meizu is by no means as simple as continuing to build mobile phones. At this point, Meizu has a new name - Xingji Meizu, and it also has a new mission.
"Automakers that are not empowered by mobile phone software will gradually fall behind. ”
The slogan shouted by Shen Ziyu, chairman and CEO of Meizu Group, is the underlying logic of the cooperation between the two sides. "In the future, mobile phones will enter the car as a 'partner' and become the mobile phone domain, coupled with the rapid iteration of mobile phones, it will also bring a continuous innovation experience to the car. In the future, upgrading your phone will allow you to upgrade your car. ”
Based on this, Meizu has developed its own in-vehicle system, Flyme Auto, and integrated it with Geely's 7nm automotive-grade chip "Dragon Eagle No. 1" and ECARX Antola 1000 Pro platform. At present, this set of software and hardware products has been delivered on the Geely car brand Lynk & Co 08. As of November 1, in less than two months, the sales volume of Lynk & Co 08 exceeded 10,000, entering the top three list of 200,000 and 300,000 plug-in hybrid SUVs (including range extenders). According to some market feedback, the performance of Flyme Auto on Lynk & Co 08 is passable as a car machine system, and some intelligent voice interaction and mobile phone interconnection are very smooth.
While gaining market recognition, it has also been favored by the capital market. In November this year, Meizu completed Series A financing, which is another financing it has completed in a short period of time. plus the angel + round of financing completed in the first half of the year,This year, Meizu has raised a total of 2 billion yuan, with a post-investment valuation of more than 10 billion yuan.
Nowadays, it can be said that compared with the iterative update of mobile phones, Meizu's layout in the automotive field is more frequent and aggressive.
Recently, Meizu announced that in addition to the original Flyme Auto intelligent cockpit operating system, it has also released the Flyme Link and the Unbounded Zhixing open platform that can provide "handcar interconnection" capabilities for more models, allowing car companies to flexibly choose and access modular capabilities according to their own needs.
We want to become a 'road builder' in the era of smart cars, and more products will be equipped with Flyme Auto in the future", Shen Ziyu said, "The Unbounded Zhixing Open Platform is based on Flyme Auto as a modular platform, just like the Android system, and all OEMs can develop related products by themselves." ”
Even more noteworthy is,At the same time, Meizu announced its "car-building" plan in a high-profile manner.
According to the company, in the future, Meizu will deeply define a model called "Meizu Dreamcar MX" based on Lynk & Co's existing models. It is said that the car will be "deeply customized" with the Meizu brand in many aspects such as interior, styling and seats on the basis of software, and will only be sold through Meizu channels. In addition, it is reported that Chen Siying, the former deputy general manager of Lynk & Co Automobile, will also return to Geely again as senior vice president of Meizu and president of the automotive division, responsible for this "car-making" project.
In the face of Meizu's end of making cars, many industry insiders will benchmark it against "Huawei and Xiaomi" and call it a combination of "Hua Xiaomei". Due to the background of mobile phone manufacturers, they all have the same car-making logicIt is to open up the ecology of the whole vehicle through software. Therefore, for Meizu, which is long overdue, how to break through, and can the latecomer catch up?
In this regard, Shen Ziyu said that Meizu is not completely without advantages, "Compared with Huawei, it is far ahead in terms of intelligence and software capabilities." Although Meizu has not been back for a long time, it also has its own advantages and accumulation, and it must strive to catch up with it. Our advantage is that we know more about cars than Huawei, which is our innate gene, and we have a deeper understanding of cars.
With Geely's support, Meizu started a counterattack on a new field. It's just that the "kerosene" who can't wait for the mobile phone will pay for the "Meizu Dreamcar MX", it's worth looking forward to.