Written byZhou Zhou.
EditZHANG Nan.
DesignZhao Haoran.
It is getting closer and closer to the launch conference of Xiaomi's first car SU7.
Lei Jun gambled on dignity for the last venture, and the boots were about to land.
This car has not yet been launched, and it has already been spoiled to everyone.
Since Xiaomi officially announced its entry into the smart electric vehicle industry in March 2021, it has taken 33 months to launch its first car.
As a latecomer to the new forces, Xiaomi Automobile, in the reality that new energy vehicles have undergone a round of reshuffle, whether it can fight a way out of the domestic new energy vehicle market, the pricing of its first car is very important.
Lei Jun said in an interview with "Face to Face" on December 17 that he must have expectations for Xiaomi's first model, and he is especially worried that everyone will not buy it if it is not popular;What's even more worrying is that if everyone comes to buy it, it will take a year or two to wait, and they will definitely be scolded miserably.
An industry veteran commented on the auto business that the reasonable pricing of the Xiaomi Su7 should be similar to that of the Zhijie S7 as a "bucket car". "Bucket car" means that there are no shortcomings in all parameters and performance.
Hu Zhengnan, the former president of Geely Research Institute, now Shun is a capital investment partner, and is also the "key man" of Xiaomi Automobile, posted on Weibo on December 22: "On the winter solstice, the north eats dumplings, and the south eats glutinous rice balls. Let's just go on the two together, so I won't guess. ”
Netizens with good things said that this means that there are two cars at the Xiaomi car press conference, 17 dumplings hint at 170,000 yuan to start, and 30 dumplings hint at 300,000 yuan.
Xiaomi Auto's target "rice noodles" owners may feel that more than 200,000 yuan is more expensive.
At present, it seems that Xiaomi is forcing the logic of making mobile phones to shift to making cars: to become a killer. Once the Xiaomi su7 is less than 200,000 and plays the role of the first killer, it will be no different from a mobile phone, and it will once again enter the path dependence of small profits and quick turnover, and it will be even more difficult for the brand to go up.
Taycan's "relative"?
According to the road test of the undisguised real car taken by netizens**and**, Xiaomi Su7 was evaluated"Like the Porsche Taycan"。
From the side, the silhouette of the two is indeed similar, with a fastback coupe body, fenders, window strips, Brembo coloured brake calipers, and especially the five-spoke rim shape, all of which are similar in detail.
The closed front face shape and the logo embedded on the hood are also very similar to Porsche.
At the rear of the car, Xiaomi has applied for a patented adjustable angle electric rear wing and boomerang-type through-type taillights.
Indeed, the design of the Porsche Taycan is so classic that even the coupe design behind it cannot escape its shadow. However, this also illustrates the appearance of Xiaomi's medium and large sedan from one side**.
Although the body information has always been true and false, false and real, the new batch of new car declaration catalogs of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed the core three-electric information of Xiaomi Automobile.
On November 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the announcement of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" (Batch 377) and "Catalogue of New Energy Vehicle Models Exempt from Vehicle Purchase Tax" (Batch 72). The Xiaomi brand pure electric sedan with the product model BJ7000 officially entered the latest batch of new car declaration catalogue of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Xiaomi SU7 with the vehicle model BJ7000MBEVA1 and BJ7000MBEVR2 were unveiled in the new energy vehicle model catalogue exempt from vehicle purchase tax.
According to the declaration information of Xiaomi Automobile in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the production qualification of SU7 is BAIC off-road vehicle company, with a wheelbase of 3000 mm, length, width and height of 4997 1963 1455 mm, respectively, and two versions are available, the main difference is in the battery pack capacity and mileage.
Among them, the single-motor rear-wheel drive version is equipped with 73The 6kWh Fodi lithium iron phosphate battery has a range of 628km (20-inch wheels) or 668km (19-inch wheels).The dual-motor all-wheel drive version is equipped with a 101kWh CATL ternary lithium-ion battery, which has a range of 800 km (19-inch wheels) or 750 km (20-inch wheels).
In addition to styling and three electrics, as a mobile phone manufacturer to build a car, the pure electric coupe must also have a smart driving and smart cabin that cannot be inferior to the same level.
In August 2021, Xiaomi wholly acquired Deepmotion Tech Limited, an autonomous driving company, which has a relatively extensive layout in the fields of high-precision positioning, high-precision maps and 3D scene reconstruction.
On August 11 this year, Xiaomi officially announced the latest progress in autonomous driving technology, using full-stack self-developed algorithm technology. According to the top configuration of the new car's LiDAR, it can be speculated that the intelligent driving assistance system of the Xiaomi Su7 should be close to L3 level.
Previously, Xiaomi also released the surging OS operating system. Xiaomi called it"An epoch-making milestone"。
This can be seen from Hu Zhengnan's Weibo released in October this year: the people-centered development of the people-car-home full-ecological operating system can realize the smooth enjoyment of data and the cross-device flow of computing power under the condition of technical heterogeneityBased on the deep evolution of Android and Xiaomi's self-developed vela system integration, it not only supports real-time systems, but also can be ultra-lightweight layout, and does not need to give up the rich ecology of Android, completely rewriting the underlying architecture.
At present, there are three main ways to operate the car machine: one is Huawei's HarmonyOS system;The second is the solution provided by self-developed or first-class manufacturers, which is currently used by most car companiesThe third is to transplant ready-made systems through the acquisition of mobile phone companies, such as the Meizu Unbounded system that is being installed in the Geely system.
Xiaomi is obviously following Huawei's example and using its existing smart ecological advantages such as mobile phones to build underlying advantages on the operating system.
An anonymous person in the industry commented on the car business that judging from the product configuration that Xiaomi has revealed, there is little difference in performance from the electric coupe already on the market.
The question is, does Xiaomi dare to delineate more than 200,000 yuan.
Dilemma pricing
The pricing of the first car will determine the brand image of Xiaomi Auto. Therefore, Xiaomi has been strictly guarding against the disclosure of information about the first car.
Previously, netizens speculated that Xiaomi, which is the best killer in the field of mobile phones, will also translate its logic in the field of mobile phones in the field of electric vehicles.
Netizens think that the ** of Xiaomi Su7 should start from 14990,000 yuan to 18990,000 yuan. There are also more than 200,000 yuan, for example, some ** previously thought that the ** range of su7 should be 200,000-300,000 yuan, and the high-end version was 2990,000 yuan.
According to the above-mentioned industry insiders, the price of less than 200,000 yuan is exactly what Lei Jun wants to avoid.
From the point of view of competition, even Xiaomi itself admits that Xiaomi cars came relatively late.
Nowadays, the new energy vehicle market has shuffled a round of cards, each market segment has a strong guard, the first pure electric vehicle has also repeatedly declined, as strong as Huawei in the push of the "world" word generation of new cars, have to bow to the first, Yu Chengdong said that "the four cars are losing money and selling". These pressures have undoubtedly been given to Lei Jun.
Whether it is the frequent body information, or the publicity of "the first Porsche for young people", Xiaomi is faced with the choice of whether to be a killer.
The reason why Lei Jun chose to build a car is that in addition to what he said "destiny", he also needs to find new growth points for Xiaomi Group. Like Huawei, building cars can be part of their larger smart picture.
Xiaomi Group's business segments include smartphones, IoT and consumer products, Internet services and other revenues.
Among them, the smartphone business accounted for nearly 60% of the revenue.
On November 20, the quarterly financial report released by Xiaomi Group showed that the revenue in the third quarter was 708900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 06%；Adjusted net profit was 59900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1829%；Net profit was 486.9 billion yuan, a net loss of 14 in the same period last year7.6 billion yuan.
In terms of specific business, Xiaomi Group's smartphone business revenue was 416RMB4.9 billion, down 2% year-on-year, mainly due to a decrease in average selling price (ASP).The revenue of IoT and consumer products was 2067.3 billion yuan, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year5%；Internet services revenue was 775.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 97%；Other income was 81.7 billion yuan.
Lei Jun once said, "Xiaomi's comprehensive net profit margin will never exceed 5%". Xiaomi mobile phones were the first killer when they entered the game. Although it ranks second in the world in terms of shipments, it has taken the path of small profits and quick turnover.
Xiaomi's entry into automobiles does not want a comprehensive net profit margin of only 5%. As a listed company, the financial report is like a whip whipping the management in the back.
The upfront investment in building a car is huge. Lei Jun said that Xiaomi's investment in making cars is ten times more personnel and funds than other car companies, and he himself is building cars in a way that "ambition must be won".
For the SU7 alone, more than 10 billion yuan and 3,400 engineers have been invested.
CITIC's research report believes that from the perspective of R&D expenses & capex investment, referring to the financial data of Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, for new car-making forces, 10 billion yuan of R&D &capex investment is the threshold and necessary condition.
From the perspective of sales figures, the time it takes for Li, Xpeng and NIO to reach annual sales of 100,000 units is roughly 3-4 years;Judging from the gross profit margin data, in 2020, Wei Xiaoli's gross profit margin will turn positive, of which the gross profit margin of Ideal Xiaopeng and Weilai will be respectively. 5%, corresponding to an annual sales volume of 330,000 units, 270,000 units, 440,000 units. From 2021 to 2022, with the increase in sales, Wei Xiaoli's sales volume will be about 9-130,000 units, and the corresponding gross profit margin will exceed 10%.
With annual sales of 100,000 vehicles, the gross profit can turn positive. How can we ensure annual sales of 100,000 vehicles?
It depends on whether the rice noodles buy it or not.
According to the above-mentioned insiders, from the perspective of brand communication strategies, mid-to-high-end brands are generally higher than consumers' cognition, which creates a kind of expectation and expectation for consumers, so that consumers are willing to spend more premium to buy, so as to bring consumers the imagination of social and social influence.
Xiaomi mobile phones have chosen the strategy of entering at a low price at the beginning. The result of such a brand communication strategy is that the psychological expectations of rice fans are low: if it is the same as the hardware of the same level, Xiaomi needs to be much cheaper than the same level of products, and if Xiaomi has the same price as the same level of products, the hardware will be much higher than the same level.
Lei Jun obviously doesn't want the auto business to form a brand communication strategy for mobile phones.
The pricing of the Xiaomi Su7 will determine its sales volume and brand premium.
The target customers of Xiaomi Auto are also mid-to-high-end users of Xiaomi mobile phones. According to the CITIC Research Report, mid-to-high-end MIUI users currently account for 1 percent of the total in ChinaThe proportion of 500 million users exceeded 20%, that is, the mid-to-high-end user base exceeded 30 million.
According to the above-mentioned industry insiders, the users of Xiaomi cars are a very sensitive group. This group is not only sensitive to ** and value, but also sensitive to self-perception, and is accustomed to using multiple labels such as "geek" and personality to cover up their vulnerable positioning in society. They are very reluctant to be told that "they just don't have the money, so they bought a high-quality copy Porsche".
This creates a pricing dilemma.
If it is higher than 200,000 yuan, the price is in the range of 220,000-280,000 yuan, which is beneficial to the brand image and positioning of Xiaomi Auto, but the first batch of rice noodle owners may not be satisfied;If it is less than 200,000 yuan, Xiaomi Auto will copy the killer role of Xiaomi mobile phones, and it will be difficult for the brand and ** to go up further.
However, the above-mentioned insider said that Lei Jun's character may also be wrong, "he may really rush and do it to the end."