It is said that with the arrival of the year-end consumption season, the automobile market is becoming more and more lively.
Following NIO's announcement of the flagship model ET9 on December 23, Huawei's release of the Wenjie M9 on the 26th, and Xiaomi's first mass-produced model, the SU7, was finally officially unveiled.
On December 28th, at the Xiaomi Automotive Technology Conference, Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, styled as always, not only interpreting the achievements of Xiaomi Auto in the five core technology tracks, but also explaining the advantages of Xiaomi Su7 in actual experience. For example, automatic parking and reversing can be parked in a parking space that is only more than 10 centimeters wider than the body, so that novice novices no longer bother parking.
This design is inspired by the natural "mobile smart space", with intuitive design details and large spaces such as waterdrop headlights, cobble-oval lidar, 3 times wheel axle ratio, and 2 times wheel height ratio, so that ordinary consumers can understand its design beauty at a glance.
So, what does the SU7, which is called "stand the test of time", mean for the Xiaomi Group?Xiaomi Automobile, which will only enter the market in 2024, can it rewrite the pattern of the new energy vehicle industry?
There are too many questions about Xiaomi cars. In this regard, I would like to share my views with three stories.
The first story is called "Afforestation".
The growth of a business is often linked to afforestation.
Both should also choose the right climate and soil, grow in a sunny direction, and create a reasonable ecology, effectively allocate resources and enhance risk resistance. Among them, the forest grows to a certain scale, and the formation of ecology is inevitable, but what kind of ecology is formed determines the height and even the success or failure of the enterprise.
At this point, the pioneers in the field of mobile phones have taught enough lessons to those who come after them. Although Nokia's failure in the mobile phone market is related to Apple's innovation and the advent of the smartphone era, Nokia has not been able to counterattack after the rise of many new brands. The key reason is that Nokia overly trusts the power of hardware products and ignores the importance of ecology. Nokia insisted on not joining the Android camp, but did not build an effective Symbian ecosystem, and the lack of applications and content led to the lack of product attractiveness.
On the contrary, from the mobile phone x AIoT strategy to the people, vehicles and home ecology strategy,Xiaomi has always had a very clear main line of development, which is to create a smart ecology of "Internet of Everything".
This means that Xiaomi does not simply want to make money selling cars, but to create smart products that integrate technology and ecology.
With the rise of the concept of "New Four Modernizations" (electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing) of automobiles, the ecosystem of major technology manufacturers has become inseparable from the key link of automobiles. As a pioneer, Huawei's consumer business has built a "1+8+N" terminal ecosystem with the HarmonyOS system as the core, integrating cars with other devicesNIO and Geely have laid out mobile phone business. For Xiaomi, "the upcoming Xiaomi smart car will become the last step in the closed loop of 'people, cars and homes'." ”
First, this can be seen in the exploration of Xiaomi cars in the field of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit. According to the press conference, Xiaomi Auto has developed a full set of intelligent driving algorithms, and through the surging operating system, the intelligent cockpit and the Xiaomi ecosystem are completely connected. The second row supports Xiaomi Pad smart connection, and also supports CarPlay and AirPlay.
Second, Xiaomi's ten-year plan for the layout of the automobile market also shows that it has been premeditated for a long time. Looking back, in 2013, Lei Jun visited Musk twice, and then Shunwei Capital, which he controlled, invested in Weilai and Xiaopeng, and intensively laid out the smart car industry chain. In August 2021, Xiaomi acquired the autonomous driving company Shendong Technology, and at the 2023 interim report, Lu Weibing said that Xiaomi's automotive R&D team is close to 3,000 people.
Source: Huatai**.
Finally, Xiaomi's latest strategy of "people, cars, and home ecology" also reveals the positioning of Xiaomi Auto in the group. Based on the intelligent solution realized by the surging OS, Xiaomi completely breaks the barrier between hardware devices, so that all devices can have a unified connection protocol and communicate in real time, so as to achieve seamless connection and intelligent management of smart devices.
Source: Xiaomi Group.
At this stage, what Xiaomi has to do is to connect the Xiaomi car su7 with mobile phones and smart home platforms, such as controlling home devices in the car, application data interconnection, etcIn this way, the car will be integrated into the entire intelligent life, so that the ecological chain products will be interconnected, and Xiaomi cars will be empowered with the versatility and scalability of the whole ecology of people, cars and homes.
From the perspective of the market, the understanding of intelligence and ecology of large technology manufacturers is precisely the ability that traditional Japanese and German car companies do not have or lack. This means a better user experience, differentiated product advantages.
Xiaomi's new path of "technology giant, ecological car-making" is very similar to the scene when Apple attacked traditional mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola?
Of course, as the so-called "a single tree does not make a forest", the growth of enterprises is not a linear process, the external environment, internal resources, market competition and other factors will bring unpredictable impacts, not only staring at their own ecology, but also thinking about how to form a larger ecosystem with the surrounding ecology.
That's what the next story is about.
The second story is called "Racing".
The relationship between peers is often inseparable from one word: coopetition.
Before the Xiaomi car press conference, Lei Jun paid tribute to BYD, Huawei and other pioneers, and then He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xpeng Motors, responded to Lei Jun with "warmly welcome Xiaomi to join the car family", as well as more silent brands, reflecting the delicate relationship between car companies.
The main line of development of China's new energy vehicles in the next ten years is undoubtedly globalization and intelligence, and the industrial development around these two themes has just begun.
In terms of market development, the wave of China's new energy vehicle companies going overseas has just emerged, and it is the stage of working together to develop the new energy blue ocean marketIn terms of product iteration, the car is undergoing a transformation from a mobility tool to a mobile intelligent space. In addition to the "people, cars, and homes" mentioned by Xiaomi, the M9 giant screen projection of the world, and the ideal L9's "refrigerator and color TV", all of which illustrate the change in the definition of the car.
As the theme of Lei Jun's 2023 annual speech is "growth",If you look at the development of China's new energy vehicle industry with a race, it is only in the middle of the race.
So, what should the situation of this "multiplayer race" look like in the future?
Many people know that when running a long distance, a runner will definitely want to lead the race, but they will also adopt a more diverse strategy. For example, by following to reduce the resistance of the wind, saving physical exertion, but also through this means of psychological warfare, creating pressure on the distance between each other.
Such a situation is not uncommon among peers, the most typical ones are Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Although most people have the impression that both are life-and-death rivals, the book "Coke Wars" also argues that "Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the two main consumer goods of modern civilization, have become the epitome of the core characteristics of all advertising." ”
In other words, the competition between the two has shaped more classics and promoted creative innovation on both sides. Especially in 2019, Coca-Cola and Pepsi also participated in a "per bottle**" plan together to jointly enhance the brand image and suppress other competing products.
This complex relationship also exists in the automotive industry. In terms of expanding China's new energy vehicle industry, domestic car companies are undoubtedly partners, and they are undoubtedly competitors in the market.
The software-defined world and intelligent transformation of the world are unstoppable trends.
In the field of intelligent driving, whether it is "Wei Xiaoli" or Huawei, they are gritting their teeth and not falling behind, Xiaomi also reiterated the goal of "entering the first camp of the industry in 2024" at the technology conference, and proposed to land in 100 cities in China by the end of 24In the field of ecology, Huawei has the concept of "Huawei All Scenarios", while Xiaomi has proposed "People, Cars, and Homes All Ecology".
It is foreseeable that the technology giants are destined to catch up with each other around intelligent driving and software ecology, but they are by no means a zero-sum game with each other, and it is inevitable that they will move towards benign competition and cooperation like the two cola brands in terms of commercialization.
The third story is called "Mountaineering".
The competition for the "first" technology of car companies is becoming more and more intense.
Companies that released new models in December have invariably focused their publicity on self-developed technologies. For example, NIO said that the ET9 is the model with the highest self-development rate of NIOFor the M9, Yu Chengdong mentioned "far ahead" nine times.
At the press conference, Lei Jun also emphasized the technical advantages of Xiaomi cars from multiple angles around the five core technologies, including the motor "V6-V6S-V8S" with high performance in one stepThe world's thinnest CTB battery jointly built with CATL;The world's only Tesla and Xiaomi can do a fully self-developed large die-casting cluster + materials;and the platform architecture of "supercar horizontal acceleration + the world's shortest braking distance of 100 kilometers + high comfort + ultra-high-strength steel".
This also reflects that as an emerging industry, everything about new energy vehicles is still full of variables, and latecomers can still create "surprises". As He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, previously analyzed: "Who is already at the table today?."I don't think there's a single company in China, a start-up in China, that can already be set at the next table, yet. ”
Nowadays, major car companies are like a group of climbers climbing the same mountain from different directions and at different times, and it is still unknown who will reach the top of the mountain first. At least, for most people, there is a kind of "being in the mountains" of the authorities.
Just look at the other "peaks" and you can see how ever-changing tech entrepreneurship is.
The most representative is the semiconductor industry. If you go back to 1970, few people can accurately ** the future of the industry. At that time, Intel was in the shadow of Fairchild Semiconductor, and there was no shadow of a "generation of overlords". Xian Childhood's turnover is close to $200 million, while Intel's annual revenue is only at the level of one million dollars. But just a few years later, with the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, Intel on the right course to become the global semiconductor market leader for the next half-century.
Therefore, it is only by stretching the timeline to a few decades later, when the struggle of a generation becomes history, that the characters standing on the top of the mountain can be seen. Only after 15 to 20 years of struggle can we see what role Xiaomi Auto has played in the overall rise of China.
To rewrite the pattern of the new energy vehicle industry, subversive intelligent space products are needed. This is a long road to climbing, and enterprises should have the reality and romance of long-termists, be down-to-earth, look up to the stars, and walk steadily and far.