With the progress and development of science and technology, electrification and intelligence have become an important development direction of the automobile industry. In the domestic auto market, Xpeng, Wenjie, Zhijie, Zeekr and Tesla and other automobiles have already made efforts in the field of intelligence in the second half, while traditional automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz are still struggling with electrification in the first half, seeking ways to break the situation.
On November 30, BMW Brilliance and Mercedes-Benz (China) Investment*** announced that they have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a joint venture in China to operate a supercharging network in the Chinese market at a 50:50 ratio. The partnership aims to meet the growing demand for luxury charging services from Chinese customers and promote the development of the electric vehicle industry.
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.
According to the agreement, the joint venture will leverage the resources and advantages of both parties to jointly invest in the research and development, construction and operation of super charging stations to provide fast and convenient charging services. In other words, the two companies will communicate with each other in terms of technology and resources to achieve greater results with less. The question now is how much cooperation BMW and Mercedes-Benz will reachAfter all, both have their own independence and interests, and it is also a difficult problem to avoid competition and internal friction while fully cooperating.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz have reached a cooperation in the Chinese market, which is a strong alliance, but it is more accurate to huddle together for heating, according to the data, in the first 10 months of this year, BMW pure electric models sold more than 7 in the Chinese market860,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 211%;Mercedes-Benz pure electric vehicle sales exceeded 8070,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 90%. Judging from this growth rate, the performance of the two can be called very impressive. However, considering the brand awareness, enterprise size, sales base and significant price reduction of models, the market performance of the two is very average, and there is still a big gap between them and many new car-making forces.
According to industry insiders, such as the previous SAIC-GM and Tesla China to open the charging network interconnection cooperation, Changan and NIO reached cooperation in the field of battery swapping, etc., all prove the trend of industry union. The BMW and Mercedes-Benz partnership is also a continuation of this trend, although the two are very loud, but the follow-up impact is limited. After all, the volume of electrification of the two is not large, and the driving force for the entire electric vehicle industry is not obvious. However, with the further intensification of competition in the industry, there must be more car companies to continue to cooperate together, which also marks the beginning of the violent reshuffle of the industry, and companies with low competitiveness will be eliminated from the market. As for which car company will be the first to start cooperation in the future, it remains to be seen.
In the past, there was a rumor that the joint venture brand had not yet made a force in electrification, and as long as they made a force, BYD or a new force, they would be quickly defeated. But this is actually a superstition about the strength of the joint venture brand, in terms of the electrification market situation in recent years, even if the joint venture brand has made a force, there is not much "power", let alone any "vigorous miracle"!This time, BMW and Mercedes-Benz will make efforts to electrify and jointly respond to the challenges and opportunities of China's electric vehicle market, will they create any "miracles"?Let's wait and see.