"Huawei doesn't make cars? In fact, they are already building cars! ”
Full-stack self-development of car companies? Broadly impossible! ”
When Wang Weiliang led several members of the board of directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group in China, people found that he was really quick to talk about technology. In the face of many hot topics in the current industry changes, he seems to be sharp and clear-cut.
Automobile-related sectors will be integrated into the management of the new group
On January 1, 2024, the reorganization of Bosch's Automotive & Transportation Technology business was officially named "Bosch Smart Mobility Group". Recently, the board of directors of the group in China was officially unveiled to the public.
To put it simply, Bosch China has restructured its original divisions and integrated multiple automotive-related business units into the Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group. It is understood that the structure of this new business unit and branch includes: electric bicycle system, electric drive system, intelligent travel after-sales, automotive electronics, power system, vehicle motion intelligent control system, intelligent driving and control system, Bosch engineering technology (including commercial vehicles and off-road systems, Keguangrui engineering technology), ETAS, two-wheeled vehicles and sports vehicles, vehicle platforms and services, and vehicle software services. At the same time, the Board of Directors of Bosch Smart Mobility Group China was established to oversee the relevant business units and teams in China.
According to the data, Bosch Smart Mobility Group currently has more than 35,000 employees and 24 production bases in China, with sales of more than 100 billion yuan.
Why the "historic" structural change?
This is the biggest structural change in Bosch's 138 years, which can promote technological innovation, product development and customer service faster, and empower China's best enterprises to become bigger and stronger. Talking about the major structural adjustment, Wang Weiliang, President of the Board of Directors of Bosch Intelligent Mobility Group China, said that the adjustment is in response to the changes, challenges and opportunities in today's automotive industry. For Bosch, the key word to solve these problems is "innovation". "In this environment, our business transformation needs to adapt to such changes. Wang Weiliang said.
In response to technological changes such as electrification, the evolution of electrical and electronic architectures, and software-defined vehicles, Bosch has restructured and restructured its business with the aim of creating more efficient cross-domain solutions that can quickly and flexibly serve existing and new customer needs, while facilitating further business growth.
As for the growth target of Bosch's smart mobility business, Lan Siming, executive vice president of the board of directors of Bosch Smart Mobility Group China, revealed that this is the same as Bosch's overall business, which is also an average annual growth of 6%-8%, and is expected to reach 80 billion euros by 2029. The goal of the Chinese market is to achieve faster than the average market growth.
Wang Weiliang said that compared with the previous year, Bosch's intelligent electrification business achieved double-digit rapid growth in 2023, and the intelligent mobility group in China accounted for more than a quarter of the world's sales, and also led the innovation, production and application of technology.
Huawei has actually built cars, and car companies' "full-stack self-development" will not work in a broad sense
At present, many OEMs emphasize "soul" and "full-stack self-development", but Wang Weiliang has reservations about this. "Enterprises want to carry out the entire reform of the automotive industry, the so-called full stack, depending on how to define, in a narrow sense of the perspective may be possible, but from a broad point of view, the automotive industry, automobile culture, including the ecological environment, the automotive environment, this is impossible, neither realistic nor scientific, let alone feasible. He believes that Bosch supports customers to build capacity around their own products, which many people understand as "full-stack research", but to a certain extent, after accepting and mastering it, the cost is definitely not good. Moreover, Bosch has become accustomed to a relationship with car companies that is both a customer, a partner, and possibly a competitor.
In the face of the fact that more and more car companies are proud of being labeled as Huawei, and Huawei has always claimed that it "does not make cars", Wang Weiliang emphasized that for many years, Bosch has insisted on not making cars and has always been the enabler behind the OEMs. "And Huawei, for now, is actually involved in building cars, and it is forming its own car brand, although it does not use its own name." In Wang Weiliang's view, Huawei has a short history in the automotive industry, but it is very strong, and the in-depth binding cooperation model with car companies is dominated by Huawei. He believes that Bosch and Huawei do not feel particularly strong competitive pressure at present, and even in the process of intelligence, Bosch's advantages are incomparable to Huawei.
High-end intelligent driving is catching up, and the city NOA was released this year
In the eyes of many people, in the field of high-end intelligent driving, many car companies have laid out one after another, and announced the planned number and timetable of their respective cities and high-speed NOAs. In contrast, Bosch seems to be more low-key in this regard. In this regard, Wu Yongqiao, President of Bosch Intelligent Driving and Control Systems Division in China, revealed that Bosch has released high-speed NOA in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui on January 20, and in terms of urban NOA, Bosch will run 320,000 kilometers according to regulations, and it can only be delivered to customers after repeated tests such as strict grayscale test and endurance test, and it is expected that there will be a release of urban NOA in the second half of the year.
Now urban NOA has become a rigid demand for many young people to buy electric vehicles with a price of more than 250,000 yuan. Even in the eyes of many people, going to a 4S store to experience a model of more than 250,000 yuan, you can not experience anything else, and urban NOA has become a must. In fact, the intelligent experience it delivers is truly fantastic. Wu Yongqiao believes that urban NOA will be in a climbing stage in the next three years, and it will indeed usher in explosive growth after three years.
Bay Finance Observation. The elephant turned, and the test was yet to come
Regarding the previous suspension of the research and development of LiDAR by Bosch, the industry analysis is likely to be related to the topic of cost, and a senior person from Bosch Intelligent Mobility gave an affirmative answer. "The cost of R&D is simply too high. He admitted to the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Agency that the degree of involution in the Chinese market exceeded their expectations. After all, it is necessary to consider the time and cost of R&D investment and output, and make trade-offs from it. In fact, before Bosch, a number of multinational component giants have announced their withdrawal from the research and development of lidar for similar reasons.
As some veterans said, taking the millimeter-wave radar technology that Bosch has always been proud of, 4D millimeter-wave radar has been widely rolled out on the market, but Bosch is still making 3D millimeter-wave radar, how to ensure sufficient competitiveness? Another example is in the field of wire control, in the face of competitors' deep involvement, how can Bosch maintain its advantage?
As we all know, Bosch is a leading multinational company with a large structure and a wide range of business coverage, which is almost unparalleled in the industry. However, in the midst of industry change, this feature has mixed pros and cons.
As early as the first half of the surging wave of new energy, people found that many century-old brands are facing the problem of "elephant turning", and the larger the scale, the more concerns. In the second half of the intelligent competition, the achievements accumulated over the years are both a halo and a shackle. How to lift their own shackles will become an unavoidable and necessary topic for industry giants.
The emergence of the Smart Mobility Group is a key step for Bosch. Next, the test is yet to come.
Bosch is also a microcosm of the current changes in the automotive industry.
Writing and photography: Liang Luozhe, reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Agency.