Since last year, Huawei's intelligent driving achievements have been continuously released, on the one hand, the big sales of the Wenjie series, which is known as the far ahead, showing Huawei's strong scientific and technological strength; On the other hand, the spin-off financing of Huawei Auto BU has aroused widespread attention in the industry, once again allowing the outside world to see Huawei's position and attitude in "building cars".
As the first order of Huawei's car BU after independence, Dongfeng VOYAH announced on January 22 that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution unit to explore and innovate in multiple fields through cooperative models and accelerate the large-scale commercialization of intelligent technologies. It is not difficult to see from here that after a long time in the making, Huawei's intelligent driving technology has entered a new stage so far.
Illustration from CanvaThe two-way rush behind the strong alliance
In fact, the cooperation between Dongfeng Lantu and Huawei seems to be abrupt, but in fact, judging from the contact between the two sides, this cooperation is by no means groundless, but the result of long-term accumulation.
On the one hand, the two sides have a deep foundation for cooperation and have extensive and close ties in intelligent cooperation. From the perspective of the industry, there is the chairman of SAIC's "automobile soul theory" in front, Huawei wants to cooperate with other state-owned enterprises, and the test it faces is quite large, so if the two sides do not have a good cooperative relationship, and a very open mind, it is difficult for the two sides to further promote intelligent cooperation, fortunately, the foundation of Dongfeng and Huawei cooperation is deep enough.
In 2014, Dongfeng and Huawei signed a strategic cooperation agreement, announcing cross-border cooperation in the fields of automotive electronics, smart cars, and IT ICT informatization. In August 2018, Dongfeng Group and Huawei signed a deepening strategic cooperation agreement, further proposing that the two parties deepen strategic cooperation in the fields of "new four modernizations" (intelligence, networking, electrification, and sharing) of automobiles, enterprise informatization, and carry out joint innovation based on cutting-edge technologies. In 2021, Dongfeng Group and Huawei launched a cloud data center construction project, using Huawei's autonomous driving network (ADN) solution to implement automatic provisioning, secure scheduling, and unified O&M of the entire lifecycle network across data centers. In April 2023, Dongfeng Motor and Huawei jointly released the "All-Scenario Solution Application Template", which covers multiple products such as HUAWEI CLOUD, data center interconnection, Kunpeng computing, hybrid flash storage, and computational storage.
It is precisely because of the long-term strategic cooperation foundation that Dongfeng VOYAH and Huawei were able to break through the shackles of the so-called "soul theory" earlier and reach a higher level in the cooperation of smart cars.
On the other hand, both sides have their own core strategic aspirations and can learn from each other's strengths. As a high-end new energy brand under Dongfeng, VOYAH carries the ardent expectations of the Dongfeng brand, but since its launch on the market in 2021, VOYAH's market performance has not been very bright compared with other new forces. According to the data provided by VOYAH, its overall sales in 2023 will be 50,552 units, with an average monthly sales of 4,212 units. However, in the second half of last year, VOYAH deliveries began to climb rapidly, exceeding 10,000 units in December.
Judging from this data alone, it is still a bit far away from the new forces at the head. According to the current situation in the industry, the average monthly sales of more than 20,000 yuan have the opportunity to enter the top 10 of the domestic new force sales list. At present, the competition of new energy vehicles has turned into the second half, and the intelligent competition has kicked off. For Huawei, the alliance with Dongfeng will help it rapidly increase its market share, expand its influence in the entire automotive market, seize more market share, and accelerate its intelligent commercial implementation.
It can be seen that the cooperation between the two sides is not accidental, but a two-way rush to take the initiative under the sweep of the tide of automotive intelligence.
VOYAH "seeks change" and the outcome is unpredictable
It is worth noting that the cooperation between VOYAH and Huawei is not the familiar smart selection model, but another model that Huawei has been promoting before-HI mode. Because of this, the outside world speculates that Huawei's internal decision on the HI mode and the smart selection mode has still not been decided. With the deepening of the cooperation between VOYAH and Huawei, the battle between HI mode and smart mode may become more intense, but it is still difficult to say whether HI mode can win back a game with the help of VOYAH.
First of all, the previous achievements of Huawei's model HI are not outstanding, and it is difficult to have realistic reference significance. According to the sales of brand models such as BAIC Jihu and Changan AVATR that have been cooperated so far, Huawei's HI model has not brought real and effective blessings to these two car companies. According to the data of Chedi, in 2023, the sales volume of Changan AVATR brand cars under Huawei's HI mode will only be 23,485; The annual sales of BAIC ARCFOX Alpha S series models, including the HI version model, are only 15,163 units.
On the contrary, Huawei's smart mode has continued to catch fire since the second half of last year, and with the popularity of products such as the M7, the cumulative sales of the Wenjie brand in the smart mode will reach 940,000 units, and this data is still growing, continuing to exceed external expectations. In contrast, the outside world is often more inclined to believe in Huawei's smart mode, while they are skeptical of the HI model. At present, the cooperation between VOYAH and HI model may be more out of the consideration of wanting to retain the brand and change the status quo, but whether the effect can be satisfactory or not is another matter.
Secondly, it remains to be seen whether the new cooperative car companies can form a better cooperative relationship with the new entity after the adjustment of Huawei's car BU equity**.
At present, although Huawei has separated the car BU, and the HI mode will play an important role in it, compared with the previous HI mode, the "Chinese content" has been greatly reduced, but whether its actual operation is better than before remains to be tested in reality.
For example, Changan Automobile, an important investor of Huawei's car BU, said at the Global Partner Conference: "Changan chose the HI model because it wants to have its own brand and not be someone else's brand." Second, Chang'an does things and wants to do things that are in line with the national industrial policy, and I think there are problems with other models. In addition to these two points, Changan's shareholding in the new company will not exceed 40%, while Huawei's shareholding will be less than 30% in the future, and Changan, as a funder, may give priority to its own interests, so it is still unpredictable whether there will be a conflict with Changan's "priority interests" after VOYAH enters.
Huawei's hi mode dilemma
Returning to Huawei's HI model, its current situation is also very embarrassing internally. According to the situation previously announced by Yu Chengdong, before cooperating with VOYAH Automobile, only Chang'an cooperated with Huawei in the HI mode, and BAIC Jihu, which used to use the HI model, was later upgraded to Hongmeng Zhixing (that is, the former Huawei smart selection mode). So, why is Huawei's HI mode compared to the smart mode? What is the difference between the two?
According to the information released by Huawei, Huawei's HI model is a cooperation model jointly defined and jointly developed by Huawei and car companies. In this mode, Huawei will integrate a complete set of Huawei's self-developed intelligent driving systems, cockpit systems, domain controllers, chips, motors, and other sensors into smart cars, and deeply cooperate with car companies. For example, Huawei's cooperation with Chang'an, AVATAR, Beiqi Jihu, etc., all belong to this category. However, in reality, the feedback effect of this model is not satisfactory, and there are many factors involved.
First of all, it is the control of traditional car companies that can be used as consumer brands to keep up with the rhythm of Huawei, which overshadows the intelligence that could have been a bright spot. In the case of Changan AVATR 11, its product power is still good, not only has a fashionable and atmospheric appearance, technology configuration and intelligent driving configuration, especially its urban NCA intelligent driving navigation assistance function, even on complex and changeable urban roads, it can also be easily dealt with, and the applicable scenarios are also relatively wide, and it can also reduce driving fatigue to a certain extent.
However, they are a little less experienced when it comes to quality control. In the previous bumpy road test, it was found that the power system of AVATR 11 does not seem to be very stable, and in the evaluation, AVATR 11 is at 160At 6 kilometers, the power system was seriously faulty, and the gear could not be hung up, the fault code was flying all over the sky, and the vehicle could not be started. In contrast, the relevant models that adopt the smart selection mode are forced to delay their launch due to Huawei's strict quality control requirements, which is probably the core reason why Yu Chengdong adheres to the smart selection model.
Secondly, the investment sharing model of the HI model is easy to fall into a dilemma once it cannot be scaled, and the business model cannot be closed-loop. As mentioned above, Huawei's HI model is dominated by car companies, but its scale cannot be increased due to various reasons, and the HI model has a huge investment in the early stage, and it does not charge development fees and sample fees, and can only be shared with car companies according to the order volume. Under this model, Huawei's own product promotion advantages, channel advantages, and vehicle definition capabilities cannot be effectively utilized, resulting in little effect of this model.
Of course, in essence, Huawei's HI mode is to B, while the smart mode is to C, and the two are not absolutely competitive. For example, with the continuous growth of sales in the smart mode, the sales of parts and components of Huawei's car BU have also been rapidly increased, and other automotive intelligent solutions will be used more in cars. It can be seen that in this regard, Huawei's HI mode and smart selection mode also have the role of mutual support.
Huawei's future conjecture for smart cars
Judging from the current situation, Huawei is gradually clarifying its layout in the automotive sector, especially after the opening of equity investment in the car BU, the positioning of smart cars and Huawei's HI model in its internal is gradually becoming clear.
First of all, the small success of the smart car mode proves that this is a more cost-effective route for Huawei at present, and its status will naturally improve. Previously, within Huawei, there were a number of overlaps and overlaps in the business of the two major departments of car BU and smart car, and at the same time, the relationship between customers and businessmen was also the relationship between each other, and this time the car BU business was established independently to establish a new company and open equity, on the one hand, it can allow customers to share the growth dividend, on the other hand, it also gives customers a sense of security, and Huawei can also find new financing channels for car bu.
Correspondingly, Huawei's smart selection model has also been upgraded to HarmonyOS Zhixing, which has become the core grasp of Huawei's smart car business. Of course, Huawei has not given up the HI model at present, and the possibility of the coexistence of the two is still relatively large in the long run, because the choices of car companies are diverse.
Second, with the maturity of Huawei's smart selection model, Huawei will increase its voice in the partner car companies under the HI model, and Huawei's HI model will also have new changes. From the current point of view, the strong side of the HI model is the car company, but the current progress is not smooth, and Huawei itself is also deeply in the red. However, with the increase in sales and influence of Huawei's smart models, it cannot be ruled out that Huawei will strengthen its voice in vehicle definition and product promotion in the future to boost the new car sales of cooperative car companies.
Judging from Huawei's previous experience in other industries, from the initial cooperation to the strong dominance in the later stage, it is Huawei's consistent style, and this time in the automotive industry must be no exception.