In the past 2023, BYD won the "Triple Crown".
With an unprecedented sales volume of 3.02 million units, BYD has not only become the sales champion of Chinese car companies and the brand sales champion, but also the global new energy vehicle sales champion. But BYD, which is "under the prosperity", is not without hidden worries.
At the end of March 2023, at BYD's financial report exchange meeting, Wang Chuanfu fired a shot, which sparked heated discussions in the entire automobile circle.
Wang Chuanfu said bluntly: "Unmanned driving is all nonsense, making a fool of a vain head." It is coerced by capital, and it is an emperor's new clothes. ”
His remarks are tantamount to putting many car companies that are fully committed to autonomous driving directly on the fire.
As the founder of BYD, the "first brother of independence", Wang Chuanfu already has a very high status in the rivers and lakes. "People speak loudly", his cannon shocked the entire automobile circle.
Many car company bigwigs naturally couldn't see it, and they came forward to reply.
He Xiaopeng of Xpeng Motors said: "Unmanned driving is not nonsense. Huawei's Yu Chengdong responded in the air: "People who say this kind of thing either don't understand the industry, or deliberately hit the industry." ”
However, many people ignore his other words: "Autonomous driving is just the product of over-hype, and what is really needed now is advanced driver assistance functions." ”
In the field of intelligence, it can be said that Wang Chuanfu is more pragmatic, and it can also be said that he is relatively conservative. BYD's intelligent level is not outstanding in the industry, or relatively backward.
In the early years, Wang Chuanfu cooperated with other companies in research and development, or introduced leading enterprises to improve BYD's intelligent business.
As early as 10 years ago, BYD and Beijing Institute of Technology carried out joint research and development of wire-controlled autonomous driving experimental carsIn 2015, the Autonomous Driving Division was established, and Wang Chuanfu was hired as an autonomous driving consultant
In 2019, BYD and Huawei signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement to commit to exchanges and cooperation in the field of intelligence. In 2021, BYD invested in Horizon and co-founded Dipai Zhixing with Momenta.
But the effect of these collaborations does not seem to be ideal.
Coincidentally, shortly after Wang Chuanfu finished firing the gun, BYD began to accelerate on the intelligent track.
In May 2023, Wang Huan, the former head of BYD's intelligent driving R&D, resigned, and Han Bing, director of the electronic integration department, took over as the company's intelligent driving leader. Since then, BYD has intelligently "rolled".
This year, the number of BYD's employees in this area has increased exponentially. Li Ke, executive vice president of BYD, revealed that the company has recruited a software team of four to five thousand people for autonomous driving.
From external cooperation to internal self-research and development, BYD has finally begun to take intelligence seriously. Wang Chuanfu did not seem to be firing a cannon, but a smoke bomb.
Everyone knows that the first half of new energy vehicles is electrification, and the second half is intelligence. Wang Chuanfu knows that although BYD is the "triple crown champion", it is in urgent need of make-up classes in terms of intelligence.
The sales of new cars of the Denza brand, which pinned BYD's hopes for high-end, did not meet expectations, and the N7 and N8 models were cold, which is not unrelated to BYD's shortcomings in intelligence.
In the process of selling new cars, BYD basically rarely emphasizes the selling point in terms of intelligence. There is a view that BYD's current level of intelligent driving "has not even reached the L2 level".
It has been almost a year since it caught up, but there is still a certain gap between BYD and other car companies.
Last year, known as the "first year of urban NOA landing", Huawei, Changan, Great Wall, Wei Xiaoli and other car companies have increased the layout speed of urban NOA tracks. Data show that in the first half of last year, 20 new cars were delivered to the front-mounted NOA of passenger cars940,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 10898%。
It's a pity that BYD missed it perfectly. The Denza N7 only pushed high-speed NOA at the end of last year, while the urban NOA will not be pushed until the first quarter of this year. Compared with other car companies, BYD is not lagging behind by a star and a half.
Wang Chuanfu once said: "Now is the era of fast fish eating slow fish."
In the first half of electrification, BYD relied on core technology and product innovation to lead other car companies by several positions. However, in the end of intelligence, BYD is obviously at least one position behind other car companies.
It is worth noting that BYD's old rival Tesla's FSD entry into China is also accelerating, which forces Chinese car companies to accelerate the process of intelligence.
The time window left for BYD to catch up is very narrow, maybe only one or two years. Fortunately, Wang Chuanfu has realized this and is leading BYD to make up classes frantically and run all the way forward.