Recently, some industry insiders said that DJI has received clear investment intentions from BYD and FAW Group, and all parties are currently promoting the financing process.
It was previously reported that in January 2023, DJI's automotive division has been officially split and independent, and the new company is called "Shenzhen Zhuoyu Technology*** In August 2023, DJI Automotive intends to accept external financing, and the valuation is expected to reach $1.5 billion after the financing is completed.
The drone market will be saturated, expanding the automotive sector
Since its inception in 2006, DJI has been developing at a high speed in the fast lane of drones. First-class technology and rapid growth have made DJI a high-quality target in the eyes of investors, and for a long time, DJI has been a "sweet spot" in the eyes of investment institutions.
In 2016, DJI's founder Wang Tao publicly stated that the drone market was about to be saturated, and DJI's revenue peaked at 20 billion yuan, but this revenue could hardly support DJI's $10 billion valuation.
Internally, DJI has also been looking for a second growth curve for a long time. In 2016, DJI's in-vehicle team officially started; In 2018, it obtained the first batch of intelligent networked vehicle test licenses in Shenzhen; In 2019, DJI's automotive brand was officially launched, and in December of the same year, the first automotive-grade intelligent manufacturing center was completed, which transformed a large number of technological achievements into products, and began to conduct testing and certification in accordance with automotive-grade standards. In the same year, DJI began to contact customers in the automotive industry, and was recognized by well-known car companies such as Volkswagen Group and SAIC-GM-Wuling, and began to establish cooperation.
In December 2020, DJI's intelligent driving solution D80 urban expressway intelligent driving system passed the A-SPICE CL2 audit, becoming the first first-class supplier in China to use the L2+ intelligent driving solution to pass the audit. In March 2021, DJI Automotive passed the SPICE for HWE MEE CL1 audit, becoming the first first-tier manufacturer in China to pass this hardware development quality certification. In April 2021, DJI Automotive showcased its intelligent solutions for driving scenarios such as DJI D80 D80+, DJI D130 D130+, and DJI Parking.
On September 15, 2022, SAIC-GM-Wuling's 2023 KiWi EV, the first model equipped with DJI's in-vehicle intelligent driving system, was officially released, with a price of only about 100,000 yuan. DJI Automotive said at the press conference: "Intelligent driving is not a distant technology, but a travel experience that everyone can have. ”
In April 2023, DJI's next-generation automotive intelligent driving solution was unveiled as the "Chengxing Platform". In September, the first mass-produced model of the Chengxing platform, the Baojun Yunduo Lingxi Edition, was launched and delivered, with a starting price of only 12580,000 yuan; In the same month, DJI Automotive clarified the new Tier 1 positioning of smart cars as a "leading business + service provider", which is the industry's leading platform-based intelligent driving solution.
It can be seen that DJI's territory in the automotive field has expanded rapidly and with solid steps.
After the "soul theory", Tier 1 has both opportunities and worries
Automobiles have entered the era of intelligence, and the rapid development of intelligent cockpits and intelligent driving has benefited the entire industrial chain enterprises, and large and small Tier 1 enterprises have obtained many orders from them.
However, since June 2021, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, proposed to "take the soul into your own hands", the "soul theory" has always lingered in the hearts of OEMs: will OEMs still have the final say in the future of car manufacturing?
In order to grasp the absolute right to speak, it can be seen that not only the new EV manufacturers insist on implementing "full-stack self-development", but almost all powerful OEMs have also started full-stack self-development. The author gradually has a feeling that if the OEM can make it itself, it will never consider other people's things, unless there is really nothing they can do. This point can be seen by looking at the "love and hate" attitude of some car companies towards Huawei.
Of course, it is unrealistic for all car companies to develop their own full-stack, and it is not necessary. Full-stack self-development by car companies is both costly and labor-intensive, and may not be successful. Wan Gang, the former minister of science and technology, once said, "No matter what it is, I do it myself, from a screw, a wire board, to a big plane flying in the sky, every wire in this plane is mine, it is not very good, it is easy to have problems." "It's the best choice to leave the professional work to the professionals.
Looking back at DJI Automotive, an industry insider said, "After so many years, those who can use cost-effective solutions to achieve large-scale on-board cars are Huawei and DJI Automotive."
The biggest highlight of the DJI platform is that it is low cost and the solution is adaptable enough. DJI Automotive officially said that the Chengxing platform has supported diversified product delivery models, which can be delivered in full stack, and can also flexibly reuse customers' existing first-class chains and software and hardware resources, which also alleviates the fear of car companies for "being controlled souls".
For the automotive industry, DJI Automotive can provide low-cost intelligent driving solutions, allowing car companies to deploy intelligent driving products more flexibly, reliably and with low thresholds, and also allowing consumers to experience high-quality and low-cost intelligent driving functions, bringing real benefits to those with limited car purchase budgets.
For DJI, mass production of vehicles on the Chengxing platform is the key to its sustainable development in the field of intelligent driving. In December 2023, the iCar 03 intelligent driving version equipped with DJI's in-vehicle platform also started global pre-sales. The Chengxing platform is being recognized by more and more car companies.
In fact, for car companies, it is more important to be able to control the highest value-added links in the industrial chain, as well as ensure the integrity and security of the first chain, rather than becoming Tier 1 themselves. When it can be a win-win situation, why not cooperate with Tier 1?