Previous article (An in-depth interpretation of BYD's 2023 report cardtook everyone to review the breakthroughs made by BYD in 2023 and the progress of high-end and internationalization through data. However, the achievements are in the past, and high-end and internationalization are also the "bright cards" that most people can see. What is BYD's "dark card"?
Today's article will continue the dream day in 2024 and take you to see the foreshadowing laid by BYD.
This article is not what many people think is "intelligent", judging from the current progress of intelligence, there is no generation difference in intelligent driving, only time sequence. What BYD released on the dream day was not an intelligent solution for a certain model, but an intelligent system framework, an intelligent framework that can accommodate hardware and software iterations, and an intelligent energy system that can carry changes in models.
For an OEM with an annual sales volume of 3 million+, the system and framework at this stage are far more important than the intelligent performance of a certain model in a certain scene.
Of course, it's not that the intelligent driving performance of the model is not important, but that after the framework and system are determined, Q3 4 can be seen at the latest.
BYD also has bigger dreams - about car culture, about car circulation, about car data ......
The reshaping of new energy vehicle culture
On the Dream Day, when BYD announced that "BYD will invest 5 billion yuan to build the world's first batch of all-terrain professional racing tracks", everyone needs to understand: BYD's ultimate dream lies in the all-dimensional replacement of fuel vehicles.
Automobile sports culture, or racing culture, is essentially a comprehensive embodiment of a country's industrial strength and scientific and technological culture. It has been born along with the development of automotive technology and motor sports, and continues to enrich its connotation. Automobile events not only allow the public to recognize the technology and performance of a certain car brand, but also deepen consumers' attention and loyalty to the brand, and even influence the trend of automobile consumption.
Today, many well-known global brands are more or less connected to motorsport. Whether it is Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren, their glorious history of Le Mans, WRC, Dakar, Indianapolis and other events has become a long-lasting legend talked about by many fans and consumers.
If we look back at the rise of Japanese car brands in the 70s and 90s of the last century, we will understand that if any country's car brand wants to break through regional restrictions and become a global brand, performance cars and racing are the best business cards.
In the 70s of the last century, Japan's domestic economy began to take off. After entering the 80s, Japan was no longer satisfied with the monopoly of the domestic market, and began to export a large number of overseas products with the help of the window of opportunity of the "oil crisis". However, at that time, Japanese brands were the representative of "cheap" in the hearts of overseas consumers.
In order to break through the shackles of "cheapness", Japanese car companies began to vigorously develop performance cars and participate in various competitions around the world - in order to prove to the world that "Japanese cars can also produce high-performance cars".
In the 70s and 90s, when Japanese cars began to break the dominance of European aristocratic sports cars and American muscle cars, global performance cars ushered in the "Dongei era".
At that time, Nissan had GTR: the original GTR was unbeaten in 50 consecutive races in the GT1 at Le Mans in 1962 and 1972;
Mitsubishi and Subaru have EVO and WRX: they were born together in the rally frenzy of the 90s, and they have won many years of WRC results;
The Mazda RX is known worldwide for its unique rotary engine. The 1971 RX-3 successfully stopped the Nissan Skyline's fifty-game winning streak at the Grand Prix in Japan and won more than 100 races in total;
Toyota has the Supra and Honda has the Type R......
It is precisely by relying on the long-term investment in technology and excellent racing results from generation to generation that Japanese car brands have begun to break the monopoly of performance cars in Europe and the United States, so that Japanese cars have begun to become world-famous from home, and have the strength to start their own luxury brands - Toyota has Lexus, Honda has Acura, Nissan has Infiniti.
Nowadays, the global automobile has begun to turn to the new energy track, China has become the global innovation center and R&D center of new energy vehicles, and it is also necessary to create a performance, high-end and globalization road belonging to China's own brands through technology, performance and racing results.
As a global leader in new energy vehicles, BYD has launched the first million-level luxury brand in China - Yangwang by relying on strong technical reserves. ButIf we want to realize the great dream of "a respectable brand", we also need to show the world that "the technology and performance highland of new energy vehicles" is in the hands of Chinese brands through the performance and competition performance on the new energy track.
If you look at it from this perspective, BYD's "construction of an all-terrain professional racing track" is also an inevitable choice.
BYD's "Racing Track" program is not only for R&D testing and vehicle testing, but also for all brands that need to be tested. At the same time, it will also be open to the public, hoping that more and more ordinary people can fall in love with cars and driving, and also hope to cultivate China's car culture.
BYD's first comprehensive test site for intelligent new energy vehicles is located in Nanning, which is planned to cover an area of more than 6,000 acres, with a total investment of 2 billion yuan, and is expected to be put into use in June 2024. It is planned to build 18 categories of test roads and various test laboratories for vehicles and parts, such as intelligent network test roads, F2 level control test tracks, high-speed ring roads, durable roads, and off-road roads. After completion, the total length of the test road is more than 90km, the design balance speed of the high-speed ring road is 220km h, and the maximum speed can reach 300km h; After the completion of the test base, taking into account the relevant test standards and regulations of various countries, regions and organizations, vehicles and roads, can meet the national standard, European standard, American standard and other domestic and foreign standard tests, the venue can not only meet the vast majority of the needs of passenger cars and commercial vehicles road testing, but also open to the outside world to hold appropriate events.
Local official financial ** center.
According to BYD's plan (investment of 5 billion yuan), there is not only one "test + racing track" like Nanning, but it is likely to be invested and built in combination with the specific conditions of BYD's nine major vehicle production bases.
A nationwide "new energy vehicle culture" system that combines new energy testing, off-road testing and public experience is about to be promoted, which can drive more and more ordinary people to understand, like and fall in love with cars.
Closing the loop of automobile consumption
In 2023, there are two very important news about BYD for the future, which have been ignored by many people. The first is BYD Jingcheng second-hand car; The second is BYD's acquisition of an insurance company – two events that can change the future.
First, BYD Jingcheng second-hand cars are low-key online.
This will break the consumer perception that new energy vehicles do not maintain their value, and completely pull down the last fig leaf of fuel vehicles - the deification of value retention.
Screenshot of Jingcheng second-hand car **app.
In November 2023, BYD Jingcheng Certified Used Cars** was launched in a low-key manner, and launched the "National Preferred BYD New Energy Certified Car Source", which currently covers 30+ cities across the country and has 54 stores.
It can be said that this is BYD's attempt at new energy second-hand cars, and once successful, it will completely subvert consumers' conventional perception of "low value retention rate of new energy second-hand cars".
Compared to traditional fuel vehicles,The second-hand cars of new energy vehicles are more susceptible to the impact of factors such as battery attenuation, model iteration or intelligent hardware replacement, which ultimately leads to a rapid decline in the value retention rate of most models. On the one hand, the official second-hand car business operated by car companies can evaluate the value of new energy second-hand cars from a professional point of view, give a reasonable **, and increase the volume of second-hand cars of the brand; On the other hand, the residual value of used cars remains stable, and the feedback to the end market of new cars will also drive a certain amount of consumer enthusiasm, thereby improving the brand image.
BYD Sincere Certification of Used Cars", using cloud and third-party data real-time monitoring, professional equipment accurate diagnosis; Original spare parts, standardized maintenance, sincere sheet metal spraying, original factory repair process; While enjoying the original warranty, it also enjoys the original extended warranty, and the second owner enjoys the rights and interests of the three electric lifetime warranty, 10 days or 500 kilometers without reason to return and exchange.
Regardless of other official certification terms, just one thing is that "the second owner enjoys the lifetime warranty of the three electric vehicles", which solves the biggest uncertainty of the evaluation (** and purchase (consumption) of the power battery of new energy used cars. Such a guarantee clause cannot be enjoyed in third-party second-hand cars, and can only be obtained in officially certified second-hand cars.
Imagine the future distribution outlets, both new energy car sales, as well as new energy officially certified second-hand car sales, forming BYD's unique new energy vehicle consumption closed loop, minimizing the biggest concerns of consumers about using new energy vehicles and reselling new energy vehicles, and at the same time increasing the sales of stores and increasing after-sales output value, and can retain consumers who recognize BYD for a long time as much as possible, which can be described as a multi-win for the brand.
As the penetration rate of new energy increases to the level of 35%, new energy needs to increasingly grab market share from fuel vehicles, especially the need to put.
The "conservative consumers" in the third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities have been transformed into new energy users – durable, solid and with a high value retention rate are the most important characteristics of this type of conservative consumers. Fuel vehicles are more valuable than new energy, which is the simple cognition of consumers in low-tier cities in the past two years, and only after the value retention rate of new energy surpasses that of fuel vehicles, "conservative consumers" are more willing to take the initiative to buy new energy.
Once the "myth of fuel vehicle value preservation" is broken and the cognition of "new energy also retains value" is established, we can expect a new energy penetration rate of 70% or even more than 80%.
Second, BYD wholly owns an insurance company.
In March 2022, BYD Insurance Brokers*** was approved by the Shenzhen Municipal Administration for Market Regulation to be established.
On May 9, 2023, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission announced that BYD would wholly acquire 100% of the shares of Yi'an Property Insurance for 3.6 billion yuan. Yi'an Property Insurance is one of the four professional Internet insurance companies approved for establishment in China, and BYD has become the first Chinese-owned insurance company in the insurance industry to be wholly owned by private shareholders.
*: CIRC website.
When it comes to insurance, many people will say: the overall development of car companies investing in insurance companies is not smooth. For example, after Geely became the owner, Hezhong Property Insurance has frequent management changes and unsatisfactory performance, with a loss of nearly 100 million yuan in 2022; Zhongcheng Insurance, in which GAC Group has a stake, only achieved profitability eight years after its establishment, but lost nearly 200 million yuan in auto insurance last year; Xpeng, Ideal, NIO and Tesla have all carried out insurance business, and their performance has not been satisfactory. Why can BYD succeed in insurance?
Because, insurance is the last piece of the puzzle in BYD's ecosystem.
BYD is not only an automobile company, Wang Chuanfu has been committed to building an ecological enterprise with electric vehicles as the core.
From the "Fodi Five" represented by Fodi Battery, to BYD Electronics, which is OEM for Huawei and Apple, to BYD Semiconductor, which has successfully surpassed Infineon to become the largest installed capacity of power semiconductor devices in China, BYD's whole industry chain ecosystem layout has taken shape.
Finance and insurance are the last pieces of the puzzle of BYD's automobile industry chain, and they are also the two pieces of the puzzle with the strongest profitability.
Among them, auto insurance is another high-margin derivative income after auto consumer finance. According to data released by the Insurance Association of China, in 2023, the premium income of auto insurance will reach 867.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 563%, of which PICC property insurance, Ping An property insurance, and CPIC property insurance "old three" car insurance premiums all exceeded 100 billion yuan. For the insurance industry, the general profit margin of auto insurance is 15-20%, and the average profit margin in the past two years can reach 185%。If you look at BYD's annual sales of 3 million, in the future, BYD's Yi'an property insurance will not have much pressure to get a premium of 100 billion yuan.
However, for traditional insurance companies, due to the particularity of new energy vehicles, profits are generally low. For BYD, once it fully enters the auto insurance market, it will be able to effectively reduce the premium of its own car insurance with the help of its information advantage, and at the same time use the new car sales channel to further enhance its competitiveness. It is expected to break the embarrassing situation of "low cost of use but expensive premium" of new energy vehicles, further enhance its brand competitiveness, build a moat of the BYD brand, and also build a closed-loop system of new energy vehicle consumption - new and used car sales + consumer finance and insurance two-wheel drive.
More importantly, BYD can use the "insurance + intelligent driving" mode to maximize the early arrival of "high-end intelligent driving" and even "unmanned driving".
Of course, this brings us to the next part - the closed loop of data assets.
Closing the loop on data assets
Driving data will be the biggest asset of car companies in the future - I believe that many friends who are engaged in the Internet will be very clear about the logic behind this and the value of data assets.
At present, for the automotive industry, the general understanding of the application of driving behavior data is focused on the field of intelligent driving.
Tesla's official speech.
To put it simply, it is the "shadow mode" proposed by Tesla, in which the user's on-board data sensors will record the driving behavior during the driving process, and upload the driving behavior and road perception data to the cloud, and select valuable data for labeling, analysis and simulation to form a scene library of intelligent driving. Use these scenario libraries and cases to further improve the capability boundaries of intelligent driving, and continue to solve the remaining 1% of "corner cases".
This is an application of data assets. BYD also showed a demo of "car communication" on the dream day - communicating with each other through the car and machine, whether it is a meeting trip or extreme rescue behavior, such a data link greatly expands the possible car use scenarios. In the future, not only "communication between vehicles" and "communication between vehicles and roads" - these real-time data will not only provide rich scene life, but also greatly improve the applicability of intelligent driving and improve driving safety.
In 2022, BYD proposed the "Driving Behavior Scoring System" for the first time on the car machine, which records every driving behavior of the driver and scores it from the dimensions of safety, civilization, energy conservation and environmental protection. Among them, the safety dimension mainly records five aspects, such as sharp acceleration, sudden braking, sharp turning, seat belt failure and fatigue driving, which is essentially a score of the driver's safety behavior and safety factor.
Internet user uploads.
This scoring system, if it can be combined with the insurance data of the vehicle, can launch a set of "customized new energy vehicle personalized insurance", for the driving style of conservative, continuous no traffic accidents of vehicles and owners, in the purchase of insurance to give a lower discount or even derived by monthly, daily customized insurance services.
Internet user uploads.
Such personalized insurance services not only encourage civilized and safe driving behavior, but also save consumers daily use costs, and provide effective help for safe driving in the society as a whole.
In the future, data, especially the massive data related to battery operation and driving behavior related to new energy vehicles, can not only be used to improve product quality and reduce consumer costs, but also to generate intelligent driving assistance systems that meet their own driving styles if combined with AI large models in the future, which not only makes intelligent driving vehicles safer and easier to use, but also becomes more and more understanding of each consumer's personality.
Conclusion
As the world's largest new energy brand and China's largest car brand, BYD's dream is far more than just selling cars.
BYD hopes to create a new energy vehicle culture that belongs to China through the combination of test sites and racing sites.
BYD hopes to create a full-chain automobile consumption culture through the innovation of automobile consumption, so that more people can afford and drive new energy vehicles;
BYD hopes to create an intelligent driving mode with Chinese characteristics through the innovation of driving data, so that everyone can use the intelligent driving mode.
This is the sea of BYD stars.