Chinanews client, Beijing, September 12th (Reporter Zhang Xu) In 2013, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu made a bet of 1 billion yuan to compete in turnover in 2018. At that time, Gree won Xiaomi with 200 billion yuan in total revenue. Of 174.9 billion yuan.
But Dong Mingzhu didn't want Lei Jun's 1 billion yuan. The two parties agreed to bet on the next five years.
In 2021, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun speed up their actions in the field of new energy vehicles, which also added suspense to their bet: Who will the new energy vehicles belong to in the next five years?
Data map: In the smart factory of a new energy electric vehicle company in Shangrao, Jiangxi, robots are working at the same time.
Photo by Li Yunhan
Dong Mingzhu "started" with Yinlong
On August 31, Gree Electric issued an announcement stating that by participating in a judicial auction, it obtained a 30.47% stake in Zhuhai electric vehicle company Yinlong New Energy, with a transaction price of 1.828 billion yuan.
Dong Mingzhu also entrusted the voting rights of his 17.46% stake in Yinlong New Energy to Gree Electric.
Through this series of operations, Gree Electric turned Yinlong New Energy into its holding subsidiary.
The progress of Dong Mingzhu's car building suddenly accelerated.
Yinlong is the main supplier of new energy buses in China, and it is also in Zhuhai with Gree. The car manufacturing story of the two parties has lasted for five years.
In November 2016, Gree Electric’s shareholders meeting rejected Dong Mingzhu’s proposal to acquire Yinlong for RMB 13 billion, believing that the layout of the car was too high.
Dong Mingzhu said angrily at the annual meeting of Chinese business leaders that Gree’s shareholders "are short-sighted and only look at the front of them."
Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co., Ltd.
Photo by Chen Jimin
Unable to persuade the shareholders, Dong Mingzhu personally invested 1 billion yuan, followed by Wang Jianlin and Liu Qiangdong, and the three invested 3 billion yuan to invest in Yinlong.
At the end of 2017, Gree staff gradually entered Yinlong. However, before the honeymoon period of both parties was over, Yinlong's situation changed suddenly.
At the beginning of 2018, Yinlong New Energy was exposed to over 1 billion yuan in arrears with suppliers.
In May 2018, Yinlong New Energy’s listing guidance was terminated, and at the same time its Hebei Wu’an plant reduced production; In early June, Yinlong New Energy announced a 44% layoff of 8,000 employees; in July, Yinlong New Energy Nanjing Industrial Park There was a dispute with the owner and was sealed by the Jiangsu Higher People's Court.
Although Yinlong is the main supplier of new energy buses in China, Yinlong's performance is not outstanding in the passenger vehicles that Dong Mingzhu has been thinking about.
In mid-2019, Yinlong New Energy finally launched a new energy MPV called "Effie".
According to reports, "Effie" has a cruising range of 450 kilometers and supports 2-hour fast charging.
However, the industry questioned that "Effie" is 90% similar to the Alpha MPV launched by Toyota in 2009.
At the same time, because it is equipped with lithium titanate battery technology, the battery life may actually be only about 200 kilometers.
The indicators are flat, but the pricing is quite confident. The price of "Effie" is as high as 430,000 yuan, which is catching up with many luxury brands.
According to data from the Travel Federation, the model only sold 2,708 in 2019. In the top ten sales of new energy MPVs that year, the last Geely Jiaji sales reached 29,300. The gap is not big.
Now, on Yinlong New Energy's official website and official account, the information of "Effie" MPV has been deleted, as if it never existed.
The official website of Yinlong New Energy has no information about "Effie" MPV.
Official website screenshot
After controlling Yinlong, Gree can obtain the qualification for car-making. At the same time, Yinlong has a complete production line and supply chain resources, which is beneficial to Gree's car-making.
However, industry insiders pointed out that Yinlong's main business is new energy passenger cars. Although many technologies can be used in new energy passenger cars, the transition is not much less difficult than Xiaomi's.
In addition, Gree also had to assume Yinlong's debt.
As of July 31, 2021, Yinlong has total assets of 28.1 billion yuan and total liabilities of 22.7 billion yuan.
From January to July 2021, Yinlong achieved revenue of 1.06 billion yuan and net profit of -760 million yuan.
Lei Jun’s Xiaomi builds a car, buy, buy, buy
On August 31, Gree included Yinlong in his pocket. On September 1, Lei Jun said through his personal Weibo: Xiaomi Motors was officially registered, the company is named Xiaomi Motors Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan, and the chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Lei Jun served as the legal representative.
The front and rear feet announced the progress of the car, as if fighting in secret.
Lei Jun announced the official registration of Xiaomi cars.
In March of this year, Xiaomi Group announced its entry into car manufacturing, with plans to invest 10 billion US dollars, with an initial investment of 10 billion yuan.
Lei Jun said at the press conference: "This will be the last major entrepreneurial project in my life" and "willing to stake all the reputation of my life."
Immediately, Xiaomi Group, which is not bad for money, used the method of "buy, buy and buy" to expand its territory slightly.
At present, Xiaomi Group has invested in ZongMu Technology, a provider of automotive driving assistance solutions, Hesai Technology, a Lidar manufacturer, Geometry Partners, a 4D millimeter wave imaging radar supplier, Cobalt-free battery manufacturer Honeycomb Energy Technology, and a city-level smart parking system supplier Technology companies such as Wisdom Intercommunication.
It also spent US$77.37 million to acquire DeepMotion, an autonomous driving company.
Before the official announcement to build the car, Xiaomi also invested in companies such as the power battery supplier AVIC Lithium Battery, Zhixin Semiconductor, PATEO Internet of Vehicles, and Ruimi Technology.
According to incomplete statistics, Xiaomi has invested in more than 30 auto industry-related companies.
Xiaomi also offered high salaries. At the second quarter financial report analyst meeting, Xiaomi Group President Wang Xiang revealed that in the five months since the car was built, the Xiaomi car team has carefully selected more than 20,000 resumes and has built it. With a team of nearly 300 people, this number continues to grow.
On September 7, Hu Zhengnan, the former Dean of Geely Research Institute, posted on WeChat Moments that he had recently joined Shunwei Capital, a subsidiary of Xiaomi, focusing on the ecological field of smart car technology.
Data map: New energy vehicle production line.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Bin
How will Xiaomi cars land?
Zhang Xiang, an automobile analyst, believes that “the profit of car manufacturing is not as high as that of the Internet business. Even for BMW, the current profit rate is only about 10%. Therefore, Xiaomi needs to give full play to its advantages in design and marketing to reduce the profit rate of car manufacturing. Car companies are entrusted with low-level tasks. Because of the current overcapacity of car companies, with Xiaomi’s strength, it is easy to find partners."
Comparing the two, Xiaomi has made preparations for intelligence and autonomous driving; Gree has only one factory in hand, and there are not many technologies in terms of automobile intelligence.
There are still a few years before the gambling contract. Considering that both parties are rich and powerful, it is hard to tell who will win the 1 billion yuan.
Will it be Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu in the future?
It is worth noting that Dong Mingzhu has not disclosed Gree's car-making plan, while Lei Jun said that it will take three years for Xiaomi to make an electric car product at the earliest.
So if it goes well, the first Xiaomi car is expected to come out in 2024.
However, has the new energy vehicle market been waiting for so long?
From the perspective of the competitive situation, Tesla is still the unrivaled number one in the industry.
According to China's automobile sales data released by the China Passenger Association, Tesla's wholesale sales in August created the best record in history, reaching 44264 vehicles, an increase of 34% month-on-month and 275% year-on-year.
For comparison, in the first eight months of this year, Weilai Automobile delivered 55,767 vehicles, and Xiaopeng and Ideal Vehicle delivered 45,992 and 48,176 vehicles, respectively.
Data map: Tesla founder Musk is giving a speech.
Photo by Zhang Hengwei
In other words, Tesla's one-month sales are close to the eight-month sales of the new car-making powers, and the gap between the two parties is not big.
But even for the Big Three of the new forces, the delivery volume has already passed 10,000 vehicles, gradually moving from loss to profit.
In contrast, Xiaomi and Gree are still at the PPT stage.
However, industry insiders pointed out that the biggest opponent of new energy vehicles is fuel vehicles, so latecomers still have a certain chance.
Zhang Xiang said: “From the perspective of trends, new energy vehicles are like smartphones that will replace traditional cars. In terms of car ownership, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is only about 2%. What everyone is fighting for is this 98% market. In the history of smartphone development, Apple was not the first player, but eliminated HTC and Nokia. This market will be fierce, and latecomers have opportunities, but everything depends on the product."
In the face of the trillion-dollar auto market, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun made cars, betting not only on personal 1 billion, but also a future.
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