China Business Daily (reporter Zhao Yiru) When Apple's car manufacturing was full of twists and turns, "fruit chain" companies could not hold back and joined the car track one after another.
Recently, Apple's supply chain giant Luxshare has invested tens of billions of dollars to team up with Chery to build a car.
From OEM mobile phones to OEM cars, is Luxshare Precision Automobile OEM a good way to go?
Luxshare Precision will manufacture automobiles
On the evening of February 11, Luxshare Precision announced that its controlling shareholder, Luxshare Co., Ltd., purchased a 19.88% stake in Chery Holdings, a 7.87% stake in Chery and a 6.24% stake in Chery New Energy held by Qingdao Wudaokou for 10.054 billion yuan.
Luxshare Precision stated in its investor relations activity record form on February 13 that the company does not build complete vehicles, but instead cooperates with Chery to develop an ODM (original design manufacturer) model for complete vehicles.
Wang Laichun, chairman and general manager of Luxshare Precision, said that the opportunities brought by Smart EV not only include complete vehicles, but also Tier 1 (tier 1 suppliers) with stronger vitality.
Under the new pattern, the market needs ODM to build cars.
"Suppliers such as Bosch and ZF use the traditional supply chain model. Compared with the turnkey model in which Tier 1 is solely responsible for the traditional automotive supply chain, the current relationship between auto brands and suppliers is more like a partnership. Partnership." A staff member of a new energy vehicle manufacturer told a reporter from China Business Daily.
Regarding the cooperation model and development strategy with Chery, the management of Luxshare Precision said: "The company has always aimed to become the industry's leading Tier 1 manufacturer in the automotive field, and is also looking for ways to exercise its Tier 1 core component capabilities. This strategic cooperation will rapidly develop the Tier 1 business of the listed company on the basis of building an ODM model of cooperative car manufacturing, realize dynamic entry into the market, and rapidly enhance the company’s comprehensive capabilities of core components as a Tier 1 manufacturer.”
Why did Luxshare choose Chery to carry out the strategic cooperation of vehicle ODM?
According to the analysis of China Merchants Securities Research Report, Chery's management and Luxshare have the same concept and consensus on the development trend of the automobile industry, and Chery has a complete technology and product R&D system in the field of complete vehicles, especially in the process of vehicle manufacturing. An independent platform that can provide Chery and other brands with comprehensive services from vehicle development to mass production. In addition to the advantages of technology and experience, Chery has mature production capacity and is one of the few domestic companies that are suitable for the ODM vehicle manufacturing business model. As a partner, the cost of cooperation between the company and Chery is relatively low, but it has higher and faster potential benefits.
A new choice for "fruit chain" enterprise transformation
At a time when Apple's car manufacturing has been twists and turns, the transformation of "fruit chain" enterprises is more straightforward.
Recently, it was reported that Foxconn's first electric vehicle Model T will be officially delivered in early March, and the first customer delivered is Kaohsiung Passenger Transport Company in Taiwan Province.
In addition to launching models, in October 2020, Foxconn has launched the "MIH EV software and hardware open platform".
The goal of the MIH platform is to reshape the traditional automotive supply chain by setting industry standards and developing a "kit" that combines hardware and software.
"The MIH platform launched by Foxconn is like the Android system of mobile phones. Foxconn provides an open platform for various car companies. After the car companies buy the platform, they can design and re-develop them according to their own needs. This platform It may include chassis architecture, electronic and electrical architecture, automatic driving support systems, etc. This can relieve the pressure of re-development of new platforms for OEMs." The staff of the above-mentioned new energy vehicle manufacturers told reporters.
In addition to Luxshare Precision and Foxconn, other companies in the "fruit chain" are also deploying in the automotive market.
At present, the layout of Changying Precision for the new energy vehicle industry includes power battery cover, Busbar (busbar), precision automotive electronics, charging equipment related, heavy-duty connectors, and so on.
In last year's semi-annual report, Lens Technology positioned its development goal in the field of new energy vehicles as "providing one-stop automotive electronic services and solutions for new energy vehicle customers".
"The shipments of the mobile phone market are declining year by year, and manufacturers such as Luxshare Precision need to find new business growth points under this circumstance." Zhang Xiang, a senior auto industry analyst, told a reporter from China Business Daily.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, global smartphone shipments reached 1.39 billion units last year, with an annual growth rate of 4%.
This is the first growth in the global smartphone market since 2017.
In 2017, shipments were 1.57 billion units, and the growth rates for the next three years were -3.8%, -1.7%, and -10%, respectively.
Relatively speaking, the new energy vehicle market is developing rapidly.
According to data from the Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference, the retail sales of new energy vehicles from January to December last year was 2.989 million, a year-on-year increase of 169.1%.
In January this year, the new energy vehicle market continued to make a good start, with retail sales reaching 347,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 132%.
It is expected that the sales of new energy passenger vehicles will reach about 5.5 million this year, continuing to achieve a high growth of about 70%.
"The impact of the epidemic, the lack of cores in the supply chain, and the increase in raw material prices have generally damaged the performance of 'fruit chain' companies. Finding new profit points is both a top priority and a plan for the future. And technology is the key to high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, adapting to the industry The general trend of development is to transform from a labor-intensive industry to a more technologically valuable 'smart manufacturing' company." Huang Zidan, a researcher at China Research Institute, told the China Business Daily reporter.
Car OEM is still difficult
The management of Luxshare Precision said that, as an ODM, it should choose more high-quality customers to serve and cooperate.
At present, due to the commercial constraints of each other, it is inconvenient to detail the customer situation and implementation speed here, but the ODM business currently has relatively clear implementation projects, which will be put into production in about 12-18 months.
A reporter from China Business Daily asked Luxshare Precision OEM about whether it will cooperate with Apple and whether it will launch its own car brand, but no reply has been received as of press time.
So, what is the prospect of auto foundry?
"Automobile OEM still has prospects, because a large part of the profit source of these traditional car companies is still the vehicle manufacturing business. If the market demand is far greater than the production capacity of the car factory itself, a large amount of orders will overflow to the automobile OEM. ." The staff of the above-mentioned new energy vehicle manufacturers told reporters.
Zhang Xiang said that it is difficult to develop the OEM model in the field of passenger cars. Passenger cars pursue personalization, and the production line of the OEM model determines that the structure and chassis of the car will be similar, and the higher homogeneity makes it possible. A large-scale entry into the passenger car segment is unlikely in five years.
However, the OEM model is more suitable for the field of logistics vehicles and commercial vehicles. These models do not have high requirements for personalization, and the number of the same style is relatively small, so it has the possibility of OEM.