Our reporter Jia Li
Building a car is not easy.
A few days ago, at the 14th China Automotive Blue Book Forum, Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei and CEO of Smart Car Solutions BU, said that Huawei has invested a lot in cars, spending more than one billion dollars a year, but this business is currently the only business in Huawei. Losing business.
At the same time, he said that Huawei has made great efforts to attract automotive talents, with more than 7,000 people directly involved in related work and more than 10,000 people indirectly invested.
"This field is a very money-burning game and a loss-making business."
However, Huawei still did not stop building cars, but instead accelerated the laying of channels.
On July 8, Huawei's AITO regional manager told the "Securities Daily" reporter that at present, offline channels are being vigorously laid out, and due to the impact of the epidemic, the expansion of some second- and third-tier regions has been delayed, but coverage in mainstream cities is Huawei's goal.
"In Beijing alone, there are currently more than 20 authorized experience stores that can sell cars, and the number of user centers that undertake after-sales services will expand from 4 to 7 by the end of the year."
Increase offline laying efforts
Coverage planned in major cities
Huawei, which claims to "do not build cars", has been doing a lot recently.
Recently, Huawei announced that AITO, a smart car brand, has officially launched its second product, the AITO M7, a luxury and smart large electric SUV.
According to the latest data from Huawei, within 72 hours of booking, AITO has ordered more than 60,000 M7 units.
At the end of last month, Huawei also announced further cooperation with Changan Automobile to jointly build its jointly launched car brand Avita.
The reporter noticed that the Wenjie M7 show car has now entered the Beijing Heshenghui store, a Huawei authorized experience store, and placed it in a conspicuous position.
However, a person in charge of a Huawei store revealed that there are still few national prototypes of the Wenjie M7, and they are all on tour across the country, and some store tours will last until around August 10.
"Book now, and it will not be delivered until mid-to-late August."
It is understood that the AITO brand is a high-end car brand jointly launched by Huawei and Celis, and will be released in December 2021.
The first model, the Wenjie M5, was officially delivered in March this year, positioned as a medium-sized SUV, priced at 249,800 yuan to 319,800 yuan.
The M5 is equipped with a HarmonyOS smart cockpit, and is set up in Huawei stores as the "first Hongmeng car".
"The pre-sale of new cars is higher than expected, which is mainly due to the increase in popularity and market recognition, but the channel needs to be further opened." Huawei Auto Store staff said.
The above-mentioned Huawei person said that this year Huawei will increase the development of offline stores.
The offline channel model will still focus on entering Huawei terminal stores and exist in the form of "Huawei Authorized Experience Stores".
Huawei will appropriately transform some stores to increase the proportion of car display and sales.
The reporter further investigated and learned that at present, Huawei's sales and after-sales are separated.
Among them, display, sales and test drives are mainly carried out in some of Huawei's main authorized experience stores, while after-sales business is undertaken by AITO user centers in various places.
"Although the current role of Huawei stores for cars is more of a display function, cars are offline consumer goods. If Huawei wants to expand car sales, it is bound to work hard on offline channels." Zhou Haibin, founder of Auto Culture and an industry observer, told reporters express.
There is still a long way to go to build a car
A number of listed companies have entered the ecosystem
"Huawei's role in the automotive industry chain is that of suppliers and distributors. This has never changed. Huawei will not directly enter the vehicle field at present." Huawei insiders told reporters.
Even though the outside world has speculated about Huawei's "car-making", he still believes that Huawei is currently more of a "helper" role.
However, this model is not an asset-light route.
Yu Chengdong said that cars are definitely "a business that burns money and is difficult to do".
To this end, he suggested that pure fuel vehicles be phased out as soon as possible.
"The extended-range car is very suitable as the first car in the family, and the use of gasoline to generate electricity is more fuel-efficient than the fuel car, which can really improve energy efficiency."
In May of this year, Yu Chengdong predicted that the era of pure fuel vehicles would end quickly. "Buying a fuel vehicle today is like buying a functional machine in the era of smartphones."
Building a car is not easy.
Lin Shi, deputy secretary-general of the Intelligent Networking Professional Committee of China Communications Industry Association, said in an interview with a reporter from Securities Daily that the automotive industry is a technology-, capital- and labor-intensive industry. It takes 4 years, and you need to choose a good technical route and keep up with market demand, otherwise it will be easy to be eliminated.
"The competition in car building is very cruel, and players are not allowed to have too many opportunities to make mistakes."
At the same time, he raised concerns. Huawei claims to push two cars a year, and it will take 4 years of experience from traditional car companies to develop a car, and to launch a new car at such a fast speed, how to ensure the quality and safety of the car, and whether to simplify The process needs to be paid attention to. Enterprises should also pay attention to quality while improving efficiency.
However, Yu Chengdong is still quite confident in product sales.
He declared: "Wenjie M7 will surpass Alpha, all luxury cars, high-end cars, and MPVs. I hope that the monthly sales of AITO brand will reach 30,000 units, and it will exceed 20,000 units sooner. 40,000, 50,000.”
At present, the number of companies entering Huawei's automotive industry chain is gradually increasing.
In addition to Xiaokang Co., Ltd., which directly cooperates with Huawei, a number of listed companies have also recently disclosed their supply to AITO brand Wenjie vehicles.
Chuanhuan Technology stated on the investor interaction platform that the company has participated in the research and development of the piping system supporting the entire series of Seris models, and the Wenjie M5 has been launched for sale, and the company is actively organizing production according to the piping system orders issued by Seris; According to Yunhai Metal, the company provides dashboard brackets for the Wenjie M5.
(Securities Daily)