On the morning of February 16, the signing ceremony and groundbreaking ceremony of Midea Group's new strategic new energy vehicle parts base was held in Anqing.
It is reported that the total investment of Midea's new strategic new energy vehicle parts base project is about 11 billion yuan, making it the largest investment project in the history of the group.
Looking back on 2021, many home appliance digital companies have announced to enter or overweight the car "track".
The cross-border layout of these manufacturing giants, in the opinion of relevant industry insiders, on the one hand reflects the development anxiety of the industry giants and the urgent need for transformation after the traditional industry has entered the stage of stock competition; on the other hand, it shows that These companies are actively creating their own new portals for future traffic.
Text, pictures, tables / All media reporter Xu Xiaofang of Guangzhou Daily
Self-study?
cooperate?
Enterprises "cross-border car building" show their magic skills
In recent years, the new energy vehicle track has continued to be hot, and cross-border car manufacturing is no longer a new thing.
Among them, digital companies will take the lead in "starting" in 2021: In March 2021, Xiaomi officially announced its entry into the field of smart electric vehicles, officially kicking off the "cross-border" car manufacturing of various industry giants; on April 19 of the same year, the competition The Lexus Huawei Smart SF5 model was officially released at the Shanghai Auto Show, announcing the launch of Huawei's first cooperative model.
In May 2021, OPPO applied for the registration of the "OCAR" trademark. The market believes that it is related to OPPO's new energy vehicle business in terms of trademark composition.
According to incomplete statistics, OPPO has applied for more than 60 patents related to automobiles.
Home appliance companies are also not to be outdone.
In March 2021, Hisense became the controlling shareholder of Japan's Sanden Holdings.
Hisense, which has completed the acquisition, also officially announced its plan to enter the field of automotive electronics; in May 2021, Midea Group Parts Company Welling Auto Parts held a product launch conference in Hefei, announcing the motor drive system, thermal management system, auxiliary / The three major production lines, including the autonomous driving system, have entered into production.
On August 31, 2021, Gree Electric announced that the company won a 30.47% stake in Yinlong New Energy Co., Ltd. by participating in judicial auction public bidding. After the completion of this transaction, Yinlong New Energy will become the holding subsidiary of the listed company. The company, Gree is one step closer to realizing the "dream of car building".
Although Midea, Gree, Xiaomi, Huawei and other brands have stepped up their layout and released relevant development strategies, their layout methods are different.
Judging from the current situation, various car-making schemes are mainly divided into two categories.
The first category is represented by Xiaomi, which directly builds its own vehicle factory.
The second category is represented by Huawei, which insists on "not building cars", but chooses to cooperate with car companies.
Behind the transformation: the main business of digital home appliance enterprises is under pressure
Why do manufacturing companies "snatch up" the "cake" of new energy vehicles?
Industry insiders generally believe that this is inseparable from the fierce market competition in the manufacturing industry.
According to data from Aowei Cloud Network (AVC), from January to November 2021, the cumulative retail sales of my country's home appliance market will be 702.2 billion yuan.
But compared with the same period in 2019, it was still down 7.4%.
With the traditional home appliance industry entering the stage of stock competition.
Among them, Gree Electric's operating income in 2020 fell by 14.97% year-on-year; its net profit attributable to the parent in 2020 fell by 10.21% year-on-year.
Likewise, the competition among major digital manufacturers has intensified in recent years.
According to data released by research firm Canalys, in the fourth quarter of 2021, China's smartphone shipments increased by 3% year-on-year, while in the whole of 2021, it was 333 million units, a slight increase of only 1% compared with the same period in 2020, compared with the same period in 2019. shrink by more than 10%.
The vast market of new energy vehicles has made many manufacturers see a breakthrough in development.
According to the data disclosed by the Passenger Federation, the sales of new energy passenger vehicles in 2021 will be 2.989 million, a year-on-year increase of 169.1%.
The Passenger Federation predicts that in 2022, the sales of new energy passenger vehicles will reach 5.5 million, and the penetration rate will further increase to 25%.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers also believes that in 2022, the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 5 million, a year-on-year increase of 47%.
In the opinion of Major General Ding, a Sankei observer, on the one hand, the "new four modernizations" of automobiles are a big outlet, which is beneficial to the follow-up income; It also makes sense to pull valuations or share prices.
Therefore, it is of great significance for manufacturing enterprises to "build cars across borders".
He also emphasized, "From the analysis of necessity, on the one hand, under the background of the in-depth digitalization of survival, companies are expanding their boundaries and striving for the initiative of follow-up competition. As long as there is a possibility to get involved, the travel field will not be given up; on the other hand, related The big data and AI fields are also the outlet, and by allowing more vehicle terminals to be used in the travel field, it is also expected to improve the data scale and AI capabilities.”
"Cross-border" is risky, and competition should not be underestimated
Regarding the feasibility of manufacturing vehicles for manufacturing enterprises, Major General Ding believes that automobile manufacturing itself is constantly standardized, and "universal" solution providers have gradually emerged from terminals to systems and services, which makes the difficulty of building a vehicle somewhat lower than before. , which is similar to how many brands have invested in mobile phones and TVs a few years ago.
In addition, some analysts pointed out that the current automobile market is not only limited to the traditional mechanical part, but also pays more attention to software and technology, while home appliance companies have rich applications in the field of electronic products and software.
But the transformation of digital home appliance companies is by no means an easy task.
"From the perspective of industry characteristics, the field of vehicle manufacturing is a very complex system engineering, from the front-end system integration, including parts integration to assembly, to finished product testing, to subsequent warehousing logistics, after-sales service, etc., it is very complex. It is a huge systematic project." In the view of Luo Lei, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, from the perspective of industry competition, new "cross-border" enterprises "have blocked in front and pursued soldiers behind".
"Blocking comes from traditional car manufacturers. They have strong financial strength and a huge supply chain system. If they master the core of new energy vehicles and change the traditional thinking of car manufacturing, their competitiveness should not be underestimated."
Luo Lei also emphasized that the chasing troops come from new car-making forces, and it is not easy for new entrants to catch up with new energy vehicle companies such as Tesla, Weilai, and Xiaopeng.