In 2021, Internet giants collectively seized the trend of new energy vehicles, and Baidu , Xiaomi , Huawei , 
60... familiar names appear in the news related to "car manufacturing". Almost overnight, new car manufacturing waves emerged, and new forces such as "Wei Xiaoli" became the former wave.
In this bustling wave of Internet car manufacturing, the models are diverse and can be regarded as diverse: some place their hopes on OEM factories and only do "Official Brands"; some are waving their money and want to use their "money capabilities" to buy a set of electric vehicles' industrial chain; some are in-depth cooperation with traditional car companies and enter the market with their advantages in artificial intelligence , big data and other fields...
However, it should be noted that since new energy electric vehicles have become a sure trend in the entire industry, the rapid development of OEM models has promoted the corresponding reduction of the threshold for car manufacturing, and intelligence with intelligent driving and smart cockpits as the main body has become the competition point for the new car manufacturing competition in the Internet. In this context, there are already traces of who will become cannon fodder and who will stand out from it.
This time, we will take two of the most representative new Internet cars - Jidu Auto and Xiaomi Auto, and use intelligence as the test standard to see who has a greater chance of winning.
Foxconn can also build cars, why aren't it optimistic?
On October 18th this year is the 71st birthday of Hon Hai Group founder , Guo Taiming . On this day, he personally drove the Model E electric sedan at Hon Hai Technology Day. The front face of this car clearly read "FOXTRON". At first glance, it looks familiar. Isn't this the English name of Foxconn (Foxconn) transformed?
On the same day, Foxconn released three electric cars: Model C electric SUV, Model E electric sedan and Model T electric bus. Note that all three cars are "reference prototype cars", not concept cars, nor mass-produced cars. The explanation given by Foxconn is "provided to brand customers as manufacturing reference, and customers can make adjustments according to their own requirements in the future."
In other words, Foxconn, which is famous all over the world for OEM iPhone, has opened up a new car manufacturing model: car companies only need to put forward their needs, and design and manufacturing can be handed over to Foxconn, and finally put their own brand on it. The early OEM model used by NIO and Xiaopeng will be carried forward by Foxconn. The birth of the model of
means that after years of tortuous growth, the new energy vehicle industry chain has become mature. Just like when Luo Yonghao entered the mobile phone circle and launched the "Hammer", the threshold for electric vehicles has been lowered to the point where "one can build cars". This is probably the deep-seated reason why technology companies have entered new energy vehicles one after another.
But is it really that simple to build a new car?
may not be. Under the development trend of intelligence, hardware is no longer the core of car manufacturing. Electric vehicles require large-scale investment in software talents and long-term accumulation in the field of intelligent technology. With the help of Foxconn, it is indeed possible to build a car by stacking hardware in a year or longer, but such a car that only has a body but lacks a soul obviously cannot meet the needs of users. After all, there is no open source for kind people like Google in the automotive industry, and there is no place to get rid of Android.
In short, the entry threshold for new Internet cars is low, but the cost of establishing technical advantages is very high. It is still not easy to build an excellent smart electric car that satisfies users. It requires time accumulation and software polishing.
Today, cars have evolved from pure hardware to "hardware + software" intelligent body. Car companies that choose Foxconn OEM model may not be able to establish an advantage in intelligent competition. Especially the competitive points of intelligent electric vehicles in the next two years will enter the smart cockpit with high-level autonomous driving and rich application scenarios. There are only a handful of new car manufacturers qualified to meet this condition.
, or the one who can save Foxconn, may be the old boss , Apple .But the fallen flowers are intentional, and the flowing water is ruthless, and Apple seems to be still searching...
new car manufacturing is competing for victory or defeat in "intelligent"
The "new four modernizations" of automobiles, namely electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing, have always been regarded as the future of the automobile industry. From the perspective of current development, with the help of the national carbon emission reduction strategy, electrification has become the political correctness of the automobile industry and the general trend is irreversible.
For car companies, "national electrification" is an opportunity and a challenge: the market prospects are extremely broad, and it is the best time to grab land; there are suddenly more competitors, and the track seems to be increasingly crowded.
Relatively speaking, the implementation of the concept of networking and sharing is still in the early layout stage, and the stimulation effect on the market in the short term is not obvious. Only intelligence is the most feasible and gradually evolves into the main driving logic for the automotive industry. From traditional manufacturers to new car-making forces to the younger generation, everyone is making great strides towards intelligence.
On the one hand, intelligence is based on user needs and continuously expanding the application scenarios of automobile driving. The evolution and improvement of intelligent driving functions liberates people's hands and feet to a certain extent, such as automatic parking, which makes drivers much easier; fatigue prompts make drivers cheer up, and collision warning in emergencies and automatic brake stopping functions further ensure driving safety; intelligent voice operation not only avoids drivers being distracted when operating manually, effectively improves driving safety, but also enriches entertainment and leisure during driving... As autonomous driving enters a higher level, the scenes of the smart cockpit are also richer, which will create a more comfortable driving experience for users.
On the other hand, judging from the performance of Foxconn's past cooperation with Apple, its OEM capabilities are outstanding. It can even be said that "Foxconns" will bring all electric car players to the same level. Since the hardware is almost the same, you can only work hard on the software and steadily promote intelligence, which is equivalent to digging deep into a moat called intelligence, which is enough to ensure that you cut a piece of the big cake of an electric car.
There is no doubt that intelligence is the core of future car manufacturing. Only by providing excellent intelligent driving and cockpit experience can we win the favor of consumers and gain a foothold in the new wave of car manufacturing.
Under the general trend of intelligence, the urgent needs of users and the cruel market competition have forced the automotive industry to move from "selling hardware" to "hardware + software". The new gameplay of Tesla development makes the industry realize that software can also generate profits. Therefore, the entire automobile industry has ambitions and is striving towards the direction of software-defined automobiles.
"Xiaomi" that is highly anticipated by high expectations also needs to prove that
In the context of the era when software-defined cars have become the general trend, traditional car companies are relatively backward due to conservative concepts and slow decision-making speed. New Internet car manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Jidu are now carrying the banner of intelligence.
Among many new Internet cars, Xiaomi is highly expected. On October 19, Lei Jun said on Xiaomi Investor Day that the progress of Xiaomi's car manufacturing and team's work far exceeded his expectations. He once again emphasized that Xiaomi Auto will be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
According to Lei Jun, Xiaomi Automobile has registered in Beijing on September 1, and its first factory will be settled in Yizhuang, Beijing. It has received 20,000 resumes and 453 R&D teams have been on duty.
Xiaomi, which crossed smart cars from smart terminals, chose the path of success for mobile phones that year: widely invest or acquire excellent industrial chain companies, build an ecological chain, and quickly narrow the gap with traditional car companies and new car manufacturers. According to incomplete statistics, since Lei Jun announced that ALL IN car manufacturing, he has invested more than 40 projects this year, with a total investment of 16.8 billion yuan. He spent money to build a smart car industry chain integrating lithium battery ecosystem, advanced driving assistance system (ADAS), key sensor suppliers, and transportation big data.
Indeed, although Lei Jun has been busy building a supply system, building a car construction team from scratch, in addition to the shortage of software talent resources due to the late start, the integration of the automotive parts supply chain will also be a huge challenge. Whether it can replicate its successful experience in smartphones and smart home terminals remains to be verified. Although the difficulty of new energy vehicles is much less than that of fuel vehicles, its complexity is much greater than that of consumer goods such as mobile phones.
As the previous wave of electrification receded, many new energy vehicle companies were left on the beach, and some even remained in the "PPT car manufacturing" stage before bankruptcy. Building a team from scratch and integrating the supply chain are all the many problems that Rebs needs to solve, and it must be run-in for a long time. Compared with the fallen predecessors, Xiaomi, which is highly anticipated, has not yet released its PPT, and the dream of building a car is still unknown.
The progress of the advanced concentration, why is the winning chance greater?
Compared with Xiaomi, the concentration can be said to be fierce and has obvious advantages. Jidu, established in March 2021, completed the design design plan on the 128th day and entered the engineering development stage; completed the sludge model wind tunnel experiment of the first model on the 180th day; on September 24, 207 days after Jidu was established, Jidu CEO O Xia Yiping announced that the software team cooperated with the Baidu Apollo team to develop smart cockpits and intelligent driving functions based on SIMUCar (simulated prototype car). It can be said that since Jidu was established, he has been actually building cars, and he has great ambitions.
According to the progress table of the cluster, the first high-level autonomous "auto robot" will be released in 2022 and will be mass-produced and launched in 2023. Compared with other new car manufacturing, the concentration can be said to be "time, place, and people". The progress of car manufacturing is far beyond that of peers. It may be the first to succeed in this round of intelligent car manufacturing.
The so-called time is the concentration on Baidu's shoulders and has a clear understanding of intelligence - the competition for smart electric vehicles is no longer just a competition in product form, but also a competition in underlying technologies, especially high-level autonomous driving, which will make the competition for intelligence in the future more intense.
When a new Internet car brand has a clear positioning, it will burst out with stronger combat power and the progress will be faster than imagined. What's more, relying on the full-link development support of Baidu's Apollo team, the concentration has reached the highest starting point, leading the entire position of its peers in the new car manufacturing track. The most obvious example is that intelligent pre-development based on SIMU Car begins on 207 days.
In September, with years of deepening AI and autonomous driving technology, Baidu Apollo launched the " Radish Fast Run " autonomous driving travel platform officially opened its autonomous driving manned service in Shanghai. As of the first half of this year, the "Radicara Quick Run" autonomous driving travel service has received more than 400,000 passengers and the test mileage exceeds 16 million kilometers.
So-called geographical advantage, Jidu has received strong support from Baidu and Geely . Whether it is the autonomous driving technology from Baidu Apollo team or Geely's SEA vast architecture, it means that Jidu is enough to build a mature solution, has a higher starting point, and has laid a solid foundation for its car manufacturing research and development.
It is worth mentioning that when the electric vehicle industry is troubled by supply chain problems such as "chip shortage", even "Wei Xiaoli", which started to explode today, suffered from chip shortage. Although Jidu's mass-produced cars are still on the road, they are already preparing for the future and building their own "software and hardware" supply chain system. On the one hand, relying on the supply chain system of the domestic independent brand Geely, it can lock in most of the hardware supply chain reserves in advance. On the other hand, based on a deep understanding of automotive intelligence, it is also actively establishing in-depth cooperation with international top Tier1 and autonomous driving sensor manufacturers.
Finally, there is Renhe. As we all know, the faster the team is, the more we can seize the opportunity in the new car-making war. In the fierce competition for new Internet cars, positions such as autonomous driving algorithms, intelligent cockpits, and software engineers have become the most scarce talent resources at present.See the concentration of software-defined automobile trends early and pay more attention to software talents. By the end of September, its team has expanded to 600 people, the software team has basically been built, and will further expand in the future, and it is expected to reach about 1,000 people by the end of September. Perfect team building and high-quality software and technical talents will empower the brand and allow Jidu to have leading product strength. There is no doubt that among the many Internet giants entering the market for electric vehicles, Jidu is very likely to realize his dream of building a car first.
written at the end
Compared with traditional car companies and new car manufacturers, the aggressive car-making future generations have very obvious advantages, that is, they have a clear understanding and full preparation for automobile intelligence. As the new energy vehicle industry chain matures and the rapid development of automobile intelligence, new Internet car manufacturing has ushered in a new era of rapid progress.
Of course, the future is beautiful, but the process may be cruel. Although the automotive industry will not have a competitive situation like the smartphone industry with " Matthew effect ", it is easy for those who are latecomers or speculators to be unable to mass produce or gain market recognition.
For Xiaomi, smart cars can never be "copyed" successfully by placing a largest smart terminal in Xiaomi Home ; for the sake of concentration, taking advantage of the technical advantages of the two major industry giants Baidu and Geely, and using the attitude of an innovator to define a new generation of smart cars, it also needs to be tested by consumers after mass production and launch.
However, from the current progress in car manufacturing and the pre-development of the research and development process of smart car research and development, the concentration has taken the lead in this new car manufacturing speed competition.
