Strategic layout of automobile enterprises: three characteristics attract attention

The 2018 Beijing Auto Show has ended. As the most important auto show in the first half of this year, Beijing Auto Show took on the role of the opening layout. While the multi-pound models were on stage at the auto show, important strategic plans for car makers were also intensively released, releasing a signal of where to go next.

Judging from the Beijing Auto Show this year, the strategic plans of the major car companies mainly focus on three aspects: new energy vehicles, mobile travel, and cross-border cooperation.

When the wave of new energy vehicles swept through, the major car companies have all launched new energy vehicles and stepped up their deployment. Geely Automobile's high-end brands, such as Leading and Beijing Automotive Magic Speed, all released clear strategies for new energy vehicles during the Beijing Auto Show, involving phased goals and product planning. Under the strategy, the establishment of related brands and technology platforms is also an important measure for the development of new energy fields by car companies. Guangzhou Automobile New Energy released a new brand slogan, and the concept brand regained public view with an electric concept car.

At the same time, driven by the sharing economy, modes such as shared travel and time-shared leasing have emerged. Whether it is a self-built platform or cooperation with a shared platform, more and more domestic and foreign car companies are beginning to deploy in this area. At the Beijing Auto Show this year, Guangzhou Automobile Group and Didi Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement, while the public released the vision of “Zhongxing Zhixing”.

With more and more integration and collision between industries, the cross-border cooperation between auto companies and other industries is also increasing, and the technical and sales fields are the hot spots for cross-border cooperation. Ford Motor Co., Ltd. said that it is cooperating with a number of technology companies in China. Research areas include human-vehicle interaction technology, intelligent network-linked technology, and self-driving automotive technology. Hanteng has reached strategic cooperation with JD.com, which will sink in marketing channels and resources. Optimize the configuration, improve the service experience, and carry out strategic cooperation.

Feature 1: Planning new energy vehicles

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, new energy vehicles are undoubtedly one of the protagonists. The strategic plans, brand slogans, and technology platforms launched around the development of new energy vehicles are also numerous. Faced with the unstoppable trend of new energy development in the automotive industry, the pace of major car companies did not dare to relax.

Strategic Planning Navigation Development

Geely's high-end brand, Lead, introduced the first new energy model, the Leading PHEV, at this auto show and released its new energy plan. According to the plan, PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and HEV (oil-electric hybrid power) are the key fulcrums for the development of new energy technologies at the current stage of the company, and on this basis, several hybrid models have been introduced. According to the plan, in the second half of this year, the company will launch the lead-gear 01 PHEV, the lead-gear 02 PHEV and the lead-gear 03 PHEV model, and will launch the HEV model in 2019.

Beiqi Magic Speed ​​proposes to develop a new energy-intelligence strategy under the dual-V strategy, and comprehensively increase the competitive advantage in the passenger car market and new energy market. According to reports, Beiqi Magic Speed ​​will implement intelligentization (telematic intelligence system), lightweight (intelligent charging technology and charging protection) and sharing (upgraded mobile travel services) in new energy. Current product plans include hybrid (PHEV) models and pure electric (EV) models covering A00-B class new energy passenger cars and logistics vehicles.

According to Changan Automobile, the "Beidou Tianshu" plan will be released in the second half of this year, and this year's investment in the field of intelligence will reach 1.6 billion yuan. In the next 10 years, a total of 20 billion yuan will be invested and an intelligent R&D team with more than 2,000 people will be formed to complete its "Shangri-La" new energy strategy. This will result in the complete suspension of the sale of traditional fuel vehicles in 2025 to achieve electrification of the full spectrum of products.

Brand and technology advance together

Under the strategic plan for new energy vehicles, major car companies have also launched new brand new energy sources and related technology platforms to deepen the development of new energy vehicles.

GAC New Energy released the “Smarter Accompanying” new brand slogan, branding videos and new brand IP image and user app. Gu Huinan, director and general manager of GAC New Energy, explained that its brand slogans are smart, emotional, and trustworthy. It is reported that Guangqi Zhilian New Energy Automobile Industrial Park, which GAC and its partners invested 45 billion yuan, will be completed by the end of this year and will start production in 2019. In the first half of next year, GAC New Energy will invest in a pure electric car. In the second half year, it plans to launch a five-seat pure electric SUV.

Guangzhou Automobile Honda Motor Co., Ltd. released a brand new image of the concept brand at the auto show, showing a younger, stylish and personalized brand image. The concept brand EV Concept also made its debut. It announced that Guangqi Honda had started the "electricalization" year.

Great Wall Motors launched its own independent pure electric vehicle brand, Euler, at the Beijing Auto Show, and stated that Euler insisted on not changing oil, and also developed a platform for the special architecture of electric vehicles.

BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu announced at the Beijing auto show that it will launch the latest technology platform "e platform." And summarize its features with a set of numbers "33111". Among them, two "3" refers to driving 3 in 1 plus high pressure 3 in 1 . The 3-in-1 drive is a highly integrated motor, electronic control, and transmission of the drive system; the 3-in-1 high voltage is 3-in-1 of the DC-DC, charger, and distribution box of the high-voltage system. The first “1” is a PCB board that integrates control modules such as instruments, air conditioners, stereos, smart keys, etc., and the second “1” is a smart automation equipped with “DiLink Smart Ecosystem”. Rotate the big screen; the last "1" is a long-lived, stable battery.

Feature 2: Layout moves out

The sharing economy is driving people's lifestyles to change dramatically, as is the mobile travel field. At this year's Beijing Auto Show, there are a number of car companies that have disclosed plans for mobile travel.

On April 24, Guangzhou Automobile Group and Didi Travel Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. According to the agreement, the two parties will give full play to their respective advantages and conduct in-depth business cooperation in the areas of new energy vehicle operations, big data applications, travel services, and customized vehicles. It is reported that GAC Group and Didi will use the design concepts and technologies of the two parties to accumulate and collaborate to customize and develop smart electric vehicles that are tailor-made for the future and that are tailor-made from scratch.

Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said that GAC should become a "mobile life value creator, mobile travel service provider." In this cooperation, the two sides will expand to include customization of mobile shared travel vehicles, joint design, joint development of GAC Manufacturing, big data application management, and service customer and aftermarket service provision. “Especially with the advent of driverless cars, travel costs will be reduced by 50%-60% and the number of mobile users will grow exponentially. Therefore, GAC is fully prepared to participate in mobile travel through strategic cooperation,” said Feng Xingya. .

In fact, as early as 2016, Toyota announced that it would invest in Uber, a US taxi service company, and cooperate in the field of car sharing services. Dong Changzheng, executive deputy general manager of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., also believes that the business model in this area is indeed worthy of serious discussion. In the future, Toyota will also cooperate with Didi to deploy mobile travel.

In fact, for many car companies, there are similar ideas, smart Internet, smart mobile travel and auto-driving and other aspects will become an important area of ​​the future car layout mobile travel.

Established Volkswagen China Smart Travel Service Co., Ltd. and its brand name, ezia; jointly developed online vehicle and time-share leasing business with Shouqi Group; and jointly explored mobile travel projects and smart cities, autonomous driving and robot taxi projects with Didi Group. And entered the first phase of cooperation. In addition to Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile, the public is also expanding in the field of travel.

At the Beijing Auto Show, Volkswagen brought a mobile travel vision of “Enjoying Wisdom”. To this end, Volkswagen announced that by 2022, it will join hands with joint venture partners to jointly invest approximately 15 billion euros in electric vehicles, autonomous driving, digitalization, and new mobile travel services. According to Heinzmann, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), the Volkswagen Group is committed to providing excellent mobile travel services to its customers. “Providing a people-centered mobile travel solution is a core goal of the public, and it is also our commitment to work together with our partners to create smart, sustainable personal mobility for the Chinese consumer.”

Feature 3: Strive for cross-border cooperation

With the development of the times, traditional car companies have changed from a single, independent R&D model and offline sales model to multi-disciplinary and cross-border cooperation, including cooperation with Internet companies in the development of intelligent network-linked systems and autonomous driving technologies, as well as with Tmall, Jingdong and other online malls cooperate in online sales.

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, Ford Motor announced that it is working with a number of technology companies in China, including Apple, Alibaba and Baidu. The research areas include human-vehicle interaction technology, intelligent networking technology, and self-driving automotive technology. It is understood that the “Super Test Drive” project of Ford and Tmall has innovatively used facial recognition, mobile payment, and big data technologies, and completed more than 1,000 test drives in less than a month. Later this year, the owners of the Ford Mavericks will have the opportunity to take the lead in using the 10.4-inch central control panel powered by Alibaba's operating system software. By then, the owner will be able to use Alipay to easily pay for parking fees, go hungry for takeaways, or use group driving to conduct group chats, share positioning and destinations.

In the same way, Dongfeng Passenger Car Company released “Baidu DuerOS Powered AI Vehicle System—Dongfeng Fengshen WindLink3.0”. This is Dongfeng Automobile's cooperation with Baidu and Botai in the three major areas of automotive, Internet, and artificial intelligence. Advanced results of cooperative development. Dongfeng Fengshen WindLink3.0 possesses four features: extremely high hardware configuration, minimalist UI experience, extremely fast AI voice, and extreme application ecology. It is the first domestic application that can realize full-featured application without downloading the APP, and the first self-learning, the first speed beyond Smartphone experience, the first complex language to understand people, the first full-scene ecology and the continuous growth, the first ever-on-the-fly (OTA) artificial intelligence vehicle system. It is reported that in the next upcoming Dongfeng Fengshen products, Dongfeng Fengshen WindLink 3.0 will be 100% of the entire department standard, and will cover all product lines in the next three years.

The trend of cooperation between car companies and online malls is also spreading. During the Beijing Auto Show, HTT Automotive and Jingdong Automobile Mall reached a strategic cooperation and announced that they will cooperate in sinking marketing channels, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing service experience to jointly create a one-stop low-market automotive value chain consumption platform. According to Han Teng Automobile, the move aims to increase the user's satisfaction with sales and service by reducing the non-monetary costs of users, and quickly increase the market share of Hanteng.

In addition, Jianghuai Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Tianmu Technology Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore and develop a comprehensive digital sales and marketing model. The two parties will establish online stores to carry out brand and product distribution, sales management and customer experience management. Cooperation in the field. It is understood that Jianghuai VW's new electric car products will soon be on the Tmall platform.