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Author | Editor Liming | Ai Xiaojia
Source: Shentu
The QBE M7 has sold well since it was first sold in advance. The outside world is concerned about Huawei, which sells cars, rather than the well-off people who make cars. Huawei stole all the limelight.
This is the third model of Huawei's cooperation with Celis, a subsidiary of Xiaokang, and the second model of AITO Interworld. Strictly speaking, the M7 is not Huawei's own car, because its brand name, manufacturing, and sales revenue belong to Xiaokang Sailis. However, it is believed that this is Huawei's car. It is released by Huawei and sold in Huawei stores. The head of Huawei's car business sells it himself.
Actor Hu Jun and Olympic boxing champion Zou Shiming have all booked the Quest M7. It can be seen by the discerning people that they are aiming at Huawei, not a well-off society.
The outside world is worried that Xiaokang will become Huawei's OEM factory, but Xiaokang does not admit that it has its own ideas. Xiaokang wants to use the power of Huawei to realize the transformation of new energy vehicle business, and make the sparrow become the phoenix. Its new factory for M7 production in Shapingba, Chongqing is called "Phoenix".
But cooperation with Huawei is both beautiful and dangerous.
From the first car, the Selis SF5, to the third car, the M7, Huawei has become more and more involved and has more and more say.
A Celis channel manager told Shentu that the previous rule was that Huawei was in charge of sales and marketing, and Celis was in charge of delivery and service. But recently, Huawei slowly began to infiltrate the delivery. "The chief and deputy leaders of some stores are all from Huawei, and they have great ambitions."
No other company has ever participated in car building like Huawei. Huawei has always denied making cars, but it is infinitely close to making cars, making its boundaries blurred. The so-called "asking the boundary" is more or less like "asking the boundary".
However, this does not prevent well-off people from making money. Shortly after the release of Interworld M7, Xiaokang Shares changed its name to "Celis" and announced that it had completed a fixed increase of 7.1 billion yuan, which is the largest auto financing project of A-share since this year.
Above the water, the two sides cooperated to build cars and prospered, but below the water, the undercurrent surged, and both sides made their own calculations.
The first car and the third entrepreneurship
Before cooperating with Xiaokang, Huawei had entered the automotive industry. In 2019, the official announcement was made at the Shanghai Auto Show, where Huawei was positioned as a parts supplier.
Its partners are not only well-off. BAIC, Chang'an and GAC, three traditional car companies with deep backgrounds, have cooperated with Huawei earlier than the well-off.
But in the end, the most in-depth cooperation with Huawei, the earliest landing, and the most dynamic is the well-off society with the weakest sense of existence.
Xiaokang is a traditional car company in Chongqing, and it can't rank very well in China's car making Jianghu. The original company was called Yu'an Group, which made motorcycles and had nothing to do with cars. Later, it cooperated with Dongfeng Automobile to build the brand "Dongfeng Xiaokang", cut into the automobile industry, and became famous by low-cost vans. The company also changed its name to "Xiaokang".
The cooperation with Huawei can be seen as the third venture of a well-off society. Xiaokang wants to follow the path of cooperation with Dongfeng once again - to establish a new company, Celis, to create a new energy vehicle brand AITO, and to rename the company "Celis".
For well-off people, Huawei's role is the white knight on the road of transformation, just like that of Dongfeng in those days.
Previously, the brand image of Xiaokang has been relatively low-end. Since 2016, it has started to build new energy vehicles, which cost a lot of money and achieved little. This time, it chose to give its soul to Huawei and tried to gamble on the direction of new energy vehicles.
Huawei has always claimed to be a supplier rather than a car maker, but Yu Chengdong, who is actually in charge of Huawei's auto business, has ambitions beyond suppliers.
The Jihu Alpha S HI model, in which Huawei is deeply involved as a supplier, has many strong gimmicks, but has repeatedly delayed delivery; Avita, built in cooperation with Chang'an and Ningde Times, has a very high starting point, but whether the market will buy it or not is still unknown. Only well-off, let Huawei take the lead in "getting on the bus", and three cars at a time.
From mobile phones to cars, Huawei is broadening its borders on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also looking and asking for directions while walking.
If Huawei is the person who asks for directions on the road to making cars, Xiaokang is the stone Huawei throws.
The Celes SF5 is the first car sold by Huawei. This car was released at the Shanghai Auto Show last April, produced by Xiaokang, and equipped with Huawei's smart cockpit solution HiCar, electric drive system and audio unit, and sold in Huawei's mobile phone experience store.
Celis SF5 This first "investment" is not a success, more than 8000 vehicles were delivered in 2021. One reason is that Huawei is not deeply involved in this car.
In fact, the Selis SF5 was released as early as 2019, which is the first model of Xiaokang Selis, and its sales volume is very poor. After the cooperation between Huawei and Xiaokang was reached in 2021, Huawei sent a team to improve this car. However, due to time constraints, there was no essential change in the product strength of this car.
Huawei made a bad start, so it threw a second stone. This time, it was the new brand AITO and the first model M5, or the cooperation with Xiaokang.
Compared with the Celes SF5, Huawei needs to be more involved on the Interworld M5. Huawei has led the design, R&D and marketing of the Interworld M5, and installed all the available Huawei components, including Huawei Hongmeng System. Therefore, this car is called the first Hongmeng car.
The new car is also released by Huawei. Yu Chengdong spent more than an hour at the end of the press conference to promote this car. This is the first time in the auto industry that a mobile phone manufacturer has released cars produced by other auto companies.
This second "investment" was a success. Under the strong cry of Huawei, Interworld M5 has delivered 10000 yuan in three months, which has aroused some splashes in the car making world.
There is a saying in the industry that "three generations of Huawei produce high-quality products". By the time the third model of the M7 is introduced, it has the potential to become a blockbuster.
Quest M7 was unveiled at Huawei's new product launch in July. Before that, Huawei had already carried out a lot of warm-up for it, which had lifted the appetite of the market. Yu Chengdong is more enthusiastic about promoting this car than his mobile phone.
According to the official data, Interworld M7 received 60000 orders in three days of pre-sale. This achievement is very impressive in the automotive industry, which shows that Huawei has figured out the way to sell cars.
However, the question also arises. Who does the car built under this cooperation model belong to? How to define your identity when you still have a weak sense of well-being?
Each needs his own: Huawei needs fame, well-off society needs benefits
Huawei firmly controls the dominance of this cooperation. Many people have drawn an equal sign between Quest and Huawei directly, so that some Quest M5 owners cut out the "Celis" logo at the rear of the car and replaced it with Huawei logo. Is Huawei building a car? It's like a layer of window paper.
Huawei needs cars Even if "the automobile business is the only loss making business of Huawei, which has invested more than one billion dollars a year", it must be done.
After being sanctioned by the United States two years ago, Huawei was unable to obtain 5G chips from outside, and was forced to sell its glory. The mobile phone business that had contributed a lot of revenue to Huawei fell precipitously. Only cars can fill the gap of mobile phones.
However, it is not convenient for Huawei to build cars directly. Some analysts believe that Europe is an important market for Huawei's traditional business. Huawei does not want to turn European car giants into enemies because of its car manufacturing, leaving a handle on both suppliers and competitors.
The tone at the top came from Ren Zhengfei, who hoped that Huawei would become the first level supplier of global smart cars and "help auto companies build good cars". The "no advice on car building" order issued by him still has more than a year's validity.
Source/Vision China Yu Chengdong, the "war hawk", was more anxious than others. He made a wild exploration on the boundary of Huawei's car manufacturing. He did not disobey Ren Zhengfei, but also skillfully penetrated into the product process of car manufacturing. The final product was Huawei's two new cars, creating a magical cooperation model with Xiaokang.
"Generally, traditional Tier 1 suppliers are less likely to publicize to the outside world, and consumers prefer to know about car companies rather than suppliers of parts. According to Huawei's official information on its plans to be a smart car supplier, its positioning should be to be a Tier 1 supplier of parts for car companies. Its boundaries are relatively clear, and it will not enter the field of complete vehicles. However, from the current cooperation with some vehicle manufacturers, there are also some cooperation with fuzzy boundaries. Especially this year's AITO brand. " According to experts consulted by Third Bridge Gao Lin, the role of Huawei Tier 1 supplier seems to be blurred.
Huawei has taken a step forward from Tier1 to Tier0.5. It has crossed the border slightly, and even become a bit dominant. In this process, Xiaokang became the stone, which not only made Huawei throw stones to ask the way, but also let Huawei touch the stones to cross the river.
Let's look at the other side of cooperation - Xiaokang.
Many people believe that Xiaokang is gradually becoming Huawei's OEM factory and losing its dominance. But in the narrative of well-off society, it is on an equal footing with Huawei and will not do OEM, even though its main responsibility is production.
"Neither before nor now, nor is it a foundry." Zhang Xinghai, who has stepped down as the chairman of the Group and retired from the background, said firmly at an investor exchange meeting in January this year.
In Zhang Xinghai's view, Xiaokang entered the auto industry 18 years ago through cooperation with Dongfeng Group, achieving its first successful cross-border business without being a OEM. Today, if it cooperates with Huawei for the second cross-border business, it will not be a OEM.
This is consistent with Huawei's external statement: "The car is still Xiaokang Sailis, and Huawei's role is as an assistant."
Whether it is the main attack or the auxiliary attack, this is not a problem until the cake is bigger, because there is no cake to divide. Both sides should do their best to meet their needs and push forward the car building.
According to Xiaokang, the cooperation model between Huawei and Xiaokang is that Huawei is deeply involved in product definition, quality control and channel sales, and Xiaokang is responsible for R&D, manufacturing, delivery, service and creating a full life cycle user experience.
In short, Huawei decides what car to build and how to build it, and is responsible for selling the car. Xiaokang is responsible for production delivery and after-sales service.
Liu He, the channel manager of Celis, confirmed this statement to Shentu. "Huawei is responsible for sales and marketing, and Celis is responsible for delivery and service, so the experience center is Huawei's and the user center is Celis's responsibility," he said. Since the beginning of this year, the national stores of Celis have been successively transformed into the AITO brand user center, in order to make preparations for the full promotion of the sales and service of Interworld brand vehicles.
Regardless of the dominant power of the project, the benefits of Xiaokang are obvious.
An insider close to well-off told Shentu that the brand of cars is well-off, and the sales revenue is also well-off. Huawei stores will draw corresponding commissions for every car sold. Therefore, even though Huawei is deeply involved in product definition, it is still the supplier model when sharing.
For Huawei, the long-term strategic significance is greater than the short-term financial return. Huawei takes this opportunity to penetrate the intelligent connected vehicle market, go deep into the automobile manufacturing process, and complete the layout of terminal sales, which is more convenient than directly building cars.
In addition, as long as the Interworld series models continue to sell well, Huawei has established a benchmark case in the industry, which lays the foundation for Huawei to spread a larger network.
Wuwen Xidong: Will the delicate relationship be broken?
Since the cooperation for more than a year, Huawei has not made equity investment in Xiaokang so far, despite rumors from time to time. This gives the stability of this cooperation a layer of uncertainty.
"There is no joint venture between Huawei and Xiaokang, and they said they can withdraw immediately." Liu He told Shentu.
At present, both Xiaokang and Huawei remain open to the outside world. "It is not up to us to decide who Huawei will cooperate with," said Xiaokang.
There are three modes for Huawei to participate in car building:
First, as a supplier of parts , providing auto manufacturers with components such as Internet of Vehicles modules, such as Huawei's motors, battery management systems, etc. This mode has the lowest participation of Huawei;
The second is HI (Huawei Inside) mode The car enterprises use Huawei's full set of intelligent car solutions, and the rear of the car is marked with "HI". Typical cases include Jihu and Avita;
Third, "Huawei Smart Selection" mode , led by Huawei, provides a full stack solution, and Huawei terminal BG defines products, carries out industrial design, grasps user experience, and realizes product sales. This mode has the deepest participation of Huawei.
Among the three modes, the first two ToB (for enterprises) and the third ToC (for consumers), Yu Chengdong, who has been responsible for Huawei's consumer business and is famous for his "big mouth", prefers the third mode. Xiaokang is the only partner with projects under this mode.
Huawei has the right and freedom to choose more partners, just as it can decide whose car to drive into its 5000 stores nationwide. It is reported that apart from Celes, Chery, JAC and Jihu have reached an intention to cooperate with Huawei in smart car selection.
Previously, only Selis SF5 and Quest M5 were sold in Huawei offline stores. With the delivery of Jihu Alpha S HI, Avita 11 opened its reservation, and more models are queuing up to enter Huawei stores. Xiaokang will soon no longer be the only one.
Huawei's background and power make many car enterprises love and fear cooperation. Liu He said to Shentu, "Huawei has people in almost every department of Celes, and the HR department is no exception."
Conflicts and frictions in cooperation are inevitable. Liu He was puzzled by the complex relationship between Celis and Huawei, and was also difficult to understand Huawei's culture. "Well off people want to learn from Huawei's wolf culture, but Huawei's so-called wolf culture shows a strong desire to control. They want to catch everything, which is really unbearable."
Xiaokang knows his own situation very well. How to maximize the interests and draw a clear line of security in this delicate cooperative relationship is a big test for the well-off society.
Xiaokang doesn't want to be a foundry. It hopes to turn Huawei's power into its own, and seek more say for future development.
Anonymous users said that Xiaokang asked Huawei to write a basic law for Xiaokang, learn super struggle every day, do a value evaluation system, and open online classes like universities. There are various activities every month. These practices are intended to learn from Huawei's organizational competitiveness.
This is also reflected in the organizational structure.
At the end of last year, Xu Lin, CTO of Xiaokang Shares, added a new title - President of Celis (on duty), which was the first time that Celis appeared as a rotating president. Huawei began to implement the rotating CEO system in 2011 and the rotating chairman system in 2018.
According to a recruitment information obtained by Shentu, Xiaokang was still recruiting a rotating president in March this year, working in Chongqing. At that time, the general manager of the Science and Technology Center, the general managers of all product lines of Interworld M5, and the head of Huawei's Background Strategic Planning Department were also recruited. The position of the head of the Strategic Planning Department is directly related to Huawei. He is required to be familiar with Huawei BLM and have led the strategy formulation of BU or BG.
Xiaokang has its own ideas. It tries to use Huawei's strength to complete organizational change and strategic transformation.
Some people regard Huawei's cooperation with Xiaokang as a special choice in a special period. During each other's difficult period, the two sides hit it off and created an unprecedented cooperation mode, leaving a big stone on the already restless lake in the automotive industry.
This breathtaking leap may enable Huawei to cross the river and go ashore. But after crossing the river, the time to cut the cake has not come yet.
*The picture is from @ SERES Celis 。 At the request of the interviewee, Liu He changed his name.
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
