上海娱乐信息论坛

　　Our reporter Xiang Yantao

　　After 1003 days of announcing its entry into the electric vehicle industry, Xiaomi Automobile officially made its debut. On December 28th, Xiaomi Group held the Xiaomi Automobile Technology Conference in Beijing. The design, performance, battery life, safety and other details of Xiaomi SU7, the first work of Xiaomi Automobile, made its first public appearance.

　　"Xiaomi decided to invest ten times, start with the underlying core technology, seriously build a good car, and through 15 to 20 years of hard work, become the top five automobile manufacturers in the world and strive for the all-round rise of China’s automobile industry!" Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said at the scene that Xiaomi Automobile is a major leap for Xiaomi Group from the mobile phone industry to the automobile industry, and it is also a key leap for the complete closed loop of "the whole ecology of people, cars and homes".

　　Lei Jun said that from the beginning, Xiaomi Automobile insisted on starting from the underlying core technology, insisting on positive research and development, and deep self-research on key tracks. At present, Xiaomi Automobile has invested more than 10 billion yuan in the first phase of R&D, and the R&D team has more than 3,400 engineers, including thousands of top technical experts at home and abroad in key fields.

　　This conference officially revealed the progress and breakthrough of five core technologies of Xiaomi Automobile, including electric drive, battery, large die casting, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit and other key areas, which can be called a comprehensive display of Xiaomi’s 13-year technology accumulation.

　　Among them, in the field of industrial hard technology, Xiaomi has demonstrated the scientific and technological strength of self-developed manufacturing hard core, and has the leading intelligent manufacturing strength of complete automobile industry. For example, the super motor HyperEngine V8s independently developed and produced by Xiaomi has a rotational speed of 27200rpm, ranking first in the world in terms of mass production motor speed; Xiaomi has developed the integrated battery technology of CTB, and the world’s first battery inversion technology has achieved the highest battery integration efficiency of 77.8% in the world. In order to ensure the battery performance and quality from the source, Xiaomi even built its own battery pack factory.

　　In addition, Xiaomi has independently developed "9100t super large die-casting cluster" and self-developed die-casting alloy material "Titan alloy", becoming the only automobile manufacturer in China with self-developed large die-casting and die-casting materials. At present, the industry is winding up the tonnage of clamping force of large die casting. Xiaomi firmly takes the road of full-stack self-research, from self-research materials and equipment cluster systems to finished castings, and has completed the full-stack self-research of almost all links in the large die casting industry chain.

　　In the field of intelligent soft technology, Xiaomi has demonstrated the unique advantages of "technology giant, eco-car-making" and promoted the integration of automobile industry, consumer electronics industry and intelligent ecology. For example, based on Xiaomi 澎湃 OS, Xiaomi intelligent cockpit has realized the bottom reconstruction, evolved for the car, and created an advanced intelligent mobile space; In the field of intelligent driving, Xiaomi industry launched three key technologies, namely adaptive zoom BEV technology, large road model and super-resolution occupation network technology.

　　In addition, the comprehensive empowerment of AI has also become a new bright spot for Xiaomi Automobile to integrate cutting-edge technologies and achieve innovative breakthroughs. For example, in addition to the first road model in the industry, Xiaomi has also developed the world’s first mass-produced "end-to-end perception decision-making model" for the parking service scene of intelligent driving, which can observe and dynamically adjust the parking spaces in mechanical garages and other ultra-difficult parking spaces in real time.

　　Zhang Xiang, director of Vodafone Digital Automobile International Cooperation Research Center, told the Securities Daily that Xiaomi currently adopts the mode of self-purchasing equipment and self-building factories in core areas such as batteries and die casting, which is a common practice in the current industry. For example, Weilai makes its own motors, Tesla has a battery assembly plant, and BYD has mastered the most self-developed technologies for core components. Car companies build their own factories in these fields, on the one hand, because the production capacity of some core components is not very large, the supply chain is not very mature, and outsourcing faces supply chain security problems; On the other hand, the prices of these core components are relatively high and the profits are relatively high. If you choose to build your own factory, you can enjoy the industry dividend. If you outsource it completely, the technical content and profits of Xiaomi Automobile will be greatly reduced.

　　At the end of October this year, Xiaomi announced a comprehensive upgrade of the group’s strategy, from "mobile phone ×AIoT" to "people, cars and homes are all ecological", and cars have become the most important part of Xiaomi Group’s strategy. Lei Jun announced that with the addition of Xiaomi Automobile, Xiaomi’s "full ecology of people and cars" was officially closed.

　　Lei Jun introduced that "the whole ecology of people, cars and homes" is a super-intelligent ecology that comprehensively opens up people, cars and homes, realizes seamless connection and real-time collaboration of hardware equipment, and drives industrial chain partners to create a people-centered and active service. Xiaomi 澎湃 OS has opened up more than 200 categories including Xiaomi Automobile. In the past 13 years, Xiaomi has laid out 12 technical fields and 99 sub-tracks. Based on the principle of "deep integration of soft and hard, comprehensive empowerment of AI", Xiaomi has formed a "fusion technology stack" to continuously empower product development and manufacturing.

　　

In the past 2022, it was not very friendly to the entire automobile market. Under the impact of multiple unfavorable factors such as chip shortage, repeated epidemics, geopolitics and rising raw material prices, the autobots in it are miserable.

Because of this, those brands that strive for progress steadily in adversity and stick to integrity are more worthy of recognition.

Recently, Geely Automobile released the 2022 annual report data. As can be seen from the annual report, a number of major financial data of Geely Automobile hit a record high, which is really very important for the current anxious automobile industry.

A number of major financial data hit record highs. What did Geely do right?

Although the automobile market in China experienced many severe challenges in 2022, Geely Automobile still achieved many financial targets for the whole year, and ended up with bright data.

According to the financial report data, Geely Automobile achieved a total sales volume of 1,432,988 vehicles in 2022, up 8% year-on-year; Operating income was 148 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.6%, a record high; The net profit of returning to the mother increased by 8.5% year-on-year to RMB 5.26 billion; The financial situation remained strong, and the total cash level rose by 20.4% to RMB 33.7 billion, a record high.

In a word, sales volume, revenue and profit have all achieved good growth, among which revenue and net profit have reached a record high. Although the data is bright, the support behind the data actually highlights the value.

So, what did Geely do right? It is very necessary to explore Geely Automobile in the past year.

First of all, the high-end strategy is quite effective.

In 2022, Geely Automobile’s bicycle sales revenue was 103,000 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.6%, and the average bicycle gross profit was 17,500 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%.

The increase of bicycle gross profit is mainly attributed to Geely’s cutting off the low-end vision series, which has completely reduced the proportion of entry-level products in the whole system. At the same time, the high-value products represented by "China Star" continue to drive Geely to achieve the goal of brand promotion and value promotion.

In 2022, the high-end series of "China Star" achieved a total sales volume of 252,787 vehicles, accounting for nearly 23% of Geely (including geometry) brands, with a maximum monthly sales volume of 30,000 vehicles and an average bicycle price of 150,000 yuan, which is quite excellent not only for Geely, but also for the entire China brand and even the joint venture brand.

In addition, Krypton and Krypton also played an important role in it. In 2022, the sales volume of Lectra was 180,127 vehicles. Among them, the flagship product Lingke 09 has entered the price band of 300,000 yuan, and the product premium ability continues to improve; The annual delivery of Krypton reached the target of 70,000 vehicles set at the beginning of the year, with an average price of 336,000 yuan, which provided an important support for the average sales price of Geely Automobile, including the already listed Krypton 009. At present, the average order amount reached 527,000 yuan, and buying a car can offset the quality and efficiency of the past five cars.

Secondly, technology feeds back the revenue.

In 2022, it achieved a total revenue of 1.66 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.9%. Behind the data, it means that Geely, which used to buy and input technology in buy buy, has now begun to realize reverse output in technology.

Although in the annual report, the income from technology licensing is mainly attributed to Renault Korea, in fact, this is not Geely’s only source of technology export income.

For example, Geely Automobile exported a variety of products and engine technology to Proton Automobile to help it achieve sales growth. There is also Geely’s technical and management output to the smart brand, and the sharing of brands such as Geely SEA’s vast architecture and Jidu will further support Geely Automobile’s future profitability.

Finally, the product goes to sea.

In 2022, Geely’s export sales reached 198,242 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 72.4%, higher than the industry’s growth rate of 56.7%.

An Conghui, Chairman of Geely Automobile Group, Executive Director of Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. and CEO of Extreme Smart Technology, said that the overseas markets of Geely brand are mainly in some underdeveloped countries; Lectra has successfully entered the markets of developed countries in Europe, with an export volume of 28,000 vehicles last year. In the fourth quarter of this year, Krypton brand will also enter the markets of developed countries in Europe, and by 2024, Krypton brand will also enter the American market.

It is worth mentioning that in 2023, Geely Automobile’s overall overseas business is continuously expanding. According to the latest export sales data in February, Geely Automobile’s export sales in that month reached 17,500 units, an increase of over 16% from the previous month and an increase of about 78% from the same period last year.

Be steady and far-reaching, and replace "price war" with "value war"

In 2023, the prospect of the auto market is still very complicated.

First of all, the global economy is facing outstanding uncertainties in geopolitical and macroeconomic development, such as the Russian-Ukrainian war, the development of trade between China, the United States and Europe, and the next development of the COVID-19 epidemic, which may affect various supply chains and the price trends of raw materials and energy; Secondly, the continuous inflationary pressure faced by consumers and enterprises, the subsequent interest rate hikes by central banks, and the more obvious slowdown in economic growth; Finally, semiconductor supply problems continue to lead to supply constraints.

Affected by the above factors, from the beginning of this year, some car companies took the lead in opening a price war in the field of new energy and extended the "price war" to the fuel car market.

"We don’t just follow the simple price war, we have to fight the value war, the after-sales service war, the quality war, the technical war and the moral war of the enterprise. Geely will definitely maintain its strategic strength, and products will give customers an advantage and a sense of value. "

In the financial report meeting, Gan Jiayu, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, gave a clear response to the recent price war spreading in the industry.

Gui Shengyue, chief executive officer and executive director of Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. also said: "Car companies have made huge price cuts in order to survive, but the more the price drops, the less investment in R&D, and the experience for car consumers is bound to drop sharply."

From their words, it is not difficult to see Geely’s attitude towards the increasingly fierce price war in the industry-not participating in the price war, but focusing on brand war, value war, technology war, service war and moral war, shaping a higher brand image and continuously creating value for users.

Of course, Geely has a reason to do so.

The strong financial situation is of course a reason that cannot be ignored. In 2022, Geely’s total cash level rose by 20.4% to RMB 33.7 billion, a record high; Operating cash flow increased by 4% year-on-year to 16 billion yuan. Adequate cash flow can support Geely Automobile’s R&D innovation in high-value and high-end. More importantly, it is enough for Geely to maintain a stable and sustainable pace of transformation and let the enterprise enter a virtuous circle.

In addition, the competitive product cost is also the key factor for Geely Automobile not to fight the price war.

In this regard, Yan Jiayue said: "The competition between enterprises is product competition, and the competition between products is cost competition. Geely focuses on building high-value products through its own technical capabilities and cost control advantages."

In addition, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are backed by the developed private economy, have also brought dividends to the entire automobile industry chain. Gan Jiayue further said: "As an automobile factory in the east, 70% or 80% of Geely’s supply chain is in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and we can gain some product competitiveness through supply chain integration."

To put it bluntly, Geely has sufficient funds, plus the advantages in technology and product support. Therefore, Geely only fights "value wars" and does not fight "price wars".

Push 10 new cars to help achieve the sales target of 1.65 million vehicles.

For 2023, Geely Automobile predicts that it will continue to maintain a positive trend in fiscal year 2023.

Geely Group sets the annual sales target at 1.65 million vehicles, which is about 15% higher than the total sales in 2022. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles has doubled. According to this calculation, the sales volume of new energy vehicles of Geely Automobile will be close to 660,000 this year, accounting for nearly 40% of the sales volume.

In such a complex and subtle market environment in 2023, the goal of Geely can be said to be quite challenging. To this end, Geely plans to launch 10 new cars to help achieve the annual sales target.

The first is the Geely brand. At present, the plug-in hybrid A-class SUV Galaxy L7 has been unveiled and will be delivered in the second quarter. The plug-in hybrid car Yinhe L6 will also be delivered in the third quarter; E8, the prototype of Galaxy Light, will be delivered in the fourth quarter.

In addition, in 2023, Geely will launch a new compact SUV——G426 (internal code), the new Geely Emgrand L Raytheon Hi·P and a new SUV, with its internal code FX12, presumably the Coupe version of Bo Yue L(FX11).

Secondly, the brand of Lexus, in addition to changing the existing products, will launch two brand-new models this year, the medium-sized SUV Lexus 08 and the plug-in hybrid medium and large cars, which are expected to be named Lexus 07.

Once again, it is the brand of Extreme Krypton. This year, two brand-new models will be launched, the Extreme Krypton X and the pure electric compact car. At present, the Extreme Krypton X has been unveiled or will be delivered in the middle of this year; The pure electric compact car is expected to debut in the fourth quarter.

Finally, the Ruilan brand Ruilan 7. It is reported that Ruilan 7 is based on Geely GRBC crystal architecture, equipped with a variety of powertrains, which can realize a variety of driving forms such as front drive, rear drive and four-wheel drive, and can complete a variety of high-order intelligent driving such as AVBS automatic valet replacement. The car will be listed in July.

In terms of intelligence, Geely will also continue to increase its intelligent self-research capabilities and launch the Galaxy N OS system. At the same time, Geely Automobile will launch a higher-level intelligent driving scheme (10V5R1L) on the basis of 6V5R, so as to enhance the ability of independent perception and intelligent decision-making, and solve the long tail problem of NOA navigation assistance.

Summary: In the complicated and changeable year of 2022, Geely Automobile not only grew steadily against the trend, but also broke through the bottleneck of annual sales of 1.3 million vehicles in the past three years and jumped to a new level. In 2023, Geely Automobile will continue to be steady and steady, accelerate the transformation of new energy and intelligent fields, and boost the Geely brand to a new highland.

Adhere to your own strategic goals, adhere to self-confidence in building cars, win by customization, and win by scientific and technological self-confidence and long-term doctrine. It can be predicted that in 2023, Geely will continue to make great strides and make breakthroughs, and lead the China brand to achieve a new leap.