Operation | Song Song
When Xiaomi Group developed at a high speed, Lei Jun once claimed that "when time is tight, there are 1 1 meetings every day, and the average meal time every day is only 3 minutes." Nowadays, for Xiaomi Automobile, which is "fighting for the reputation of the whole life", Lei Jun's busyness will only go beyond it.
During the five months from the announcement to the official establishment, Lei Jun frequently visited BYD, FAW Group, Great Wall Motor, Changan Automobile, Dongfeng, Evergrande Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC-GM, Beijing Hyundai, Bosch and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., and occasionally "gossip" with many local governments such as Beijing, Jilin, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan and Hefei.
Almost half of the car circles are "feverish" for Xiaomi cars. With Xiaomi Auto settled in Yizhuang, Beijing, its business development will gradually enter the actual operation stage from the previous research.
Next, around the place where the factory landed, a new round of fierce competition began. Who will Xiaomi's car end up in?
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Acquisition of Baowo Automobile Factory?
Reebs's aura is no less than Huawei's. On September 13, faw liberation's opening share price once approached the daily limit, hitting a new high in the year. Behind the rally was the news that Lei Jun and his party went to China FAW Group for in-depth docking talks on cooperation.
However, after only one day of revelry, faw liberation fell to 1 1.63 yuan/share on September 4th, a decrease of about 4%. The outside world attributed it to "Lei Jun has a new love".
A news that "Xiaomi Automobile will acquire production capacity and production qualification through acquisition" began to ferment in the industry. At the same time, Baowo Automobile, as the "new love object" of Xiaomi, also surfaced.
"Even if it is delegated to the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology to apply for the production qualification of the new factory, it will take a long process and other supporting procedures." Zhong Shi, an auto industry analyst, told the story of the auto market. "The acquisition of other auto companies can mainly save time, and in one step, the price is to pay a certain economic price."
Xiaomi needs to grab time to build a car. Compared with new forces such as Tesla and Weilai, Xiaomi entered the automobile industry late and spent money on time, which is a cost-effective deal for Xiaomi Automobile, which holds hundreds of billions of funds.
If we look back at the rapid development of Xiaomi since its establishment, Lei Jun believes that the core reason is high efficiency. Beijing Miyun Baowo Automobile has dual production qualifications of new energy and traditional energy, with an annual production capacity of 360,000 vehicles. This is really attractive to Xiaomi.
According to related reports, Baowo automobile production has entered a stagnant stage. Even if the situation of epidemic prevention and control continues to improve, the industry has resumed production 100%, and Miyun factory is still in a state of suspension, which has lasted for one year. In 2020, the factory capacity utilization rate is only 4.83%.
Three months ago, it was revealed that Xiaomi and Baowo had in-depth negotiations. At that time, the negotiations came to an abrupt end because of the disparity in the valuation of Baowo Automobile. According to informed sources: "At that time, Lei Jun's bid was extremely low, far below the price that Lu Yao Zheng bought Baowo."
Lu is the chairman of Lu Jin Coffee, Automobile Company and Baowo Automobile Company. Although it acquired 67% equity of Baowo Automobile held by Beiqi Foton at the end of 20 18, Lu did not have much capital to negotiate with Lei Jun. ..
For the current Baowo Automobile, the most valuable assets are its smart factory and land assets located in Miyun, Beijing. At that time, Futian spent 4.724 billion yuan on the Baowo Beijing factory project, and its 4.0 smart factory even won the title of "Sino-German intelligent manufacturing cooperation pilot demonstration project" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, but these assets were not taken over by Lu.
According to the story of the auto market, in June, 20 19, Fukuda issued a notice saying, "As the land occupied by Baowo Automobile Factory was included in the planning of Huairou Science City, the Beijing Municipal Government, taking into account the needs of the future planning of Science City, asked Fukuda to promise that the land use right of Baowo Automobile would remain in Futian and return the land to the government when requested by Beijing."
This also means that the actual ownership behind Miyun Factory is not in Futian or UCAR, but in Beijing Municipal Government. At present, the Beijing Municipal Government only rents land and real estate from Baowo Automobile at the market price.
In order to attract investment from Xiaomi Automobile, it is not impossible for the Beijing Municipal Government to request to take back the factory. Since Xiaomi is headquartered in Beijing, it is more likely that the manufacturing plant will be located in Beijing.
"Relevant parties in Beijing are actively promoting Xiaomi to obtain production qualification through the acquisition of Baowo Automobile, which should have results soon." Some sources said.
At present, restructuring the manufacturing capacity of electric vehicles is also advocated by the state. "At present, there are too many electric vehicle companies on the market, which are scattered. To be bigger and stronger in the future, electric vehicle companies need to merge and reorganize and increase investment in advanced technology. " Xiao Yaqing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said a few days ago.
In theory, car companies with overcapacity want to "get involved" with Xiaomi. Baowo is not the only choice for Xiaomi, but from the recent information, it is speculated that although there are no fewer than dozens of car companies that Lei Jun "punched in" at the recent stage, some car companies explicitly denied rumors or official responses not to sell the factory.
Xiaomi's choice of Baowo Automobile Factory for OEM is even more clear. There are many car companies that can build cars, and there are not many car companies that can really talk to Xiaomi Auto. This can be known from the frustration of Apple's car project.
Apple CEO Cook, who is also non-stop, has been negotiating the OEM of Apple cars with Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen in recent days, but surprisingly, no car company is clearly willing to do OEM for Apple cars.
The reason is also very simple. Traditional car companies with certain strength don't want to "dilute" their brand value because they cooperate with Apple to become Apple's foundry.
"BYD, Great Wall, FAW Group and other powerful car companies have in-depth negotiations with Xiaomi Automobile, hoping to share their own platforms or go deep into other aspects to build cars together instead of becoming a foundry." Insiders told the story of the automobile market.
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The fierce "competition" of Xiaomi automobile factory
According to industry insiders, it is only a short-term strategy to acquire the qualification to build a car by acquiring a factory. In the future, it is not ruled out that Xiaomi will have more layouts and build its own factories and R&D centers in other cities. Coincidentally, on September 13, it was reported that Xiaomi Automobile would adopt the "double factory" mode.
"The self-built factory is definitely the most satisfactory location and environment, which can ensure sustainable development." In Zhong Shi's view, the future base camp must be the self-built factory. Of course, if the support of the local government where the factory is acquired has been stable, the car companies will be happy to see it. "Generally speaking, two hands are better prepared, and Geely has n hands."
Xiaomi is very ambitious in making cars. It is reported that Xiaomi plans to launch its first car in 2024 and launch a new car every year, with a total sales volume of 900,000 vehicles within three years. Lei Jun once said internally that Xiaomi Automobile plans to "drive for three years and sell 65,438+10,000 units in the first year".
The insiders analyzed the story of the automobile market, "654.38+10,000 vehicles a year is a great goal, but it is not an unrealistic dream. The new forces of' Tiny Lee' all started from scratch and had no brand value at first, but Xiaomi was different. The database of massive millet products has precipitated the potential user base of Xiaomi Automobile in the future. "
"If Xiaomi cars are mass-produced three years later, we can boldly guess that the first problem facing Xiaomi is not sales, but insufficient production capacity." Based on this concern, if the Beijing Miyun factory with a capacity of 360,000 is acquired by Xiaomi, Xiaomi will also encounter the problem of insufficient production capacity. The layout of "double factories" in advance, the logic seems to go with the flow.
Lei Jun, who once invested in the new forces of building cars, has a lot of experience to learn from, whether it is OEM or self-built factory routes.
Xpeng Motors was originally manufactured by Haima automobile, but in March 2020, it indirectly acquired Guangdong Foday automobile and obtained the production qualification. At present, the tail label of G3' s modified model G3i in Tucki has been changed from "Haima" to "Tucki", and the second phase of Xpeng Motors Zhaoqing Factory has also started.
The best choice for Xiaomi Automobile is to take a multi-site layout route similar to Xpeng Automobile. In the early stage, it quickly obtained production qualifications through acquisition, and later expanded its production capacity through self-built factories.
Since Lei Jun officially announced that Xiaomi built a car, local governments immediately took action and tried every means to pull Xiaomi to their own cities. Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Hefei, Xi, Chengdu and other cities have thrown olive branches. It can be said that the competition for factory location is far more intense than that of Xiaomi headquarters.
"In which city Xiaomi Automobile is located, it will bring investment to this city, and more importantly, it will bring talents in automobile-related industrial chains and smart cars, which is expected to introduce the entire new energy automobile industrial chain." According to industry sources.
According to the official introduction of Hannan District, there are 8 vehicle manufacturers in the district, 13 vehicle manufacturers, including Xpeng Automobile, Dongfeng Honda, Shenlong, Dongfeng Passenger Car, Geely Lotus and Geely Commercial Vehicle. , focusing on the development of lithium power batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and other fields. At the same time, it is an intelligent networked automobile test demonstration area with good industrial advantages.
At the same time, Wuhan and Lei Jun also have deep roots. Wuhan University has trained Lei Jun, who is also in Wu Hanyou. Xiaomi Automobile is likely to build its own factory in Wuhan.
Despite the "best" object, Lei Jun is still rushing to build a car. On September 1 1, according to the website of Jilin provincial government, senior leaders of Jilin province met with Lei Jun and his party in Changchun. On August 3 1 day, Tianjin senior leaders visited Xiaomi Group to discuss and exchange with Lei Jun on further deepening the cooperation between cities and enterprises.
(Photo: Senior leaders of Jilin Province met with Lei Jun and his party in Changchun)
"Finally, Xiaomi may have more favorable land policies, tax breaks and so on. In various places, and considering the local industrial chain and industrial environment, we choose the location where the self-built factory will land. " Analysts said.
03
Xiaomi car runs like hell.
It is not easy to make a car. Since Lei Jun has put his reputation on the line, it is natural for Xiaomi to be more cautious when making cars.
However, Lei Jun's view on Xiaomi's development has always been, "If you choose the other side backward, you must ensure the speed of running, and running itself can solve the problem."
The running speed of Reebs cars is not unpleasant. As early as 20 14, there were rumors that the "Titan Plan" Apple project had been brewing for at least 6 years, and Xiaomi Automobile made a series of substantial progress in less than 6 months.
At present, the most difficult thing for new energy vehicles is not to make a decent product, but to sell a product to what sales volume. The sales volume recognized by users determines the output, and the output scale determines the sustainability of supply chain and capital chain. For Xiaomi Auto, there is no sales volume, and the life of the car company is hanging by a thread. The "double factory" model is also a gamble in its early stage.
Regarding the advantages of Xiaomi's car-making, Zhong Shi commented, "What Xiaomi is most confident about is not how much investment it can get, but that it has established an original huge and mature Xiaomi ecological circle. The cost of customer collection, marketing and promotion of automobile products in the next step is much higher than that of any new car-making company. This is a valuable' intangible asset' for Xiaomi to build a car. "
But as a latecomer, Xiaomi Automobile needs to make up a lot of classes-intelligent driving is a big class. Judging from the patents applied by Xiaomi at present, it is mainly concentrated in the intelligent cockpit, and the patents on autonomous driving are far less than those of Huawei, Baidu, Didi and other technology companies.
In recent months, Xiaomi, who is "not short of money", has been constantly shooting at enterprises in the field of autonomous driving. First, it robbed the investment of two autonomous driving manufacturers, Mu Zong Technology and Jose Technology, and then it participated in the strategic investment of DeepMotion and Smart Interoperability.
Of course, the technical barrier of autonomous driving is not that you can overtake in a corner by acquiring several companies. The in-depth study of the algorithm and the collection of real data are mountains that Xiaomi can't bypass.
Xiaomi Automobile, which understands this truth, has been digging talents in the field of autonomous driving with high salary recently, but it is too difficult to find suitable talents. Although Xiaomi's salary is nearly 20%-30% higher than the market, Xiaomi official also revealed that Xiaomi Automobile has received more than 20,000 resumes, but only 300 people have finally completed the employment, and the pace is still slower than expected.
It is worth mentioning that on the day when Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was formally established, Xiaomi officially took photos of the backbone of Lei Jun and other 16 teams. When the outside world analyzes the "identity" of these 16 backbones, people inevitably lower their expectations. The reason is that the top executives of Xiaomi Automobile are all "amateurs", and only one member is an automobile industry background and a designer.
The lack of talents may drag down the progress of Xiaomi Automobile. It was previously rumored that Hu Zhengnan, the former president of Geely Research Institute, would join Xiaomi Automobile, but eventually he joined Shunwei Capital because of the evasion of the non-competition agreement. It is also reported that Zhu Jiang, former chief operating officer of the electric vehicle department of Ford Motor Company (China), has offered to resign, and Xiaomi will be the next stop. However, the news has been circulating for some time, and it seems that it has not finally happened.
Can Xiaomi make a screaming car in 2024? The answer is up in the air. Looking at the future of Xiaomi car only from the perspective of building a car, the value of Xiaomi car may not be very high. In the face of strong competitors and complex supply chain management in the future, Xiaomi, which lacks technical reserves in the automobile industry, can hardly make a profit by making cars.
But from another angle, from the perspective of creating a "mobile terminal and digital space", if Xiaomi builds a car, he can really "add four wheels to the mobile phone and add a whole set of intelligent systems" as Lei Jun thought. Will the value of Xiaomi's car become different? The core premise is that Xiaomi can successfully copy the ecological chain of electronic products to cars.