Selisi recruitment

Perhaps it was pushed forward by friends such as FAW Hongqi, Dongfeng Lan Tu, BAIC ARCFOX and SAIC "L", and Changan Automobile could no longer hold back its desire to become a "world-class automobile enterprise".

165438+ 10 14, Zhu Hua, chairman of changan automobile, made his debut in the first CCTV "First Launch" program, and officially announced in the program that changan automobile will jointly build a brand-new high-end smart car brand with Huawei and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.

At this time, it has been two years since Changan released the "Third Venture" plan.

This automobile enterprise, with a history of nearly 160 years, is now experiencing the impact of the wave of new energy vehicles in the third entrepreneurial stage after the first entrepreneurial "military to civilian" and the second entrepreneurial "passenger car".

Entrepreneurship is a matter of life and death. Under the appearance of "long-term stability", there is a "worried" heart.

External worries include Tesla, BMW and Volkswagen; It is impacted by traditional automobile companies BYD, Weilai, Ideal and emerging automobile company Tucki. In addition, the release of many traditional state-owned enterprises' new energy plans in turn forced Chang 'an to enter the market with the highest attitude, pinning its hopes on the development law of "latecomers come first".

As a result, Huawei, which represents the top level of ICT in China, and Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd., the head enterprise of smart energy industry, have brought three "top players" together through Changan with strong financial strength.

Since we are opening a new game in the game zone of "high-end smart car brand", we need three players to play different roles? . Although the division of labor and the proportion of capital contribution of new projects are still unknown, the premise of winning a high-end game is that no one can make mistakes.

However, "short board" players are inevitable in the game. So, who is likely to drag down the whole team?

Will it be Huawei?

Previously, rumors about "Huawei making cars" were endless. Every time it came out, there were always Huawei executives who denied it.

The reason for many unprovoked reports is that the industry media pays attention to Huawei's frequent actions in the automotive field: Huawei has signed strategic cooperation with more than 20 automobile manufacturers and recruited a large number of automobile manufacturing experts in Europe and China. ...

All kinds of signs point to a controversial topic: Huawei is not going to build a car. What does it want to do?

CITIC Securities Research Department 20 19 drew the form of Huawei's in-depth cooperation with many parties in car networking. Judging from the information displayed in the table, all Huawei's actions in the automotive field are centered on the Internet of Vehicles technology.

Combined with the contents of public information display, the links of Huawei car networking technology are sorted out.

In 20 13, Huawei established the car networking division. In 20 16, Huawei publicly cooperated with car companies for the first time, and jointly established the "5G Automotive Communication Technology Alliance" with ABB, Nokia, Ericsson and other companies, forming the world's first industrial alliance focusing on 5G vehicle networking.

At the preliminary communication meeting of the 20 19 World Mobile Congress in London, Huawei officially released a series of "self-driving mobile network" solutions.

And after that? With the arrival of the first year of commercialization of the 5G industry in China, cross-industry collaboration including the car networking industry has ushered in an application explosion. This year, Huawei released the 5G vehicle module MH5000 and the new generation HiCharge DC fast charging module.

Then, Huawei joined FAW Group (FAW Hongqi, FAW Pentium, faw liberation), Changan Automobile, Dongfeng Group (Dongfeng Passenger Car, Dongfeng Xiaokang), SAIC Group (SAIC Passenger Car, SAIC-GM-Wuling), GAC Group (GAC New Energy), BAIC Group (BAIC New Energy), BYD, Great Wall Motor, Chery Holdings, Jianghuai Automobile, Yutong (Bus), and so on.

Among them, Huawei has experienced the process from "rumors of building cars" to "building ecology". From another point of view, it is a zero-sum game that may "make enemies" to a positive-sum game that "forms an alliance".

This result is based on the background of the times: in the 5G era, Huawei's participation will be deeper and deeper. The ICT business that OEMs are not good at is exactly what Huawei is good at. Cars access the 5G ecosystem and become new mobile terminals. The bigger the circle of friends in this industry, the better.

It can be seen that Huawei will not be a joint car-making partner of Changan, but based on Tier 1(Tier? A company, which means the first-class supplier of equipment manufacturers, participated in the manufacture of new high-end smart cars in Chang 'an.

However, this kind of participation is not limited to Chang 'an. After all, Huawei, as a supplier of car companies, must be open to all partners for the latest technological achievements. This means that the brand-new high-end smart cars that Chang 'an will manufacture can't be obviously "smart" different from other 17 alliance members only by relying on Huawei's blessing.

On the other hand, Xu Zhijun, vice chairman of Huawei, revealed at this year's Beijing Auto Show that Huawei will invest more than 500 million US dollars (about RMB 3.34 billion) in BU, a smart car solution this year, regardless of profit at present.

This means that Huawei, which has accumulated technology and abundant R&D funds, will not only be a "short board" player of the game, but also a key role in determining the start of the game.

Could it be Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.?

There is no doubt that this power battery manufacturer from Fujian, China is successful.

According to the data of SNEResearch, from 20 17 to 20 19, the installed capacity of power batteries of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. ranked first in the world for three consecutive years.

According to the data released by China Commercial Industry Research Institute, in the first three quarters of 2020, as the leader of lithium batteries, the installed battery capacity of Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. reached 16.75GWh, with a market share close to 50%.

Even if the ranking is very high, it has not stopped the downward trend. Judging from the three quarterly reports just released by Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., the company achieved operating income of 365,438+522 million yuan in the first three quarters, down 4.06% year-on-year; The net profit returned to the mother was 3.357 billion yuan, down 3. 10% year-on-year.

Although the financial report did not disclose the specific reasons for the decline in performance in the first three quarters, it is certain that under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the market demand for new energy vehicles declined seriously, resulting in a decrease in the sales revenue of the company's power batteries.

In addition to the uncontrollable epidemic, the market just needs to decline. The decrease in sales revenue of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. is reminiscent of the situation in the first half of this year. Because the off-line models of Tesla Shanghai factory no longer use Panasonic batteries, they are "empathetic" with South Korea's LG Chem, which once surpassed contemporary Amperex Technology Co, and Limited became the world's number one.

In addition, there is another fact that cannot be ignored. That is to say, since the first quarter of this year, many Japanese and Korean batteries are returning to the market, and they are frequently laid out in China to attract new partners.

This regression makes the cooperation between car companies and power battery companies more complicated, involving the game of interests.

For example, Geely previously announced that its subsidiary Shanghai Huapu Guorun and LG Chem, which indirectly holds 99% of the shares, will set up a joint venture company, mainly engaged in the production and sales of electric vehicle batteries; Toyota and Panasonic announced the establishment of a joint venture company for automobile batteries; Volkswagen built its own power battery factory in Lower Saxony, Germany, and injected capital into Northvolt, a Swedish electric vehicle battery manufacturer.

The above-mentioned enterprises also cooperate with Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. The reason why they don't want Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. to be the only battery supplier is to master the right to speak the core components of new energy vehicles by bundling a number of different enterprises.

Besides, there have been precedents before. In 20 18, Volkswagen group was forced to restrict the production of Audi E-tron due to the restriction of LG chemical supply, and immediately sought SKI to supply the North American market, which threatened to interrupt LG chemical supply.

On the other hand, it can also verify the possibility of deep cooperation between Changan and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.. If Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. only participates as a supplier, Changan will definitely leave enough space for the timely supply of power batteries, and the possibility of selecting multiple power battery suppliers will not be ruled out.

Then the gimmick of this "top player game" is far greater than reality.

If contemporary Amperex Technology Limited takes part in this car-building as a partner-according to the data released by changjiang securities, the turnover days of inventory and accounts payable of contemporary Amperex Technology Limited are much lower than those of its competitors, which means that it has a strong leading position in negotiations with downstream manufacturers-which may inevitably put Changan, the protagonist of car-building, in a "passive" position, and affect the rhythm of the whole high-end process.

However, according to the current situation that contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. chooses power battery as the mainstream new energy vehicle in the market, the premise that Changan can ensure the smooth manufacturing of high-end vehicles is "like everyone else". As for the fault tolerance rate between myself and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., we still need to develop running-in.

This means that contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., which has market reputation and installed capacity, will not be a "short board" player in the game, but a role that must be played before the game starts.

Will it be Chang 'an?

Previously, Chang 'an's transition to high-end development has not been very smooth. It tried to change from a high-end brand to a high-end model, so the CS95 car appeared.

However, although CS95 supplemented Changan Automobile's SUV product matrix, it did not become the touchstone for Changan Automobile to go high-end, and the monthly sales volume dropped from the initial 4,000 vehicles to less than 1000 vehicles.

This year, the UNI-T model gradually gained market recognition. Although UNI series is designated as a high-end series product in Chang 'an, the starting price of the first model UNI-T is close to100000 yuan, which undoubtedly sets the ceiling for this high-end technology.

Changan has really taken a step towards the high end. It should be Changan Weilai, which was previously established as a joint venture with Weilai. According to related reports, there was a saying inside Chang 'an at that time: "Changan Weilai team is responsible for high-end brands".

Unfortunately, the financial report for the first half of 2020 released by Changan Automobile shows that the shareholding ratio of Changan Weilai increased from 50% to 95.38%. This means that another shareholder, Weilai Automobile, essentially withdrew from the joint venture company established by both parties.

At this point, the controversy over whether Changan Automobile should be a high-end brand seems to have become a question of whether it can be a high-end brand. Moreover, in the process of brand transformation to high-end, Changan also highlighted a "slow" problem.

At the end of last year, Changan New Energy introduced four strategic investors: Nanjing Runke, Changxin Fund, Liangjiang Fund and Southern Industrial Fund. After the completion of capital increase and share expansion, the shareholding ratio of Changan Automobile will be diluted from 65,438+000% to 48.95%.

However, after the introduction of new capital, the action of Changan New Energy seems to have suddenly stopped. Compared with other domestic automobile groups, the new energy sector of BAIC has been listed independently, and the high-end electric vehicle brand ARCFOX； has been launched. HYCAN, a new energy brand jointly invested by GAC and Weilai, co-founded the first production car HYCAN? 007 has been listed; Dongfeng also launched a high-end electric vehicle brand map; SAIC's brand-new high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand "L" has gradually emerged.

Changan, aware of its "slowness", may be looking forward to completing its unfinished "high-end dream" by cooperating with Huawei and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., two leading companies in the field.

In this dream, there is the world's leading, self-controlled intelligent electric vehicle platform "Ark Architecture", a series of smart car products, a super "car driver" smart life and smart energy ecology.

Tan Benhong, executive vice president of Changan Automobile, said: "It is estimated that in 2025, millions of cars will be connected to the self-driving world of Ark to realize a higher level of self-driving technology." ? According to Zhu Huarong, Chairman of Changan Automobile, the 105 products to be released in the next five years include 23 new energy products.

No matter how big this dream is, Chang 'an's desire for high-end products can be seen from the ultra-high frequency rhythm of the new product "Five Years 105 Product". Moreover, Chang 'an's ulterior motives can also be read from the tripartite cooperation-"Since you can't beat them, join them".

Then, will the "short board" player in the game be Changan himself?

It's hard to draw a conclusion now, but it really seems that Chang 'an has played the most unstable role.

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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.