Electric car track is full of “new players”. What about traditional car enterprises

[the current situation of “lack of core and electricity” in the past two or two years has made all enterprises in the automotive industry chain more aware that they are friends and enemies. Even though they once stood on the same front in harmony, they may be red faced for interests one day.]

The pace of traditional automobile enterprises is being adjusted as various “new players” continue to invade the automobile field.

Recently, at the juncture when the first electric vehicle of its new pure electric vehicle brand “E: n” is about to be launched, Honda also joined hands with Sony and plans to establish a joint venture to jointly develop high value-added pure electric vehicles. The first pure electric vehicle of the new company will be sold in 2025. What is the intention of the double track war on the pure electric vehicle track?

As one of the top ten auto companies in the world, Honda is similar to other traditional auto giants. It will be anxious about the uncertainties existing in the process of accelerating the transformation of electric, intelligent and networked auto industry. In the first half of electrification, Japanese car companies generally have a slower pace than Tesla and some Chinese independent brands. At present, they are faced with competitors in many fields constantly breaking the border and invading the field of smart cars, which further increases the pressure. How to defend and attack, the giants of traditional automobile enterprises are urgently looking for countermeasures.

Tesla’s global sales volume in 2021 has approached 1 million, and it is threatened to reach 20 million in 2030. BYD, which is in full swing with Tesla, has sold more than 90000 vehicles in recent months. According to the current momentum, its sales volume is expected to exceed 1 million vehicles in 2022. “Wei Xiaoli” and other new forces in car making are also fierce, trying to grab more market share. However, these new energy vehicle enterprises that are now at the forefront may not be able to laugh to the end. Giants in many industries such as science and technology, real estate and household appliances have entered the market to build cars.

In this once-in-a-century auto industry reform, the original pattern will be overturned. In the era of fuel vehicles, car companies tend to focus on core components such as engines and transmissions. When entering the era of intelligent electric vehicles, the whole industrial chain is changing. Upstream and downstream enterprises are looking for new opportunities in competition and cooperation, and the relationship between them will be more complex. There are many possibilities for the technical route and operation mode of power battery, which is only the core component.

From lithium ore suppliers to battery manufacturers to new energy host plants, they are constantly playing games. The current situation of “lack of core and less electricity” in the past two years has made enterprises in the automotive industry chain more aware that they are friends and enemies. Even though they have stood on the same front in harmony, one day they may be red faced for interests.

However, how difficult it is to vertically integrate the whole industrial chain. As a highly vertical integrator of the industrial chain, although BYD is making rapid progress in the field of new energy vehicles with core components such as hand-held chips and batteries, it still has shortcomings in the field of automatic driving, which is considered that it may not be able to maintain strong combat effectiveness after entering the second half of intellectualization.

With the advent of the era of “software defined automobile”, the competition of lidar, high-precision map, network communication, AI computing and other technologies intensifies. On the one hand, enterprises need to continue to invest heavily, on the other hand, it will squeeze the value space of hardware. The traditional automobile industry chain, supply chain and value chain have been gradually broken. In the future, the automobile industry chain will be greatly extended, and new application scenarios and business models will continue to emerge, which will have a great impact on traditional automobile enterprises.

In the future, new energy vehicles will change from vehicles to intelligent terminals. It is a new opportunity to see this huge change. After apple, Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi and other technology enterprises have stepped up their layout in the field of new energy vehicles, Sony has also entered the field, and the cross-border car building heat has not decreased. The integration of automobile, information and communication, energy, transportation and other industries is accelerating. In the future, intelligent electric vehicle is the product of cross domain industrial integration, and its key technology, product positioning, industrial ecology and energy structure are constantly changing. In the face of the complex situation in new fields, high investment and high risk, these “barbarians” often do not rush to fight alone, but choose to establish countless relationships with traditional car enterprises.

In the face of the continuous influx of competitors in the car track, some traditional car companies are also taking the strategy of turning enemies into friends, throwing Hydrangea to “new players” one after another, constantly forming alliances and expanding the circle of friends. For example, SAIC, a domestic car company, cooperates with Ali to build zebra network and Zhiji electric vehicle, and Geely cooperates with Tencent, Baidu, Foxconn and other enterprises. Multinational traditional auto giants are also taking various actions. Recently, it is reported that Volkswagen plans to acquire Huawei’s automatic driving department for billions of euros. It hopes to speed up the intelligent electric vehicle track with the help of Huawei’s software and other technical advantages. Honda, while speeding up the transformation of electrification, intelligence and networking to hold its territory, has found another way to establish a new joint venture with Sony to occupy a place in the high-end pure electric market through the joint efforts of both sides.

Traditional car companies put eggs in different “baskets”, which can provide more opportunities. However, in the process of cross-border cooperation with enterprises in science and technology and other industries, who controls the steering wheel and how to balance various relationships in double line or even multi line development are still a big test for traditional automobile enterprises.