SAIC Ali Joins Hands Again: Challenge Tesla And Head For New Energy

A month ago, when it comes to this round of collective promotion of independent brands, "big brother" SAIC Group's representative was still a popular "r-mark".

At that time, R standard just announced its independent operation and became SAIC's passenger car brand parallel to Roewe and mingjue. At the 2020 Guangzhou auto show, it has a unique stand, and has become a recognized "new force of car making" within SAIC Group because of its unique features in product design and sales mode.

The new brand and independent team are enough to show SAIC's determination to take a new look in the field of new energy vehicles. There are also many traditional automobile enterprises adopting similar methods. For example, Dongfeng Group's H business unit has incubated a new brand "lantu", and BAIC new energy arcfox division of BAIC Group operates a new brand "arcfox".

However, SAIC is not satisfied with this. On November 26, a project named "Zhiji automobile" parachuted into the Shanghai Center, gathering two major partners of Shanghai Pudong New Area and Alibaba. SAIC Group also played the second card to enter the high-end new energy vehicle market.

This low-key signing ceremony did not invite the media on a large scale, but it quickly attracted wide attention not only because this is another high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle project that SAIC Group is planning to launch in two years, but also because it is the first automobile science and technology innovation company to be launched by a traditional automobile enterprise, and its founding round has reached 10 billion.

The establishment of a new company entity specializing in pure electric vehicles is not only conducive to further independence of the brand, but also conducive to trying to break through in the operation mechanism. In addition to SAIC, the "SL project" recently exposed by Great Wall Motors will also be operated by a wholly-owned subsidiary registered in Shanghai.

Traditional automobile enterprises set up new corporate entities to try to upgrade or expand their brands. There are also precedents in the development of new energy vehicles, such as GAC Weilai, which was established before GAC. However, GAC Weilai is held equally by GAC and Weilai, which is hardly an extension of GAC's new energy brand.

The market of new energy vehicles has been standing on many hills. New forces of car making and traditional automobile enterprises have taken out their own skills to start competition. SAIC, which has hatched new brands, can only enter the market without stopping. Although the team of Zhiji automobile has just completed the preliminary construction, the products will be put into the market soon.

At the brand warm-up activity held on December 17, Zhiji automobile announced that it would initially display models a and B in the middle of next month, and its first model would accept limited booking at the Shanghai auto show in April next year. According to the 21st century economic report, the wireless charging technology, which has attracted much attention in the industry, will be carried on the first model.

With fast pace and high efficiency, Zhiji automobile has become the No.1 player of SAIC in competing for high-end new energy vehicle market. Other investors also have high hopes for Zhiji automobile. On the day of signing the project, the press release issued by "Pudong release" said frankly, "China Tesla is coming!"

The advantages of setting up new brands to make new energy vehicles are obvious, but the disadvantages also exist: besides products, the creation of brand genes is an inseparable task. How to create a unique "label" for users to remember and recognize is a common topic faced by Zhiji automobile and other new brands.

Challenge Tesla

As early as 2018, SAIC Group has secretly set up a project group named "L", which is called "Project No. 1", mainly planning to produce high-end intelligent cars. Over the past two years, after "full certification", the "L" project has finally come to the ground and incubated Zhiji automobile.

"Zhiji" is derived from the book of changes, which means the wisdom of all things and the wise man's confidant. On December 21, insiders of Zhiji automobile told the 21st century economic report that Zhiji and R brand have different positioning: R brand creates "national car of new generation family in China", undertakes the responsibility of breaking through the independent brand of passenger car, while Zhiji's product positioning is "high-end pure electric vehicle", bearing the responsibility of group brand upward and mechanism reform and innovation.

In terms of product positioning, Zhiji is a higher grade than R brand, and it is basically the most high-end brand created by SAIC. Analysts of Guoxin Securities expect that R brand will complement Zhiji, with the former focusing on 150000-300000 price range products, while the latter's main price range is expected to exceed 300000 yuan.

Almost all domestic high-end pure electric vehicle brands are benchmarking Tesla. Although Zhiji didn't "challenge Tesla" openly, the similarity in positioning inevitably led to some comparison. On the day of official publicity of the project, the question and answer community knew that "will Zhiji automobile become China's Tesla?" The problem.

Compared with other high-end pure electric car brands, the geographical proximity of Zhiji and Tesla also makes the relationship more delicate. Tesla's Shanghai plant is located in Pudong port, while Zhiji's R & D headquarters will be located in Zhangjiang, Pudong, only about 60 kilometers away.

Like Tesla, Zhiji has received strong support from the government. SAIC will separate this project from the group's existing passenger car system, and plans to set up a new company entity for operation, including Pudong New Area.

According to the information provided by Zhiji automobile, in the initial stage, the company will be invested by the equity investment fund established by SAIC Group and Pudong New Area, with a total investment amount of 7.2 billion yuan, including 5.4 billion yuan from SAIC and 1.8 billion yuan from Pudong Zhangjiang hi tech (controlled by the state-owned enterprise Zhangjiang group). At the same time, Alibaba, a strategic investor, and the employee stock holding platform will also be introduced to reach a capital raising scale of 10 billion yuan.

According to multiple information, SAIC will hold 54% of the shares in Zhiji automobile, while Alibaba and Zhangjiang High Tech will hold 18% respectively, while the other 10% will be jointly held by employees and users. Zhiji automobile also said that it will explore the future enterprise form and "realize in the ownership structure".

The introduction of investors into the newly established company can give full play to the advantages of partners. In terms of Zhiji automobile, Zhangjiang High Tech Park has high-tech industrial cluster ecology and core technology resources such as AI and chips. As an important scientific and technological innovation enterprise, Zhiji can also enjoy the dividend of location advantages, policies, land and talents.

Alibaba, on the other hand, has rich reserves in innovative technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and quantum computing of Dharma Institute. These technologies will also become the resources of Zhiji automobile and help it build a more powerful intelligent Internet connected vehicle.

It is worth mentioning that SAIC Group has a deep relationship with Alibaba. As early as 2015, the two sides established a joint venture zebra network, and jointly built the first "Internet car" Roewe rx5, which has become an important node of SAIC Group's intelligent layout. Recently, in addition to taking a stake in Zhiji automobile, Alibaba has also participated in the investment in the travel platform "Xingdao travel" of SAIC Group.

"Running" admission

Although it took a long time to prepare, it was not until the end of November this year that the Zhiji auto project was officially launched. The 21st century economic reporter inquired about the industrial and commercial management information system, and found that the relevant enterprise entities have not yet been registered. At present, the relevant business is mainly operated by some personnel within SAIC Group.

Zhiji automobile insiders told the 21st century economic report that there are about 200 people in the team, mainly product and technology innovation R & D personnel, and it is expected to reach about 1200 by the end of next year.

Even so, Zhiji is accelerating the launch of its products. According to the latest news, on January 13, 2021, Zhiji automobile will hold a new product launch conference in Shanghai Center, at that time, cars a and B will make the world's first show; in April 2021, Zhiji automobile will also show its products in Shanghai auto show, and its first model will also accept limited booking.

It's faster than the rumor has it. It was previously reported that SAIC Group "l project" is expected to meet with consumers in the second half of next year. "Because of the epidemic situation, market environment, competitors' rhythm and other reasons, this project has a high authority in SAIC, and the progress of new cars is very fast."

SAIC has obviously accelerated the pace of promoting Zhiji automobile. In the context of changes in market environment and other factors, Zhiji has begun to "run" into the market. In the second half of this year, the new energy vehicle market rebounded, Tesla continued to prosper, and the sales volume of new domestic automobile manufacturing forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal also increased. At the same time, domestic major traditional automobile enterprises also made efforts in the field of new energy and successively launched new high-end brands. If no action is taken, SAIC may fall behind others in this wave.

In fact, some analysts believe that the launch of R brand is a "expedient measure" before the listing of Zhiji automobile, so that SAIC will not miss the trend of upgrading the new energy vehicle brand. This statement has not been officially recognized by SAIC. However, in terms of operation mode and other aspects, R brand can indeed accumulate certain experience for Zhiji automobile.

At present, the information released by Zhiji automobile is not much. After all, the true appearance of the product has not been revealed, and the impression of the outside world on the brand is only at a relatively shallow level.

On December 17, Zhiji automobile held its first media sharing meeting, which showed the technical reserve and design concept of its product level to the outside world, as well as its special emphasis on user value.

In terms of product technology, Zhiji automobile and Ningde times are cooperating to develop power batteries with higher performance. It is said that the energy density is 30% - 40% ahead of the industry level, which can support a maximum endurance of 1000km. In addition, it has also developed the "wireless charging" technology of the world's first mass production equipment, which, together with automatic parking, will realize "sensorless energy supplement" for users.

In addition to batteries, Zhiji automobile has also developed a lot of technologies in intelligent driving, such as the above-mentioned automatic parking, and the "zero take over" automatic driving between commuters. Of course, there is also an upgraded flexible architecture of smart cars as standard.

However, the above technologies and functions will not be launched immediately. There are different time nodes from technology to landing. For example, by the end of 2021, end-to-end automatic driving will be realized in some road sections, and the automatic parking function can also be opened in some commercial centers. As for the battery, only the "wireless charging" technology is known to be installed on the first model.

Customer co creation is not only the performance of the form innovation of Zhiji automobile enterprise, but also an important aspect of its brand gene. It is said that users will become the core driver of the value chain of Zhiji automobile. Through the big data provided by users, Zhiji automobile can positively drive the rapid iteration of products.

As a result, Zhiji automobile encourages users to highly customize their products, and users will become the drivers of the whole business chain of enterprise R & D, production, manufacturing and marketing. The data generated in the process of daily car use will be automatically processed by ai artificial intelligence to promote product iteration and brand building.

However, the concept of "user co creation" is not new. Lingke, wey and other independent high-end brands have tried in this field, and their opinions have been integrated into the front-end of product design. Whether Zhiji can truly form brand characteristics in this respect still needs to overcome many difficulties, such as whether it can be guaranteed in technology, whether it can run in mechanism, whether it can be shaped in scale, and so on.