Wang Jun was punished and suspended, and Huawei constantly tended to choose the smart mode, or because of the policy of ＂biting to death and not building a car＂

At the beginning of 2023, Huawei did not go smoothly.

First, foreign media reported that the Biden administration of the United States has stopped approving licenses for American companies to export most products to Huawei; Later, it was reported that Wang Jun, COO of BU Department of Smart Car Solutions (referred to as "Car BU"), had been suspended.

"Mr. Wang Jun has indeed been suspended from the BU-related duties, but there is no final decision on whether to leave Huawei." A person familiar with Huawei BU said that Wang Jun was punished internally at the end of last year, and the news of his suspension was decided at that time, and he was only released recently.

The reason why Wang Jun was punished was largely due to the poor progress of its leading Huawei HI model in 2022. However, the above-mentioned people also said that the Huawei system attaches great importance to the cadres trained by itself. "Business failure is definitely due to many reasons. As long as it is not a particularly big principled mistake, it will not be directly let go, but will be called and rotated."

As for the future direction of Huawei’s automobile business, it will continue to tilt to the intelligent selection mode, and launch a series of models based on the brand of the world.

Huawei hopes to achieve the goal of "building a car" with the slogan of "not building a car".

01 The weight of intelligent selection mode continues to expand.

Wang Jun was originally the head of Che BU.

In May 2019, Huawei Car BU was formally established. At first, it was affiliated to Huawei ICT Management Committee, with Wang Jun as the president.

Although Huawei has been deployed in the automotive field for a long time, "Because Car BU was not established for a long time, many employees were transferred from other product lines. ‘ Shantou ’ In particular, some people directly report to Xiao Xu (now Xu Zhijun, the rotating chairman of Huawei). " Some people familiar with Huawei BU said that in the early days, each product line of Huawei BU was relatively independent, and the resource reuse rate was extremely low.

Perhaps it is realized that this situation is not conducive to the long-term development of the team. Huawei has made two adjustments to the car BU.

Δ Changes in organizational structure of Huawei’s automobile business. Image source: CITIC Securities

One is the organizational structure. At the end of 2020, Huawei transferred Car BU from ICT Management Committee to Consumer Business Management Committee (Consumer BG).

One is personnel appointment. In May 2021, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG (now renamed as Terminal BG), was appointed as CEO of Chebu, and Wang Jun was transferred to COO of Chebu.

Huawei Group hopes to make full use of Yu Chengdong’s accumulated experience in the field of consumer electronics to fully empower the automobile business.

After taking over BU, Yu Chengdong has made a series of adjustments, laying out the formation according to Huawei’s matrix management mode, and at the same time, refining the business division.

Huawei BU’s main business is mainly divided into three types: the first is the model of parts supplier similar to Tier 1, the second is the model of Huawei HI, and the third is the model of Huawei Intelligent Car Selection.

Among them, Yu Chengdong focuses on his more optimistic intelligent selection model; Wang Jun pays more attention to HI mode and auto parts business.

Throughout 2022, the spare parts business has no more data support for the time being. Compared with the sales volume of HI mode and smart selection mode, smart selection mode obviously has the upper hand.

At present, the main brands of Huawei HI mode are Extreme Fox and Aouita. The former is the representative model of Extreme Fox Alfa S Huawei HI version. Although it became famous in 2021 because of the plan to carry Huawei’s smart driving scheme, it was more than one year after delivery, and its stamina was insufficient. The terminal sales data of new energy passenger cars show that less than 270 vehicles will be sold in 2022.

Δ Delivery of the Extreme Fox Alpha S Huawei HI Edition in 2022

Aouita 11, the second model in HI mode, will not be delivered until the penultimate day in 2022. With the endorsement of Huawei, Changan and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, the situation of Aouita 11 is relatively better. According to the latest data released by Aouita, as of February 5, 2023, Aouita 11 has delivered more than 2,000 new cars in the past 38 days.

However, compared with the sales volume of the series, there is still a big gap. The carrier of Huawei’s intelligent selection model is the brand of Wenjie. From March 2022 to the end of last year, its series of models sold a total of 75,000 new cars, and successively finalized cooperation with Jianghuai, Chery and other car companies.

Compared with the two, Huawei’s HI model is far less than the smart selection model, which is probably an important reason why Wang Jun was punished at the end of 2022.

Under this circumstance, Huawei will pay more attention to the intelligent selection mode in the future. "HI mode and parts business will still be parallel, but the weight will be lower. After all, if you sell cars, many competitiveness cannot be built, and parts and system capabilities are also necessary. " The above-mentioned person close to Huawei BU said.

02 Hi mode cost performance is too low.

In fact, the Huawei HI model has been more expected by the outside world.

Different from the smart selection mode, the highlight is to pay more attention to the smart cockpit; The product feature of Huawei HI mode is equipped with Huawei’s high-level intelligent driving scheme.

Huawei, which is famous for its "technology", must be eye-catching in its intelligent driving scheme. Especially in April 2021, after Huawei first announced the video of self-driving open road experience.

Seeing Huawei HI Edition of Extreme Fox Alpha S as a test model, it smoothly completed a series of situations, such as the start and stop of traffic lights, unprotected left turn, avoiding vehicles at intersections, giving way to pedestrians, changing lanes, etc., in the process of intelligent driving in urban areas, which directly made the outside world look forward to Huawei’s intelligent driving system.

Δ Huawei announces video of self-driving public road experience

However, it was not until July 2022 that the above-mentioned models were delivered, and the heat was already less than expected.

The reason why it takes so long to land is largely because the intelligent driving system itself requires huge manpower, material resources and time.

Su Qing, former president of Huawei’s intelligent driving product line, once told the media that the lead-in period of Huawei’s advanced intelligent driving scheme should be at least 24 months.

"It should be clear to those who have engaged in product and development that the entire HI model is too heavy, and it is extremely pursuing technological advancement, and it is at all costs, and the research and development cost remains high." People close to Huawei car BU are like this.

In 2021, Xu Zhijun pointed out at the global analyst conference that the HI model has deep cooperation with three car companies, but this cooperation will not be too much. The reason is that the Hi model is too invested. According to Changan Automobile, a team of more than 1,000 Huawei personnel has been stationed in Chongqing for a long time and deeply participated in the development of Aouita 11.

On July 7, 2022, at the 14th China Automotive Blue Book Forum, Yu Chengdong also said, "The automobile business is Huawei’s only loss-making business, with a direct investment of 7,000 people and an indirect investment of 10,000 people, of which 70% or 80% are invested in the field of intelligent driving assistance."

At the same time, for most users, compared with the intelligent cockpit, their perception of intelligent driving is not high, and they are only willing to try it early and are not willing to pay too much real money for it.

Δ Huawei Extreme Fox Alpha S HI Edition has 34 sensors.

From the price point of view, the price of the Extreme Fox Alpha S HI version equipped with Huawei ADS is about 100,000 higher than that of the main Alpha S, and the price is 397,900-429,900 yuan. It is normal for users to be unwilling to pay the bill when their acceptance is not enough.

Intelligent selection mode can get more benefits faster.

It is reported that Huawei will make considerable profits in terms of technology and channel sales under the smart car selection model. Huawei has won more than 30% of the sales promotion and channel business of cross-border vehicles. This is also an important reason for Huawei to push the smart selection model.

After all, in December, 2022, Yu Chengdong said in an internal meeting that Che BU should be profitable after 2025.

The third-party intelligent driving scheme will be adopted by the brand of Wenjie.

How to achieve profitability, of course, is to find more partners for the smart choice model, and based on the brand.

According to people close to Chery, the cooperation between Chery and Huawei based on intelligent selection mode will be built under Chery’s brand-new intelligent electric platform, and will eventually be released by using the brand of "Wenjie". The products are expected to be listed simultaneously with the new cars of Chery’s brand-new high-end brand, that is, they will be unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year, and will be listed in September one after another, and will be delivered to users at the end of the year.

In addition, the cooperation between Huawei’s smart selection model and JAC will also be carried out under the brand of Wenjie.

Δ AITO aims to build a smart car ecosystem with "people" as the core.

After all, it takes time, effort and money to build a new brand. If Huawei wants to gain more benefits, it doesn’t want or want to consume too much energy. A series of cooperation under the "Wenjie" brand can maximize the benefits.

Interestingly, the intelligent driving plan of its series of products introduces the external supplier scheme.

In the early stage, due to the tight listing cycle, the model of the car was not equipped with a higher-order intelligent driving scheme, but it was included in the planning and carrying from the M9 of the car.

"Ask the world to carry a third-party smart drive, and use others first." People close to Huawei BU said that smart cars are sold to the C-end as commodities, and all aspects such as technology and cost must be considered when landing.

According to some sources, the autonomous driving company Yuanrong Qixing and canoe Zhihang both appeared in the bidding sequence of the intelligent driving scheme.

As for the question of brand ownership. Someone close to Huawei BU said: "Now whether it is industrial and commercial registration or brand application, literally ‘ Ask the world ’ It still belongs to Cyrus, but Huawei will definitely adopt new models in the end, such as setting up a new company to use it. "

In the cooperation with Cyrus, Huawei has been deeply involved in product definition and vehicle design, and will also provide store sales channels. If the brand is also in Huawei’s hands, how can it not be considered as "Huawei Auto"?

As for why Huawei doesn’t directly announce the car. A person close to Huawei BU said, "The most essential reason may come out in a few years. But now the status and ‘ Make a car ’ Is there an essential difference? Consumers also recognize it, and that will do. "

Although it is inconvenient for the above-mentioned people to say, the reason why Huawei "stubbornly refuses to build a car" may be due to policy factors: that is, it "lacks the qualification to build a car".

Δ Automobile OEM production mode management will be stricter.

At the beginning of 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of Entrust Production of New Energy Vehicles", which mentioned that the conditions for entrusting enterprises to carry out the pilot work of entrust production of new energy vehicle products entering the "Announcement" are access through new energy vehicle production enterprises, and the conditions for entrusted enterprises are access through new energy vehicle production enterprises, and they have the same production qualifications as entrusted products.

This means that not only OEM car companies need to have production qualifications, but also OEM car companies need to provide production qualifications. Previously, the OEM model between Weilai and Jianghuai became very difficult.

Previously, the delivery of NV, a self-guided traveler under Niu Chuang, was stagnant. Some people think that it is because the production qualification can not be solved.

From this point of view, Huawei insists on "not building a car", which can not only bypass the policy problems, but also realize the revenue plan. Why not?