Picture from Canva drawable
2020 is about to pass. Looking back, the biggest winner this year may not be the online education or online office that everyone expected at the beginning, but the worst new energy automobile industry last year.
After experiencing a wave of ups and downs, 2020 can already be regarded as the first year of new energy vehicles. Li Bin, chairman of Weilai, very much agrees with the statement of "first year": "Some people say that this year is the first year of electric vehicles in China. I think it is also very reasonable. The main driving factor behind it has changed and it has become a consumption driver. , I think this is the foundation for the long-term development of the entire industry."
As Li Bin said, sales of new energy vehicles have shown explosive growth from the second half of the year. According to data from the Auto Federation, wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles in November was 180,000, an increase of 128.6% year-on-year. The key is that the market structure has also undergone tremendous changes at the same time. The proportion of private consumption of new energy vehicles has increased to 70%, which shows that the development of the industry has officially transformed from policy-driven to market (consumption)-driven.
The rapid growth in sales of new energy vehicles driven by the market indicates that the development of the entire new energy industry has begun to be on track. Such a fundamental change is worthy of the successive soaring stock prices of many auto companies and also worthy of the expectations of the capital market. However, the development of the new energy automobile industry is on the right track, and it does not mean that these new car-making forces that have made their heads will achieve the ultimate victory .
At present, the concentration of the new energy vehicle market has been very high, but this big game has not yet established the final pattern, the game is far from over, and the chess players behind the scenes have many other ideas.
Capital pusher
The term "new energy vehicles" is now widely recognized, but the term "Internet vehicles" that was once popular in the middle may be closer to the facts. Because without the capital support from Internet giants such as Tencent and Alibaba from beginning to end, it would be difficult for new car-building forces to get to where they are today, and the current market structure will most likely be a different look.
In fact, it is not difficult to find that Internet giants are often among the top shareholders of the shareholding structure of new automakers. Taking the ideal car that landed on Nasdaq at the end of July as an example, Wang Xing’s strong support for Li Xiang is well known to the world. Therefore, in the prospectus submitted by the ideal car, we can see that Wang Xing and its affiliate Meituan Ideal Motor's second largest shareholder holds 332 million shares, accounting for approximately 23.5% of the total share capital.
This relationship between Meituan and Ideal Auto is not alone. Tencent participated in 6 of Weilai’s 14 rounds of financing. At present, it holds more than 15% of Weilai’s shares and is firmly seated as the second largest shareholder. At the same time, Tencent also holds 5% of Tesla’s shares. Alibaba has participated in at least 3 rounds of Xpeng Motor’s 10 rounds of financing. It currently holds more than 14% of Xpeng Motor’s shares and is its second largest shareholder; and Weimar Motors has been Baidu's "heavy position", Baidu's final beneficial stake in Weimar Motors currently exceeds 10%.
The capital support of Internet giants is an important supporting force for the development of new car-making forces to this day. However, the investment of some Internet giants in new energy vehicles is actually earlier than the establishment of some new car-making forces. For example, before participating in the financing of Xiaopeng Motors in 2014, Ali announced that it had signed an "Internet Car" strategic cooperation agreement with SAIC Motor, and the establishment of Zebra Networks, and Roewe was born.
In any case, it is undeniable that Internet giants are important capital drivers for the development of the new energy automobile industry. The Internet giants are so keen on new energy vehicles, not only because they have taken a fancy to the money-making opportunities, but also because of many technological innovation considerations.
Technology blessing
Based on the massive amount of traffic and data, we continue to temper our own cloud computing big data technology, and on this basis to expand the exploration of artificial intelligence technology, and use the advantages of data to train artificial intelligence more effectively, and finally use the AI chip as the entry point. Thoroughly open up the hardware entrance. This is a regular way for Internet giants to engage in hard technological innovation, and it is also a successful path that Ali and Tencent have personally verified.
The technological capabilities of the Internet giants in this process, including technological achievements in the fields of cloud computing, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, are actually very suitable for the technological needs of intelligent and connected new energy vehicles. Therefore, since the beginning of the new energy automobile industry, Internet giants generally have the goal of accelerating the development of the industry with their own technology.
For example, the Zebra Network established by Ali and SAIC once gave SAIC Roewe a considerable market response with its excellent car networking system; and in 2015, Tencent, Foxconn and Harmony Automobile formed the car-making alliance "Harmony Futeng" , Tencent’s positioning is the car networking system and technology platform. Tencent has not given up after the collapse of the alliance and established its own autonomous driving laboratory in the second half of 2016.
Of course, Baidu is most enthusiastic about the technology empowerment industry. Baidu has been investing heavily in the research and development of unmanned vehicle technology since 2015. In 2017, it released the Apollo technology open platform, and in 2018 it released the full-featured cloud AI chip "Kunlun" that can adapt to autonomous driving.
Internet giants are obviously eager for technological innovation opportunities in the field of new energy vehicles. However, the large sums of money fell, but they failed to exchange for the smooth cooperation of the new car-building forces.
In terms of technology applications, there seems to be an irreconcilable contradiction between Internet giants and car companies. Internet giants want to become the underlying technology suppliers in the new energy automobile industry, covering everything from underlying chips to operating systems, from hardware to software. However, it can be clearly seen that more and more powerful car companies such as Weilai and Ideal are more inclined to build their own underlying systems to achieve control over the core technical capabilities of the car, and build an open third-party service on this basis. Ecology.
In short, Internet giants want to realize the control and supply of the core technology of new energy vehicles, while the new automakers want to achieve core technology independence. Because of this contradiction, the cooperation between many Internet giants and new car-making forces is not as close as it seems on the surface.
End in person
In the new energy vehicle track, Internet giants will never be content to be only providers of information and entertainment services. Therefore, in addition to further strengthening cooperation with new car-building forces, the Internet is also trying to find other ways to penetrate the core technology field.
One is to diversify investment. New automakers can avoid over-reliance on Internet giants through multi-party financing, and Internet giants can also diversify their risks by investing in more auto companies.
The second is to end in person. Although both Huawei and Xiaomi have denied the fact that they built the car themselves. However, many Internet giants such as Ali and Baidu seldom express their rejection of making cars by themselves.
In comparison, it is obviously easier for Internet giants to build a car in person. Judging from the current public opinion expectations for the technological innovation of Internet giants, building a car in person may also slightly help the Internet giants to ease the passiveness of public opinion.
In fact, the Internet giants’ attempts to build cars in person have already begun. In November 2020, the car-building project jointly invested by SAIC, Alibaba and Pudong New Area announced that the high-end smart pure electric vehicle project jointly created by the three parties, "Smart Auto", was officially launched. It was not just Ali who launched similar actions. Almost at the same time, Didi and BYD launched a customized online car-hailing D1. The news that Baidu and traditional car companies personally built cars has also been rumored recently.
From the initial capital support, to the gradual deepening of technological empowerment, to the recent attempt to build cars by themselves, Internet giants have become increasingly involved in the new energy vehicle industry.
Taking into account the long-term capital investment of Internet giants in new car-building forces, it is obviously not an optimal solution to build the car in person. But from the perspective of technological innovation, building a car in person may be a necessary way for Internet giants.
Text/Liu Kuang public number, ID: liukuang110