Just as it was gaining momentum, it was suppressed. The monthly sales of Zhijie S7 fell to 2,306 units. Why can't Huawei carry it forward?

Huawei, a manufacturer that does not make cars, has done all kinds of big things. Relying on the technology it has mastered, it has cultivated a new brand like Wenjie with monthly sales of 40,000. It is indeed something.

But does Huawei's branding work every time? Not really!

The Zhijie S7, jointly developed by Huawei and Chery, sold only 2,306 units in June, bringing its streak of monthly sales exceeding 5,000 units to an abrupt end.

The performance of the Zhijie S7 does not seem to be that bad. For a medium-to-large sedan with a starting price of 249,800 yuan, it can be considered a good result to be able to maintain a stable monthly sales of more than 2,000 units.

However, there is no harm without comparison. Although both use Huawei's core components, the gap between Zhijie and Wenjie is still quite surprising.

Among the three models under the Wenjie brand, the worst performing Wenjie M5 had sales of 6,796 units in June.

This raises a question - with such sluggish sales of the Zhijie S7, is it a product overestimated by the industry?

First of all, we need to figure out how these cars under Hongmeng Zhixing attract users' wallets?

One is the various core components from Huawei. Take the Zhijie S7 as an example. This car is made entirely of Huawei components, including Huawei's Hongmeng 4.0 smart cockpit, Huawei Drive ONE 800V power platform, Huawei's ADS2.0 intelligent driving assistance system, Huawei Pangu large model, Huawei Tuling smart chassis, and even the audio and maps are from Huawei.

Are these things good? From the sales volume of Q&A, we can see that consumers are quite satisfied with the "Huawei Family Bucket".

Secondly, it is the brand support of Huawei.

If the Huawei brand was not there at the beginning, consumers might not pay attention to it at all. This is an ironclad fact. For example, the Xingjiyuan ES under Chery Xingtu is derived from the same mother body as the Zhijie S7, but it uses Chery's system, and its monthly sales this year are less than 500.

Huawei and Chery jointly created the Zhijie S7. Initially, the outside world believed that there was an advantage between the two: Chery is an industry giant and is much stronger than Seres in terms of quality control and production capacity. There is no need to worry about product quality issues. It can be said to be a strong combination.

This approach is actually the same as that of the Q&A; or in other words, the entire Hongmeng Intelligent Driving car is based on this approach. Huawei technology + Huawei brand + traditional manufacturers' production capabilities, this is a complete approach.

But from the actual performance point of view, the same routine, which made the Zhijie soar, failed to work for Chery. The Zhijie S7 was launched at the end of November 2023. It has been more than half a year, and the monthly sales have never exceeded 6,000 units.

In order to increase sales, Yu Chengdong himself has repeatedly promoted the Zhijie S7, and Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue has also continuously affirmed the cooperation between the two parties, but its performance has always been lukewarm.

It is obvious that there must be something wrong with this car, or in other words, some of its advantages are only in theory.

Huawei's Hongmeng Intelligent Driving currently has four main partners: Chery, SERES, BAIC, and JAC, but have you noticed that only Wenjie is habitually called "Huawei Wenjie" by consumers, while the other "three Jies" do not receive such treatment.

Huawei's brand bonus to Chery was offset by the influence of an invisible big hand. When it comes to Zhijie S7, everyone knows that it uses Huawei's core components, but few people regard it as "Huawei's car." The appeal generated by Huawei's core components is actually overestimated.

The performance of Huawei's core new energy technology and core components is not in doubt. The best proof of this is that it has enabled the M9, a large SUV priced over RMB 500,000, to sell more than 15,000 units per month for three consecutive months.

However, consumers are rational. They will pay attention to a car because of Huawei's appeal, but they are unlikely to ignore the shortcomings of the model and their actual needs.

The starting price of the Zhijie S7 is 249,800 yuan, which is not cheap. It is a pure electric car, which has a certain range anxiety. In addition, the application range of medium and large sedans is relatively narrow, which has discouraged many family users. Consumers are unlikely to ignore these factors.

Another overrated aspect of the Zhijie S7 is the level of tacit understanding between Huawei and Chery.

Why is the Q&A industry so successful and efficient? One of the main reasons is that SERES is truly flat.

The predecessor of SERES was Xiaokang Shares, which had almost no say in the industry and was very small in scale. Before cooperating with Huawei, almost no one paid attention to this manufacturer, and it was difficult to find any heavyweight partners. The cooperation with Huawei is a rare opportunity for SERES to make a breakthrough.

If the cooperation between SERES and Huawei is successful, it can take a big step forward and successfully complete the "class leap"; if it fails, it doesn’t really matter, because it was originally an unknown small manufacturer.

SERES can hand over everything to Huawei, even the vice president-level executives are parachuted in from Huawei. Some manufacturers are worried that cooperating with Huawei will "lose their soul", but SERES is not worried about this, because the cooperative relationship with Huawei is its "soul".

As of now, the market value of SERES has reached 120 billion yuan, making it the leading stock in the A-share auto sector. While other manufacturers are worried about Huawei's car manufacturing, SERES is counting money with a smile.

But Chery is different. Not long after the Zhijie S7 was launched on the market, rumors of discord between Huawei and Chery began to emerge. Problems also arose in the delivery process, and it took the personal intervention of Chairman Yin Tongyue to quell the controversy.

All signs indicate that no matter what, Chery will not be able to lie flat in front of Huawei.

Chery has a complete set of new energy solutions and has spent tens of billions of dollars on research and development. These results must be used in its new energy models. Chery cannot abandon these things and cooperate with Huawei wholeheartedly. Even if Yin Tongyue, the head of the family, comes forward, there will inevitably be problems in the cooperation between the two sides.

After the launch of the Zhijie S7, the sales volume has not increased. Yu Chengdong and Yin Tongyue explained that the production capacity is limited. But why is the production capacity limited? Because Chery's production capacity cannot be completely tilted to Zhijie, it will focus on supporting Chery's own new energy models.

Zhijie S7 is overrated, and the prospects of this car should not be overestimated. So far, its shortcomings, or overestimated areas, have not been well resolved, which is determined by the market positions and development models of Huawei and Chery respectively.

In fact, apart from Seres, Huawei is unlikely to find a second manufacturer willing to cooperate wholeheartedly, as all major manufacturers have their own technical systems. It is difficult to predict how Huawei's Hongmeng Intelligent Driving will develop in the future. Yu Chengdong naturally hopes that there will be a second brand like Wenjie, but the difficulty of creating a "second Wenjie" is obviously more difficult than creating the first one. Maybe it only exists on paper.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.