As April began, new car-making forces represented by NIO, Xpeng and Ideal have successively released their report cards.

In March, NIO delivered 7,257 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 373% and a month-on-month increase of 30%, setting a new monthly sales record. In the first quarter (Q1), sales reached 20,060 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 42%;

Xpeng's deliveries reached 5,101 units in March, a 130% increase from the previous month and a 384% increase from the previous year. With 13,340 units delivered in the first quarter, it exceeded the 12,963 units delivered in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Ideal delivered 4,900 vehicles in March, up 238.6% year-on-year and 113% month-on-month. In Q1, it delivered 12,579 vehicles, up 334.4% year-on-year.

Judging from the sales volume and growth performance, NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto are obviously doing quite well, but if we compare them with Tesla, their performance seems a bit "not that scary".

Tesla's global deliveries in Q1 were 185,000 vehicles, of which Model 3/Model Y deliveries were 182,790 vehicles and Model S and Model X deliveries were 2,020 vehicles.

Tesla's sales of Model 3 and Model Y alone have far exceeded the combined sales of NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto, and even exceeded the annual sales of BYD, the leading domestic new energy brand. It feels like Donnie Yen is fighting ten enemies alone.

This comparison is not intended to embarrass domestic new energy vehicle companies. Just like Chinese mobile phones, our new energy vehicles will sooner or later be sold globally. In the face of Tesla's "excellent work", whether it is "NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto" or SAIC, GAC, and BYD, before going global, how should our brands advance from the edge to the center?

From the edge to the center

For Chinese automakers, the impact of the new energy wave is not that big, after all, the starting line is not far away. But for Japanese brands that are deeply rooted in the field of fuel vehicles, this is really a hellish test.

On December 19, 2020, at the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association's year-end press conference, Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda launched a fierce "bombardment" on electric vehicles. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, quoted the "Nokia" story to comment on the news, intending to point out that if Toyota continues to stand still, the Nokia-style tragedy will not be far away.

The wildly growing electric car market is indeed highly similar to the smartphone market more than a decade ago. As people born in the 1980s and 1990s, almost all of us have witnessed the rise and fall of Nokia.

When the Apple iPhone came out and brought about a radical change in the mobile phone industry, Nokia's words "We didn't do anything wrong, but we don't know why we lost" made people feel sad, but also made us sigh that no matter how big a business organization is, if it does not adapt to the changes led by technology, the result can only be like dinosaurs meeting an asteroid.

Now all of this is happening again in the automotive industry. Tesla and the new energy model it advocates have changed the development of the automotive industry dramatically in an instant.

The competition in the new energy vehicle market has entered a new dimension. In addition to the accelerated transformation of existing traditional car companies and the rapid growth of new car companies, even players like Xiaomi have crossed over.

Taking the new forces in car manufacturing as an example, the biggest rival of NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto is undoubtedly Tesla. Although the strategies of the three car companies are different, they all rely on the "edge strategy", that is, the research and execution of future industrial directions, just like the development path of Chinese smartphone brands back then.

When the mobile phone market was at its hottest, big players such as Siemens, Ericsson, and Microsoft, as well as newcomers such as HTC, Coolpad, LeTV, and Smartisan, all made bold attempts to stand out, but all ended in failure. Currently, only Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo are able to survive and develop relatively well in the Chinese mobile phone market. Without exception, they are all based on the present and look to the future, and have achieved today's performance with their unique "labeled" style and functions.

Paul Nunes, global managing director of Accenture Institute for High Performance, once said that companies live in the forefront of the storm most of the time. Therefore, when formulating strategies, companies must achieve marginal centralization and pay attention to the opinions of the minority.

The so-called marginalization strategy is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1. Find new sources of competitiveness;

2. Practice of turning the marginal center into the future center

3. Exploration of the “center of no man’s land” in the further edge

Judging from the above three points, in the business war of smart phones, the perspective of edge strategy has been widely used in actual combat. Every company is rediscovering itself, looking for new consumer groups and outbreak points, and formulating corresponding product plans until a "big bang disruption" is achieved.

The marginalization strategy has also been fully reflected in the new forces of domestic car companies. Take Ideal Auto as an example. Although Ideal only has one car product, ONE, its performance in 2020 is excellent.

2020 is the first year for Ideal Auto to deliver complete products. According to statistics, Ideal ONE delivered a total of 32,600 vehicles in 2020. Thanks to this, Ideal's total annual revenue reached US$1.45 billion.

Unlike Tesla's pure electric technology route, Ideal Auto uses extended-range technology, targeting the pain point of pure electric vehicles' range anxiety, and created Ideal ONE, competing with Tesla in a different market segment in the new energy vehicle market. Facts have proved that Ideal Auto's strategy is successful, not only allowing it to survive in the fiercely competitive new energy vehicle market, but also winning the necessary development space and time for the future.

In addition to Ideal Auto, leading new players such as NIO are also competing with Tesla in differentiated product positioning, seeking "marginalization" advantages, and then highlighting their unique labels and finding precise user groups.

Take NIO EC6 and ES6 as an example. Through product misalignment competition, they have formed a competitive advantage in the mid-size SUV market that Tesla has not entered. According to statistics, the sales of NIO ES6 and NIO EC6 in March this year were 3,152 and 2,576 respectively.

Technology drives intelligentization

Of course, in order to further realize the leap from Made in China to Chinese brands, in addition to precise user groups and clearly positioned products, we also need to continuously plan ahead in terms of technology routes to bring more long-term value feedback to users.

The reason why Chinese smartphone brands can compete with world-class international brands such as Apple and Samsung is inseparable from their profound technological layout.

The overall image of Chinese mobile phone brands was once far inferior to that of foreign brands, and they did not even have their own core technologies. However, now, whether in chips or OS, facing the strong dominance of Google and Apple, Chinese brands have the ability to advance from the edge to the center. For example, Huawei has Kirin chips, and its own Hongmeng system also forms an ecological network comparable to iOS and Android from the perspective of edge innovation that penetrates the Internet of Things.

Through the development of China's smartphone industry, we can clearly see how important technology-driven is to a company. Similarly, if our new energy vehicle brand wants to complete the comprehensive upgrade from product to brand and become a global leading brand, forward-looking technology layout is a critical step in brand growth.

Take the key battery technology in the three-electric technology of electric vehicles as an example. In November last year, NIO launched a 100kWh battery pack, which increased the range of the NIO ES8 to 580km, an increase of 36.7%. It not only effectively solved the range shortcoming, but also greatly improved the safety of the vehicle and reduced the risk of battery spontaneous combustion. BYD's blade battery is known to be highly safe, and CATL's battery also exceeds the national standard in one fell swoop.

Battery safety is still an unavoidable topic for new energy vehicles. Taking foreign brands as an example, Hyundai Kona EV has had 13 spontaneous combustion incidents, resulting in the recall of 77,000 vehicles. BMW and Ford also announced the recall of nearly 27,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles due to impurities in the battery cells and the risk of spontaneous combustion.

At present, there are still deficiencies in the world's reserves of three-electric technology. If Chinese car companies want to build a good Chinese brand, improving technology and optimizing products will undoubtedly be the best and fastest way.

Compared with foreign car companies, my country has great advantages in the core technology of the three-electric system because we have the world's top-notch high-quality battery suppliers.

According to data from market research company SNE rssearch, the total installed capacity of electric vehicle batteries in the world in January and February this year was 25.2GWh, a year-on-year increase of 102.4%. Among them, CATL, which ranked first, and BYD, which ranked fourth, increased by more than 272% and 401% year-on-year respectively. This is a major benefit for Chinese automakers, because having high-quality parts suppliers is tantamount to having a strong escort for the development of their own brands.

In addition to the three-electric technology, intelligent capabilities will also be the main battlefield for major automakers to compete in the future.

From traditional fuel vehicles to smart electric vehicles, the differences in manufacturing links are beginning to narrow. The autonomous driving function is directly reflected in the model, which is easier for consumers to perceive and is an intuitive reflection of the differentiation of the level of automobile intelligence.

Currently, the first-tier companies in this field include Google, Tesla, and China's Baidu, Xiaopeng, Weilai, etc. They have basically launched autonomous driving functions close to the L3 level. In a recent 3,000-kilometer test, Xiaopeng's autonomous driving performance also exceeded Tesla. In other words, in the battlefield of new energy vehicles, Chinese automakers have actually already led Japan and South Korea, and are in the same phalanx as the United States, and their future development is promising.

Quality builds a great brand

Chinese mobile phone companies have long based their brand strategy on product strength, which is the so-called "productism". However, judging from the trend, the brand's values ​​will gradually settle into the direction that users pay attention to. In terms of brand sedimentation, domestic brands have a natural advantage over foreign brands.

It has to be admitted that domestic brands have long been labeled as "cheap" and "copycat". If domestic brands want to achieve sustainable development, they must use product strength and values ​​to get rid of these labels and achieve brand upgrading.

Since the development time of Chinese new energy brands such as Wei, Xiao, and Li, they are relatively short and they have always been high-end since their launch, so their brand power has taken root in the minds of consumers. However, just like the path that China's smartphone brands have taken, most car companies in the independent camp need to come up with more powerful products to change consumers' inherent perceptions.

However, combined with the trend of domestic brands in recent years, the road to high-end brands is taking a solid step. Take Great Wall Motor's Tank 300 as an example. Its sales in January this year were 6,237 units. As a domestic compact SUV with a starting price of 175,800 yuan, this sales performance proves that the high-end development of domestic brands has begun to be recognized by consumers. From the case of the Tank 300, giving products unique brand characteristics and winning the recognition of corresponding users is undoubtedly an excellent way for domestic brands to move up.

Apart from tank In addition to the 300, Geely's Lynk & Co brand and BYD's Electric The electric vehicle model is also a banner for the high-end development of independent brands. In a nutshell, our independent brands have entered a new stage of development and started to export products to overseas markets. NIO has entered Norway, Hongqi has entered Japan, etc. It is an indisputable fact that Chinese brands are heading to overseas markets. In fact, with the comprehensive rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we need more high-quality products and brands to "spread" along the Belt and Road. Only when Chinese brands break through from marginal survival to the core of the industry can Made in China truly move towards the most dazzling C position among the brands of global powers.

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.