Car sharing has spawned a variety of business models: driverless cars will be the first to explode in the time-sharing rental market

China's car-sharing industry, which began in 2011, is experiencing an explosive growth.

The travel revolution in the automotive industry has made shared travel a hot topic, giving birth to a number of startups. In addition, international leading vehicle manufacturers have gradually launched time-sharing leasing businesses and actively explored the Chinese travel market based on successful foreign experience. Most domestic vehicle manufacturers have also vigorously deployed mobile travel by cooperating with third-party mobile travel companies.

On May 31, the "Car Enterprises' Future Competitiveness Report under New Trends" jointly released by 21st Century Business Herald and Roland Berger showed that car-sharing services are expected to continue to grow rapidly. In 2025, a large number of new car sales in major markets will be used in the field of new travel services. It is expected that the proportion of new car sales in China for new travel services will reach 18%. After 2025, with the advent of driverless taxis, the proportion of new car sales in the field of travel services will increase significantly.

On the same day, the 2018 China Automotive Startup Summit hosted by 21st Century Business Herald was held in Beijing. In a roundtable discussion themed "Mobility Revolution and Future Planning", seven industry leaders from traditional OEMs, emerging car manufacturers, car-sharing companies, and industry experts discussed the business model innovation and market prospects of car-sharing.

The host, Zhang Junyi, managing partner of NIO Capital, asked questions one by one based on the different characteristics of each company. The guests included: Wang Xiaolin, chairman and CEO of Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Auto Group, Wang Chunfeng, general manager of BAIC New Energy Light Enjoy Technology, Yan Daoyuan, founder of E-Drive, Xian Yue, co-founder and CEO of Xinte Auto, Mei Songlin, vice president of JD Power, and Wang Fengbin, secretary general of the Global Future Mobility Conference Organizing Committee.

How to get into shared travel?

"21st Century Business Herald" (hereinafter referred to as "21st Century"): How do traditional automobile companies plan their travel services?

Yang Xueliang: Caocao Private Car, built by Geely, uses new energy vehicles and has covered 24 cities in more than two years. In some cities where it has been running for a long time, it has been profitable in independent operation. Caocao Private Car focuses on the B2C operation model of "new energy vehicles + public buses + certified drivers". The brand is ours, and the cars are also ours, with the brand endorsement behind them. We have a higher degree of control over the vehicles and drivers. All drivers must be certified, which is equivalent to direct employment by the company, so the professional level of the services provided by the drivers can be guaranteed.

Wang Chunfeng: BAIC New Energy's Qingxiang Technology has two roles: First, in terms of 2C, we Qingxiang ourselves do time-sharing leasing, and now have a scale of nearly 10,000 units in 12 cities across the country; second, in terms of 2B, we provide a complete set of solutions from systems, hardware, technology to the entire operation for partners in this industry who want to do time-sharing leasing.

Mei Songlin: From the perspective of travel solutions, if consumers need to travel once, online car-hailing and taxis are better; if consumers need to use it for a few hours, time-sharing rental is more suitable; if consumers need to borrow it for a few days, they can choose traditional rental companies. This is a trend. The business model of shared cars is very diverse and is constantly breaking through. In the future, the entire chain can be opened up.

Wang Fengbin: At present, many automobile manufacturers are transforming and starting to expand the travel service market, extending some travel service companies. However, this type of travel service company also shoulders a mission-the extension of the OEM strategy. For example, the choice of models, market expansion, and extension of value brands may all be consistent with the OEM. In my opinion, these are all beneficial in the early stages of the development of the travel market. However, in the end, such companies should have independent business logic and need an open mindset that is consistent with the spirit of the sharing economy to seek development. In this sense, among the many travel service companies, which ones will have the most promising future? There is no conclusion on this.

"21st Century": How do emerging companies get in?

Wang Xiaolin: Jiangsu Saleen's strategy is to make popular high-end cars. We have never positioned ourselves as a travel service provider, but as a travel hardware provider. All our focus is on how to make the car hardware well so that users can have the best driving experience. In terms of service, we will rely on partners. We will fully support operators to provide good services, rather than just treating service operators as a channel to digest production capacity. Our goal is to form a strong alliance with travel service operators. Saleen will provide high-quality travel hardware to help travel service companies succeed in their business models and jointly bring consumers safe, reliable, convenient, intelligent and connected travel solutions.

Yan Daoyuan: E-Drive entered this industry in 2013. In 2015, we put more than 1,000 electric vehicles into use for time-sharing in Wuhu. We have signed contracts with 45 cities across the country, and have put vehicles into operation in 24 cities. The core of E-Drive's early development is to create a travel service template for a single city. Later, we will turn to opening up travel between several cities. Time-sharing rental will be an industry carrier that can undertake more travel services in the future.

Xianyue: As an emerging car-making force, Xinte is not only about making a car, but also thinking about how to provide an innovative product model from product to operation. I have worked on charging piles before. This industry needs to connect the upstream and downstream to bring a good experience to users. Our first car was in cooperation with Mobike. We considered whether we could make a product based on sharing needs during the product development stage. From the perspective of the OEM, we think about how to connect the needs of automobile products, time-sharing rental users and operating companies. In addition to providing users with a new product innovation model on the C-end, we also create a product innovation model with time-sharing rental companies on the B-end.

21st Century: Both Xinte and YiKai have reached cooperation with FAW, but FAW is also developing its own travel services. What are the differences in positioning? How can they work together?

Yan Daoyuan: The name of our joint venture is FAW EasyDrive Intelligent Driving Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. In fact, "Tianjin" can be replaced by any city, and we will also set up such joint ventures in other cities. In this market, OEMs try to cooperate with companies they think are more reliable in the industry, and we also hope to obtain more customized products through in-depth cooperation with OEMs.

At present, the vehicles we use for operation are not prepared for shared travel, but are designed and produced for private cars. After operating for a few years, we found that there are hundreds of things that need to be changed, but none of the core things have been changed, which is a painful part of the operation.

Xianyue: Although FAW was late in the shared travel industry, its operations are still very pragmatic. It can solve more user pain points and form a truly sustainable and implementable development model. In the future, we will have good creativity, good ideas, and good technical solutions, but what is more important is implementation.

When will the shared travel industry usher in spring?

"21st Century": Has the spring of shared travel arrived?

Mei Songlin: The spring of shared travel is still far from coming. For mobile travel or shared travel to take off on a large scale, three changes must be addressed first: electrification, intelligence, and networking.

Wang Xiaolin: Since its birth, cars have been providing new solutions for travel. That is why cars replaced horse-drawn carriages 130 years ago. I don’t think shared travel is a new revolutionary process for the automotive industry. It is an evolution to a new product stage that provides a better travel experience. The focus of shared travel is still travel. Modern travel methods require good products to match. In this regard, Saleen will seriously do its old business - making cars. Just like Huawei has always focused on communication hardware products rather than communication services, Saleen will focus on providing shared travel service providers with cars that have both extreme technology and driving pleasure.

Wang Fengbin: I am relatively optimistic about the new forces in car manufacturing and travel services. The automotive industry around the world is dominated by family-owned, private and private enterprises, but China is still dominated by state-owned enterprises, so the Chinese automotive industry is large but not strong. However, the strong drive and rise of China's new energy vehicle industry has actually also driven the strength of many private enterprises. This is not only a technological change and a change in the energy supply model, but also a belated marketization baptism for China's automotive industry. We hope to see the dividends released by the loosening of the system in the near future.

"21st Century": What potential does shared cars have?

Yan Daoyuan: Autonomous driving will definitely be the first to explode in the time-sharing rental sector. Once autonomous driving is applied in the time-sharing rental industry, the customer base that vehicles can satisfy will increase from the original 20% to 100%.

Xianyue: Xinte reached a cooperation with Bosch on May 25, and was the first in China to promote Bosch's mature automatic parking solution. We considered it for the sharing scenario. There are two core factors in sharing: the first is the scarcity of road parking resources, which determines that parking will definitely develop underground. The second is the convenience of users picking up and returning cars. Therefore, at that time, we and Bosch launched the entire technical solution of picking up and returning cars in a shared environment and unmanned driving in underground parking lots.

Yang Xueliang: Caocao Private Car is not only an Internet company, but also a car networking and Internet of Things company. Caocao Private Car may have several development directions in the future. The first is customization, which is an advantage of the OEM. Our entire R&D system is now seamlessly connected with Caocao Private Car. All feedback issues, including the launch of application scenario solutions, are being worked on simultaneously by the research institute. In the future, it will definitely become a customized shared car. Second, China's online car-hailing and shared car models will be gradually promoted overseas, or cooperate with similar overseas companies.

Wang Fengbin: The automotive industry is undergoing a historic transformation. It is not only a change in the power mode from fuel to clean energy, nor is it just a technical change on the product side. With the superposition and integration of information technology waves such as mobile Internet and artificial intelligence, the focus of the automotive industry value chain has begun to shift from the product side to the service side. A large travel industry ecosystem is taking shape, and electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing are gradually turning from trends into reality.

At present, the travel service ecosystem with the sharing economy model as its core is still in the process of evolution. Although there are unicorn companies in the travel service industry, it is still far from mature. At this stage, forces from all levels and fields of society need to be continuously integrated. The healthy development of the industry requires a sound and gradient ecosystem. The monopoly situation where no grass grows under the giant tree is harmful to the development of the industry and even the core enterprises.

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.