Internet car manufacturing has entered the stage of factory construction and mass production. The wolf is really coming.

The wave of LeEco's car manufacturing has not yet subsided, and the wave of "Internet car manufacturing" has arrived again. At the beginning of this year, especially around the Shanghai Auto Show, car brands with Internet genes collectively "showed off their muscles" both inside and outside the venue. Singularity, Weilai, Weimar and other brands have launched mass-produced models. In addition to Singularity settling in Tongling and Weimar settling in Wenzhou, Xiaopeng Motors also announced on May 4 that it would start construction and production in Zhaoqing High-tech Zone, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan in the first and second phases. The day before, Chery's 3 billion yuan new energy and smart car project was also announced to settle in Shijiazhuang.

In the past, car companies that were often ridiculed as "PPT car manufacturing", "car manufacturing financing", and "Internet car manufacturing" have already launched mass-produced models and invested in factories. As early as this year, a small number of mass-produced cars will roll off the assembly line. The car manufacturing "cake" still looks big, but production qualifications, battery technology, and whether traditional car companies will disrupt the situation are still difficult problems faced by new car companies.

The car manufacturing boom is here again, with mass-produced cars and concept cars flourishing

Before and after the Shanghai Auto Show, bringing financing, concept cars (or quasi-mass production cars) to take advantage of the auto show's popularity has become a standard for many "Internet car manufacturing" companies.

On the eve of the auto show, Singularity Auto CEO Shen Haiyin announced that it had received $600 million in financing. The Singularity Intelligent New Energy Vehicle Industrial Park project will be located in Tongling, Anhui, with a total investment of 8 billion yuan and an estimated annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles. According to a reporter from Nandu, Singularity Auto's products are currently produced in the form of OEM. The newly released iS6 mass-produced car is said to have a range of 400km. Shen Haiyin emphasized that this is not a value under specific working conditions, but the actual mileage.

NIO also brought its mass-produced models to the exhibition, but apart from a bunch of literal introductions, it also fell into the awkward situation of "only being able to be viewed from a distance" without showing any details. Outside the exhibition hall, WM Motor also displayed its first mass-produced model and announced that it was setting up an industrial fund of 12 billion yuan to achieve "overtaking in a different lane" over traditional car companies. Although seemingly different, these new cars released by new car companies before and after the auto show have several things in common, namely long driving range, "cool" appearance and Internet genes.

Has the frequent construction of factories come out of capital and PPT?

The industry generally believes that this wave of Internet car manufacturing started with the "Regulations on Investment Projects and Production Access Management for New Pure Electric Passenger Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2015. Both companies in the automotive industry chain and new car manufacturing companies flocked to it at the same time. After two years of dormancy, they collectively broke out this year. During this period, the LeEco Auto funding chain crisis and rumors of executives leaving did not seem to affect everyone's interest in making cars. Many domestic car companies have cooperated with high-tech industrial parks in second-, third- and fourth-tier cities. Many have quietly built factories and entered the substantial mass production stage, such as Xiaopeng's factory in Zhaoqing and Weimar's factory in Wenzhou.

In an exclusive interview with Nandu reporter, Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, stressed that he disagrees with the label of "Internet car manufacturing" often attached to new car companies with Internet genes. The key at the moment is to make the car product well. "I think we are born with different genes. From the first day, we have been electrified, intelligent and shared, and on this basis, we emphasize experience. But only by making this product well can we have the subsequent 'car + Internet' and 'product + Internet'." Shen Hui said, "For us, it is to make the physical product well, so as to build a new system, a new ecology and create opportunities for brand new user experience."

Shen Hui previously held important positions in Geely and other auto companies. After leaving, he participated in the smart car manufacturing plan of Boya Group, but later "split up" and left to establish WM Motor. His recent career changes seem to reflect a certain degree of "the difficulty of making cars."

Although new car companies have entered the mass production and factory construction stage, most new car companies have not obtained the production qualifications for new energy vehicles. This is a difficult problem facing everyone. Nandu reporters sorted out the companies that obtained licenses in the past year and found that companies such as BAIC New Energy and Chery New Energy are more like traditional car companies whose new energy businesses have been split and valued, while Jiangling New Energy and others are the expansion of the main engine business - entering the field of new energy passenger cars, while Qiantu Motors and Wanxiang Group are undergoing transformation and upgrading. They were once just companies in the automotive parts industry chain. The continuous tightening of production qualifications for new energy vehicle companies and the gradual decline in subsidies have also become a time bomb for car companies that have not yet obtained qualifications.

Without core battery technology, is the driving range really reliable?

LeEco's ecosystem will be applied to cars, WM Motor is the first to deploy community and charging apps, and the "car-to-home" and "car-to-car" designs are just right... In this wave of car manufacturing, car companies emphasize that cars are extremely "disruptive" in use, but the core that really makes the car run is still the battery performance of new energy vehicles.

However, almost every new car company emphasizes its endurance. The range of "quasi-production cars" is more than 500 to 600 kilometers, and the data of concept cars are even more exaggerated. For example, the range of the Zhengdao H 600 concept car reaches 1,000 kilometers, and the range of the WM concept car AG 2020 reaches 1,200 kilometers.

Although the test data of the driving range is quite good, no new car company introduces its "battery technology" as a selling point. Obviously, these new car companies do not have the battery technology. BYD, which is at the forefront of domestic new energy vehicles, launched the Song EV 300, the pure electric car with the longest driving range this year. As the name suggests, the mileage is only about 300 kilometers. In the previous actual vehicle test, it only ran about 360 kilometers. Among Tesla's models on sale, the Model S has the highest driving range, but it is only more than 500 kilometers. It is not easy to run this number of kilometers in actual road conditions. Both BYD and Tesla are dwarfed by a group of "Internet car companies". In this regard, a senior lithium battery R&D engineer told Nandu reporters that under simple experimental conditions, according to today's technology, it is not impossible for pure electric vehicles to travel relatively long distances, but whether the batteries are suitable for large-scale mass production remains a question mark. "In the current automotive battery industry, it is necessary to make trade-offs in battery size, fast charging performance, safety, and endurance." Creating an "all-round" battery is something that the whole world is researching.

Regarding how to overcome the battery problem, Shen Hui said that compared with self-research and development, integrating the industrial chain is a better method, and small companies with "breakthrough capabilities" are the solution. From the current point of view, many new car companies, like WM Motor, do not focus on battery research and development, but focus on integrating industrial chain resources. Therefore, there are also voices in the industry pointing out that it would be more convenient for traditional car companies with battery technology and vehicle manufacturing technology to complete Internet car manufacturing by adding Internet genes? At present, Yundou, which has obtained production qualifications, is supported by FAW Group. Singularity and Weilai have not denied the OEM model. It seems to be more convenient to rely on traditional car manufacturers to achieve the goal of rapid car manufacturing.

The progress of some Internet car companies in car manufacturing

1. LeEco Auto: In 2016, it released the LeeSEE concept car. At the end of 2016, it and its partner Faraday Future released the mass-produced car FF91. According to media reports, the progress of the Moganshan and US factories is slow.

2 Singularity Motors: The preview version of Singularity iS6 has been unveiled, and it plans to achieve small-scale mass production in 2017. It has signed a new energy vehicle industrial park project with the Tongling Economic and Technological Development Zone of Anhui Province.

3. NIO: Two mass-produced cars, NIO EP9 and NIO ES8, were unveiled. It adopted both the OEM model and self-built production bases, and signed cooperation agreements with JAC and Changan Automobile.

4. CHJ Automotive: Its products are still in the spy photo and PPT stage, and the first phase of its production base in Changzhou is under construction.

5. WM Motor: The first phase of the factory is under construction, mass production vehicles will roll off the assembly line in 2018, the cumulative global test mileage has exceeded 1 million kilometers, and the concept car AG2020 was unveiled.

6. Yundou Auto: It is backed by FAW Group and has obtained production qualifications. Its small SUV models π1 and π3 are expected to be launched on the market this year.

7 Youxia Automobile: The mass production trial car is expected to be released this year. The production base is confirmed to be located in Huzhou, but construction has not yet started.

8 Xpeng Motors: This month, the production base was put into construction in Zhaoqing and the Beta version of the car has been unveiled.

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.