The window period for new energy vehicles is only two years away, and car manufacturing has moved from following the trend to actual operation

Jia Yueting once said, "I will make cars even if it means I will never recover." As far as we can see, more and more companies are entering the field of electric vehicle manufacturing.

This cross-border car manufacturing craze is composed of several "representative teams". There are Internet companies, manufacturing companies, and new energy companies. Familiar names come into view, such as Tencent, LeTV, Gree, Foxconn, etc. 2016 has opened a new chapter, and new car events are born every month.

The window period for new energy vehicles is only two years

There are two big news about electric vehicles. One of them is that ZTE (15.940, 0.08, 0.50%) is going to build new energy vehicles. On December 19, ZTE disclosed that in July this year, the company successfully acquired Zhuhai Guangtong Bus and established ZTE Intelligent Automobile Co., Ltd. to enter the field of new energy vehicles. It will focus on the research and development, design, production and manufacturing of new energy vehicles, the system research and development and construction and operation of Internet of Vehicles applications, big data, autonomous driving, and cloud computing centers to create a new industry sector.

Another piece of news is that after a failed acquisition, Dong Mingzhu and Wang Jianlin announced on December 15 that they would officially invest in Zhuhai Yinlong, a new energy company in Zhuhai. In addition to Dong Mingzhu herself, four other companies, including Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yanzhao Huijin International Investment Co., Ltd., signed a capital increase agreement with the original shareholders of Zhuhai Yinlong. The five parties jointly increased capital by 3 billion yuan and obtained 22.388% of the equity of Zhuhai Yinlong. Among them, Wanda Group invested 500 million yuan.

Why does ZTE, a telecommunications company, want to build cars? Tian Feng, deputy general manager of ZTE New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., explained the logic behind this, saying that ZTE is not just following the trend. On the one hand, after more than a hundred years of development, many automotive technologies have become relatively mature; on the other hand, the user experience of future cars depends more on human-computer interaction, and ZTE has advantages in IT, networks, and car networking systems.

Why is Dong Mingzhu, who focuses on manufacturing, working so hard to build cars? In an interview, she said that Gree's goal is to operate multiple brands and allow more Chinese brands to go global.

"At present, faced with frequent air pollution, many people have felt the urgency of environmental protection, and corporate executives are no exception. Undoubtedly, new energy vehicles can greatly reduce pollution and are an area that needs investment. On the other hand, in the current social context, new energy vehicles have been very popular, representing the future development trend and are an area worthy of investment." Automobile observer Chen Xi told a reporter from China Business News.

Globally, the automotive industry is considered a pillar industry. IHS Markit, a well-known market research company based in London, predicts that by 2040, the market share of electric vehicles will reach 15%-35%, and 50% of electric vehicle owners will be new users. Major automakers have invested heavily in electric vehicle research. For example, Germany's Daimler plans to invest 10 billion euros and establish the EQ sub-brand, planning to have more than 10 pure electric models by the time the next five years come.

China is the market with the largest sales of electric vehicles, and it is expected that the sales of electric vehicles in my country will exceed 300,000 this year. Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, once said that new energy vehicles have great potential, and independent brand companies must make up their minds. Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, believes that the adjustment of my country's energy structure has provided energy guarantee for the development of new energy vehicles, and the consumption reduction requirements put forward by relevant laws and regulations for the automobile industry have also promoted the transformation of the industry towards new energy.

There is no doubt that the direction of automobile intelligence and electrification is clear. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, the state and local governments issued many favorable policies to promote the development of new energy vehicles. Entering the 13th Five-Year Plan, this situation is still continuing. A typical example is that the issuance of new energy vehicle licenses is accelerating, especially from September to December this year, reaching the rhythm of "one license per month".

Zhao Xiang, senior analyst at Analysys Auto, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China Business News that my country's new energy vehicle ownership has ranked first in the world since the beginning of this year. The market space is huge and people from all walks of life hope to get a piece of the pie.

"The main components of an electric car are batteries, motors, electronic controls, and a car body. With the development of electric cars, the technologies of batteries, motors, and electronic controls have become increasingly mature, and the technical threshold has dropped, giving many companies development opportunities. Companies like ZTE, Gree, and some Internet companies have flocked to the electric car market. At the same time, the development of smart cars is good for chip manufacturers and sensor equipment manufacturers. Internet companies including Baidu and Google, as well as companies focusing on artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms have also gained many industry development opportunities." said Zhao Xiang.

Some analysts pointed out that there is another important reason why many companies have crossed over to "build cars". From 2019, Volkswagen, Audi, GM, and Ford will launch a large number of new energy vehicles in China. At the same time, domestic independent brands are also intensively deploying new energy vehicles. This means that for emerging car-making teams, the window period is only two years, 2018 and 2019.

Need to cross the three gates of qualifications, capital and supply chain

When everyone rushes to invest in new energy vehicles, market competition is inevitable. Chen Xi pointed out that the entire automotive industry has the problem of homogeneity, and serious homogeneity is a common problem in the automotive industry.

According to the popular saying now, it is called automobile overcapacity. In this regard, Weimar CEO Shen Hui pointed out in an interview with the media that this is actually a structural overcapacity. Good production capacity will never be overcapacity, and the production capacity of relatively flexible, information-based, relatively advanced and high-end manufacturing plants will never be overcapacity.

To achieve good production capacity, many thresholds must be crossed. Zhao Xiang believes that the issue of production qualifications is an important consideration. Cars are assets related to personal safety for each of us, and safety is the most important consideration. Therefore, the control of car manufacturing qualifications is also relatively strict, which poses a problem for many cross-border car manufacturing companies. At present, the solution to this problem is mostly to realize the car manufacturing plan through cooperation or acquisition of companies with production qualifications.

For example, Dong Mingzhu and others invested in Zhuhai Yinlong. Some analysts pointed out that from a technical perspective, Dong Mingzhu was interested in the core technology of lithium titanate batteries mastered by Zhuhai Yinlong; from the perspective of business layout and profitability, perhaps they were interested in Yinlong's future path to listing.

"To build cars, companies need funds, vision and strategic thinking. With funds, they can carry out acquisitions and integration. Companies don't have to start from scratch to build cars, and it is impossible to involve the entire industry chain, especially new energy vehicles. As long as they have some core resources, such as batteries, other things are not a problem. After all, this is an era of integration." Chen Xi told reporters.

Funding is indeed the core issue. Previously, Jia Yueting, chairman of LeTV (35.800, 0.00, 0.00%), published an internal open letter, publicly admitting that LeTV has a tight capital chain and has affected its mobile phone business. "Before the automobile industry became intelligent, its industrial chain can be said to be long and complex. With the electrification and intelligence of automobiles, more and more factors will be involved. Therefore, the automobile industry has a great demand for funds, and companies without strong financial strength will find it difficult to continue." Zhao Xiang said.

In the context of intelligent manufacturing, the value chain and the entire process will also be reorganized. Shen Hui believes that among these, information involvement and sharing between suppliers and manufacturers, rapid response to after-sales services, and other links, together with smart factory equipment, have become very critical components of intelligent manufacturing.

It is foreseeable that as more and more companies enter the electric vehicle industry, the electric vehicle industry will soon become a "red ocean". Only the strongest and fastest-moving companies can seize the opportunity and have the last laugh.

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.