What is the charm of new energy vehicles? Why are Internet giants competing to invest in them?

As the price of non-renewable fuels continues to rise worldwide, the development of new energy vehicles, represented by electric vehicles, has begun to become an emerging industry that companies from all over the world are competing to develop, especially major Internet giants with the spirit of the times.

Recently, the news that LeEco Holdings will also be involved in the field of new energy vehicles was officially announced. LeEco CEO Jia Yueting personally admitted, "Through completely independent research and development, LeEco will create the best Internet smart electric vehicles." At this point, we have to start paying attention to this issue: Why are Internet companies also so interested in new energy vehicles?

New energy vehicle field: deep, hot, and promising

Compared with the Chinese market, the US had already started an electric car craze a few years ago, from the bankrupt Fisker, to Coda, which filed for bankruptcy protection, to Tesla, which has a lot of topics but a small market. Whether in terms of performance, technology, price or application, new energy vehicles are far from the era of replacing fuel vehicles. However, such an emerging field that is out of reach has attracted many Internet companies to compete for layout.

In May this year, Baidu hired Andrew Ng, one of the most authoritative scholars in the field of artificial intelligence, from Google and appointed him as Baidu's chief scientist. As a result, there were reports that Baidu would get involved in the field of driverless cars.

In July, Alibaba and SAIC signed a strategic cooperation agreement on "Internet cars". According to the agreement, SAIC's Internet cars will use Alibaba's Yun OS operating system and integrate Alibaba's application service resources such as Alibaba Cloud Computing, AutoNavi Navigation, and Alibaba Communications.

Of course, the most realistic rumor is about Xiaomi Technology. Last year, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun personally visited Musk, the CEO of Tesla electric cars, and said, "Compared to his other plans, I am very interested in Musk's Tesla cars." In addition, Xiaomi Technology co-founder and vice president Li Wanqiang also went to Silicon Valley, the headquarters of Tesla, an American new energy vehicle, to develop Xiaomi's new products.

Although there are many rumors about Internet companies testing the waters, it is obvious that most of them are still tentative in their involvement in the new energy vehicle field, and have not put on a posture of fully immersing themselves in it. The emergence of this phenomenon can be said to be determined by the current situation of the new energy vehicle industry.

Take Tesla as an example. Although it is the only remaining electric car manufacturer in the world and has occupied a certain high-end market with its product advantages, it has to be admitted that Tesla, which lacks endogenous resources in terms of capital, technology and market, still cannot occupy the mainstream automobile market in a short period of time.

The transition from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles is not simply a product upgrade, but a fundamental transformation of the product. In the future, new energy vehicles under the background of the Internet will have better product performance and user experience than traditional vehicles.

LeEco's car manufacturing: many advantages, more than enough shortcomings

At present, LeEco has clearly stated that it will get involved in the field of new energy vehicles, or electric vehicles. In addition to Jia Yueting's cooperation negotiations and business trips abroad for nearly a year, LeEco's biggest move in China is the signing of a cooperation agreement with BAIC Group and the joint investment in Atieva, an American intelligent pure electric high-tech production company.

Speaking of BAIC Group, it can be said to be the most suitable partner for LeTV, because it not only has core technologies for traditional automobiles, new energy vehicles and battery manufacturing, but also has product lines such as pure electric, hybrid, electric buses, pure electric cars, as well as national policy subsidies and support.

As for LeEco itself, its first foray into new energy vehicles can be said to be both a disadvantage and an advantage. Needless to say, the disadvantages are the lack of experience and high investment.

At the same time, it is precisely because LeEco has no experience in the field of new energy vehicles that it has the same industry advantages as Tesla. As we all know, Tesla is also a new energy vehicle manufacturer that started from scratch. It has never developed internal combustion vehicle models before. The lack of traditional automobile manufacturing history enables it to focus more on the development of electric vehicles as a unique concept, that is, it is not bound by any existing rules and regulations.

He Yi, CEO of LeEco Holding's Internet of Vehicles, revealed, "LeEco has established a super car R&D team in the United States. This team consists of professionals from four fields: traditional automobile manufacturing, electric systems, the Internet industry, and the smart hardware industry. In terms of super car products, LeEco will continue to support the already successful vertically integrated Internet ecosystem, namely, LeEco's ecological architecture of 'platform + content + terminal + application'."

It is reported that LeTV may create a car Internet ecosystem, through which users can realize functions such as unmanned driving, automatic parking, and smart navigation. Passengers in the back seat can use the Internet to turn the car into a mobile smart terminal device and obtain entertainment, information and other content through the cloud to enhance interactivity.

In fact, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk once said, "Tesla is not just a car, it's a mobile terminal."

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.