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Words such as "the most luxurious so far", "the highest level", and "top level" have replaced the "far ahead" which Yu Chengdong believes has been overused, and have become the new labels that Yu Chengdong has attached to the Enjoy S9.

On August 6, Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director, chairman of the Terminal BG, chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, and director of the Intelligent Terminal and Intelligent Automotive Components IRB, officially launched the Hongmeng Intelligent Xingjie S9 at the Hongmeng Intelligent Xingjie S9 and Huawei's full-scenario new product launch conference. The S9 Max version is priced from 399,800 yuan, and the S9 Ultra version is priced from 449,800 yuan, which is 50,000 yuan lower than the previously announced pre-sale price.

Enjoy the world is Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing andBAICIt is also the "third world" of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, and the Enjoy S9 is the first model. Including Richard Yu, three industry leaders appeared at the press conference to support the Enjoy S9.

“(BAIC) All in on the Xiangjie S9.”Zhang Jianyong, Party Secretary and Chairman of BAIC Group, said that BAIC has focused on core strategy and first priority strategy and has put all its advantageous resources into the Xiangjie S9.

Zeng Yuqun, Chairman and CEO of CATL, also appeared at the press conference."Huawei is about numbers (digitalization), BAIC is about science (experience in car manufacturing), and CATL is about chemistry (electrochemical technology). The three companies together mean: learn math, physics and chemistry well, and you will not be afraid to travel around the world."

CATL has a long history with Huawei and BAIC. Its cooperation with Huawei can be traced back to the mobile phone era, and its cooperation with BAIC can be traced back to 2012, when the first batch of 400 E150 EVs operated on a large scale by BAIC were equipped with CATL batteries. CATL also invested in BAIC BluePark, an A-share listed company that shoulders the heavy responsibility of BAIC Group's new energy transformation.

According to official introduction, the Xingjie S9 is positioned as a flagship sedan.QJM9The "double 9 flagship" is equipped with the exclusive Tuling platform for D-class sedans. The entire Xiangjie S9 series is equipped with 100kWh Huawei 800V giant whale batteries as standard, with a maximum CLTC range of 816 kilometers. Charging for 5 minutes can increase the range by 200 kilometers, and the average power consumption per 100 kilometers is 13.2kWh.

In terms of intelligent driving, Xiangjie S9 is the first to be equipped with HUAWEI ADS 3.0, applying the latest Huawei intelligent driving end-to-end architecture. Compared with 2.0, it has upgraded functions such as being able to drive on national roundabouts, parking chauffeur, automatic gate passing, and stopping when obstacles are removed.

"Large models like ChatGPT have a common problem, which we call AI hallucination, with an error rate of about 30%. But in a car driving at high speed, a suspected error may cause the car to crash and people to die."Yu Chengdong said that he sent Huawei's R&D experts to test drive in several cities in the United States and Canada.TeslaFSD, it was found that FSD seemed to have similar problems."The upper limit of FSD is high, but its lower limit is low." Huawei ADS 3.0's instinctive security network can avoid such mistakes.

Yu Chengdong said on the spot, "Xiangjie S9 is comparable toBMW7、Audi A8andMercedes-Benz S, will reshape the executive luxury sedan market.”

Compared with Yu Chengdong, who has rich experience in public speaking, Zhang Jianyong, the new chairman of BAIC, who has been in office for less than 5 months, seemed a little embarrassed and serious when he went on stage to give a speech in front of the enthusiastic Huawei fans.

His speech mainly responded to two questions: How can BAIC, which initially entered the new energy market with low-end and mid-range models, make high-end models? Is the cooperation between automakers and Huawei equivalent to "selling their souls"?

“We as GermanyBenzAs the largest shareholder, we have maintained long-term and in-depth cooperation with the world's number one luxury car brand." Zhang Jianyong said that BAIC has a 66-year history and has delivered a total of 36 million vehicles to global users. In the past 20 years, it has built more than 5 million high-end luxury cars.

In addition, Zhang Jianyong redefined the soul of an auto company, "The soul of an auto company has never been to stand still, but to provide consumers with better products through independent innovation and open cooperation, and to push the Chinese auto industry forward. This is the true soul and due responsibility of a Chinese auto company."

According to public information, Zhang Jianyong, who took over BAIC Group at the end of March this year, was formerly a member of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Before taking office at the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, he was a veteran who had worked at BAIC for nearly 20 years.

According to the evaluation of industry insiders quoted by China Auto News, Zhang Jianyong is a practical man who focuses on corporate governance, financial management, tax management and other fields. He has participated in the negotiation and implementation of many large-scale joint ventures and acquisition projects such as the Beijing Benz sedan project and the Chrysler sedan project. During his tenure as executive director of BAIC Capital, he invested in more than 100 projects, including the listing and M&A exit of more than 20 unicorn companies such as BAIC New Energy, CATL, and Didi Chuxing.

Today, Zhang Jianyong faces the BAIC Group, which is in urgent need of completing the transition from old to new energy and whose new energy sector is mired in losses.

According to BAIC's financial report, in 2023, fuel vehicles accounted for 92.3% of BAIC's total revenue, while new energy vehicles accounted for only 7.7%. According to BAIC Blue Valley's financial report, from 2020 to 2023, BAIC Blue Valley has suffered losses for four consecutive years, with the amount exceeding 20 billion yuan. In the first half of this year, BAIC Blue Valley expects a net loss of 2.4 billion to 2.7 billion yuan.

BAIC BluePark explained that there are two reasons for the expected loss: one is that the price war squeezes the profit margin, and the other is that the continuous investment in high-end development has an impact on the company's short-term performance.

The reason why Xiangjie is positioned as a high-end brand may also be related to BAIC BluePark's urgent need to reduce losses and turn losses into profits.

Yu Chengdong revealed at the "16th China Automotive Blue Book Forum" recently that 300,000 yuan is the break-even point for Hongmeng Zhixing, "cars below 300,000 yuan are basically selling at a loss." He added that Hongmeng Zhixing has a high cost and will not sacrifice product quality to reduce costs.

With SeresAsk the worldWith the example of turning losses into profits and entering the top echelon of new forces, betting on Xiangjie can be said to be a move that BAIC must take.

Huawei can leverage its power, but it can’t change its fate

How much potential does Huawei bring?

Since the debut of Enjoyjie at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year, Huawei and BAIC have been intensively releasing information related to Enjoyjie. BAIC BluePark, an A-share listed company shouldering the heavy responsibility of BAIC Group's new energy transformation, saw its sales volume decline by about 20% year-on-year in the first half of the year and an estimated net loss of 2.4 billion yuan to 2.7 billion yuan. Its share price soared from the lowest point of 3.56 yuan per share in February this year to 10.61 yuan per share.

In less than six months, the market value of BAIC BluePark has increased by more than 30 billion yuan. As of the close of August 6, BAIC BluePark reported 9.22 yuan per share, up 1.21%, with a market value of 41.39 billion yuan.BAIC BluePark's performance has made investors feel both happy and worried. One BAIC investor told Shenzhen Net, "BAIC's performance has been pretty good recently, but I'm afraid it's just a flash in the pan."

Huawei's potential can allow new brands to be known to consumers more quickly, but how far the brand can go depends on its own product strength and overall operating strategy.

Huawei's smart car business, namely Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, currently has "four boundaries". The first brand, Wenjie, is a cooperative brand between Huawei and the car company Seres. Today, Wenjie is in the limelight. Its sales in June and July this year exceeded 40,000 for consecutive months, ranking second only to the new forces in domestic car manufacturing.Ideal AutoThanks to the success of the game, SERES Group achieved its first quarterly profit in four years, and its market value even surpassed that of Ideal Auto.

But the growth of Wenjie has not been smooth sailing. In January 2023, Wenjie's sales fell sharply, from around 10,000 units per month in the second half of 2022 to less than 4,500 units. The industry once said, "Wenjie has reached a life-or-death moment."

In the first half of 2023, the sales volume of Wenjie was 23,000, while the sales volume of Ideal Auto was as high as 139,100, about 6 times that of Wenjie. It was not until September last year that Wenjie released the new M7 and re-emerged on the back of Huawei's mobile phone sales.

The "Second World" of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving——Huawei andCheryThe first model of the cooperative brand Zhijie was launched in November last yearSmartS7After its launch, the monthly sales volume was less than 1,000 units for consecutive months. The second launch in April this year also failed to help Zhijie get out of the trough. After the initial sales volume exceeded 5,000 units for two consecutive months, it fell below 3,000 units in June and July.

Yu Chengdong attributed the failure of Zhijie to insufficient marketing. In a live broadcast of "Walking with Brilliance" on July 15, he said that Zhijie's brand had not yet been established. "Zhijie S7 is a very good product, but it did not sell well. The main reason is that there is still a big gap in our marketing capabilities."

Perhaps in order to learn from the experience and lessons of Zhijie, BAIC upgraded and strengthened the marketing and management capabilities of BAIC New Energy before Xiangjie was launched.

On July 9 this year, on the eve of the launch of Enjoy World, BAIC New Energy's management team was reshuffled. Dai Kangwei, the former general manager of BAIC New Energy, who had a technical background, was promoted to deputy chief engineer of BAIC Group and concurrently chairman of BAIC New Energy; Zhang Guofu, the former executive deputy general manager with more experience in marketing and supply chain management, was promoted to general manager of BAIC New Energy; Liu Guanqiao, the former director of operations and management of BAIC Group, was transferred to the position of deputy secretary of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of BAIC New Energy, mainly responsible for marketing work.

Founder Securities believes that the Enjoy S9 is expected to replicate the hit model path of the Wenjie M9, with a steady-state forecast of 1,900-3,100 units/month for pure electric models and 5,900-15,000 units/month for extended-range models. It is estimated that the combined steady-state monthly sales of the Enjoy S9 pure electric + extended-range models are expected to exceed 10,000. In terms of production capacity, the Beijing high-end intelligent ecological factory built by BAIC Blue Valley in Miyun, Beijing, to produce the Enjoy, has an annual production capacity of 120,000 units.