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Yu Chengdong launched a second charge towards the pure electric hot-selling sedan.

Recently, Huawei andBAICThe first model jointly createdEnjoy S9Officially launched, this also became HuaweiHongmeng Intelligent DrivingThe second pure electric sedan of (formerly Zhixuanche).

Last December, Huawei andCheryThe first model of the cooperationSmartS7, becoming the first pure electric sedan of the smart car business, but it has been tepid since its release. Suffering from unfavorable deliveries, its monthly sales have remained at around 2,000 to 3,000 units.

In order to solve the delivery crisis, in the first quarter of this year, Yu Chengdong began to maintain a communication frequency with Chery executives of once a month offline and once a week online. However, the increase in production capacity did not bring about a huge explosion in sales of Zhijie S7.

When explaining how to ensure that Huawei and its partner car companies can eventually make money, Wang Yanmin, then president of Huawei's terminal smart car business, said that Huawei can only make these new cars priced above 300,000 yuan become hits one by one. "If they cannot become hits, the business model cannot be closed."

According to the current hot-selling bottom line of the new energy industry,This means that all cooperating car models under Huawei's smart car selection model must achieve monthly sales of at least over 10,000.

According to data from Autohome, in June this year, there were only eight pure electric sedans with sales exceeding 10,000 units, of which only three were priced above 200,000 yuan, namelyTesla Model 3、Zeekr 001、Xiaomi SU7。

The reason why Xiaomi SU7 became a hit model is inseparable from Lei Jun's risky move.Xiaomi MotorsDuring the full-year production period, internal executives suggested ordering 30,000 vehicles. The reason for this was that the best-selling model in the pure electric sedan market at the time had monthly sales of only about 3,000 vehicles.

Lei Jun took a gamble and set a radical target of 76,000 units. Fortunately, with the hot sales of Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun won the gamble.Now, the roulette wheel of great adventure has come to Yu Chengdong.

According to the official forecast given by BAIC BluePark, from 2024 to 2028, the sales of Xiangjie S9 are expected to be 60,000, 120,000, 120,000, 96,000 and 84,000 respectively. This also means thatBy 2024, Enjoyjie S9 needs to achieve a monthly sales target of over 10,000 units.

The starting price of Xiangjie S9 is nearly 400,000 yuan.Yu Chengdong's adventure will undoubtedly be more thrilling than Lei Jun's.Statistics from the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (hereinafter referred to as the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Branch) show that in the first half of 2024, sales of sedans priced above 300,000 yuan were 445,000 units, while sales of SUV models of the same price were 755,000 units during the same period.

Domestic potential car owners' love for SUVs is directly reflected in the sales of car companies:TeslaThe main source of shipments isModel Y，NIOThe focus of shipments also relies entirely on SUV models.

Although it also focuses on high-end luxury flagship, SUV modelsQJM9At present, it is still difficult to ensure that the pure electric sedan model Xiangjie S9 will become Huawei's next hit.

A

The Enjoy S9, which uses the traffic of the Wenjie M9 to launch the double 9 flagship, is equipped with the Huawei Tuling platform exclusively for D-class sedans. The entire series is equipped with the Huawei 800V Big Whale battery of CATL with 100kWh as standard. The official claim is that the range can be increased by 200 kilometers after charging for 5 minutes, and the average power consumption per 100 kilometers is 13.2kWh.

The Enjoy S9 has all the features that electric cars pursue: a refrigerator, a color TV, and a big sofa.At the rear armrest, the Xingjie S9 is equipped with a refrigerator to support cold and warm braking effects.

Similar to the Q9, the S9 is also equipped with a 32-inch projection screen, and heat-insulating sunshades are set on the side windows, rear windows, triangular windows and other locations to enhance the projection clarity.

The zero-gravity seat that has always been loved by Yu Chengdong has also been moved into the back row of the Enjoy S9, making it the industry's first mass-produced zero-gravity seat for a sedan.

The Enjoy S9 is available in two versions: Max and Ultra, priced at RMB 399,800 and RMB 449,800 respectively.The difference between the two versions is that the Ultra version is upgraded from rear-wheel drive to four-wheel drive, and the optional zero-gravity seats and laser projection system are changed to standard. Another difference is that the Ultra version uses different tires, with a comprehensive range of 721 kilometers and a 0-100 acceleration of 3.9 seconds. The Max has a longer range of 816km and a relatively slower 0-100 acceleration of 5.98 seconds.

Intelligent driving has also become a highlight of the Enjoy S9.It was first launched with Huawei ADS 3.0, applying the latest Huawei end-to-end technology, with functions such as parking valet, automatic gate, and stopping when obstacles are removed.

Facing Tesla's FSD, which also uses an end-to-end architecture, Yu Chengdong said, "FSD has a high upper limit, but a low lower limit," such as hitting the side of the road and sometimes failing to recognize white obstacles in front. Huawei has added an instinctive safety network to ADS 3.0, claiming that it can avoid similar mistakes.

Another highlight of the Enjoy S9 is its active safety. For stationary vehicles, rollover vehicles/water barriers, regardless of whether they are driven by humans or smart drivers, Huawei AEB can already stop them at a speed of 120km/h.

Yu Chengdong did not forget to bring up the past, saying that an event in AprilAsk the worldThe owner of the car had an accident. At that time, an external supplier's solution was used. The AEB worked within the speed range of 4 to 85 km/h. It would not work above 85 km/h.QJM7When the car rear-ended a working sprinkler truck, the collision speed was detected to be 115km/h, far exceeding the AEB trigger range.

It is worth noting thatThis is not the first time Huawei and BAIC have cooperated.As early as 2017, the two sides started cooperation and launchedAlpha S HI version, this is also the first mass-produced model equipped with Huawei's full-stack intelligent vehicle solution.

However, the model failed to achieve sales success, and there was even news that the cooperation between the two parties had ended. At the 2023 China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum, Yu Chengdong explained that under the Huawei HI model, only the three original cooperating car companies are left.Changan AvitaOne isGuangzhou Automobile, gave up and stopped doing it. In addition, there are some problems with the model products made by BAIC, and the products they defined have some problems in market competitiveness."

For Huawei andBAIC ArcfoxRegarding the follow-up cooperation, Yu Chengdong later explained that the two parties did not terminate the cooperation, but upgraded from the HI mode to the smart selection mode.

Behind the model upgrade, there is also a change in the attitude of car companies towards Huawei. When Huawei cooperated to build BAIC Arcfox in 2021, it faced the current situation of general distrust from OEMs. A former Huawei BU employee who participated in the BAIC Arcfox project once mentioned to 36Kr that "traditional car companies are still wary of Huawei, which has prevented Huawei from bringing into play many of its advantages."

However, with the success of Huawei's Xiangjie and the increasing role of smart driving technology in electric vehicles, car companies are returning to their enthusiasm for cooperation with Huawei. Zhang Jianyong, chairman of BAIC, said at the launch of Xiangjie S9: "The soul of a car company has never been to stand still, but to provide consumers with better products through innovation and open cooperation. This is the true soul and due responsibility of Chinese car companies."

B

But as Yu Chengdong is once again betting big on the pure electric route, car companies that have been tripped up by sales are turning to the extended-range route.

The research and development of extended-range models has become a new trend in the field of electric vehicles.According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, since 2021, the growth rate of hybrid vehicles, including extended-range products, has begun to surpass that of pure electric vehicles and has remained at this rate to this day.

In the first half of 2024, pure electric sales of sedans increased by 12.9% year-on-year, while hybrid sales increased by 68% year-on-year. The growth rate of the SUV market was even more exaggerated, with pure electric SUVs increasing by 19.1% year-on-year and hybrid sales increasing by 73.7% year-on-year.

Ideal, which almost single-handedly made extended-range models popular, returned to the level of monthly sales of 50,000 vehicles in July this year, setting a new historical record with 51,000 vehicles delivered.

The new M7 of Wenjie, led by Yu Chengdong, has become a model of crossing the river by feeling the ideal. Since its launch in September last year, it has become the latest representative of extended-range model to boost sales. Yu Chengdong said with emotion that the new M7 is bringing Wenjie back to life.

There are many examples in the world of questions.More car companies cooperating with Huawei also want to get a piece of the extended-range pie.Chery, which shares the same platform with the Zhijie S7Star Road Star Era ES, it was revealed that an extended-range version would be launched in the fourth quarter to boost sales.

Avita, which is also backed by Huawei but has sluggish sales, is also reported to launch an extended-range version in the second half of the year. Moreover, the extended-range version may also be equipped with Huawei's ADS 3.0 advanced intelligent driving function.

Outside of Huawei,Dongfeng Yipaieπ007 even made a clear announcement, saying that it will launch an extended-range version on August 9 after the pure electric version was launched in March. The mass-produced model is already in production.Dongfeng Passenger VehicleThe second plant of the manufacturing headquarters in Wuhan rolled off the production line.

besides,Zeekr、Zhiji、Xiaopeng, and even Xiaomi have also successively revealed that they are expected to launch extended-range models. In October last year, when Xiaomi SU7 had not yet been released, 36Kr PowerOn broke the news that Xiaomi Auto had decided to develop extended-range electric vehicles, and on its official website, Xiaomi also released recruitment needs for related positions such as extended-range system design and development engineers. However, Xiaomi officials denied the news at the time.

In addition to boosting sales, the addition of extended-range models has also become a weight for some automakers to turn losses into profits.Early JulyChangan AutomobileAt the mid-year communication meeting,Dark BlueDeng Chenghao, general manager of DeepBlue Auto, boldly stated, "DeepBlue Auto's goal is to achieve profit break-even by the end of this year, and it has the opportunity to become the first new energy enterprise among state-owned enterprises to achieve breakthroughs in both scale and profits."

Prior to this, in China's new energy vehicle market, only Tesla,BYDThree car companies, including Li Auto, have escaped from their loss-making status and entered a new stage of profitability.

C

For Yu Chengdong, in addition to facing the pressure of sales, the gamble on the pure electric route also requires an urgent answer to another question:That is, after the failure of Zhijie S7, whether Huawei has the ability to continuously produce popular products.

At this year's China Auto 100 Forum, Yu Chengdong revealed the good news of the profitability of the Smart Car business in advance. He mentioned that Smart Car had turned losses into profits in the first three months of this year, and the car BU was close to breaking even during the same period, and it is expected to achieve profitability after April.

But one of the costs of profitability is that Huawei has invested a lot of supporting resources, which has made it increasingly unable to support the unlimited expansion of businesses such as smart car selection. Three months after the announcement of profitability, at the 16th China Automotive Blue Book Forum, Yu Chengdong admitted that there are many manufacturers who want to cooperate with Huawei, "but we have limited manpower and energy, so we can only cooperate with four companies for the time being (Seres, Chery, BAIC,JAC), and make four smart car prototypes. "

Judging from the actual situation, the prototype building project can only be considered half successful at present. The hot sales of M9/M7 prove that Huawei can not only help car companies to build cars, but also help them sell their cars.However, whether Huawei's car-making capabilities are replicable and scalable remains a question mark.

After the sales started in December last year, the sales of Zhijie S7 exceeded 10,000 units, but the daily production was only 80 units during the same period. In an interview with Tencent Auto at the beginning of this year, Yu Chengdong reviewed the situation and said, "The main problem was that there were problems with delivery at that time because the factory was relocated and the shortage of parts cooled the enthusiasm. This was a big problem."

From April to July this year, the Zhijie S7, which solved the production capacity crisis and started large-scale deliveries, did not usher in the expected big sales. The monthly sales were only 4546, 3455, 2995 and 2555 respectively, showing a gradual downward trend.

One detail worth noting is thatWhen Yu Chengdong opened his speech explaining the performance of the smart car business, he mentioned that the new M7 had a total order volume of 230,000 units and the M9 had a total order volume of 120,000 units. However, when it came to the S7, the official did not show the total order volume to the public.

The success or failure of the Xiangjie S9, a collaboration with BAIC, will undoubtedly be another big test for Huawei's ability to export its car-making capabilities.

To some extent, this is also a new test for Yu Chengdong.Only selecting cadres from successful teams is one of the principles for promoting cadres that Ren Zhengfei has set for Huawei. For Yu Chengdong, who still wants to continue the battle, whether it is to prove Huawei's ability to manufacture popular cars or to achieve promotion within Huawei, the Enjoy S9 may have become a battle that cannot be defeated.

In an exclusive interview with CCTV Finance, Yu Chengdong once talked about the Mate 50 series to be released in the second half of 2022. Before the project was launched, someone inside had told him that it would not be successful, "the cost is higher than others, and there are so many restrictions." Before the release of the Mate 50 series, Huawei's Mate series had been discontinued for two years.

"If the Mate 50 doesn't sell well, my life will be very difficult." Yu Chengdong said that during that period, when he was in pain, he would walk out alone at night, come back when it was almost dawn, and then go to work in the company. "When we found out that it sold very well, we survived and came back again. Now we have won the battle of life and death."

Will Enjoy S9 be another “Mate 50 moment” for Yu Chengdong?