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Unnecessary chaos of car computer systems. "Great unification" is inevitable. Simplifying in complexity is the way to make money.

Unlike the new forces that generally choose the boutique route, traditional car companies have always adhered to the strategy of "having more children to compete", and even the car computer systems are varied, and there is even a situation where a brand uses multiple systems at the same time.

A few days ago, a statement signed by "all Lynk & Co owners" was widely circulated on the Internet. The people who made the statement said that they are a group of car owners who love Lynk & Co cars. Due to the frequent problems of the current LYNK OS N operating interface freezing and navigation adaptation, they called on Geely Auto to upgrade Lynk & Co cars equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chips to Flyme Auto.

Consumers have repeatedly complained about the car-machine system problems of Lynk & Co and other Geely sub-brand models. After Lynk & Co abandoned support for third-party systems such as CarLife and CarPlay in some models, the car-machine system was not easy to use and car owners could not quickly switch to other systems, which has long been a complaint among consumers.

Flyme Auto, backed by the Meizu team, has become one of Geely Auto's core competitive advantages. Moreover, the Polestar 4 car equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 runs Polestar OS based on Flyme Auto, proving that the performance of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip is sufficient to run Flyme Auto.

The inconsistent specifications of car computer systems are obviously not conducive to long-term development and do have an impact on the user experience. Consumers' demands are reasonable.If Geely Auto insists on not unifying the car-machine system, then "having more children" may no longer be a good idea and will only result in unnecessary waste of resources.As the entire automotive industry moves towards the intelligent era, Geely needs a transformation.

As one of the top five domestic brands, Geely has many sub-brands. It has launched multiple brands such as Geometry, Zeekr, Galaxy, Ruilan, etc. for the new energy vehicle market, as well as Lynk & Co,Dihao（parameter丨picture) (parameters | pictures) and others have also released new energy models. Of course, it is not only Geely that does this, BYD, Changan, Great Wall and other car companies are also doing this.

What confuses Geely car owners the most is not the large number of models, but the large number of car systems. In addition to the LYNK OS N mentioned above, Geely cars have also been equipped with GKUI, Galaxy N OS, Zeekr OS, Flyme Auto and other systems. Some models of the Geometry brand are also equipped with the Hongmeng OS system developed by Huawei. Moreover, Lynk & Co alone has used at least four car systems.

Cultivating multiple teams and allowing them to compete internally can, in an optimistic scenario, select a better one from among them to help the automaker win the competition. However, Geely's too many car systems may cause trouble to consumers. Not only will it be difficult to improve product competitiveness, but it may also increase internal friction.Judging from the current situation, Geely's car system planning has at least two counter-effects.

First of all, there are too many car computer systems. Different versions of a brand or even a car model may run different car computer systems. Consumers will inevitably feel confused and don’t know which car to buy. It is also difficult to figure out the car computer experience of each system, which may affect consumers’ intention to buy a car.

Secondly, and this is the biggest concern for consumers, so many car systems have distracted Geely's attention. Can each system be updated normally? On major platforms, Xiaotong has seen many netizens complain that Geely's car systems are not updated or updated in reverse. Taking care of the experience and feelings of old car owners is undoubtedly the basis for car companies to shape their brand value. Geely needs to provide better car systems for old models.

In addition, developing multiple car computer systems at the same time will inevitably consume a lot of manpower, material resources and other resources of car companies, slowing down the upgrade of the car computer systems; in the long run, maintaining different versions of car computer systems will also require high costs, which will ultimately outweigh the gains.

With the help of the Meizu team, Flyme Auto has become a first-tier car system and has been widely recognized by consumers.But whether to fully unleash the power of Flyme Auto to empower all models, or to use Flyme Auto's high-quality experience to differentiate product positioning and help some brands reach the high-end, "having more children to fight" or "concentrating on major tasks" are issues that Geely needs to consider urgently.

In the previous periodGalaxy E5At the launch conference, Geely Auto announced that by early next year, all Galaxy brand models on sale will be upgraded to the Flyme Auto system. The Galaxy E5, equipped with the Dragon Eagle No. 1 chip, will run Flyme Auto when it comes out, and Galaxy N OS may become history.

In other words, Geely's cars currently equipped with the Ecarx platform and Qualcomm platform have the potential to be upgraded to Flyme Auto, and Geely Auto is trying to adapt Flyme Auto to more models, including the lower-end Galaxy E5 model.

These operations prove that Geely Auto is aware of the internal friction among multiple car system R&D teams and the resulting unbalanced experience for car owners, and will gradually unify the car system.

For car companies, the benefit of a unified car system is that it can cut redundant system R&D teams and significantly reduce R&D investment. For consumers, functions such as navigation, desktop cards, and audio and video playback do not require high performance. As long as the system level is unified, the difference between daily use and high-end cars will not be too big, which can greatly improve the car machine experience of owners of mid- and low-end models.

As for the goal of differentiating low, medium and high-end models through car machine differentiation, it can be achieved through car machine chips. For example, the Galaxy E5 is equipped with the Dragon Eagle No. 1 chip, which is positioned higher.Galaxy E8It is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip.The car system and ecosystem maintain the lower limit of the experience, while the chip performance determines the upper limit of the experience.In recent years, many car companies have been adapting games for their products. As in-car games become popular in the future, the requirements for the performance of car chips will be higher, and car chips with stronger performance will become an important selling point.

However, not all Geely cars equipped with platforms such as 8155/8295/Longying No. 1 will be upgraded to Flyme Auto. In response to the request of Lynk & Co car owners, Lynk & Co responded in June this year that the company will continue to optimize the existing LYNK OS N system to improve the system's fluency and stability, and plans to carry out a major upgrade in the third quarter to add Flyme Link's highlight ecological functions to make its experience and functions consistent with Flyme Auto.

It seems that Geely Auto does not plan to upgrade all its old models to Flyme Auto. Xiaotong believes that the main reason may be that Geely has too many models of various brands and the adaptation cost is high. If only some old models are adapted, it may cause dissatisfaction among owners of other brands.

Geely may gradually abandon other car systems in new cars and fully apply Flyme Auto. As for old models, some popular models and new brands have the opportunity to upgrade to Flyme Auto, while other models are unlikely to be upgraded.

Although the automobile industry is the world's largest industry, its profit margin is shockingly low. In 2023, Geely Auto's revenue will reach 179.2 billion yuan, but its net profit attributable to the parent company will only be 5.308 billion yuan, with a net profit margin of only 3%. BYD, the leader in new energy vehicles, will have a revenue of 602.315 billion yuan in 2023, and its net profit attributable to the parent company will only be 30.041 billion yuan, with a net profit margin of only 5%.

With the advent of the new energy vehicle era, car companies have invested too much in developing new technologies and building an energy-replenishing ecosystem. However, to date, the new energy vehicle business of most car companies has not yet achieved profitability and is a complete "liability."In addition to increasing sales, reducing internal friction and lowering investment are also effective ways to increase profit margins, and may help automakers turn losses into profits as soon as possible.

The complexity of the car computer system is just the tip of the iceberg of internal friction among car companies. The most critical link for car companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency may lie in the change of the sea of ​​​​cars strategy.

At the beginning of the smartphone industry, Nokia executives said that Apple only had a few models and could not compete with Nokia, which had a wide range of products covering all price ranges. The result was very disappointing. Apple, which has always been a high-quality brand, ranked second in the world in sales in the first half of this year, second only to Samsung, while Nokia's mobile phones have undergone several changes and are no longer recognizable.

The same is true in the automotive industry. Traditional car companies mostly take the route of having a large number of cars, while new forces generally take the route of high-quality products. If the models of Geely's major brands are added together, there may be hundreds of passenger cars, while new forces such as NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto have relatively few models.

The advantage of the sea of ​​​​cars strategy is that it can cover more price ranges and can launch models with different characteristics according to different consumer preferences to expand the audience range. The disadvantage is that it will intensify internal friction.There is a conflict in positioning between Geely's Lynk & Co Z10 and Zeekr 001/007. There is also a certain competitive relationship between Ruilan and Geometry Auto. Moreover, the molds and parts used by different products may not be shared, which will also increase the production cost of the car.

Whether it is the car system or the product line, it has reached a critical moment of going from complex to simple. Only by streamlining the product line and avoiding internal friction can we concentrate on developing new systems with better experience and new models with stronger competitiveness.

Of course, Xiaotong does not oppose automakers launching different brands and models for different price segments, exploring the upper and lower markets at the same time, and giving consumers more choices. However, launching similar products in the same price segment may aggravate internal friction, which may increase costs but is difficult to increase sales. The major traditional automakers have many sub-brands and models one after another. However, the top seller of pure electric sedans above 200,000 yuan in China in July this year wasXiaomi SU7Taking it away is the best proof.

Streamlining the car computer system is relatively simple, but reducing the car product line is much more difficult. After all, if a car is cancelled, it is difficult to determine whether other models can quickly fill the vacant ecological niche.However, Geely has gradually adapted Flyme Auto for some of its older models, and new models have abandoned the old system, giving us hope for the "grand unification" of Geely's systems and models.

Market competition is still intensifying. After BYD and Tesla, the time has come to decide the third global new energy vehicle giant. Geely is undoubtedly one of the most promising car companies among independent brands.Xiaotong believes that Flyme Auto will become one of Geely Auto's core competitive advantages and will be gradually delegated to new models of all its sub-brands.

Although Geely's new energy vehicle route is a bit confusing at this stage due to the large number of car systems and models, after integrating the car systems and product lines, Geely Auto's foundation is still enough to dominate the industry.