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Tencent News "First Line"

Author: Guo Yifei Editor: Liu Peng

After winning the competition in electrification,BYDWe are unwilling to fall behind in the second half of the intelligent competition.

On August 27, BYD officially announced that it had recently signed an intelligent driving cooperation agreement with Huawei in Shenzhen. The two parties will carry out in-depth joint research and development of intelligent driving, which will be fully implemented in its sub-brands.Equation LeopardThe first product focuses on the equation Leopard and the second product Leopard 8, which is equipped with Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS3.0, jointly creating the world's first hard-core exclusive intelligent driving solution.

BYD revealed that the two teams have established the project and have been researching and developing for a long time. The Fangcheng Baobao 8 equipped with Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS 3.0 has fully entered the actual vehicle testing stage. It is expected that Baobao 8 will be officially launched after the third quarter of this year.

The signing ceremony was of high standard, with BYD's core executives, including Chairman Wang Chuanfu and Chief Scientist Lian Yubo, in attendance. Huawei's representatives included Rotating Chairman Xu Zhijun and Automotive BU CEO Jin Yuzhi.

A person close to BYD told Tencent News "First Line" that this cooperation is the first cooperation between the two giants in Shenzhen. "The bosses talked about it. They talked about it before, but didn't do it. Now Mr. Wang thinks it can be done. The expectations are relatively high. The listing plan of Leopard 8 has been postponed for this reason. Otherwise, the pace would be faster."

Compared toTesla、XiaopengBYD started late in the field of intelligent driving and mainly relied on external suppliers, including Horizon Robotics, Black Sesame Intelligence, Momenta, DJI, Neusoft Reach, Furuitech, etc. Wang Chuanfu once publicly stated that "autonomous driving is nonsense, it's just the emperor's new clothes."

According to Frost & Sullivan's statistics, the global penetration rate of smart driving passenger cars (L1-L5) will be 69.8% in 2023, and the penetration rate in China will be 74.7%. It is estimated that by 2028, global sales of smart driving passenger cars will reach 68.8 million units, with a penetration rate of 87.9%, and sales in China will reach 27.2 million units, with a penetration rate of 93.5%.

As the market enters the second half of intelligent competition, the level of intelligent driving is directly related to BYD's core technology support for maintaining its sales advantage. The choice of cooperation with Huawei also highlights BYD's anxiety in the field of intelligent driving.

At present, BYD has chosen to walk on two legs in the field of intelligent driving, including full-stack self-research and supplier integration solutions, which belong to two teams respectively and are coordinated by Yang Dongsheng, Vice President of BYD and Director of the New Technology Research Institute.

Yang Dongsheng recently publicly stated, "The low-level intelligent driving solutions are currently being developed by our own research team. For mid-level and high-level solutions, we will develop them ourselves and also collaborate with suppliers. We will use whoever does the best job."

Entering 2024, BYD, which believes in the principle of full-stack self-development, began to focus on intelligent driving. At the beginning of the year, Wang Chuanfu said that BYD plans to invest more than 100 billion yuan in the field of intelligence in the future. High-end intelligent driving systems will be optional on models above 200,000 yuan, and high-end intelligent driving systems will be standard on models above 300,000 yuan. In 2024, the group will have more than 10 models equipped with high-end intelligent driving systems and will fully enter the L3 level of autonomous driving. Currently, the group's intelligent driving team has more than 4,000 people.

In the past year, BYD has introduced a number of external intelligent driving talents, including Xu Lingyun, Liao Jie, Zhou Peng, etc. In June, BYD separated the self-developed team of the Intelligent Driving R&D Center of the Planning Institute and established a separate "Tianxuan" development department, which is led by Xu Lingyun and focuses on the application of high-level intelligent driving algorithms.

The Fangchengbao brand currently has onlyLeopard 5This product is positioned as a hardcore off-road SUV with a price range of 289,800 to 352,800 yuan. Direct competitors includeGreat WallItstank400 and 500 etc.

Since its launch in November 2023, Leopard 5 has sold 23,995 units by June 2026. At the beginning of its launch, monthly sales exceeded 5,000 units, but from February, sales began to decline to 2,000 to 3,000 units per month. In June, its sales were 2,680 units, and in the most recent July, sales fell to 1,436 units.

Previously, includingBYD N7, look up to U8,BYD Han、Song LMany of BYD's intelligent driving models are equipped with BYD's self-developed "Eye of God" high-end intelligent driving assistance system. For the Fangchengbao brand, intelligent driving is undoubtedly a shortcoming. The addition of Huawei's most advanced intelligent driving solution will undoubtedly boost brand momentum and sales.

Just in July, less than a year after its launch, it renewed its brand and made major adjustments to its product structure and channel model, including expanding its product line, widening the price range, and switching from direct sales to a "direct sales + dealer partner" channel model.