How can car companies maintain composure and resilience in the face of new challenges?
On June 8th, at the 2024 China Automobile Chongqing Forum, focusing on "Smart Electric New Cars, A Better New Future," Gu Huinan, General Manager of GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., Li Bin, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of NIO, Li Xiang, Chairman and CEO of Li Auto, Lu Fang, CEO of Lan Tu Automobile, Chen Zhuo, President of Avita Technology, and Xia Yiping, CEO of Ji Yue, discussed in-depth from the perspectives of the uniqueness of the smart new energy automobile industry, the new wave of technology, and how the main factory can reshape core competitiveness and the leading position in the industry. We have captured the following key information.
GAC Aion Gu Huinan:
The export of new energy vehicles is accelerating, but barriers are also thickening.
Building a dual-brand: Aion and Haobo, the second half of this year will be a period of dense launch of new products.
NIO Li Bin:
In May, NIO's delivery volume exceeded 20,000 units, setting a new historical record.
Responding to the issue of NIO's losses.The lifespan of electric vehicle batteries must ensure at least 15 years of user experience.
The first self-developed chip product - the LiDAR main control chip "Yang Jian," and the first self-developed 5nm automotive-grade intelligent driving chip - the Shenyun NX9031.
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Li Xiang of Li Auto:
Level 4 autonomous driving can be achieved within three years.
Lu Fang of Lan Tu:
Our country's independent automotive brands occupy an absolute dominant position, gradually realizing market substitution for joint venture brands.
On May 30th, this year's first Lan Tu FREE 318 model began pre-sale, and the pre-sale volume exceeded 9,000 units within 24 hours.
Chen Zhuo of Avita:
The popularization time limit for intelligent products is 4-4.5 years, and the life cycle of a generation of products achieves complete popularization.
The products and sub-categories of automobiles are being redefined.In the third quarter of this year, the Avita 07 will officially hit the market, offering two power options: pure electric and range extender.
Ji Yue Xia Yiping:
Cars are not just for driving; future cars will evolve into robot-like forms.
It is expected that by the end of June or early July, Ji Yue will complete the launch of self-driving in 300 cities across China.
GAC Aion: The pace of new energy vehicles going overseas is accelerating, but the barriers are also thickening.
Gu Huinan, General Manager of GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., believes that the new energy vehicle industry is experiencing an accelerated pace of going overseas, but the barriers are also increasing. On one hand, the Chinese automobile market has maintained rapid growth over the past decade, and new energy vehicle technologies are advancing along multiple paths, with fast charging, battery swapping, and energy replenishment becoming more diverse. On the other hand, the barriers to new energy vehicles are strengthening. Internationally, the United States is imposing additional tariffs, and Europe's carbon footprint requirements are increasing the barriers; technically, the industry will face barriers to electrification and ICV (Intelligent Connected Vehicle) in the future.
Gu Huinan believes that the current market presents three "good" opportunities for GAC Aion.
First, it is a good time for brand premiumization. Many traditional luxury car brands are seeing a decline in their brand premium capabilities in the new energy field, while the premium capabilities of new energy vehicle brands are continuously improving.
Second, it is a good time for global development. Compared to the era of home appliances, Chinese automobiles are more popular when going overseas than during the home appliance period, which is actually a recognition of the automotive technology level.Thirdly, it is a good time for innovation to take effect. GAC Aion insists on leading with technological innovation, and the core of high-quality development is disruptive scientific and technological innovation. Solid-state batteries are currently under development, and they have just obtained L3-level access while striving to launch L4-level commercial operations next year. GAC Aion is building a dual-brand strategy: Aion and Haobo. The second half of this year will be a period of dense new product launches.
NIO Li Bin: Exceeded 20,000 units in monthly sales in May; Responds to the issue of NIO's losses.
In the past May, NIO's delivery volume exceeded 20,000 units, setting a new historical record with a year-on-year growth of over 200%. NIO's founder, chairman, and CEO Li Bin stated that the current orders exceed production capacity, and to address the production capacity issue, they are working overtime to meet everyone's expectations sooner. Currently, NIO holds 60% of the market share in the high-end pure electric vehicle market above 300,000 yuan. By the end of May, the cumulative number of NIO users exceeded 510,000, which is also the first 500,000 units in China's high-end pure electric vehicles.
Regarding the issue of NIO's losses, Li Bin said it is because NIO is still in the investment phase, with losses in R&D and infrastructure investment.
In terms of R&D, NIO has insisted on positive R&D and global R&D since its establishment. In terms of R&D investment, it maintains an input of about 3 billion to 4 billion yuan each quarter. Last year, NIO's R&D investment reached 13.4 billion yuan, focusing on the full-stack technology of smart electric vehicles, with more than 8,700 patents. The second-generation platform comes standard with more than 1,000 computing power and more than 30 sensors for each vehicle. It is now usable on nearly 2.4 million verified roads in more than 126 enterprises nationwide, and the total mileage of the pilot assistance has approached 1 billion kilometers.
NIO has also independently developed the first full-vehicle operating system released by a car company in China, SkyOS·TianShu, the first self-developed chip product—LiDAR control chip "Yang Jian," and the first self-developed 5nm automotive-grade intelligent driving chip—Shen Yan NX9031, covering various sectors of smart electric vehicle manufacturing business. NIO has released the Le Dao L60, mainly targeting the mainstream family user market above 200,000 yuan.
In terms of infrastructure, NIO currently operates 2,429 battery swap stations and 22,617 charging piles nationwide, providing more than 45 million battery swap services for users, and is expected to build a "9 vertical 9 horizontal 19 major city clusters" high-speed battery swap network by 2025. Li Bin said that NIO users can travel without worries.
Li Bin called on the industry to pay attention to the issue of battery life, with the goal of making every electric vehicle user worry-free for 15 years through its own R&D and operational innovation. "Our goal is 15 years, no matter how many cycles, to achieve 85% of the available power." Around the aspects of battery swap and long-life batteries, NIO is determined to open up cooperation. Currently, NIO has reached a comprehensive cooperation with Chang'an in the field of charging and battery swapping, and has also cooperated with GAC, FAW, Geely and many other enterprises.Ideal Li Xiang: L4 Level Autonomous Driving Can Be Achieved Within Three Years
Last September, Ideal established a team for autonomous driving research. After careful consideration, the Ideal team believes that using visual language models instead of large language models in autonomous driving can solve more problems.
Ideal Automobile will launch NOA without maps in the third quarter of this year, and will launch an end-to-end large model + VLM visual model L3 level autonomous driving system based on Ideal's self-research at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. At the same time, Ideal Automobile Chairman and CEO Li Xiang believes that based on this system, unsupervised L4 level autonomous driving can be achieved within three years.
Lan Tu Lu Fang: Our Country's Independent Automobile Brands Gradually Achieved Market Replacement of Joint Venture Brands
Lan Tu Automobile CEO Lu Fang said that over the past ten years, China's new energy has gradually achieved four replacements.
First, Chinese automobiles have begun to look at the world on an equal footing, gradually achieving technical replacement of fuel vehicles, with the full integration of electrification, intelligence, and Internet technology, leading in key core technologies such as power batteries, and achieving technical advantages in areas such as electronic and electrical architecture.
Second, Chinese automobiles have shifted from "Made in China" to "Created in China," gradually achieving export replacement of low value-added products. The average export price of Chinese automobiles has increased from $19,500 in 2021 to $23,800 in 2023, no longer being a synonym for low quality and low price, and we have also won the trust of global users.
Third, our country's independent automobile brands occupy an absolute dominant position, gradually achieving market replacement of joint venture brands. In 2023, the sales volume of new energy passenger cars accounted for nearly 50% of the sales volume of independent brand passenger cars, which means that for every 2 independent passenger car brands sold, 1 is a new energy vehicle.The fourth aspect is the accelerated restructuring of the industrial system towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, gradually achieving industrial substitution for traditional productive forces. New industries such as power batteries, energy, high-precision mapping, and artificial intelligence are rapidly developing, promoting the establishment of the largest and fully integrated new energy industry system in China.
Lantu Automobile has always adhered to the full-stack self-research and controllable core technology. Lantu possesses three power modes: pure electric BEV, hybrid PHEV, and range-extended REEV, with a range exceeding 900 kilometers and an energy density setting a new industry high. Charging for 10 minutes can increase the range by 450 kilometers. The reserved intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit 2.0 technologies significantly enhance the level of product intelligence and will be quickly launched to the market.
On May 30th, this year's first Lantu FREE 318 model began pre-sale, with pre-sales exceeding 9,000 vehicles within 24 hours, and it will officially go on sale on June 14th. On June 1st, the Lantu Dreamer private custom version was officially launched, a SUV co-created with Huawei, and the intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving products will be released this year.
Avita Chen Zhuo: In the third quarter of this year, Avita 07 will officially go on sale.
Looking back at the process of electrification, it took 8 and a half years from market launch to achieving a high proportion of market penetration, using two generations of product life cycles. According to the research results of the Avita team, the time limit for the popularization of intelligent products is 4-4.5 years, which means that the life cycle of a generation of products will fully achieve the popularization of intelligence.
Based on this, Avita Technology President Chen Zhuo's advice to consumers is that if they decide to buy a car within the next 3 years and will definitely change it later, they can consider not buying (intelligent cars). If the car usage cycle exceeds 4 years, 5 years, or even longer, it is recommended that users who buy cars now must consider intelligent cars.
Chen Zhuo said, "Because now is also a key period for the transformation of intelligent cars and functional cars. After all, no one wants to buy a Nokia in the 5G era, and it is outdated from the start." In the next few years, users' demand for intelligence will be a very important key point in their purchase decision, which is Chen Zhuo's first judgment.
The second judgment is that with the addition of new car elements, the products and subcategories of cars are being redefined. New luxury is different from traditional luxury and should have three elements of high technology, high appearance, and high value at the same time.
In terms of hardware, because of high hardware redundancy and strong software iteration, it will be able to provide Avita users with market mainstream and leading intelligent hardware within the next 3-5 years. Dual redundancy backup safety has been made in terms of computing power, and each car is equipped with about 80 high-performance notebook computers.In the second half of this year, Avita's product matrix will extend to the range-extender domain. In the third quarter of this year, the Avita 07 will be officially launched, offering two power options: pure electric and range-extender. By the end of this year, three more models will be released, all of which will include both pure electric and range-extender options. At that time, Avita will form a matrix of 8 products with four models and two power options.
Ji Yue Xia Yiping: Cars are not just for driving; future cars will evolve into a robot-like form.
Xia Yiping introduced the philosophy of the Ji Yue brand and the development of autonomous driving technology in his speech. He first emphasized that although the Ji Yue brand is relatively unknown, it has been committed to the development of autonomous driving technology since its inception. Ji Yue has always believed that cars are not just for driving; future cars will enter a very rapid stage of intelligent evolution, gradually evolving into a robot-like form with four wheels. In the AI era, cars need to have three core capabilities: self-learning, self-growth, and self-iteration.
In terms of autonomous driving, Xia Yiping shared Ji Yue's thoughts and practices. He pointed out that although autonomous driving technology is continuously developing, the general public's understanding of it is still limited. Ji Yue demonstrated the strength of its pure vision technology by participating in the China Autonomous Driving Competition and winning the championship for two consecutive sessions. Xia Yiping pointed out that Ji Yue is the only brand in China and one of the only two in the world to achieve full-domain high-level assisted self-driving using pure vision technology.
Currently, Ji Yue supports autonomous driving in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and other 100 cities. It is expected that by the end of June or the beginning of July, Ji Yue will complete the launch of self-driving in 300 cities across China. Xia Yiping emphasized that intelligent driving is not just an experience but also a matter of safety. He called on everyone to maintain an open attitude towards intelligent driving, which will definitely change the world in the future, and also to respect intelligent driving, with safety being the top priority.
