Recently, it was reported that Huawei, the global telecommunications giant, will enter the auto industry. In the small test site in Jinqiao, Shanghai, Huawei's two rotating chairman Xu Zhijun and Guo Ping have tested and drove a Huawei-owned three-electric system. Test models. It is reported that this test model was modified from the Tesla Model X, the person in charge is the director of Huawei's car networking innovation center Cai Jianyong.
1, did not deny this time
As early as October 2016, there was news that Huawei was in contact with well-known auto parts supplier Magna Steyr, trying to enter the automotive manufacturing industry through OEM. However, Huawei later firmly stated that the company did not Building plans.
Since then, Huawei has been exposed by the media for the third consecutive year in the major colleges and universities to recruit new graduates related to the automotive profession, the recruitment of the station in addition to smart driving technology research and development, including power battery system development and design, charging solutions and vehicle Design, etc. The imagination that the information brings to the world far exceeds the pure communication technology of China.
Immediately afterwards, Huawei withdrew all recruitment information on open positions related to automobile positions. At present, the “International Financial News” reporter has verified that there are no traces of Huawei’s recruitment for automobile positions in major domestic recruitment websites.
Interestingly, this time it was revealed that in the Shanghai Jinqiao test vehicle, the ever-strongest Huawei public relations has yet to be denied. In contrast, the previous articles on Huawei's 'car dream' were on the Internet's 'survival' time. No more than 24 hours.
2, behind the dark hand
In fact, Huawei has been deepening the field of Internet automotive.
In 2013, Huawei established the 'Car networking business unit' and announced its formal entry into the car networking sector.
In 2014, Huawei successively established cooperative relationships with domestic automakers such as Dongfeng, Chang'an and SAIC to cooperate in car networking and smart cars.
In May 2015, Huawei and Volkswagen AG reached a cooperation to jointly promote car networking and research and develop a series of car-linked applications;
In September 2016, Huawei and Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm established the '5G Auto Union'.
In November 2017, Huawei and the PSA Peugeot Citroen Group established a strategic partnership in the field of car networking;
In June 2018, Huawei cooperated with Audi and plans to launch a model equipped with 5G networking technology in 2020.
Not long ago, in the Strategy Paper issued by the Huawei Strategy Committee for 2018, the car networking was listed as the first business priority. The document clearly stated that Huawei will further accelerate the layout, and the goal is to make the Internet of Vehicles the world's No. one.
According to Xiong Wei, the president of Huawei's LTE product line, in 2018, Huawei plans to provide a solution for the interconnection of the 100,000-vehicle network. It can be said that relying on powerful communication technologies, Huawei is not only powerful in the layout of the concept of the Internet of Things. Strong, and ambitious.
In the unmanned area, Huawei also made a contribution. At the 2018 Mobile World Congress, Huawei used a mobile phone to control a modified Porsche, and completed a series of basic skills for unmanned cars under remote control.
In addition, Huawei’s reserves for new energy batteries have begun to take shape. As early as 2014, Huawei announced its investment in graphene technology. At that time, Huawei and Nobel Prize Physics, known as the father of graphene Academic award winner Konstantin Novoselov and his University of Manchester are working closely together.
At the end of 2016, at the 57th Japan Battery Conference, Watts Laboratories of Huawei's Central Research Institute announced that its research has achieved a major breakthrough in the field of lithium-ion batteries. Related experimental results show that the new graphene-based high temperature The technology can increase the upper limit of the use temperature of lithium-ion batteries by 10°C, which is twice the service life of ordinary lithium-ion batteries. Huawei will also introduce the industry’s first high-temperature long-life graphene-powered lithium-ion battery.
Industry analysts told the “International Financial News” reporter that the development of a stable high-density battery is the most difficult level to overcome in the manufacture of electric vehicles, and this is the core of an electric vehicle.
Analyst Ren Wanfu told the “International Financial News” reporter that with his own experience in networking and driverless driving, Huawei would like to enter the vehicle manufacturing industry.
3, traditional business approaching 'bottleneck'
Returning to Huawei's industry, it is not difficult to find that its main competitors Apple, Samsung, and ZTE have all had 'deliberate' on this major event.
Although the results of the cyclical trial of the 'Project Titan' made Apple realize how hard it was to make a car, Apple was trying to achieve its own 'car dream' by acquiring Tesla; while Samsung was already In 1994, the automotive division was established. Although the development did not go smoothly, it was even acquired by the Renault Group in the later period. Samsung Motors did not completely disappear; as for ZTE, it was no secret that it was a vehicle builder. In November 2016, ZTE was Zhuhai Jinwan District officially laid the foundation for its automobile manufacturing base.
The same industry leader, how Huawei can remain indifferent?
Yuan Tingqiu, deputy dean of Huawei's Central Research Institute, once stated that smart cars are an exciting industry in which the most important infrastructure industries of humanity have converged: traffic travel industry, automobile manufacturing industry, communications industry, internet industry A cordial handshake took place.
Earlier, Huawei estimated that the company's revenue in 2021 will exceed US$150 billion, and it may exceed US$200 billion in the next ten years. But since last year, the growth rate of Huawei's revenue has begun to slow, especially as Income pillar operator business.
The financial report shows that in 2017, Huawei achieved a total revenue of 603.6 billion yuan (approximately US$ 92.5 billion), an increase of 15.7% year-on-year. Among them, Huawei's operator business realized a total revenue of 297.8 billion yuan, a slight increase of only 2.5% year-on-year. The revenue growth of Huawei's carrier business in 2014-2016 was 16.4%, 21.4% and 23.6%, respectively.
At the same time, the consumer business (mainly based on smartphones), which is the main growth driver for Huawei’s revenue, is also considered difficult to support the company’s long-term growth. Although in 2017, Huawei’s consumer business achieved a growth of 31.9%. , Breakthrough 200 billion revenue revenue, but Xu Zhijun bluntly stated that this business has potential risks.
At present, the country is vigorously promoting new energy vehicles. For Huawei, it is also a cross-border direction.
In addition, Huawei never lacks funds, and this is also the foundation for all company development. The data shows that at the end of 2017, Huawei's book fund balance was as high as 175.35 billion yuan. For reference, Apple Inc., known as the “rich enemy” The balance of book funds at the end of 2017 was approximately RMB 176.02 billion.
Li Bin, the Chairman of Weilai Automobile, once said that the new carmakers want to be successful in the vehicle manufacturing sector and need at least 20 billion yuan. From the perspective of Huawei’s current capital reserves, 20 billion yuan is obviously not an obstacle.
4, Innovation Schools and Conservatives
There are innumerable sufficient conditions for Huawei to build a car. However, only one of the necessary reasons for impeding its construction is often required.
According to sources, as the spiritual leader of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, who has shaped Huawei's 'wolf culture', once rejected the idea of Huawei trying to enter the automobile manufacturing industry. For a long time, Ren Zhengfei hoped that Huawei could focus on the development of the company. On the main business.
Nowadays, Ren Zhengfei’s conservative views have caused dissatisfaction among more and more young people within Huawei. It was reported that on April 8 this year, “President of Huawei Blues” Pan Shaoqin had used a Huawei Huawei employee’s name as 'Huawei'. The Blue Army's open letter criticizing Ren Zhengfei for 10 sins raised fierce criticism of Ren Zhengfei. The article stressed that Ren Zhengfei should encourage innovation rather than let the idea be smashed in the cradle from the beginning.
In contrast, Xu Zhijun, who is in charge of the products and strategy, has always been the main promoter of Huawei's carmaking program. In almost all public speeches in recent years, Xu Zhijun mentioned cars and driverless vehicles without exception. He even There is no disguise about the conflict with other Huawei executives on this issue, including Ren Zhengfei.
However, in the end, Huawei’s strategy for building a vehicle still needs to make a nod of Ren Zhengwei. Perhaps at the Huawei’s annual strategy meeting in October this year, the “innovative faction” could find an opportunity to convince him. It is reported that the core theme of this conference is “the car”.