On November 26, SAIC Group announced that SAIC's "L" project was officially named "Zhiji Automobile".

"Zhiji" is taken from the "Book of Changes", which means to consider all things with wisdom, while "Zhiji Auto" means creating a new era of smart travel where people and vehicles come together.

In fact, as early as October 12, SAIC Group was promoting a new electric smart car brand project, code-named "L".

The "L" project has been under preparation since 2018 and is mainly positioned as a high-end smart electric vehicle.

Within SAIC, the "L" project is regarded as the "No. 1 Project."

On November 26, the high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle project "Zhiji Auto", a tens-billion-level project jointly built by SAIC, Pudong New Area and Alibaba Group, was officially launched and announced to be located in the Zhangjiang Intelligent Park of Pudong New Area.

At present, the project has completed an initial round of financing of over 10 billion yuan.

The announcement shows that the total capital subscribed by the above-mentioned funds is RMB 7.2 billion, including SAIC Group's subscribed capital of RMB 5.399 billion, holding 74.986% of its share; Zhangjiang Hi-Tech subscribed to invest RMB 1.8 billion, holding its 25% share;

Hengxu Capital subscribed for RMB 0.01 million and holds 0.014% of its shares.

At the same time, Zhiji Automobile has established an exclusive intelligent travel research institute to create an international R&D system of "one horizontal and three vertical".

Among them, the vehicle R&D center serves as the "horizontal axis" and will realize "business penetration" of the data drive center, intelligent driving center, and forward-looking styling center.

In fact, as SAIC Group's "No. 1 Project", Zhiji Automobile carries the important task of SAIC's mechanism reform and innovation and brand breakthrough.

According to the plan, the first product of "Zhiji Auto" is a sedan model, which will be released simultaneously globally in Shanghai, London, and CES in North America in January 2021. SUVs, concept cars and other products will also be launched in 2022.

Regarding the emergence of "Zhiji Auto", Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Car Association, believes that when high-end new energy vehicles of joint venture brands have not yet been effectively launched, it is still more beneficial for independent brands to high-end new energy vehicles, which is a development opportunity for independent brands.

Compared with overseas brands, independent high-end new energy brands have strong location advantages and local advantages in the combination of traditional industrial chains, but they have disadvantages in technology and intelligence.

According to statistics from the China Automobile Association, from January to October, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 914,000 and 901,000 respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 9.2% and 7.1% respectively. The decline was significantly narrowed by 9.5 and 10.6 percentage points from January to September.

.

The production and sales of new energy vehicles are still declining year-on-year. Coupled with the dual pressures of declining subsidies and the epidemic, the new energy vehicle market is difficult to compare with the same period last year and has shown a sharp decline.

The bad environment also makes Zhiji Automobile face the challenge of market pressure.

In addition, there are many opponents.

In addition to the resistance from new forces such as Ideal, NIO, and Xpeng, they also have to face the "big mountain" of Tesla and the menacing Volkswagen domestic ID.4. It is obvious that these traditional car companies have difficulty in making progress.

In addition, with the launch of high-end new energy brands such as FAW, Dongfeng, and Changan, they will also compete on the same stage in the future. What kind of differentiated advantages these brands will have is also a question.

The joint venture established by GAC and NIO has products on the market, and with the entry of BBA, the high-end electric vehicle market is already full of smoke.

In addition, the domestic new energy market has been in the era of "private car false propositions". He Xiaopeng has mentioned more than once that the vast majority of electric vehicle sales on the market currently come from the operation end, and are products that are actually sold to consumers.

Very few.

This is an unavoidable problem for the entire industry at present. Although Zhiji has an innate advantage in terms of hardware conditions and is backed by mountains, it will not face bankruptcy at every turn like the new car-making forces.

But for SAIC, the difficulties they face are not many at all.

It can be expected that SAIC will continue to follow the old path of "Cao Cao's special car" in a short period of time. Although this left-handed and right-handed model can "create" a good sales report card, it is somewhat self-deceiving.

Of course, no matter what, when Zhiji Automobile comes, it has a reason for its existence and an important mission.

"Currently, my country's new energy market is becoming low-end, and the high-end new energy market still has a lot of room for development. It is a good move for SAIC to launch a high-end brand at this time." Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Car Association, said The high-end development of the new energy vehicle market has certain market potential, especially in Shanghai where SAIC Group is located. There is obvious demand, and high-end development will have a significant driving effect.

At the same time, automobile industry analyst Zhang Xiang also pointed out that Zhiji Auto currently has no model or positioning, and there are too many unknowns.

But from an industry perspective, the future of new energy vehicles is bright. SAIC Group has the strength and technology. The joint venture partners include local governments and Internet companies, and the shareholders have good backgrounds.

The author believes that according to the plan, the first model of Zhiji Auto will be officially released in January 2021. It is also worth looking forward to whether the brand can be recognized by consumers and what height it will reach.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.