Written by?/ABR Editorial Department
Editor?/Zhang Nan
Designed by?/Shichao
April 1, no Fool, it’s another day when car companies announce their sales.
In March, Aian *** delivered 40,016 new cars, a year-on-year and month-on-month increase of 97 and 33 respectively. Aian's monthly sales exceeded 40,000. From January to March, *** delivered more than 80,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 79%.
Li Auto once again achieved the delivery of more than 20,000 vehicles in a single month, delivering 20,823 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 88.7%. A total of 52,584 vehicles were delivered in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 65.8%. As of March 31, 2023, Li Auto has delivered more than 300,000 vehicles.
On the same day that car companies announced their sales one after another, Huawei Managing Director, Huawei Terminal BU CEO, and Smart Car Solutions BU CEO Yu Chengdong talked about Huawei Smart Car Selection in his speech at the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum 2023. Trademark controversy.
Yu Chengdong said that today's times have undergone tremendous changes. Huawei is still a company sanctioned by the United States. Companies in Europe, the United States and Japan cannot choose Huawei as their main intelligence supplier. Therefore, Huawei's partners are limited to mainly domestic partners. At the same time, new car-making forces are unlikely to choose Huawei due to their own pursuits and market value considerations. At the same time, some car companies that are afraid of losing their souls will not choose Huawei.
Huawei faces great challenges and has invested heavily in the automotive business. If a large number of products cannot use Huawei's intelligent solutions and achieve large sales, Huawei's technologies will not be able to achieve commercial realization, and it will not be able to achieve commercial realization. A closed business loop cannot be achieved.
In addition, the highly anticipated China Development Forum (March 25-27) was held in Beijing. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang shared the story of the "Two Factories" with everyone. Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the BMW Group, once again reiterated his long-term commitment to China, emphasizing that Chinese-style modernization is an opportunity for the world, and the BMW Group is committed to becoming Fellow travelers on China’s new journey towards modernization.
At the same time, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, also attended the forum’s economic summit and gave a speech, and publicly talked about his judgment on the future of artificial intelligence. He believed that artificial intelligence will produce consciousness, which once caused a heated discussion. discussion.
There was also a "big rush" incident in the car circle - battery-grade lithium carbonate fell below 250,000 yuan/ton. Since the beginning of this year, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has been falling almost every day. Compared with the beginning of the year, the current price has dropped by nearly 50%.
After 9 years of dreaming of building a car, will Jia Yueting’s dream come true? Faraday Future (Faraday Future) has returned to everyone's field of vision again. On March 30, Faraday Future announced that it would start production of the FF 91 Futurist at its FF ieFactory factory in Hanford, California, USA. FF stated that the first mass production of the FF 91 Futurist will roll off the assembly line in early April and will be completed by the end of April 2023. prior to delivery to the customer.
This week, there are also a series of major industry events:
On March 30, Xingji Meizu Group and Lynk & Co Automobile held the "Meizu∞ Lynk & Co Unbounded Ecosystem Launch" in Shanghai "Meizu 20 series of new generation flagship mobile phones, the unbounded ecosystem Flyme 10, and the first generation of Flyme Auto in-vehicle human-computer interaction software will be released, which will be first installed on the Lynk & Co 08 model.
On March 30, the Chongqing flagship store of Xingfu Wanjia’s travel capacity service center, which was founded more than a year ago, set sail. At the same time, the new book "Ride-hailing Driver Training Tutorial" was released. This is a landmark event in China's online ride-hailing industry. It marks the official beginning of a new travel era and the beginning of a new era of China's online ride-hailing travel services. . This move also means that China’s online ride-hailing industry has taken a solid step toward compliance and standardized operations.
On March 30, Aian held a magazine battery 2.0 shooting test conference.
In 2021, the magazine battery released by Aian is the first battery technology that can achieve a complete package of ternary lithium without catching fire. The magazine 2.0 released by Aian this time upgraded the battery safety test standard from acupuncture to gunshot.
On March 29, Cao Cao Travel launched the world’s first custom-made travel car brand - Cao Cao Automobile. At the same time, Cao Cao 60, the first customized model, made its global debut. It launched 2 models and sold The price is 119,800-139,800 yuan.
On March 27, Feifan F7 was officially launched, launching six models with a price range of 229,900 yuan to 301,900 yuan. In the second half of this year, Feifan F7 will provide a 64kWh lithium iron phosphate basic version priced at 209,900 yuan; if you choose the car-electricity separation mode, the price will be only 145,900 yuan. In the fierce price war, Feifan Automobile chose to fight against the odds.
The auto market is very lively this week, and there are many events worth recording.
Yu Chengdong publicly responded to the Huawei Smart Car Trademark controversy
On the night of March 31, Huawei Managing Director, Huawei Terminal BG CEO, and Smart Car Solutions BU CEO Yu Chengdong personally ordered: Ask the world Stores will begin to remove all promotional materials related to Huawei on April 1.
On the same day, Huawei issued another internal announcement about its automotive business decisions. The announcement was signed by Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. It once again emphasized that Huawei does not build cars and is valid for 5 years. It also restricted the exposure of the Huawei logo on car designs. Strict requirements were put forward, emphasizing that "Huawei/HUAWEI" cannot appear in vehicle promotion and appearance.
On April 1, in his speech at the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum 2023, Yu Chengdong publicly responded to the storm and for the first time was honest about the pressure Huawei faces in its car-making business.
“In today’s era, huge changes have taken place, because Huawei is still a sanctioned company. In this situation of a sanctioned company, it is difficult for European, American and Japanese companies to choose Huawei as their company. We are the main intelligent supplier, so our partners are limited, mainly domestic partners.” Yu Chengdong said that there are three types of companies that will not cooperate with Huawei. One is the international car giants, the other is the new car-making forces, and the third is the traditional car companies that are afraid of losing their soul.
Yu Chengdong said frankly, “So this faces a big challenge, because the investment is so huge. If we don’t sell a large number of cars that use Huawei’s automation solutions, we won’t be able to monetize them commercially. It is impossible to achieve a closed business loop.”
Some of Yu Chengdong’s worries have become facts.
On March 28, the 35th meeting of the sixth board of directors of GAC Group passed the "Proposal on Changes to the GAC Aion AH8 Project", mentioning: Due to the allocation of resources of all parties and other reasons, the holding subsidiary GAC Aion New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd.'s AH8 project has been changed from joint development with Huawei to independent development. After this change, Huawei will continue to participate in the development and cooperation of the company's own brand models as an important supplier; the total project investment is 925 million yuan. Adjusted to 1.233 billion yuan, the funds will be raised by ourselves.
As a result, the joint car-making model between GAC and Huawei was terminated. The two parties only retained the supplier and purchaser relationship, and GAC Aian re-developed this car independently.
In response to the HUAWEI interrogation incident, Yu Chengdong said that because there will be multiple car manufacturers and Huawei adopting the smart car selection model in the future, each cooperation project will have an independent brand, which will be very difficult for Huawei's marketing, so I hope that there will be an ecological brand that can form the most unique elements, and we will use Wenjie as a brand for cross-border cooperation, with Huawei added in front of it.
“At Huawei, we have always insisted not to build cars, but to help car companies build good cars together. We have always adhered to this concept. We wanted to call Wenjie Huawei Wenjie and make it an ecological brand for us. We hope that consumers will not be confused when choosing, because it is now produced by Cyrus, and will soon be produced by Chery, BAIC and JAC.
If Huawei's complete set of solutions for these cars comes out and they all use different brands, it will be very complicated for us to go to marketing services and retail, and the investment cost will be very high. Therefore, we hope to use the same elements and the same products. brand to use. ”
Yu Chengdong said, “The word Huawei is still cancelled. In fact, the essence has not changed. We still want to be such an ecological brand and jointly create a series of models.” ”
He said that at the same time, the product cars planned by several car companies that are engaged in self-selected models with Huawei do not conflict. Some are making SUVs, some are sedans, some are making MPVs, and some are making B For class products, some people make C-class cars, while others make D-class cars, so the products produced by each car manufacturer do not overlap.
Huawei hopes to combine these products under an ecological brand and become a brand. A complete solution, working with car companies to create extremely competitive, leading, ultimate experience, high-quality products
The story of two factories
From March 25 to 27, 2023, the 2023 Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
On March 27, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang attended the China Development Forum. At the 2023 annual meeting, he delivered a speech entitled "Striding forward on the new journey of building a community with a shared future for mankind". In his speech, Qin Gang shared the story of the two factories.
One is Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory - this factory rolls off a car in 45 seconds and delivered 74,000 vehicles in February this year, ranking first in sales in China's new energy vehicle market.
The other one. It’s Fuyao Glass’s U.S. factory. Qin Gang said that he visited there when he was working in the United States. It is the world’s largest single automotive glass factory and has directly created nearly 2,000 jobs locally, contributing to the entire supply chain. 6,000 jobs were created.
“In these two factories, ‘Made in China’ and ‘Made in the United States’ did not involve you winning or losing, but the integration, discussion and collision of production technology and management concepts. What burst out was the spark of mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win between China and the United States. Qin Gang said.
On March 26, BMW Group Chairman Oliver Zipse attended the China Development Forum and delivered a speech, reaffirming his long-term commitment to China and emphasizing that Chinese-style modernization is the key to the world Opportunities. The BMW Group is committed to becoming a fellow traveler on China's new journey towards modernization. For BMW and its trusted Chinese partners, this is a mutually beneficial and win-win path for the growth and development of the BMW Group's business in China. It will also inject new growth momentum and bring new development opportunities to other global markets.
Zipzer said that China is the largest single market for the BMW Group and one of the most strategic markets at present. , the BMW Group is moving forward at full speed along the group strategy of "electrification, digitalization and sustainability"
The BMW Group has deployed electrification from the perspective of the entire industry chain. In September 2022, the BMW Group announced its cooperation. Partners Ningde Times and Yiwei Lithium Energy signed a battery cell production demand contract worth more than 10 billion euros. In October of the same year, the BMW Group announced the launch of a lithium-ion battery cell cooperation project with the Chinese company Envision Power. The company will use this to build 5 factories in Europe, North America and China, and further expand its business on the international stage. These prove that only cooperation can win.
At present, China Electric. The automobile industry is developing rapidly, and the BMW Group is also accelerating the electrification of its products. Within this year, BMW will provide 11 pure electric products in the Chinese market, covering almost all core market segments. In the second half of 2025, the BMW Group will put into production new-generation models. And with the intensive launch of 6 new-generation models in the next 24 months, BMW is expected to deliver a total of more than 10 million pure electric vehicles in the global market by 2030.
On March 25, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, delivered a speech at the Economic Summit of the China Development Forum 2023 Annual Meeting. In the speech, he publicly talked about his judgment on the future of artificial intelligence. He believed that China’s big language The gap between the technical level of the model and GPT-4 is only 2 to 3 years. At present, the technical direction of GPT has been clear, and there are no insurmountable technical obstacles. He also said that artificial intelligence will create consciousness.
“When artificial intelligence modifies its own code, self-upgrades and self-evolves, the speed of evolution is probably difficult to describe with exponential levels. I feel that there is not much time left for humans. I It is believed that GPT will definitely produce consciousness, but the difference is whether it is GPT-6, GPT-8 or GPT-10."
Zhou Hongyi said that as the number of brains and neurons increases, the connection between the brain and the neural network becomes stronger. As the number increases, a function called emergence will appear in the system at a certain point. Just as many intelligent functions appeared, consciousness also appeared. So the so-called parameters of the current large language model can be regarded as the number of connections of the neural network in the brain capacity. This parameter is now hundreds of billions. Maybe the human brain has at least 100 trillion, and artificial intelligence may reach 100,000. 100 million, maybe consciousness will automatically arise at this time.
Battery-grade lithium carbonate fell below 250,000 yuan/ton
Data released by Shanghai Steel Federation showed that on March 31, the quotations of some lithium battery materials fell, and battery-grade lithium carbonate fell by 11,500 yuan. / ton, with an average price of 245,000 yuan/ton; industrial grade lithium carbonate fell by 5,000 yuan/ton, with an average price of 205,000 yuan/ton; lithium hydroxide fell by 7,500-10,000 yuan/ton; nickel beans fell by 1,500 yuan/ton.
Since this year, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has been falling almost every day. Compared with the beginning of the year, the current price has dropped by nearly 50%.
On March 30, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said at the 2022 annual results conference that if the price of lithium carbonate is above 400,000 yuan/ton, electric vehicles will make no money, but the price is 400,000 yuan. You can make money with less than /ton.
NIO CEO Li Bin said in a recent earnings call that every RMB 100,000 change in the price of lithium carbonate will affect NIO's gross profit margin by about 2 points. If it drops to a reasonable level of more than 100,000 yuan per ton, a gross profit margin of 8 points can be released.
In addition, Jikrypton CEO An Conghui also pointed out that for every 10,000 yuan reduction in lithium carbonate, the contribution to Jikrypton is 575 yuan, and the impact on gross profit is 0.2.
Jiang Li, deputy general manager and secretary to the board of directors of CATL, told the Automotive Business Review reporter that lithium carbonate is like any commodity, and its price is determined by supply and demand.
“In the past two or three years, the price of lithium carbonate has soared due to demand for it—that is, the demand for lithium batteries from downstream electric vehicles plus energy storage has increased significantly, exceeding the supply capacity, and the price has finally Determined by marginal demand, the marginal demand price is extremely outrageous, reaching a maximum of 600,000 yuan/ton. "Jiang Li said, "The actual gap between supply and demand is not that big. We have been calling for a tight balance, and we cannot say that it is completely unbalanced."
Under tight equilibrium, the price of lithium carbonate skyrocketed, rising from 40,000 yuan/ton to 600,000 yuan/ton.
Due to the laws of the market, all kinds of capital have been mobilized one after another after the high price, and a lot of money has been invested in the mining of lithium carbonate.
“From last year to this year, the supply of lithium carbonate has gradually improved. Although it takes a cycle to open the mine, the mining cycle is relatively long and the supply elasticity is relatively small.” Jiang Li said, “As the supply slowly picks up, , the price of lithium carbonate has begun to fall. This is a normal market law at work. "
In the long term, Jiang Li believes that as the supply gradually increases, the price of lithium carbonate will further return to rationality. “Because only when the price of lithium carbonate returns to a reasonable state, the cost of batteries and the cost of cars decrease, can the application of new energy truly enter the homes of ordinary people. Otherwise, if the (price) is too high, they will not be able to survive, and the pressure on profitability is too great. .
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After nine years of dreaming of building a car, Jia Yueting started the production of FF 91
"All our crazy persistence and determined efforts that were not understood finally resulted in today's SOP. It can be said that after nine years of suffocating on dreams, the moment of subversion finally arrived. ”
In the early morning of March 30, as the material reserves in the factory parts reserve area were shown to the public, and a body-in-white was pushed onto the stage from the paint shop, Faraday Future (Nasdaq) Stock code: FFIE (hereinafter referred to as "FF") founder and chief product and user ecosystem officer (CPUO) Jia Yueting at FF in Hanford, California, USA
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