Lynk & Co’s flagship SUV, the new 09EM-P, launched two six-seat and two seven-seat models, priced from 307,800 yuan to 347,800 yuan. It is understood that the new car has been improved in terms of chassis materials, handling performance, space comfort and safety performance. So, which model is more suitable for purchase?

　　The new 09EM-P inherits the family classic design of the Lynk & Co brand "Urban Opposition Aesthetics". The middle grid grille that occupies a large area of the front of the car adopts a straight waterfall design, which has been blackened and treated with luxury and visual impact. The headlight group still adopts the iconic and sharp split design, which has a good recognition after lighting. There are large-size air intakes on both sides of the front of the car. The interior is embellished with chrome-plated trims to enhance the texture of the front face. The side shape of the new 09EM-P is very tough, and the rich line design presents a good light and shadow effect. The segmented waist line design is matched with blackened decorative pieces around the windows, which has a strong sense of movement. On the tail side, the taillight adopts a through design, and the layout of the internal light group module is more personalized. The exhaust layout is concealed and a bright black diffuser is added.　 　

　　Entering the car, the panoramic island cockpit reflects a symmetrical beauty. The 12.3-inch smart LCD instrument is paired with a 15.4-inch central control screen, which has a good sense of technology. In terms of power, relying on the Lynk & Co EM-P super range-extended electric solution, the new 09EM-P is equipped with 2.0T + 3DHT + three-motor layout. The maximum output power of the power system is 408kW, and the maximum output torque is 844N · m. It can achieve a CLTC pure electric cruising range of 190km, and a CLTC comprehensive cruising range of up to 1430km. The whole system is equipped with FYRA-E intelligent electric four-wheel drive system as standard, providing 7 dynamic driving modes.

　　The seven-seat version of the new 09EM-P has two models, namely the seven-seat PLUS and the seven-seat PRO, priced at 307,800 yuan and 317,800 yuan. The two models have little difference in configuration, mainly reflected in some comfort configurations and atmosphere creation.　

　　Specifically, first of all, in terms of safety, the seven-seat version comes standard with front dual airbags, front side airbags, head air curtains (one row to three rows on the side), RP roll protection system, front pre-tightening force-limiting seat belts, ESP9.3 HEV body stability control system, CBC curve control system, DTV dynamic torque control system, ARP anti-roll protection system, front/rear parking assistance early warning system, 360 ° panoramic imaging system, 180 ° transparent chassis system, steering assistance image, and vehicle theft reminder and tracking. In terms of intelligent driver assistance system, the car is uniformly equipped with 1 forward camera, 1 rear camera, 4 surround view cameras, 5 millimeter wave radars and 12 ultrasonic radars. Other features come standard with DAC driver fatigue warning system, DMS driver status monitoring system, TSR traffic sign recognition system, FCW forward collision warning system, AEB active emergency brake assist system (with pedestrian identification), CVW vehicle rapid approach warning system, RCTA rear lateral oncoming warning system, TAA car active deflection system, etc. In the external configuration part, the new 09EM-P comes standard with AFS headlight follow-up steering system, ADB intelligent matrix high beam control system, AHB-C intelligent far and near light control system, adaptive headlights (low beam mode adjustment), sliding openable panoramic sunroof, first row of double-layer sound insulation glass, second row of double-layer sound insulation privacy glass, third row of privacy glass, electric trunk tailgate, exterior rearview mirror electric folding & heating & memory, etc.

　　Internal configuration part, the new car comes standard with leather multi-function physical button steering wheel, automatic anti-glare frameless rearview mirror, NAPPA leather seat, electric 12-way main and passenger seat adjustment (including 4-way electric waist rest), main driver seat memory function, front seat heating & ventilation function, dual temperature zone automatic air conditioning, passenger compartment PTC heating, glove box refrigeration function, active cockpit cleaning system, rain sensing integrated water spray system wiper, rain sensing sunroof & window closing, keyless entry & start system, 12.3-inch smart LCD meter, 15.4-inch central control screen, high fidelity audio (10), car 5G network, car Wifi hotspot, four-tone area voice interaction system, mobile APP remote control system, mobile phone wireless charging function and other configurations …　 　

　　In terms of specific differences, the seven-seat PRO is 10,000 yuan more expensive than the seven-seat PLUS version. The electric adjustment of the main and auxiliary seats is upgraded from 12 to 16 (including 4-way electric lumbar support + flank support + seat cushion extension). The number of high fidelity audio is increased from 10 to 14 and adjusted to BOSE luxury audio. There are more front seat massage functions, second-row seat heating functions, AQS air quality management system, 12.8-inch full-color W-HUD head-up display, ANC active noise reduction system, streamer coral ambient light, and high definition driving recorder.　

　　In addition, the seven-seat PRO version can also be selected to the performance package, which includes dual-cavity air suspension, CCD continuously adjustable electronically controlled vibration damping system, multi-function electronic sun visor, main driver motor pre-tensioned seat belt, exterior rearview mirror welcome light, exterior rearview mirror automatic anti-glare – main driver side, NAPPA leather steering wheel, steering wheel electric four-way adjustment & heating & memory, rear passenger seat electric adjustment, front foldable aviation headrest, third-row seat electric folding and recovery, four-temperature zone automatic air conditioning, PM2.5 air quality detection system, Ocean Mystery fragrance system, second-row door side sunshade, and second-row air conditioning control screen.　 　

　　The six-seat version has six-seat HALO and six-seat ULTRA models, priced at 327,800 yuan and 347,800 yuan respectively. On the basis of the configuration of the seven-seat PRO version, the six-seat HALO adds the pre-tensioned seat belt of the main driver motor, the welcome light of the outer rearview mirror, the automatic anti-glare of the outer rearview mirror – the main driver side, the electric four-way adjustment multi-function steering wheel, NAPPA leather steering wheel, steering wheel heating & memory, the electric leg support of the passenger seat, the memory function of the passenger seat, the function of one row of two rows to form a bed, the electric adjustment of the rear row of the passenger seat, the small table board of the rear row of the passenger seat, the ventilation & massage & lumbar support function of the second row of seats, the electric folding and recovery of the third row of seats, the automatic air conditioning in the four-temperature zone, the PM2.5 air quality detection system, the ocean mystery fragrance system, the second row of door side sunshades and the second row of air conditioning control screens.

　　In terms of the adjustment of the main and auxiliary seats, the six-seat version is equipped with the main driver electric 12-way (including 4-way electric waist support) and electric 14-way (including 4-way electric waist support + 4-way electric leg support), and the second row of seat adjustment is electric 4-way. Finally, look at the six-seat ULTRA model. As the top model, this car has only more CCD continuously adjustable electronically controlled vibration reduction system and dual-cavity air suspension system than the six-seat HALO version.

　　Since consumers have their own needs for the purchase of the seven-seat version or the six-seat version, the two versions can be purchased on demand. Specific to the model part, among the seven-seat versions, the PRO model has a higher technological configuration and a sense of luxury atmosphere. Consumers who pursue these two points can choose this model. After all, the price difference of 10,000 yuan is more cost-effective. If you only want seven seats, the PLUS version is enough for daily use if other functions don’t matter; and in terms of the six-seat version, the configuration of the two models will be richer. If you want air suspension, you can directly choose the ULTRA model. (Source: Lynk & Co Automotive)

A few days ago, the old photo of Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun attending the meeting together became popular again. Dong Mingzhu in the picture "asked" Lei Jun: Just you? Can you also make air conditioners? Can you turn on air conditioners? Lei Jun silently responded to the Xiao Ai speaker: Xiao Ai, turn on the Mijia Internet air conditioner and turn off the Gree air conditioner!

It has to be said that Lei Jun and Xiaomi, who did not let go of any explosive points, launched the marketing copy of air conditioners to cater to the hearts of the people who love to watch the fun.

As expected, the next day, Xiaomi officially released the Mijia Internet air conditioner. This air conditioner labeled Mijia adopts Xiaomi’s commonly used pricing method: 1.5 horsepower, three-level energy efficiency standard, retail price of 1999 yuan, which is about 1,000 yuan cheaper than the big brands Gree and Midea congeneric products on the market, and the public test price is only 999 yuan.

It was still Lei Jun’s familiar formula and Xiaomi’s familiar taste.

01

A mysterious air conditioning company

"For this Mijia air conditioner, Xiaomi has started to form a team in the first half of last year, looking for OEM foundries, designing product prototypes, and also buying our air conditioner data reports," Dong Min, vice-president of Aowei Cloud Network, which provides information services, told AI Finance Agency.

Xiaomi’s air-conditioning business has always been in charge of Xiaomi’s ecological chain enterprise Zhimi Technology. The company responsible for the research and development and production of Xiaomi air-conditioners is a company called Zhuhai Sanyou.

From the industrial and commercial registration information, the legal representative of Zhuhai Sanyou is Liu De, the co-founder of Xiaomi and the head of Xiaomi’s ecological chain. The shareholder of Zhuhai Sanyou is Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd., with a 100% shareholding ratio. In short, Zhuhai Sanyou is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi.

A point person in Zhuhai Sanyou’s business is Xiao Youyuan. He was originally a senior executive of Gree, worked in Gree for 10 years, and was also a trusted person of Dong Mingzhu, who was in charge of Gree’s overseas business. In 2015, Xiao Youyuan was poached by Skyworth with his team and participated in the establishment of Skyworth Air Conditioning. Hundreds of Skyworth Air Conditioning people came from Gree that year.

Xiao Youyuan, who participated in the founding of Skyworth Air Conditioning

From the industrial and commercial registration information of Zhuhai Sanyou, Xiao Youyuan and the team worked in Skyworth for two years, and soon took the team to the wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi, "because Skyworth and Gree have very different corporate cultures."

"As a private enterprise, Skyworth is used to’small input and big output ‘, while the Xiao Youyuan team from Gree has a style of’big work and fast work’." A person familiar with the matter told AI Finance Agency. In addition, Skyworth air conditioners encountered the "Little New Year" of air conditioners at the beginning, and their performance was not good. Gree and his group were gradually emptied of Skyworth air conditioners.

Xiao Youyuan’s team, who joined Xiaomi’s subsidiary, brought "Gree Feng" to Xiaomi. Wu Wei, who has visited the Sanyou production line and is also a supplier of air-conditioning components, told AI Finance Agency that Sanyou is a mysterious company, but "the solution is almost the same as Gree". For example, the MCU (microcontroller) is made by Texas Instruments, a large American manufacturer, the module is made by Fuji or Mitsubishi, and the IPM (intelligent power module, responsible for frequency conversion) is made by Ruineng.

"Everyone in their company seemed to be holding their breath. After Gree came out to Skyworth, Gree issued a ban order, and all Gree suppliers were not allowed to supply Skyworth. The team gambled so much and was finally washed out by Skyworth," Wu Wei said.

The team was eventually recruited to Lei Jun.

However, Wu Wei revealed that Sanyou currently has only two production lines of its own, and its annual production capacity is "only a few hundred thousand units". Therefore, in May 2017, Zhuhai Sanyou and Zhongshan Changhong jointly funded the establishment of Zhongshan Hongyou Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., with Zhongshan Changhong holding 60% and Zhuhai Sanyou holding 40%. It should be noted that Changhong is the foundry of Zhimi air conditioners this time.

According to people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi’s foundry is not in Mianyang, Changhong’s headquarters, but in Nantou Town, Zhongshan, not far from TCL’s headquarters.

02

Lei Jun’s obsession

This is the third time Lei Jun has tried to make air conditioners.

The first dates back to three years ago. When Lei Jun first entered the air-conditioning industry, he chose to cooperate with Dong Mingzhu’s old rival, Midea. This immediately annoyed Dong Mingzhu and directly accused the cooperation between the two sides as "two scammers together, a group of thieves". At that time, Midea had just been ordered by the court to compensate Gree 2 million yuan for stealing Gree’s patents.

But this Youth series air conditioner, priced at 3,099 yuan, did not cause much splash. The selling point at that time was that it was used in conjunction with the Xiaomi Mi Band, which could be set to automatically turn on when you go home, and automatically enter sleep mode when you feel you fall asleep.

Youth series air conditioner

Perhaps deliberately to highlight Xiaomi’s "Internet thinking" in the limelight, there is no display panel on the surface of the air conditioner. This means that if users want to know the temperature of the air conditioner in the room, they need to open their mobile phone, check the app or pick up the Xiaomi bracelet. This incredible design appeared in the first generation of products. Fortunately, this is the only cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea in the field of air conditioning.

"It’s impossible for Midea to raise competitors," says one air-conditioning supplier. In fact, Xiaomi decided to invest in Midea at the end of 2014, paying nearly 1.30 billion yuan for a 1.29% stake. But the shareholding relationship has not alleviated the conflict between the two sides in real business.

Millet’s tentacles have already extended to rice cookers, electric fans, water purifiers, electric kettles, cooking machines and many other small household appliances. This is Midea’s territory, which will inevitably lead to fierce collisions, and it is impossible to expect that Midea will be willing to help Xiaomi produce air conditioners. However, from an investment perspective, Midea’s share price has doubled in the past three years, and Xiaomi’s investment in Midea has been very successful, earning a lot of money.

The second time Xiaomi launched an air conditioner was in 2017, which was developed by Zhimi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi. The minimalist design of this air conditioner has also won international design awards, and this design style has been carried over to the current Mijia air conditioner.

However, the price of the Zhimi air conditioner at that time was as high as 4,399 yuan. Although Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology, said that there was almost no profit, such a high price did not have the pricing style of Xiaomi at all. Now the air conditioner has been removed from the Xiaomi mall.

Interestingly, in order to explain that his 4,399 yuan air conditioner was a conscientious price, Su Jun reported at the time that the quality of the current air conditioner was worse than that of more than ten years ago. "The original material was very solid, but now it is loose, and there are recycled materials in it. You don’t even need to open it, and you can feel the huge decline in quality just by the shell itself."

He said that Zhimi can also make its products cheaper than some 999 yuan air conditioners on the market, by using some inferior materials or even recycled materials to cut costs. "But that’s not something we can guide the quality of life of ordinary people, it doesn’t make sense."

But coincidentally, this time, the price of Mijia’s Internet air conditioner was exactly 999 yuan. However, it was embarrassing that the first user to get the goods couldn’t wait to hang the Xiaomi air conditioner on a second-hand trading platform on the same day.

03

Mi Ge Gree’s life?

What makes Lei Jun envious is that Dong Mingzhu’s Gree air conditioner profits are astonishingly high.

Chen Hang, chief analyst at Southwest Securities, told AI Finance Agency that Gree’s gross profit margin for air-conditioning products is above 35%, which is unusual in the home appliance industry known for price wars. Midea’s gross profit margin is slightly worse. But it is much higher than Xiaomi’s 10% gross profit for mobile phones.

High profits mean there is room to be compressed. This is also the direction of Xiaomi’s revolution, improving efficiency and reducing circulation costs.

This time, the air conditioner of Mijia brand, whether it is the price strategy or the product itself, looks much more reliable than the previous two times. But Dong Mingzhu has never been easy to bully. When Lei Jun entered the mobile phone market, it coincided with the market being on the eve of the transformation to smartphones, and the timing was excellent. But the air conditioner industry is relatively stable, the technology has existed for hundreds of years, and the market structure and corporate rhythm are quite stable.

Mijia air conditioner

"Gree will not be killed." Chen Hang analyzed that unlike other household appliances, air conditioners need to be installed, and one of Gree’s moats is a team of highly efficient ground installers. "Xiaomi will not have much impact on the giants in the short term."

"The competition of air conditioners is nothing more than the competition of brands and after-sales services." Lu Jianguo, deputy chief engineer of the Home Appliances Research Institute, also believes that now Xiaomi air conditioners are all new machines and have not yet reached the after-sales link. Users can take their mobile phones to the store for repair, but the air conditioner needs to be repaired at home, which will test the after-sales team of Xiaomi air conditioners.

Dong Min, vice president of Aowei Cloud Network, also expressed his concerns. Air conditioners are financial products. They are produced in winter and sold in summer, and they need to pay a lot of money in advance to stock up. To a certain extent, stocking up is also a gamble on the weather, and sales immediately rise in hot weather.

Dong Min was deeply impressed that when the weather was hot a few years ago, whoever had installers sold their air conditioners well. And this requires a huge ground force, which is not what Xiaomi is good at.

The bigger challenge comes from the supply chain. Back then, Xiaomi suffered a loss in the mobile phone supply chain and had been in short supply. Lei Jun went to South Korea to meet the boss of Samsung Electronics, hoping that the other party could guarantee the supply of mobile phone screens.

The risk of the supply chain is increasing in the air-conditioning market. The routine of these traditional large manufacturers is to build a huge capacity scale advantage first, and then firmly control the supply chain, especially the core components such as compressors, and finally achieve a stable market structure and profit margins.

"Compressors are a seller’s market," said Zhang Jie, a supplier of air-conditioning components. Gree and Midea produce their own compressors.

Zhang Jie revealed that there is a shortage of inverter compressors this year, and many air conditioner manufacturers have reduced production as a result. "Key components have been out of stock from this year to next year, so compressor companies must protect big factories, not millet."

AI Finance Agency learned from people familiar with the Xiaomi ecological chain that in order to get the upstream supply chain of air conditioners, Xiaomi paid a lot of money to obtain air conditioner compressors and IPM module parts. "They need to take out 30-4 billion to the compressor company to book the production capacity, which is equivalent to the table fee."

Dong Min believes that the air-conditioning business is designed and defined by Xiaomi in the short term, and Changhong conducts OEM OEM, because Changhong has a large volume and has the voice over, but according to the laws of TV and mobile phones, Xiaomi will definitely purchase and customize some important components in the future.

Zhang Jie was also a little surprised that Xiaomi chose Changhong OEM. "Changhong’s production line is relatively old, and it can’t be compared to the big factories." Changhong bought Meiling and Huayi in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Meiling is mainly responsible for the production of air conditioners and refrigerators in Changhong, while Huayi specializes in the production of compressors.

But in Zhang Jie’s opinion, Changhong’s Meiling air conditioners are not mainstream in the industry. The first echelon is Gree and Midea, the second echelon is Oaks, and the third echelon is Chigo, Haier, and Hisense. Meiling is outside these echelons.

Compared with the melee in the color TV market, the competition landscape of the air conditioner market is very clear. Gree and Midea firmly control the first camp of the market, and the two together occupy more than 50% of the market share. The remaining Oaks, Haier, Hisense, etc. have only a small market share.

"Xiaomi must have harvested the second and third camps first," Dong Min said. "Consumers have brand loyalty to the top few, but they have no impression of a lot of brands behind."

Asked in an interview with Mr. Dong in July what she thought of Xiaomi’s entry into the air-conditioning market, Mr. Dong understated: "We make it ourselves, they produce it under brand names. We are hardly on the same track, and we are not an industry type."

In fact, Dong Mingzhu had already reached for the mobile phone, while Lei Jun reached for the air conditioner. This was the lifeblood of the two families. When entering the other’s area of expertise, whether it was Lei Jun or Dong Mingzhu, their performance was difficult to satisfy.

04

Broken halberd "empty ice wash"?

Lei Jun "rose to the challenge", not just the bet with Dong Mingzhu, but the performance pressure may be a more important consideration for him to build air conditioners.

The Xiaomi Ecological Chain is a grand vision that Xiaomi has painted for the capital markets. In 2017, the Xiaomi Ecological Chain achieved 20 billion sales performance. Xiaomi has also set an ambitious goal for the ecological chain: 40 billion in 2018 and 80 billion in 2019. This means that the Xiaomi Ecological Chain needs to nearly double every year.

Xiaomi has proved its success in power banks, bracelets, sweeping robots, and air purifiers. But these products priced at tens of yuan or a few hundred yuan are a drop in the bucket for doubling the revenue of the ecological chain. According to the exclusive information of AI Finance Agency, Xiaomi made an organizational adjustment to the ecological chain team on July 27, and established a precious metals business department, an exploration product department, and an investment department under the ecological chain.

So far, Xiaomi has invested in more than 100 eco-chain companies and produced more than 1,600 SKUs of hardware products. But it is undeniable that Xiaomi specializes in industries where the original market is relatively chaotic and inefficient, typically color TVs, rice cookers, plug-in boards, and sweeping robots.

Take Xiaomi TV as an example. In the TV market that Xiaomi has entered, the share of leading brands such as Hisense and Skyworth is around 15%, and the share of other major brands is around 10%. The gap is not large. The melee pattern is conducive to Xiaomi’s competition for the market.

Because TV involves video content, for companies like Xiaomi and LeTV with operating experience, it is very familiar. And Xiaomi has also invested in video platforms such as iQIYI very early, and LeTV is known for video copyright. However, with the collapse of LeTV, the similarity of the two companies has also caused most of the share of LeTV super TVs to flow to Xiaomi. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in April 2018, the total online and offline shipments of Xiaomi TVs exceeded all brands, ranking first in China.

"The categories that can contribute more than 2 billion can be exhausted, probably within 50. And among these 50, there may be only 10 fields that are relatively easy to enter." The person in charge of a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise broke his fingers to the AI financial club. The bracelet can exceed 2 billion yuan, the sweeping robot can exceed 2 billion yuan, and the notebook can exceed 3 billion yuan.

If the Xiaomi ecological chain wants to double its growth, it has to enter the major home appliance market. In this market, Xiaomi has successfully won the TV market, and now there are only empty ice washers (air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines) left.

However, Xiaomi’s playing style is not universal, especially in the air ice washing market, where Xiaomi has encountered unprecedented resistance.

In early 2017, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Yunmi released the first Internet smart refrigerator with a crowdfunding price of 999 yuan. The following year, it launched an Internet smart refrigerator iLive priced at 1999 yuan, which supports Wi-Fi connection and can be remotely adjusted by mobile phone app. In addition to the refrigerator, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Xiaoji intelligent mini drum washing machine (Xiaomi version) launched a crowdfunding on the Xiaomi platform, priced at 1499 yuan.

However, none of these products were as successful as expected, and young people’s first ice wash didn’t really make young people buy it. Xiaomi, which is good at marketing, even lost money in terms of market volume.

Xiaomi has also entered the drone market, built by Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Feimi, after two and a half years of research and development, the cost of the mold alone cost more than 4 million yuan. Lei Jun personally demonstrated in front of 1 million netizens through Xiaomi live broadcast. However, surprisingly, in the live broadcast of Xiaomi employees, the drone actually lost control, and finally "blew up", and died before he could beat him.

In fact, even if it doesn’t "blow up", Xiaomi will have a hard time making a difference in the drone market. In the drone market, DJI is an absolute giant. Under the Iron Curtain of DJI, almost no players can survive in the consumer drone market.

Five years ago, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun made 1 billion bet, which was judged by the revenue of the two companies.

Now, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu’s gamble is only 5 months away. Xiaomi’s revenue in 2017 is 114.60 billion yuan, while Gree’s revenue is 148.20 billion, and it is expected to break through 170 billion this year. Lei Jun has almost no chance of winning. It has to be said that in the face of Gree, which still maintains strong growth, Lei Jun should carry out a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" of Dong Mingzhu earlier. To make amends, Lei Jun should not care about temporary gains and losses, and it is not impossible for Xiaomi to surpass Gree. Even if Xiaomi air conditioner is not done, it can still drive the industry to change like a catfish, which is what Xiaomi has always been best at doing.

(Wu Wei and Zhang Jie are pseudonyms in the article)

Hengda’s meaning is also very simple, that is, the first car does not take risks and seeks stability, and occupies the market through high cost performance.

(3) In what way will Hengchi 5 open against the benchmark X1 and Model Y?

Evergrande 5’s positioning is very special. In terms of size, its opponent should be Tesla Model Y, but it chose to "reduce its value" to enter the compact SUV market.

And its performance is indeed not particularly outstanding. The maximum driving power of the new motor is 150kW, which is basically the same as the output power of the 2.0T engine. Considering that the motor can output the maximum torque at the first time, the urban acceleration performance may be slightly stronger than that of the traditional 2.0T fuel car. But it is not outstanding in electric vehicles. For example, the maximum output power of the Tesla Model Y reaches 220kW, and it only takes 6.9 seconds to complete 0-100km/h acceleration, which is considered a steel cannon (parameter | inquiry) level. Therefore, for users who have high expectations for the performance of electric vehicles, the Hengchi 5 may not be so outstanding.

However, the relatively weak performance of electric vehicles gives it a more energy-saving performance. The comprehensive battery life of the new car can reach 700km, which is still outstanding.

The other competitors of the Hengchi 5 were officially "identified" as joint-venture luxury SUVs such as the Audi Q3 (parameters | inquiry) and the BMW X1 (parameters | inquiry). To be honest, the comparison was not great, these two cars were both entry-level SUVs, while the Hengchi 5 was actually close to the mid-size SUV. Its space was significantly larger and the configuration was higher.

But when it comes to brand recognition, Audi and BMW have been in business for so many years, and it is not so easy to shake. Therefore, the "official goal" of Hengchi 5 is very suspicious of "touching porcelain", which we will not mention.

(4) Kung Fu shooting

According to the previous information, the price of Hengchi 5 will be below 200,000 yuan, which has actually filled the price/performance ratio. After all, the body close to the medium-sized SUV, the reliable three-electric system, the solid quality control and adjustment, and the good appearance and intelligent performance, the home is still very suitable.

It can be seen that Evergrande has indeed put enough effort into this car. As for whether it can become a hit, it depends on the follow-up market performance, let’s wait and see.

(Text/rider number, Kung Fu car)

At noon on November 29, China Hengda Group announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it had noticed the announcement issued by Hengda Property on November 28, which concerned its subsidiary Jinbi Property Co., Ltd. to recover about RMB 1.996 billion and about RMB 152 million from the company and three related subsidiaries for the enforcement of its RMB 2 billion deposit certificate pledge guarantee by the bank.

China Evergrande Group said that as of the date of the announcement, the company and related subsidiaries have not received the notice from the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong Province to file a lawsuit against Jinbi Property.

The company will seek legal advice to safeguard the company’s legal rights. The company will issue further announcements in due course on any significant developments in the above litigation.

As of press time, China Evergrande Group reported HK $0.230/share, down 8.00%, and the total market value 3.037 billion HK $.

Previously reported: Sudden! Evergrande Property Sues Evergrande Group

Source, Reading Finance

Original title: "Evergrande Group’s latest response!"

Read the original text

"Big factories should lower their profile, so that they can do a good job in the’big ‘business of’a few taels of silver’ among all living beings."

Author/Xuan Qing

On the night of November 27, Didi Chuxing experienced "system paralysis". The Didi Chuxing APP in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other places could not be used, and the map could not be loaded. Some netizens said that after using Didi to call the online car-hailing, the APP suddenly could not be used, and the driver could not find the passenger. On the morning of the 28th, Didi Chuxing issued an apology, saying that after the technical team repaired overnight, some Didi online car-hailing services had been restored.

This Didi system crash is a total paralysis. Not only the user side cannot be used normally, but also the driver side and Didi’s intranet have problems. It is reported that the functional paralysis lasted for nearly 12 hours, which is also the longest failure of Didi Chuxing in recent years. It is identified as P0 level (P0 level failure is the most serious, with the greatest impact, and important functions related to core business are not available).

It was not until the 29th that Didi officially released the investigation results, saying that the cause of the accident was "the failure of the underlying system software", and all services of the Didi App have been restored.

So far, the first large-scale technical obstacles for the largest online car-hailing company on the whole network have been temporarily ended.

Interestingly, after an Internet company suffered a major failure of network technology and calmed down the storm for two days and one night, it triggered an "avalanche" effect.

01

Credit plummets, runs begin

After the incident, perhaps Didi’s public relations response to the crisis was lagging behind. When users did not receive reliable feedback at the first time, there was a panic of cashing in. The topics of "a driver’s income exceeded 69 billion yuan" and "some Didi drivers began to withdraw cash" suddenly rushed to the hot search, triggering a chain reaction.

On the afternoon of the 28th, some Didi drivers began to withdraw cash and advertise it in the internal group.

"Everyone in the group is saying that Didi has collapsed. It’s not a problem of a few cities. The situation of collapse is still varied. Some people can’t open the map, some people can’t hear the voice instructions, and some people have been cancelled more than a dozen orders for no reason." The driver reported that due to system obstacles, he is very worried about illegal deduction points and misjudgment, so he will not take orders easily.

The most important thing is that some time ago, Didi changed the withdrawal rules. Drivers with level L1 cannot withdraw cash every day, which makes some drivers very angry: "Now there is a problem with the system again, and our attendance points are affected. If the account money is less, who can tell?"

There are also drivers who hope to take advantage of the "loophole" in the system to withdraw cash as soon as possible. "The maximum withdrawal is 3 times on the same day, and each time it does not exceed 5,000 yuan. If someone wants to take the opportunity, they can withdraw as much as they want." Even if they can’t bring it up, they also consider transferring to financial management to buy Didi’s own "Didi Kumquat Treasure". In short, they cannot keep all the funds in the account.

This is not the first time that Didi owners have questioned the withdrawal rules, but the system paralysis has once again touched the sensitive nerves of drivers who have run wild due to the "overlord clause".

It is unfair that so much money is being put into the Didi system for free. Previously, many drivers claimed that they were not given withdrawal rules when they registered with Didi, nor were they told whether the funds in their accounts were eligible for deposit, nor did they sign relevant agreements.

Over the ownership of funds and safety issues, Didi has been unable to establish a trust relationship with the majority of drivers. There was a post on the Internet of "clever withdrawal" and "looking for withdrawal loopholes", which also shows that the two sides are in a state of departure from defense.

02

The trick behind the withdrawal

While Didi drivers are frantically withdrawing cash, many netizens are also reflecting on how to ensure the safety of funds if the online car-hailing platform is paralyzed. At present, major online car-hailing payment and capital account platforms have restrictions on withdrawal time and quota.

Some platforms even play "trick". Some drivers find that when using a certain platform, if they choose to withdraw cash, the system will display "need to wait", and when the time is up, it will become "outdated"; some drivers want to withdraw and cancel the account, but the customer service says that the withdrawal is limited to 20 minutes, and if they want to cancel, they must have "zero balance".

Such as disordered withdrawal time, delayed arrival of money, and indiscriminate deduction of performance are common problems in the current online car-hailing market. No matter what kind of business model, old drivers have also begun to be vigilant, because the "harsh" of online car-hailing platforms in terms of money is often a precursor to the collapse of the company. Such as Zebra, Yidao, Wanshun, Jiqi and other online car-hailing platforms, there have been situations where "it is difficult to withdraw cash, there are many tricks, and playing tricks".

Previously, there was a "partner model" that was popular in the car circle, that is, the driver signed a water withholding agreement with the leasing company and paid the service fee. The online car-hailing aggregation platform deducted the running income from the driver’s account to the leasing company’s account every week, and the leasing company earned this running money. This low-threshold rent has attracted a large number of small white drivers to join the small platform, but many people report that only the account balance can be seen at the settlement, and there is no withdrawal permission. The leasing company will return the remaining after the fee is deducted the next month.

Autonavi Maps and Baidu Maps are typical "aggregation platforms". On Autonavi alone, more than a dozen online car-hailing platforms have been aggregated, but the safety factor of these small online car-hailing platforms is too low. From consumers placing orders to drivers receiving orders, and then to the platform settling funds for drivers, there is no problem with this closed-loop transaction itself. But since leasing companies involve capital precipitation, it is likely to form a so-called "capital pool".

According to industry sources, the online car-hailing platform has touched the "second settlement" red line of supervision by transferring customer funds without obtaining the "Payment Business License" and then settling the settlement with the platform’s secondary merchants by the online platform. There are potential operational or financial risks.

According to relevant data, there are currently 330 online car-hailing platform companies across the country that have obtained business licenses, but September data shows that 59 platforms have not transmitted data for more than 180 days. Most small and medium-sized online car-hailing platforms do not have "payment business" licenses. Many are on the verge of elimination, and the safety of funds is even more difficult to avoid.

As insiders say, many small ride-hailing platforms use the "guise of the Internet" to lure drivers into joining, but in fact they are doing illegal fund-raising.

03

Platform versus driver

From a deeper perspective, the "twisting" relationship between online car-hailing platforms and drivers has become more and more intense. "No matter which platform, the draw is more than 30%. And there are a lot of tricks in the delivery of orders." A driver who went to Beijing’s online car-hailing revealed that now the commission of Didi, Baidu and Autonavi has been continuously increased, and there have been problems such as opaque delivery orders, long-distance delivery orders, mandatory delivery orders, and no delivery orders during peak periods.

"This year’s business is too difficult, the number of orders is reduced, the commission is too high, and there are all kinds of algorithmic traps." Mr. Liu, an online ride-hailing driver, said that many platforms will "kill the goose and get the egg", and continue to take up the ante when they know that the driver is not making money or losing money.

"The platform knows very well that many Xiaobai drivers have signed a one-year lease contract, and even if they can’t do it, they will insist on expiring for one year, so the company has no fear." Mr. Liu said that no matter which city in the country, the online ride-hailing algorithm is suppressing the enthusiasm of drivers, and drivers are more willing to choose to take orders.

Users are not immune to the platform’s confrontation with drivers. Many users find that the cost of hailing a taxi during peak periods is one to three times that of usual, and even if the fare continues to increase, few drivers take orders. "During peak periods, we only take large orders over 20 kilometers, and we do not take short-distance orders." Some drivers said that when the platform’s commission is too high, they will start to take selective orders, so as not to "run more, lose more."

From the point of view of Didi withdrawal, there are many thunder in the growth of the online car-hailing platform, which is "picking up wool" from each other. When it is a win-win situation, each company is happy, and when it is in trouble, they are rushing away. How to cultivate a well-regulated, honest and compliant online car-hailing market requires the patience and sincerity of the platform.

Didi said in its latest announcement that the relevant losses will be calculated normally, and the payment will be made up one after another, and the driver’s word-of-mouth value and travel points will also be calculated normally, and the display will be resumed one after another. To show its sincerity, Didi’s "10 yuan apology subsidy" has been distributed across the network, hoping to restore its word-of-mouth. This is also a reassurance for everyone.

We hope that the big factories will lower their stance. Because only in this way can they do a "big" business of "a few taels of silver" among all living beings.

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 5th (reporter, Ding Jing) What time does the next bus arrive? Is the subway station crowded now? When should I get off? Passengers can enjoy these smart services when traveling in Beijing. Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Autonavi Map on the 4th. The two sides will share traffic big data and launch more abundant transportation services within Beijing.

The two parties will build an integrated service platform for green transportation in Beijing – MaaS (Mobility as a Service, Mobility as a Service). The idea of the platform is to enable travelers to transform from owning vehicles to owning transportation services, and improve the public travel experience through one-stop service of various transportation methods. The platform is based on the Autonavi map APP, which connects to big data from various transportation industries such as Beijing’s public transportation, subway, suburban railways, online car-hailing, and long-distance buses. At present, real-time public transportation has covered more than 95% of bus lines in Beijing, and the accuracy rate of real-time information matching exceeds 97%. Passengers can also check the current congestion situation of all subway stations in Beijing through this platform. The Beijing MaaS platform has pioneered the "bus/subway ride companion card", which can display services such as route planning, transfer guidance, and get off reminders in real time according to the user’s location.

On August 28, China Evergrande announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that Evergrande’s agreement arrangement meeting will be postponed for 29 days to September 26. Before that, China Evergrande said that the agreement arrangement meeting scheduled for August 23 will be postponed to August 28.

On the same day, China Evergrande resumed trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the intraday share price fell by more than 90%. As of the close, China Evergrande’s share price was HK $0.34, falling below HK $1 and becoming a penny stock.

Image Source: Oriental Fortune

Agreement to postpone the meeting

According to China Evergrande’s announcement, the company has decided to extend the period for Evergrande Agreement Arrangement creditors to consider, understand and evaluate the terms of Evergrande Agreement Arrangement, and to give Evergrande Agreement Arrangement creditors more time to consider the recent development of the Group. Therefore, the Evergrande Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed for 29 days to September 26. In order to keep the schedules of Evergrande Agreement Arrangement, Jingcheng Agreement Arrangement and Space-based Agreement Arrangement as consistent as possible, the Jingcheng Agreement Arrangement Meeting and the Space-based Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed for 28 days to September 25.

The Hong Kong Evergrande Class A Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed to September 26, 2023 at 8:00 pm (Hong Kong time) (i.e. 7:00 am Cayman Islands time). The Hong Kong Evergrande Class C Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed to September 26, 2023 at 9:30 pm (Hong Kong time) (i.e. 8:30 am Cayman Islands time) (if later than the aforementioned time, after the conclusion of the Cayman Islands Evergrande Class A Agreement Arrangement Meeting).

The Cayman Islands Evergrande Class A Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed until 8:45 pm (Hong Kong time) on September 26, 2023 (i.e. 7:45 am Cayman Islands time) (if later than the aforementioned time, after the conclusion of the Hong Kong Evergrande Class A Agreement Arrangement Meeting). The Cayman Islands Evergrande Class C Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed until 10:15 pm (Hong Kong time) on September 26, 2023 (i.e. 9:15 am Cayman Islands time) (if later than the aforementioned time, after the conclusion of the Hong Kong Evergrande Class C Agreement Arrangement Meeting).

The meeting will be postponed until 9:00 am (British Virgin Islands time) on September 25, 2023 (i.e. 9:00 pm Hong Kong time).

The Space-based Agreement Arrangement Meeting will be postponed to 8:00 pm (Hong Kong time) on September 25, 2023.

Evergrande Group believes that, despite the postponement of the Agreement Arrangement Meeting, the timetable for the proposed restructuring is still in line with the Agreement Arrangement creditors’ expectations for the implementation of the proposed restructuring, given that the current deadline is December 15, 2023.

Shares resume trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

On August 28, China Hengda resumed trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the intraday share price fell by more than 90%, and the market value evaporated by nearly 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Wind data show that China Hengda shares closed at HK $1.65/share before the resumption of trading, with a market value of HK $21.80 billion.

On the evening of August 25, China Evergrande announced that it will resume trading on August 28. So far, all three listed companies in the Hengda department have completed the resumption of trading.

On August 27, China Evergrande released its 2023 semi-annual report. Revenue in the first half of 2023 was 128.20 billion yuan, an increase of 44% year-on-year, and the total net loss was 39.25 billion yuan.

Data show that Evergrande’s total liabilities decreased slightly to 2.3882 trillion yuan from the end of last year, excluding the advance payment of the debt is 1.7842 trillion yuan. Among them, interest-bearing loans 624.80 billion yuan, engineering materials and other payables 1.0566 trillion yuan, other liabilities 102.90 billion yuan. As of June 30, China Evergrande’s land reserves reached 190 million square meters, and there were 78 old renovation projects (34 in Shenzhen).

It is worth noting that according to the 2022 annual report released by China Evergrande recently, China Evergrande’s revenue in 2022 was 2300.7 billion yuan, the total net loss was 125.81 billion yuan, and the cumulative sales refund for the year was 35.79 billion yuan. The total liabilities in the 2022 statement were 2.43741 trillion yuan. In terms of land reserve, as of the end of 2022, China Evergrande had a land reserve of 210 million square meters.

According to China Evergrande, since its operating difficulties began in September 2021, Evergrande has promoted the full resumption of work on nearly 700 projects and the maintenance of buildings.

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● Early morning sudden! 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the country! ● Guangxi "Three Gorges" actually has a "devil channel"! There was an old shipworker who made millions this year, and when he discovered… Source/China Securities Journal

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Original title: "More than 90% down! Evergrande sudden announcement"

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One second, two seconds, three seconds… Several "code farmers" from Beijing Xinchuang Enterprise sat in front of a laptop, holding their breaths and concentrating, their hearts seemed to beat at the same frequency as the second hand.

At the 14th second, the computer desktop "lit up" smoothly, and the laboratory was suddenly full of joy.

From fighting each other, to clenching their fingers into fists, Tongxin has joined forces with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry to jointly promote the development of domestic operating systems.

In the rapid iteration of technology, the boot time of domestic operating systems has been gradually shortened, finally achieving a 14-second leap in 2022.

In March 2022, Tongfang laptops equipped with Loongson 3A5000 4-core processor, Tongxin UOS operating system, and Kunlun BIOS firmware achieved a leap in 14-second boot time, representing that the computers of "China Core" and "China Soul" are moving from "usable" to "easy to use", expanding the Chinese people’s place in the information technology industry that Intel and Microsoft have occupied for many years.

Each line of code leaping towards "14 seconds" hides the creativity and ambition of several generations of "Beijing code farmers". They represent Beijing’s "soft power", some are white-haired gentlemen who have been fighting for decades, and some are just entering the industry. The difficulties in the chain of information technology application and innovation are making key breakthroughs in their side-by-side struggles.

Loongson CPU out of the "darkest hour"

Boot speed is the first impression of computer performance to users. 10 years ago, it took 10 minutes or even longer to open a computer equipped with domestic hardware and software.

CPU (Central Processor) is the heart of the computer. If you want to speed up the computer, you must first pass this hurdle. Do Chinese people have their own CPU?

Yes. In the early morning of August 10, 2002, the computer installed with the "Loongson No. 1" CPU was successfully started, ending the history of the Chinese people relying entirely on imported CPUs to manufacture computers. In 2010, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing jointly funded the establishment of Loongson Zhongke Company, hoping that the R & D results will be accelerated and industrialized.

However, just over two years later, Longxin Zhongke fell into the "darkest moment".

The Loongson team with strong academic taste has been focusing on improving CPU performance, but has not come up with a general-purpose CPU that meets the mainstream needs of the market. The high investment in research and development has made the company’s funds tight, and even unable to pay salaries for a while, resulting in the loss of talent.

"This crisis forced us to recognize the reality." Founder Hu Weiwu realized that the R & D staff of "Shanghai" gave up the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but forgot to pay attention to the real needs of the market. In other words, although the organization has been transformed, the concept has not kept up.

Hu Weiwu, Chief Engineer and Chief Designer of Loongson, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

At that time, the mainstream CPU in the market was a multi-core design. Intel’s main focus was dual-core and quad-core. In order to be superior, Loongson started with eight cores. Hu Weiwu admitted that the premise of "more people and more power" is that everyone must be strong. Although Loongson has eight cores, the performance of each core is not as good as that of humans. Loongson’s CPU was not accepted by the market at that time, and the reason is very simple – it is not easy to use.

After several years of detours, Loongson finally put down its "body" and turned its attention to the CPU in the field of industrial control, and then successfully applied it in the field of information technology. In constant trial and error and iteration, Loongson’s revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in 2015, achieving break-even for the first time.

From 2015 to 2020, the performance of Loongson increased by 10 times, which made it possible to support 14-second boot. Tongfang’s computer, whose boot time was shortened to 14 seconds, was equipped with the CPU of the Loongson 3A5000 series, and its performance was close to the mainstream level of open market CPUs.

Domestic operating system is just emerging

For the majority of computer users, the classic icon of the Windows operating system is deeply etched in their memory. The CPU is the heart of the computer, and the operating system is the soul. If Godson is benchmarking Intel, then who can benchmark Microsoft?

In 2011, when Hu Weiwu was struggling for a higher-level CPU, Liu Wenhuan, general manager of Tongxin Software, decided to start from scratch and build a domestic operating system.

"If conquering chip technology is like climbing the Himalayas, solving the domestic operating system is exploring the Mariana Trench." Before that, he worked in an information security company for more than a decade and increasingly felt that if the operating system bottleneck could not be solved, information security could only be on paper.

In the same period, a group of software companies with the same ideals were born in China. But the ideal is full and the reality is skinny. The first wave of early adopters found that computers equipped with domestic operating systems are not only slow, but also unable to chat, work and play games as normally as Windows. Although new domestic systems continue to be launched, these software companies have fallen one after another in the face of the gap in technology and the cruel choice of the market.

Overcoming difficulties cannot be solved by one’s own efforts. To solve the user pain points of slow boot and short battery life, CPU, operating system and other industries must jointly tackle key problems.

In 2019, Tongxin Software Technology Co., Ltd., jointly established by multiple domestic operating system manufacturers, was established, headquartered in Beijing Economic Development Zone Xinchuang Park, and established technical support institutions, R & D centers, and general software and hardware adaptation centers in Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places.

From fighting each other to clenching their fingers into fists, Tongxin has joined forces with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry to jointly promote the research and development of domestic operating systems. In the rapid iteration of technology, the boot time of domestic operating systems has been shortened step by step, and finally a 14-second leap has been achieved in 2022.

"The gap between domestic operating systems and the products of top international manufacturers has narrowed from 10 years or more to three to five years," Liu Wenhuan said.

Today, the Tongxin operating system has been implemented in a number of key industries such as banks and telecom operators, and the latest home version was also unveiled at the beginning of this year. However, the new domestic operating system still faces the risk of "supply cut" in the upstream open-source community, which in turn affects the sustainable development of the industry.

"The reason is that the root community based on Linux open source systems in China is abroad." Liu Wenhuan said that the root community can help operating system manufacturers get rid of the constraints of the upstream open source community and get better protection at the level of information security. To put it figuratively, the "supply chain" should also be secure.

Two months after achieving 14-second boot, based on the world’s three major independent open-source communities, Tongxin released China’s first desktop operating system root community "Deepin Community", starting from "roots", mastering the development rights of open-source operating systems, upstream community dominance, and attracting global enthusiasts to contribute code and ideas for domestic operating systems.

"Raise" an autonomous industrial chain

In 2014, the popular Windows XP system stopped serving, and for a time, a large number of enterprises and individual users were in disarray. Although most functions can still be used normally after the shutdown, they cannot get Microsoft vulnerability patches and system upgrade support, and are vulnerable to viruses and hackers.

Six years later, Windows 10 was discontinued, and the exact same situation played out. This further stimulated Beijing’s drive to build an independent innovation industry system.

Looking back 30 years ago, Hu Weiwu, who was still a doctoral student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, needed to use a high-performance computing machine that had just been imported from abroad for his experiments, but the computer’s password was in the hands of foreigners and needed to be monitored in a glass house.

Hu Weiwu, chief engineer of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief designer of Loongson, accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV

This picture was deeply engraved in his heart. Therefore, when Loongson was just starting out, all the well-known companies that could think of came to Hu Weiwu to discuss technology licensing cooperation. "I understand these behaviors as’surrender the gun and not kill ‘!" He saw that behind the technology licensing was to make Loongson give up the ability to innovate and develop, so he decisively refused.

Thirty years later, the young man in red became a white-haired gentleman, and Hu Weiwu launched another more thorough and difficult "entrepreneurship".

The global information industry is mainly built on Wintel (Microsoft-Intel Alliance) and AA (Android-ARM) two ecosystems based on Instruction Set Architecture and chip design. If you want to produce CPUs that match them, you must first obtain the Instruction Set Architecture "license".

"In order to achieve a fully independent innovation CPU, we must also achieve autonomy at the underlying technical level of the Instruction Set Architecture." In 2021, LoongArch officially released LoongArch, the LoongArch autonomous command system architecture of Loongson, achieving a major technological breakthrough in its ecological construction. This marks that LoongArch has moved from a follow-up development to a completely independent development in terms of independent information technology system and industrial ecological construction.

The Loongson 3A5000, which supports a 14-second boot time, is based on the LoongArch autonomous command system architecture and no longer requires foreign authorization.

One innovation breakthrough after another, tempering the Beijing Xinchuang industry chain: ZTE database, Guoke Tianxun avionics bus protocol chip, QINGTENG and other global benchmarking products were born, the domestic information technology system was initially formed, Beijing Economic Development Zone Tongming Lake National Xinchuang Park, has gathered more than 90% of the country’s information technology leading enterprises, forming a high-performance chip, operating system, database, machine end point, system integration, cyber security services and other industry chain Xinchuang industry ecosystem.

Beijing Economic Development Zone National Xinchuang Park Tongxin Software Technology Co., Ltd. "Ecological Adaptation Dispatch Center"

"Some products are like raising pigs, which can be slaughtered for meat in one year; some products are like raising cattle, which can be plowed and worked in three years; our products are like raising children, which can be raised for 20 years." Hu Weiwu compared technological research to "raising children", which vividly condensed the difficult process of information technology breakthrough, and also foreshadowed that the autonomy of the credit creation industry still has a long way to go.

The "Beijing code farmers" who have worked hard for many years still need to make greater innovation breakthroughs in order to benchmark the international first-class and create a solid "foundation" for China’s economic digital transformation and industrial chain upgrade.

Article | Interesting understanding of business, Li Wenqi

In addition to selling cars, what else can car companies sell? The answer may subvert your perception.

Recently, Huiding Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huiding Insurance Brokerage") changed its corporate name to NIO Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. This move has attracted widespread attention because it is understood by industry insiders as the acceleration of NIO’s layout in the insurance sector.

Image credit: Qichacha

In recent years, not only NIO, but also the number of new energy vehicle companies that value the auto insurance market has gradually increased. Xiaopeng, Ideal, BYD and Tesla have all made plans.

Dong Hao, a veteran in the automotive industry, said that compared with traditional property insurance companies, new energy vehicle companies entering the new energy vehicle insurance market have more advantages in vehicle loss assessment and insurance premium estimation. Car companies can use this as a service breakthrough point and develop more high-profit after-car ecosystem services.

But just like the two sides of the coin, can the beautiful new energy auto insurance really help NIO develop the after-car ecosystem? And, how much support will the continuous cross-border NIO give to the auto insurance business after the launch of mobile phones, charging piles and other products? This may be the point that the current industry pays more attention to.

01. Crowded car insurance track, NIO is catching up

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of September 2023, the national new energy vehicle ownership reached 18.21 million, accounting for 5.5% of the car ownership. From the first to the third quarter of 2023, 5.198 million new energy vehicles were registered nationwide, an increase of 40% year-on-year, accounting for 28.5% of the new car registration.

There is no doubt that the outbreak of the new energy vehicle market has made new energy vehicle insurance a huge blue ocean market. Soochow Securities estimates that by 2025, the scale of new energy vehicle insurance premiums will reach 186.50 billion yuan, accounting for 17.9% of the total proportion of vehicle insurance premiums; by 2030, this scale will reach 454.10 billion yuan, accounting for 32.1% of the proportion of vehicle insurance premiums.

For this huge and promising market, a number of new energy vehicle companies have entered the market.

In July 2018, XPeng Motors established Guangzhou XPeng Motors Insurance Agency, which was later renamed Guangzhou Smart Choice Consulting Services Co., Ltd.; in 2020, Tesla Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai; Li Auto also fully acquired Yinjian Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. in June last year, and later changed its name to Beijing Ideal Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. At the 2022 Annual General Meeting, BYD Chairperson Wang Chuanfu said that BYD would enter the new energy automobile insurance industry.

There are many benefits to the deployment of new energy vehicles in the field of auto insurance – after obtaining the relevant insurance license, new energy vehicle companies can configure insurance through car owners to form a complete closed loop of car manufacturing, sales, and after-sales services, which is expected to become a new profit growth point for car companies.

In this context, it is logical for NIO to accelerate the layout of insurance. As early as the beginning of 2022, NIO invested in the establishment of NIO Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 50 million yuan; but unfortunately, until the company was cancelled, the company did not obtain relevant qualifications, let alone carry out related insurance business.

The reason is actually very simple. Insurance qualifications themselves are a scarce resource. In recent years, the insurance intermediary market has developed rapidly, but there are also pain points of uneven operation quality of intermediaries. Regulators have tightened the approval of insurance intermediary licenses.

But this did not discourage NIO’s determination to explore the insurance market, and instead looked for a "curve" entry route. In December 2022, Anhui NIO Data Technology Co., Ltd., controlled by NIO founder Li Bin, wholly invested in Huiding Insurance Brokerage, and then the original executives also withdrew one after another. It was not until September this year that Huiding Insurance Brokerage changed its name to NIO Insurance Brokerage, and NIO finally went official in its own insurance business.

Picture source: NIO Insurance Broker official website

For this acquisition, NIO did not disclose the specific transaction amount. But according to the market situation, it will not be too low. For example, when BYD transferred 100% equity of Yi’an Property Insurance this year, it spent 4 billion yuan to invest in insurance licenses with higher "gold content". In this regard, some market analysts said that the application for relevant license qualifications in the insurance industry is relatively long. NIO’s operation of Huiding Insurance Brokerage is behind "using money for time". It is naturally easier to buy chickens and lay eggs than to raise big chickens and then lay eggs.

"But the insurance industry is more complicated, and it’s not a one-day job." Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at the Yellow River Institute of Science and Technology and an automotive industry research institute, said to "Interesting Business": "NIO obtains qualifications through acquisitions, and then opens up sales, insurance, after-sales and other links. For the insurance business, it can deeply cultivate the precise customer group, which is a big advantage. But it should be noted that new energy vehicle insurance is not a profitable business at the moment."

02. Is there enough "ammunition"?

The license qualification is grafted through the "banknote ability", and the subsequent challenges that NIO has to face are the financial ability, technical ability and network layout. No matter what, stronger "banknote ability" is required. "Especially the financial ability level is a big test for new energy vehicle companies," said Mr. Fei, an industry insider.

Because behind the blue ocean of new energy vehicle insurance, there is a hidden high compensation pressure and the resulting general loss. Shenwan Hongyuan Group’s research report shows that the current new energy vehicle insurance compensation rate generally exceeds 85%, and the industry is facing greater underwriting loss pressure.

Zeng Yi, general manager of China Pacific Insurance Property and Casualty Insurance, has also publicly stated that the insurance rate of new energy vehicles is nearly double that of fuel vehicles, and the year-on-year increase in automobile travel in the first half of this year has posed a certain pressure on the underwriting cost of new energy vehicles. China Pacific Insurance’s 2022 interim results show that the new energy vehicle insurance premium grew rapidly in the first half of last year, accounting for 6.6%. However, the new energy vehicles underwritten by Pacific Insurance Property and Casualty Insurance are still losing money.

A set of data obtained by the reporter of the Economic Observer also shows that the insurance rate and compensation rate of new energy vehicles are at a high level. In the first half of 2023, the number of new energy vehicle insurance settled compensation cases increased by 1021.9% year-on-year, and the average compensation for resolved cases was 5801 yuan, an increase of 764 yuan compared with the same period in 2022. However, the average insurance premium for new energy vehicle insurance was only 4081 yuan, a decrease of 47 yuan compared with 2022.

All kinds of phenomena have confirmed that the new energy compensation amount is currently much higher than the insurance premium income. This also means that all players entering the new energy vehicle insurance field must prepare sufficient ammunition. So, is NIO ready?

At the end of August this year, NIO-SW (09866) announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended in the first half of 2023. Data show that NIO’s revenue in the second quarter of 2023 was 8.7717 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.8%; gross profit was 870 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 93.5%; net loss was 6.0558 billion yuan, an increase of 119.6%; adjusted net loss was 5.4457 billion yuan, an increase of 140.2%.

Image source: Screenshot of earnings report

From the perspective of the general environment, new car-making forces have shown varying degrees of losses; in the first half of this year, Li Auto’s total revenue was 47.44 billion yuan, and its net loss was 3.24 billion yuan. In comparison, NIO’s loss situation is much more serious.

According to the annual report of NIO-SW (09866), between 2018 and 2022, although NIO’s total revenue is growing, it has been in a state of loss. The losses in the five years were 23.328 billion yuan, 11.413 billion yuan, 5.3041 billion yuan, 4.02 billion yuan and 144.37 yuan. By the first half of this year, NIO’s net loss has exceeded 10 billion yuan, which is 10.926 billion yuan.

What can be seen is that in the context of the recovery of the new energy vehicle market in the first half of this year, NIO still maintained a situation where revenue and gross profit continued to decline and losses continued to expand. Whether it is a single quarter or the entire first half of the year, NIO’s net profit attributable to the parent set a record low for the same period in history.

In terms of delivery, NIO’s situation is also not optimistic. According to public data, NIO delivered 15,641 vehicles in September this year, an increase of 43.8% year-on-year and a decrease of 20% month-on-month. It was the most severe decline in the sales list of new energy vehicles in September.

Revenue decline, delivery decline, but NIO did not reduce investment. According to the financial report data, in the second quarter of this year, NIO’s development investment reached 3.34 billion yuan, close to Tesla’s 3.98 billion yuan, but significantly higher than the ideal 2.43 billion yuan and XPeng Motors 1.37 billion yuan. Statistics can be seen from the previous data, starting from the fourth quarter of 2022, NIO’s R & D expenses have exceeded 3 billion yuan for three consecutive quarters.

It is equivalent to saying that behind NIO’s bet on auto insurance, NIO’s own financial performance and delivery are not optimistic. In the future, whether it can provide support at the auto insurance level depends on the importance of the business in the NIO ecosystem.

"If NIO’s main business is doing very well and can give greater support to the auto insurance business, then overall, auto insurance must be the icing on the cake for NIO," Mr. Fei added: "On the contrary, if its own losses increase, coupled with the high underwriting pressure of auto insurance, the pressure on NIO will be relatively large in the short term."

03. Crossing the border all the way, what is NIO in a hurry?

To the outside world, NIO is less and less like a car company. This indifference is mainly due to NIO’s full range of crossovers – mobile phones, charging stations and now car insurance business.

In June this year, it was reported that the NIO mobile phone had passed the MIIT radio approval; as expected, on September 21, NIO Innovation and Technology Day, NIO released the first ship mobile phone, NIO Phone. According to Li Bin, "NIO makes mobile phones not because mobile phone companies cross the border into the automotive industry, nor do they rely on mobile phones to make money, but NIO users need a mobile phone that is undoubtedly linked to NIO."

But in the eyes of many users, this is not the case. On social platforms, many netizens complained that "it is easier to adapt NIO to more models. The probability of buying another mobile phone alone is not high, and buying a car and giving a mobile phone is almost the same." "It is obviously something that can be done by an app, but you have to develop a mobile phone!" The topic of who the NIO mobile phone is sold to has also triggered widespread discussion.

Image source: Weibo

In addition to the heavy injection of mobile phones, NIO also continues to invest in the field of supplementary energy. By the end of 2022, NIO had 1,315 replacement stations; in early 2023, Li Bin put down his big talk and wanted to build another 1,000 replacement stations. According to NIO’s official data, as of October 20, NIO has arranged a total of 1,969 replacement stations, 3,252 charging stations, and 936,544 third-party charging piles.

Industry analyst Yu Shengmei said that the current construction of power stations is fragmented and chaotic, and the industry is expected to enter the fast lane after the establishment of the national standard. Whoever has the first-mover advantage will be able to enjoy the dividends first.

But at present, it is difficult for the NIO power exchange model to rely on itself to make profits in the short term. According to the calculation of Oriental Securities, generally speaking, the power station reaches break-even, and the utilization rate is about 20% or more, that is, each station needs to serve 88 times a day to barely make a loss. According to NIO President Shen Fei, the break-even line of NIO power station is about 50-60 orders a day, and the current average daily order volume of NIO power station is 35-36 orders.

From a product perspective, this is indeed a good story, but so far, this good story has not brought much benefit in business practice.

As early as 2013, Tesla had experimented with replacing power stations in the United States, but was troubled by factors such as construction costs and profitability, and finally chose to give up. Similarly, behind the replacement of power by NIO owners is the reality that NIO "keeps changing power and loses money". Because the cost of adding replacement stations is extremely high, it is a typical asset-heavy business.

The data shows that the cost of the first generation of NIO substation is about 250-3 million, about 205 are established, and the cost of the second generation substation is 1.50 million yuan, and the number is 1100. According to this data, NIO has roughly invested more than 5 billion yuan in the substation.

Since June this year, NIO’s third-generation power station has maintained a construction speed of 120-150 seats per month. If the cost of the second-generation power station is estimated, NIO’s investment in the construction of power stations in 2023 is expected to be more than 1.50 billion yuan.

In addition to power station equipment, battery storage, battery depreciation, etc., it also requires personnel costs, site expenses, and commercial electricity bills. This is equivalent to saying that NIO has invested more than 10 billion yuan in power station replacement.

Moreover, this business, which was originally intended to be blessed by NIO’s "service", has also become a point of complaint for car owners. In April this year, NIO made adjustments to user rights and interests. Since June 1, the number of free power changes for the first owners of some models has been adjusted to 4 times per month. Previously, this right corresponded to 4-6 free power changes per month according to whether charging piles were installed.

According to NIO’s explanation, free power exchanges will gradually decline until they are fully charged on demand. From a business perspective, this is understandable, but at the same time, such adjustments also make NIO, which has always won by "service", more passive.

Auto insurance, mobile phones, and energy supplementation systems are all major projects worth tens of billions of dollars. At present, whether it is just starting auto insurance, mobile phones that have already launched products, or power stations that have invested tens of billions of dollars, they have not brought profits to NIO. Instead, they are likely to become a drag on NIO’s business.

Standing at the moment, the bigger question from the outside world is, what should NIO, which is gradually tearing off the "service" label, use to impress users?

As one of the three giants of the "new car manufacturing forces", NIO’s story is very good, but returning to the essence of business, performance is the basic set. Especially, as the industry competition intensifies, NIO, which has been expanding its own boundaries, and its own performance pressure, may become more and more difficult.

References:

1. Qubit, "Reassessing NIO, It’s Time"

2. International Finance News, "Cars can’t be sold," Loss King "NIO wants to make mobile phones across borders"

3. Finance and Economics Eleven, "While making large losses and investing heavily, what does NIO think?"

4. Shanghai Securities News, "Is NIO going to sell insurance?"

The "digital doctor" came to the door for "consultation", found 281 "crux" from 6 business data streams and 22 business modules, and issued a diagnostic report, helping "Old Nanning Taste" Nanning Food Co., Ltd. to open up the whole process data node, realize the efficient coordination of sales, production, supply chain and after-sales, and greatly reduce the operating costs of enterprises.
Digitally empowering local enterprises to build an energy digital factory for Guangxi Rongxing Zhongke Development Co., Ltd., so that all aspects of production can be "visible", traceable and early warning, and it is expected to reduce the cost of electricity by more than 1 million yuan per year.
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Nowadays, more and more "made in Nanning" have been plugged into the wings of the digital economy and are rapidly moving towards "made in Nanning".
The digital economy is the "first move" to grasp the future. Nanning City is taking digital industrialization and industrial digitalization as the main line, relying on key parks such as China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Computing Center and China-ASEAN Geographic Information and Satellite Application Industrial Park to build key digital economy industrial chains such as artificial intelligence, spatial information, and Xinchuang; improve the efficiency of Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center Cloud as a Service, carry out the "Fertile Soil Plan" of digital transformation, promote the construction of digital factories and intelligent factories, and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. Continue to inject surging impetus into the high-quality development of the capital’s economy and society.
　　

"Digital doctor" takes the pulse for companies

In March this year, Guangxi Chunjiang Food Co., Ltd. welcomed a group of special "digital doctors". "Digital doctors" carry out digital diagnostic services for enterprises by knowing the real situation, research, discussion, analysis, diagnosis, etc. After in-depth analysis and accurate matching of enterprise needs, guide enterprises to carry out intelligent transformation and digital transformation.
"It is with their on-site diagnosis that we have a’good prescription ‘for our digital transformation." In the opinion of the person in charge of the company, the digital transformation of the enterprise faces many business difficulties and pain points, mainly in the lack of comprehensive digitization of business processes, data islands between various systems, and the lack of big data platforms. "Chunjiang is a food processing enterprise, and’Chunjiang pickled pepper duck paw’ is well-known both inside and outside the region, but the current market competition is becoming more and more intense. How to use digital and information technology means to enhance the core competitiveness of the enterprise is exactly what we need to think about."
At this time, under the guidance of the Nanning Municipal Big Data Development Bureau, Huawei – Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center sent a "timely rain" to the enterprise – dispatched a digital diagnostic service team to go deep into the enterprise, pointed out the "crux", and designed an overall digital factory solution according to the needs of the enterprise.
"At present, we are accelerating the construction of the Chunjiang digital factory. After completion, the factory can be processed and digitally managed through the App, and the overall visual management and monitoring of production can be realized. It is estimated that the equipment failure rate can be reduced by 30%, and the production capacity and revenue of the enterprise can be increased." Long Tingting, regional director of Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center, introduced.
Promote the digital transformation of traditional industries, empower industrial transformation and upgrading with digital technology, and rejuvenate more and more "Nanning Manufacturing". Since 2019, Nanning City has joined hands with Huawei to jointly build Huawei – Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center. Focusing on digital scenarios such as enterprise production, marketing, and R & D, from digital diagnosis to providing core digital solutions, the center has served more than 450 enterprises in the past 4 years, helping local enterprises such as 6:30, CRRC Aluminum, and Chunjiang to achieve digital upgrading and cost reduction and efficiency increase.
85% of companies achieve positive annual sales growth, with an average growth rate of 15%.
　　

"Fertile Soil" helps industrial digital transformation

In March this year, after a digital transformation, the production workshop of Guangxi Rongxing Zhongke Development Co., Ltd. was transformed – the energy digital factory allows information interconnection between equipment, real-time monitoring of operating energy consumption, accurate data analysis and traceability early warning, so that the operation status of each paper production line can be "one network".
"Shangyun in all aspects of production not only reduces costs and increases efficiency, but also enhances the competitiveness of the enterprise." Huang Bingyan, the general manager of the company, calculated an account. After the energy digital factory is put into use, the company can reduce the cost of electricity by more than 1 million yuan per year, and increase the grinding capacity of 100 tons per month. The product quality is also more guaranteed. "In order to expand production capacity, we have built a new production line. It is expected that after the completion of September this year, the four production lines will form an annual output of 60,000 tons of tissue paper." Huang Bingyan is full of confidence in the future development of the company.
Rongxing Zhongke’s gorgeous turn is a digital model of energy efficiency management created by our city’s active digital transformation "Fertile Soil Plan".
In recent years, Nanning City has taken digital industrialization and industrial digitalization as the main line, relying on Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center and other platforms, penetrated into counties (cities, districts) and development zones, covered all aspects of enterprise production and operation, and helped Nanning industrial enterprises to solve the pain and difficulties encountered in the process of transformation. Selected representatives of enterprises to support, continue to implement the "fertile soil plan" of digital transformation, and transform and upgrade a number of smart workshops and smart factories around key industries such as industrial equipment manufacturing. This year, it plans to cultivate more than 8 intelligent manufacturing benchmarking enterprises, create fertile soil for Nanning’s industrial digital transformation, accelerate the formation of benchmarking demonstration effect, and drive more Nanning industrial enterprises to complete digital transformation.
"Digital transformation is not simply to provide an ERP software, it requires not only technical investment, but also a return to business dominance. It is a long-term system engineering." Li Qing, deputy general manager of Huawei Cloud in Guangxi, told reporters that after years of deep cultivation, Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center has become the first digital transformation promotion center in Nanning. It has created more than 25 benchmark enterprises in various industries, covering software information, industry, papermaking, machinery manufacturing, business services and other industries.
In addition, Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center deepens the integration of production and education, and cooperates with 25 universities including Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning Vocational TechAcademy, and Guangxi University of Finance and Economics to carry out professional construction. Currently, more than 3,200 professionals have been trained, which strongly supports the demand for digital transformation and development talents.
　　

The vitality of the digital economy continues to be released

The China-ASEAN artificial intelligence computing center has been put into practice running, providing services to 26 enterprises and institutions, with a computing power utilization rate of more than 70%; the China-ASEAN New Smart City Collaborative Innovation Center focuses on the digital economy, attracting more than 50 domestic and ASEAN enterprises and research institutes such as iFLYTEK, Inspur, and Yunbaobao to settle in; the China-ASEAN Digital Economy Industrial Park has opened and operated. As of June this year, 44 enterprises have entered the park, covering intelligent manufacturing, domestic operating systems, databases, middleware, commercial passwords and other fields… Walking in the land of Yongcheng, digital enterprises gather wood into forests, and the vitality of the digital industry is bursting. You can feel that the booming digital economy is accelerating its embrace of thousands of industries.
In recent years, the Nanning Big Data Development Bureau has vigorously promoted the integrated development of the digital economy, actively built a key industrial chain of the digital economy, and vigorously promoted the construction of the China-ASEAN Information Port Nanning core base to a new level. As of now, 55 Nanning core base projects have been completed, China Mobile (Guangxi Nanning) data center, China Telecom ASEAN International Information Park and other projects have been put into operation one after another, and the digital economy industry agglomeration effect has gradually formed.
Data show that in 2022, there will be more than 7,290 digital economy enterprises in Nanning, accounting for 48.3% of the total in the region, ranking first in the region. A number of digital economy leading enterprises such as China Eastcom, Shuguang Group, Runjian Shares, and Yunbaobao have settled in, and the digital economy has become an important force for the city’s economic growth.
Accelerate the construction of digital Nanning, strengthen digital empowerment, accelerate the process of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, and promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry to intelligent manufacturing, so as to seize the opportunity in the development of industrial upgrading and achieve leapfrog development.
"Next, we will focus on the transformation and upgrading of Level 3-5, focusing on the key industrial clusters of new energy, new energy vehicles and parts, electronic information, new metal and chemical materials, advanced equipment manufacturing, aluminum deep processing, forest product processing, food processing and other key industrial clusters built by Nanning City. We will select some more representative and intelligent enterprises to carry out digital diagnosis and digital transformation, and continuously expand the talent echelon to build a competitive and highly innovative talent training system, promote the intelligent upgrading of enterprises, and build a new ecosystem of digital economy." Li Qing said.
According to the plan, by the end of 2024, the Huawei-Nanning Digital Economy Industry Innovation Center will serve more than 800 enterprises, train more than 5,000 digital talents in Nanning, create more than 30 benchmarking projects, hold more than 50 technical salons, and contribute more digital power to the economic and social development of Nanning City.
Our reporter Wei Jing, intern Wen Wen