Home appliance giant collective "car building": Gree Chuangwei goes left, Haier Haixinmei to the right

Economic Observer Reporter Wu Zhenyu has been struggling for 30 years on the road of cross -border car building, but the home appliance giants have not reached the key to the key nature of "what cars" and "how to build a car". Too much consensus.

Recently, Skyworth Automobile, who relied on Skyworth Group, completed the double coverage of pure electric and hybrid models, and declared that "it will become the world's hot -selling new energy vehicle brand." At the same time, the beauty of the home appliance giant emphasized that "there is no need to build a car, and the car parts are done well."

Not only is it a cross -border route, the concept of the two companies' deployment of automobile business is also very different. Chen Jinsao, general manager of Wei Ling Automobile, the carrier of Midea Group's car strategy, emphasized that Midea will not apply home appliances to "do cars"; while Jia Fan, executive vice president and co -founder of Skyworth Automobile, proposed The logic of the rise of home appliances is reused to the new energy vehicle industry.

The difference between beauty and Skyworth is just a microcosm. In recent years, Midea, Hisense, Haier, Skyworth, Gree and other home appliance companies have successively announced the entry into the automotive industry, which is setting off a new round of home appliance vehicles cross -border car construction boom.

Compared with the first round of car construction at the end of the last century to the beginning of this century, the consensus of home appliance companies on the path has not been maintained. Under this round of boom, although some home appliance companies continue to "addicted" the vehicle, more home appliance companies have shifted to the field of car parts.

From adding to the vehicle to focusing parts

As early as the end of the 1990s to the beginning of the world, home appliance companies such as Oaks, Chunlan, Xinfei, Green Cole have set off the first round of cross -border car construction boom. As China joined the WTO, the domestic civil vehicle market began to take off. For home appliance companies with a lot of money in the home appliance market, cars building has become a good direction for their money to expand.

Chunlan formed Chunlan Automobile in 1997, producing medium and heavy trucks; Midea acquired and transformed passenger car manufacturers in Yunnan and Hunan after 2003, forming two major bases; Oaks also entered the automotive industry in 2003 and launched the Langjie brand. SUV products; Green Kell completed the acquisition of Asian Passenger Car in 2004.

Compared with passenger cars, the brand of commercial vehicle products is low, and there are a large number of passenger car factories that can be acquired, and home appliance companies can easily obtain qualifications. However, entry is easy to succeed, and most of the first -border home appliance companies have only persisted for a few years, and they lost.

Chunlan Automobile disappeared after being acquired by Jiangsu XCMG in July 2008. After 2009, the two major bases sold to BYD and Changsha Municipal Government after 2009, ending the road of cars; Oaks car announced in 2005; At the end of 2006, the Asian Passenger Car was completely withdrawn.

Compared with the first round of boom, a new round of cross -border automobile industry such as Midea, Haier, Hisense, etc., no longer considers the demand for funds to manufacture business at the level of 10 billion yuan. Instead, they choose to focus on car parts. business.

In March 2021, Hisense home appliances acquired the global automotive air -conditioning head supplier, Japan Sanyuan controlling stake, and officially involved in car manufacturing. One month later, Hisense publicly emphasized that Hisense's positioning in the automotive industry is to serve the OEMs and be suppliers. In March of this year, Hisense Home Appliances stated in the financial report that this year it will continue to deepen the layout of the core components of the comprehensive thermal management.

Coincidentally, the beauty of entering the automotive industry twice also turned to the field of automotive air conditioning. Chen Jintao, general manager of Midea's Weiling Auto Component Components, recently said in an interview with the Economic Observer and other media that Midea began to develop automotive electric air -conditioning compressors 5 years ago. It was officially established by Weiling Automobile Component Product Company in 2018. Bring to market.

In addition to home appliance companies that build components, there are also home appliance companies such as Skyworth and Gree that still insist on building a car. In 2021, Skyworth Motors, which mainly attacked the new energy passenger car market, was officially born. In the same year, Gree also officially entered the main new energy buse company Yinlong.

However, Skyworth and Gree are not fully investing in the vehicle. Skyworth Motors inherited the brand name of Skyworth Group, but the equity level belongs to Kaivo Group. It is understood that Kaivo Group and Skyworth Group did not have a affiliation, but both companies were founded by Huang Hongsheng. Moreover, Kaivo Group is a commercial vehicle company. This means that Skyworth Automobile is a case of "commercial transfer", and it is not simply a case of cross -border car manufacturers in home appliance companies.

At the beginning, Yinlong was just the car project invested by Gree's chairman Dong Mingzhu, which was not directly related to Gree, but later introduced Gree as a new shareholder.

From burning to relying on technology, ecology

The new round of home appliance companies cross -border car building has a new background of the times. Ma Jihua, an analyst at the telecommunications industry, said that the home appliance industry is weak and the internal scrolls are serious. If new business boundaries and growth points are not developed, it is impossible to maintain stable operations. With the advent of smart new energy vehicles, cars and mobile phones have produced a large number of interactions and integration, and the timing of home appliance companies' layout of the automotive industry has come.

According to the total data of Ovi Cloud Network (AVC), the retail sales of all -channel home air -conditioning in the first half of this year fell 15.3%year -on -year, and the retail volume fell by 20.9%year -on -year; 3.4%; the cumulative retail volume of the washing machine market decreased by 9.2%year -on -year, and the cumulative retail sales decreased by 10.1%year -on -year.

In response to the changes from the vehicle to parts of the car's entry into the car, Ma Jihua believes that the smart new energy vehicle industry chain is still in the process of construction, and the parts of the component also have very broad opportunities. Home appliance companies do a "selling water" The supplier also has a good prospect. In fact, in the era of electric vehicles, car companies' dominance of the industrial chain is not as good as before. The value of the entire vehicle manufacturing link is greatly reduced. Can have the influence and ability to make money far exceeding many vehicle companies.

As for the vast vehicle parts track, why did they choose to lay up thermal management parts and components, Chen Jinsao explained that compared with traditional fuel vehicles, electric vehicles have higher heat management requirements, and heat management is exactly the strength of home appliance companies. Some complex thermal management components in home appliances are not used in traditional fuel vehicles, but electric vehicles need. Therefore, home appliance companies have a natural technical advantage to lay out electric vehicle components.

The growth space related to the heat management system, including automotive air conditioners. According to the calculation of Guoxin Securities, benefiting from the increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles, domestic electric compressors corresponding to the domestic sales market will increase from approximately 6.2 billion yuan in 2021 to 18 billion yuan in 2025; The corresponding domestic sales will increase from 18.6 billion yuan in 2021 to 54 billion yuan in 2025.

From the perspective of the automotive industry, electrifying transformation has brought more common technology at the technical level of automobiles and home appliances, while intelligent transformation allows the resources of home appliances and cars to be shared by the ecosystem of users and supply chains. It is another reason for the cross -border car building of home appliance companies.

In terms of user resources, Huang Hongsheng recently said in an interview with the Economic Observer and other media that Skyworth Group has 180 million active users, and the ecological Skyworth of the smart TV cool system has developed for 20 years. It is independent development. The Kukai system can be developed twice on the vehicle. Now Skyworth Kukou will process 1 billion information every day. If the user is watching the TV content and what coach you like, this information helps to strengthen the link between Skyworth cars and users.

In terms of industrial chain resources, Chen Jinsao said that most of the products of Weiling Automobile are common in the supply chain with existing home appliances. Many chip companies are direct supply. They can go directly to these companies' headquarters to get goods, and have sufficient chip reserves.

Should I set up home appliance experience?

Although home appliances and cars have commonity, they are two completely different industries in the end. Regarding whether home appliance companies should apply for home appliances across the border, the practices and viewpoints of different home appliance companies have been different in the past 30 years.

It is understood that Oaks originally wanted to transplant the low -cost strategy of the success of the air -conditioning industry to the automotive industry and win the market with low -cost cars. However, in 2004, a large number of new cars were listed in joint ventures and set off a wave of continuous price reductions. The fledgling Oaks car relying on low prices, neither profit nor winning the market.

Chen Jinsao believes that it is uncomfortable if a business use of home appliances to make a car is uncomfortable. It must face a huge conflict. "The entire system of home appliances is very different from the car regulatory system. The product development process is different. The requirements of the level are more safe and reliable in the first place, and the home appliance industry puts new technologies first. "

Jia Fan had different views. He said in an interview with the media that the reason why Chinese home appliance companies can occupy 60%-70%of the world's markets is because the product iteration is fast and the cost control is strict. Skyworth has repeatedly used this set of manufacturing logic to the new energy vehicle industry, focusing on product construction, technological innovation and cost reduction.

However, Chen Jindao believes that due to the lack of experience in the early days, in order to ensure the stability of the product, Wei Ling Automobile can only adopt a stupid method to verify all new products for two rounds, which is not only done in accordance with the rules of the automotive industry, but also add an additional one. Management and control procedures, "The vehicle regulations system is a parallel project with R & D, quality, and supply chain. As long as there is a step step down, it may eventually affect the delivery of the car."

Welling Motors, a "not fast" product strategy, is not conducive to cost control. However, Chen Jindao pointed out that the high cost problem can be solved through technical means. "((We) may be higher than the opponent in the same situation. How can I make up for this? We only need 40cc compressors for 12,000 to generate 15kW, and others may require 56cc compressor with 8000 rpm, so that my cost is more advantageous than it. It is to turn the technical advantage into cost advantages. "

Huang Hongsheng, who builds the vehicle, is determined that the essence of the manufacturing industry is to control costs. If you do not do good cost control, you may repeat the mistakes of LeTV. Huang Hongsheng still emphasizes the experience of home appliances, "Skyworth Automobile has a gene with a small profit -making sales of home appliances", "San Electric" does it by itself, when the scale comes up, it can create a component ecological chain when it comes to 1 million vehicles. , 50 supply to the outside. "

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