Wen Peng Suping
Huawei's automobile business has made new progress.
165438+1October16, it is reported that Huawei's smart car solution BU is being integrated with consumer BG. At present, the two departments have merged at the investment level, and the general manager is Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business.
At present, Huawei has not responded to the above report. However, combined with Huawei's previous series of actions, this adjustment is not unexpected.
Previously, at the domestic listing meeting of Mate40 series smartphones, Huawei released its smart car solution brand "HI" by the way. At that time, many auto media were surprised. Now it seems that the appearance of mobile phones and automobile products on the same stage is obviously not as simple as "rubbing hot spots".
With the rise of the smart phone market, consumer BG has become Huawei's growth engine in recent years, and smart car solution BU has just been established for more than a year. It used to belong to Huawei's ICT business management committee, which was led by Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun. As a newly established first-level department in Huawei's organizational structure, the establishment of auto BU marks Huawei's official entry into the smart car supply chain.
Automobile BU carries Huawei's systematic layout in the field of smart cars, but it is still in the early stage of development, and its products are only used on a small scale. From the perspective of Huawei as a whole, its layout in the automotive field has already begun, and consumer BG is one of the important departments.
Common solutions such as Huawei's in-vehicle 5G module and mobile phone-car map system HiCar all come from consumer BG, and the intelligent cockpit solution of car BU also overlaps with the above services in technology. It is pointed out that the integration of the two is conducive to improving the overall resource utilization efficiency.
For automobile BU, is this adjustment under the authority of consumer BG and its independent management committee, or does it also mean that the business direction is from to? B go to to? C. After the news of the integration of the two was released, the discussion of "Huawei makes cars" was once again launched in the market-although Huawei executives emphasized on many occasions that Huawei "does not make cars".
Yu Chengdong took over the car business.
Huawei BU had a clue before it was integrated into consumer BG.
On1October 30th this year, 10, Wang Jun, president of Huawei smart car solution BU, released the smart car solution brand HI (Huawei? Smart? Cars? Solution). The HI brand was rarely released at the domestic listing meeting of Huawei Mate40 series, and it was hastily unveiled at the last 15 minutes.
It is normal for the two to be released on the same stage, but Huawei Automotive BU held a separate media communication meeting before, which also showed the independence of this business to a great extent, so the press conference made many automotive media feel "puzzled": Automotive BU can completely release the HI brand independently. Is it for the "hot spot" after Mate40 series?
At that time, the car BU was already tilting towards the inside of the consumer BG. Under the same management Committee, it is more convenient for both parties to appear on the same stage during the operation. Recently, a series of developments of Huawei further reflected the relationship between Yu Chengdong and BU.
First, a few days after the HI brand was released, at the beginning of 165438+ 10, Yu Chengdong led a team to visit China Blue Valley and met with Liu Yu, general manager of BAIC New Energy, and ARCFOX, deputy general manager of BAIC New Energy. President Peking University will meet you later. This is Yu Chengdong's first visit to the Blue Valley.
A person familiar with the matter told think tank Jun that BAIC New Energy ARCFOX is a brand with deep cooperation with Huawei, and its first product ARCFOX Extreme Fox αT is the first batch of production models equipped with Huawei's in-vehicle 5G module. Earlier, Wang Jun also said that the latest technology of HI brand will be fully applied to ARCFOX series vehicles, which means that ARCFOX or Huawei HI brand is a key step to open the market-in this context, Yu Chengdong's visit is of special significance.
Secondly, at the press conference where Changan Automobile announced to build a brand-new high-end smart car brand last week, it was not Xu Zhijun who spoke at the conference, but Yu Chengdong. Yu Chengdong said in a video speech, "The century-old automobile industry, like the ICT industry, is facing changes in the new era. Changan Automobile and Huawei have similar perseverance and down-to-earth spiritual core. The two companies will cooperate with each other and face the coming era of smart electric vehicles. * * * will create new brands and products of smart electric vehicles. "
Changan Automobile and Huawei have always maintained close cooperation in car networking and 5G ecosystem. As the two parties (and Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd.) jointly build a brand-new high-end smart car brand, the cooperation between the two parties is expected to be further deepened, and Huawei's technologies and solutions in the field of smart cars will also land on the brand with a high probability.
Huawei really doesn't build cars?
After the automobile BU is merged into the consumer BG, the intuitive feeling of the outside world is, to? B should be converted into to? C- Huawei's rumors of building a car have once again triggered discussion.
Some analysts believe that Huawei's strategy of not making cars is only at this stage, because it needs the cooperation and support of the OEM to cut into the automobile industry, but in the long run, Huawei will still make cars, but it will be divided into two businesses, one is the traditional TO? B, will you step aside? C. Some analysts pointed out that the car made by Huawei may not be called a car, but called a "smart cockpit", which is similar to that when Huawei said that it would not be a TV but a smart screen.
The outside world "rekindled hope" for Huawei to build a car, on the one hand because of the changes in its business department, and on the other hand because of the expectation of a new helm.
Yu Chengdong is a legend in Huawei system. In his early years, he vigorously advocated the construction of distributed base stations, which established Huawei's dominant position in wireless business. Later, he switched to mobile phone business, drastically cut off low-end OEM and tried high-end independence. As a result, he succeeded in one fell swoop, and everything he put down before came true one by one. This steering style has undoubtedly added momentum to Huawei's automobile business, and it is not completely impossible to really build a car.
Judging from Huawei's current situation, it is logical to expand another track in the field of consumption. Some analysts pointed out that Huawei's business has been greatly affected, especially after the sale of glory. As a huge company, its original terminal business and carrier business are not enough to support its long-term growth, and smart cars are a good choice.
It is not difficult to see from BU's business introduction that Huawei has almost a set of technologies in the smart car industry chain. Its five business segments cover intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, intelligent network connection, intelligent electric and intelligent Che Yun, among which electric drive system, vehicle power supply and battery management system have been mass-produced and commercialized.
This is also the deep reason why the outside world has always believed that Huawei will build a car.
However, Huawei has always insisted that it will not build a car and will help enterprises build a good car. In order to meet the requirements of the era of "software definition", Huawei also emphasized the innovation of cooperation with car companies and adopted a new model of "joint development".
The core of Huawei BU is "one architecture+three platforms". Under the trend of software-defined automobile, Huawei has broken through the original decentralized architecture of the automobile industry and created a new architecture of "computing+communication". Based on this architecture, Huawei classified all the functions of the car and handed them over to three platforms: intelligent cockpit, vehicle control and intelligent driving. Through self-developed chips and operating systems, all platforms will be turned into an ecosystem, with unified standards, which is convenient for component collaboration and third-party development.
Under the changes of the industry, many car companies have also begun to adjust their R&D focus. Since the second half of this year, FAW Pentium, Geely, Chery and other independent brands have released the latest architecture. When car companies accelerate the pace of self-research in the field of intelligent network connection, where will Huawei be?
As Huawei said before, it is doing "incremental supply". While developing related technologies, car companies need the support of suppliers such as Huawei. Take ARCFOX, a new energy source of BAIC, as an example. Established "Davidson 1873 Laboratory" with Huawei, and the two sides jointly developed a new generation of intelligent networked electric vehicle technology.
However, this new mode of joint development of "you have me and I have you", which subverts the traditional format, will inevitably require more communication and running-in. Whether the two sides can reach a * * * understanding on the functional orientation and how to distribute the benefits will be a practical problem to test the industry.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.