标签： 上海夜场论坛

　　How to take the call?

　　Someone else wants to get a share of the air-conditioning market. This time, it has been replaced by a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise. How will Dong Mingzhu fight back?

　　On August 10, Zhimi Technology held a new product launch conference in Beijing and officially released its first new air conditioner, Zhimi Full DC Inverter Air Conditioning, priced at 4,399 yuan. The air conditioner model released this time is KFR-35GW/02ZM (M1), and the manufacturer is Sichuan Changhong Air Conditioning Co., Ltd., which directly refers to Gree’s main business.

　　Zhimi happens to be the ecological chain enterprise of Xiaomi, and now it is directly targeting Gree’s main business. This can’t help but make the outside world speculate that as Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun 1 billion the deadline of the bet is getting closer and closer, the two seem to be becoming more and more hard, just like a master trick, the powerful tricks are often left to the end.

　　Interestingly, before the release of Zhimi Air Conditioning, Gree employees have been working overtime to insist on production, and Gree Electric Appliances will issue a high temperature subsidy of 1,000 yuan for all employees in the peak season. It is initially expected that Gree Electric Appliances will issue a total of over 80 million yuan in additional high temperature subsidies this time.

　　The Mystery of Zhimi’s Life Story

　　What is the relationship between Zhimi and Lei Jun? Let’s take a look at Xiaomi’s statement.

　　On the afternoon of August 10, Xiaomi employees gave the answer: Dear media bosses, the company that released new products such as air conditioners today is Zhimi, not Xiaomi. They are also a company with a valuation of 1 billion dollars…

　　Could it be that Zhimi is just an ecological chain enterprise of Xiaomi, and it is as simple as a cooperative relationship with Xiaomi rather than an affiliation? Xiaomi’s deliberate emphasis on ecological chain enterprises is to downplay that no matter what air conditioner is made, it has nothing to do with Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun’s gambling game?

　　Went to pick up the development of Zhimi. Zhimi’s A round of financing was led by Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital, and the company was valued at $250 million at that time. In 2016, Zhimi received a $50 million B round of financing led by GIC (Singapore Government Investment Corporation), and the valuation instantly soared to $1 billion.

　　It is worth noting that part of the sales of this air conditioner from Zhimi will still be included in Xiaomi’s revenue. Zhimi’s press conference mentioned that this air conditioner will be launched on the Mijia Youpin platform of Xiaomi’s boutique lifestyle e-commerce company. Xiaomi said that sales through Xiaomi channels will be included in Xiaomi’s revenue, but sales in other channels will not be included.

　　In addition, through the enterprise inquiry website, it can be found that there are currently only two shareholders of Zhimi Company, one is Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology, who invests 5%. At the same time, Su Jun is also the person in charge of Xiaomi Air Purifier, and the other is Liu De, co-founder and vice president of Xiaomi Technology, who invests up to 95%.

　　The Xiaomi air purifier is the flagship of Xiaomi’s smart home products, and it is also the first product to detonate for home users. It has also been an important product at several Xiaomi conferences in the past.

　　Lei Jun was the first to enter Dong Mingzhu’s hinterland

　　Of course, regardless of the relationship between Zhimi and Xiaomi, many people choose this as another move between Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu.

　　In 2013, at the CCTV Economic Person of the Year Awards Gala, Lei Jun made a bet to Dong Mingzhu, saying, "If Xiaomi can’t beat Gree in turnover within five years, it will lose to Dong Mingzhu by one dollar." Dong Mingzhu did not show weakness, directly contradicting Lei Jun’s views and implying that it is difficult for companies that only focus on marketing to thrive, and said, "Don’t mention it again for one dollar. If you want to bet, you can bet 1 billion yuan."

　　Lei Jun was the first to make a move. In December 2014, Midea Group announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi Technology. After the completion of the issuance of shares, Xiaomi Technology will hold 55 million shares of the company, accounting for 1.288% of the company’s total share capital after the issuance. Xiaomi can nominate one of its core senior management personnel as a director of Midea.

　　In fact, Xiaomi’s involvement in air conditioning is not just to gamble with Dong Mingzhu. The core of Xiaomi’s ecosystem is to control users’ end points through mobile phones and establish complete connections. Whether it is Xiaomi itself or the ecological chain enterprises, they are building a complete intelligent end point and service ecosystem around Xiaomi’s ecosystem in products and services.

　　"Big and complete" is Lei Jun’s desire and Xiaomi’s ultimate goal. From the current product line, Mijia products under Xiaomi’s ecological chain have covered all kinds of household appliances from kitchen to living room to bedroom. Air conditioners are still blank, but air conditioners are traditional household appliances, and the investment in production lines and personnel is far beyond what an Internet company can support. It is best to hand them over to ecological chain enterprises.

　　Investing in Midea was the first step to complete the product layout. Not long after the investment, on June 30, 2015, Xiaomi jointly held a media communication meeting with Midea and officially released the i Youth Smart Air Conditioning. However, the sales of this air conditioner were not as good as Lei Jun had imagined. It didn’t take long for the i Youth Smart Air Conditioning to be removed from the shelves of Xiaomi Mall.

　　At that time, when the media interviewed Dong Mingzhu, they asked about the cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea. She said: "I heard that Xiaomi and Midea have cooperated, and Dong Mingzhu is a little anxious. What am I anxious about? Midea’s patent court for stealing Gree ordered you to pay me two million. The two scammers are together, and they are a group of thieves. If one day you have more patents than me and your quality is better than mine, I’m really in a hurry. I have to change myself. I’m going to cheer."

　　In addition to the public opinion that Dong Mingzhu did not admit defeat, in terms of business, Gree began to move towards Xiaomi’s core mobile phone business.

　　Dong Mingzhu Gree mobile phone hits back at Xiaomi

　　In early January 2015, Dong Mingzhu said that "Gree makes mobile phones and destroys Xiaomi in minutes". Then in March, she said that Gree mobile phones will soon be listed. Until the shareholders’ meeting in June of that year, Dong Mingzhu also stressed that there should be no big problem in the future target 50 million department.

　　This scene made many people quite puzzled. What made the air conditioner maker run to make a mobile phone, and the mobile phone maker came to make an air conditioner instead?

　　When Gree mobile phone first came out, it attracted a lot of attention. As the leading player in the air-conditioning industry, it crossed the border into the red sea of competition for mobile phone manufacturers, and it was paired with Dong Mingzhu, a "fast-talking" Internet celebrity chairperson, who could be said to have attracted a lot of attention.

　　But for a long time after that, Gree mobile phones were limited to internal purchases, not only as an annual bonus for employees, but also as a reward for dealers.

　　In fact, Gree has released a total of 3 mobile phones, sales are not satisfactory. The first generation of Gree mobile phone sales are less than 100,000, the second generation of Gree mobile phone is still on sale has been listed for a year, online sales are only about 25,000, the third color world mobile phone listed this year, the official website sales show only about 8000.

　　In this way, the sales of Gree mobile phones are almost 2,000 times worse than Dong Mingzhu’s "small goal" of selling 50 million units a year. It seems that Dong Mingzhu wants to make mobile phones is not so easy.

　　Enter the air conditioner market for the second time with a makeover

　　I youth intelligent air conditioning did not let millet and Lei Jun give up, this time a makeover into the smart rice to enter the air conditioning market again, but allies replaced Changhong.

　　Why did Zhimi choose Changhong? It is reported that after the acquisition of Meiling, Changhong has a technical research and development team of more than 2,000 people, and has many patented technologies. For example, 0.1 degree subtle sensing technology, silent air duct technology, etc. Zhimi air conditioners find Changhong to OEM, at least to ensure that the technology is leading and the quality is guaranteed. Another important reason is that Changhong’s ranking in the field of air conditioners directly determines that Changhong will not abandon Zhimi like Midea did at the beginning.

　　On Changhong’s side, in 2015, Changhong’s financial report showed a huge loss of nearly 2 billion yuan, while the 2016 annual report showed that Changhong turned losses into profits and realized a net profit of 555 million yuan.

　　However, from the content of the annual report, it can be seen that the main reason for Changhong’s turnaround in 2016 was the operation of color TV, IT distribution, company operations, and capital. The annual report did not mention the air-conditioning business.

　　Simply put, what Zhimi needs is Changhong’s technical team, and Changhong needs the Xiaomi brand effect and Internet marketing thinking behind Zhimi. Neither of them means that anyone clings to each other, and the goal is to achieve a win-win situation.

　　Next, let’s see how Miss Dong takes the call.

　　Strongly supporting, stimulating vitality, and accelerating innovation, China FAW achieved contrarian growth and strong growth –

　　A "reform" brings leap development

　　On the assembly line of the FAW Hongqi factory, the heroic "Hongqi" H9 cars caught the eye.

　　"Since the launch of this car, there has been a steady stream of orders." The staff told reporters, "Not only H9, but the sales of the entire’Hongqi ‘brand car exceeded 200,000 in 2020, an increase of 42 times in three years."

　　In the context of the continuous decline in sales in the global automobile industry and the impact of the epidemic, how can "red flag" vehicles rise against the trend and grow strongly? The answer of the employees is: "It comes from reform."

　　Concentrate on advantages to strengthen the brand

　　As the first high-end car in New China, the "Hongqi" car has always carried people’s high hopes for national cars. However, the brand has experienced ups and downs since the 1980s.

　　Significant changes began in 2017. That year, Xu Liuping was transferred to FAW and launched a new round of reform. The three independent brands, Hongqi, Pentium, and Jiefang, were re-organized and resourced. In particular, "Hongqi" cars were directly operated by FAW Group headquarters, concentrating the best forces to strengthen the brand.

　　"Before the reform, Hongqi Automobile was produced and operated as a branch. In 2017, after the brand was directly operated by the group headquarters, a factory dedicated to production was established, and the group headquarters was responsible for coordinating various resources." Wang Caiyun, director of the general management department of Hongqi Factory, said.

　　The headquarters of the group has actively optimized the coordination and mobilization of personnel and financial resources of the Hongqi brand, so that the product quality and production scale can be rapidly improved. In this regard, the employees of the Hongqi factory are deeply touched: "In the past, there were only more than 20 professionals on our production line. Now, there are more than 200 people just doing production preparation. In the past, the annual investment was at most a few million yuan, but now it can reach billions of yuan. Three workshops such as stamping, welding, and painting have been created from scratch. The scale of the production base has been expanded by 4 times, and digitalization has been fully realized…"

　　"After shouldering the operational function, the functional areas of business at the group headquarters were all demolished and redesigned. Almost all of them had task indicators linked to the development of the red flag, from’management ‘to’dry’." Zeng Xiaojun, director of the system management department/organization management department of FAW Group, said for example. "Although the headquarters had a brand marketing department in the past, it did not sell cars. After the reform, the department was abolished and the marketing center was re-established, which was not only directly responsible for sales, but also added pre-product planning and so on."

　　Since 2017, the major institutional adjustment of FAW Group headquarters has been carried out 6 times. After connecting with the market, the problem of headquarters institutionalization has also been solved. The satisfaction of FAW’s grassroots units with headquarters services rose to 91.59%.

　　Reform stimulates enterprise vitality

　　On the bookshelf of Wang Caiyun’s office, a military order stands out. This was signed by her in FAW’s new round of "All Stand Up, All Staff Compete" last September. Exceeding the performance targets in the military order may result in promotion and salary increase. If you fail to complete it, you may lose your job or even lose your job.

　　"All stand up, all employees compete for employment", which originates from FAW’s "four-energy" reform that began in 2017 and is competitive every three years. Wu Jintian, director of the group’s Human Resources compensation management department, told reporters that the core of this reform is value creation-based, performance-based measurement, to achieve "cadres can go up and down, salaries can be high and low, employees can come in and out, and institutions can increase and decrease".

　　"Competing for employment based on ability depends on how much value you have created for the enterprise, and you must speak with your results." In the eyes of many FAW cadres, this reform is tantamount to a "deep earthquake".

　　Mr. Liu is one of a group of capable young geniuses who want to work. After two rounds of competition in 2017 and 2020, he has become FAW’s youngest senior manager after nine years of work. Previously, it took 16 years at the fastest for employees to enter the senior manager position. The reform has reduced the average age of FAW’s middle-level cadres by about 5 years.

　　After the 1980s, Wang Caiyun also achieved a three-level jump in three years due to the "four-ability reform": from a second-level manager, to a senior director, and then to a department director. "Being able to go up and down, in and out, is a manifestation of the vitality of an enterprise," she said.

　　With the younger ranks of cadres, many post-80s and post-90s have been entrusted with important responsibilities, provoking the backbone in the research, production and sales system, and "red flag" cars have gradually entered the hearts of "new car buying forces".

　　Accelerate the pace of innovation across the board

　　When the reporter arrived at the FAW Innovation Technology Research Institute, Cao Lijun, the head of the Comprehensive Technology Management Department, was leading colleagues to study the "14th Five-Year" intellectual property plan.

　　In order to comprehensively strengthen its innovation capabilities, in September 2017, FAW kicked off the reform of its scientific research system and restructured the FAW Technology Center, which is known as the "Cradle of China’s Automotive R & D Talents". It established the Research and Development Institute, the Modeling Design Institute, the New Energy Development Institute, and the Intelligent Network Development Institute. In the past three years, it has successively established the Innovation Technology Research Institute, the Materials Research Institute, and the Testing and Testing Institute.

　　The overall scientific research structure has changed from "one center" to "Big Dipper", the research direction is more detailed, and the R & D responsibilities are clearer. At the same time, the development of "Hongqi" products has been strengthened. For example, the Design Institute is mainly responsible for the appearance design of the Hongqi brand.

　　Wang Caiyun said: "After the establishment of the Design Institute, the’Red Flag ‘has its own family design language, and these are the iconic symbols of the’Red Flag’ car."

　　The segmentation of the research and development field has also greatly accelerated the pace of FAW’s follow-up with the latest technologies and exploration of forward-looking technologies. Take the Intelligent Netlink Development Institute as an example, due to a group of personnel specializing in vehicle to everything, the intelligence of Hongqi has been continuously upgraded. The Hongqi EHS9, which was launched in December last year, has been praised by users as "killing many products of the same level in seconds".

　　"In the past, ‘Hongqi’ had a single product and not many models. Due to the reform of the scientific research system, new technologies in the industry were quickly reflected in the car, and the speed of product update and iteration has surpassed that of joint venture vehicles." The staff of the final assembly workshop of the Hongqi factory told reporters that the significant improvement in the development and design level not only gave Hongqi more and more "charm points", but also the manufacturability and equipability of products, which will help "Hongqi" usher in a big explosion in production and sales.

　　Through comprehensive deepening of reform, China FAW’s independent innovation ability has been significantly enhanced, and 3,508 patents were applied for in 2020, an increase of 19.8% year-on-year; in the past three years, vehicle sales have increased from 3.106 million to 3.706 million, with an average annual growth of 4.5%, and the market share has increased from 11.1% to 14.6%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. (reporter
Peng Bing, Liu Shanshan)

　　Authors: Peng Bing, Liu Shanshan

Every reporter: Sun Lei Every editor: Pei Jianru

On the evening of December 6th, Xpeng Motors (09868.HK) announced that it had signed a technical framework agreement with Volkswagen (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Volkswagen) on strategic technical cooperation. At the same time, Xpeng Motors issued Class A ordinary shares to Volkswagen (or the nominee of Volkswagen, which is an affiliated company of Volkswagen) according to the share purchase agreement and general authorization.

Image source: Xpeng Motors Announcement

Xpeng Motors claims that all preconditions contained in the share purchase agreement have been met and the investment was completed on December 6, 2023 according to the terms and conditions of the share purchase agreement. A total of about 94,079,300 shares of Class A common stock (subscription shares) have been successfully allotted and issued to Volkswagen Finance Luxemburg S.A (an affiliate of Volkswagen, that is, an investor) at the purchase price of US$ 15 per ADS (based on the exchange rate of HK$ 7.8096 to US$ 1.00 per ADS).

It is understood that the above-mentioned 94,079,300 Class A ordinary shares account for about 4.99% of the total issued and circulating share capital in Xpeng Motors after the transaction.

The announcement shows that the total purchase price of all subscribed shares is about 705.6 million US dollars. The net income from investment is about $704.6 million. The net purchase price is about US$ 15 per ADS (equivalent to about HK$ 58.5 per Class A common stock).

After the completion of the transaction, among Class A common shares, Volkswagen invested in nominee shares of 4.99%, other shareholders accounted for 76.51%, Class B common shares accounted for 18.5%, and the total number of shares was 1.885 billion shares. Volkswagen won an observer seat on the board of directors of Xpeng Motors. Xpeng Motors, for its part, indicated that it planned to use the net proceeds from the investment for general corporate purposes, including meeting the needs of working capital.

On July 26th this year, Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors reached a technical framework agreement. As part of the cooperation, audi ag will increase the capital of Xiaopeng Automobile by about 700 million US dollars, and acquire about 4.99% equity of Xpeng Motors at the price of 15 US dollars per ADS (*).

According to Volkswagen, the two parties plan to jointly develop two Volkswagen brand electric vehicles for the mid-size car market in China. These two new cars, which are exclusively for China market, will complement the product portfolio based on MEB platform, and are planned to go to market in 2026.

Image source: Every photo by reporter Li Xing (data map)

Xpeng Motors revealed that in terms of strategic and technical cooperation, Xpeng Motors and audi ag will jointly develop vehicles based on Xpeng Motors’s G9 vehicle platform, intelligent cockpit and advanced driver assistance system software. In addition, the two sides will explore other potential strategic cooperation in various fields, including future cooperation in electric vehicle platforms, software technology and supply chain.

On October 12th, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, wrote in Weibo that he visited the headquarters in Wolfsburg, audi ag at the end of September. "In the past few months, the models jointly developed by us have been accelerating. The technical teams of both sides, like an entrepreneurial team, are fully committed to the common goal and advance at full speed; The strategic cooperation promoted in the supply chain will bring us the potential to reduce costs together. " He Xiaopeng said.

"The cooperation between Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen is progressing smoothly, and the two sides will meet twice a week. We have many people in Volkswagen, and Volkswagen also has many people in Guangzhou (referring to Xpeng Motors headquarters). We are talking about the current deal and more deals. " During the 1024 Xpeng Motors Science and Technology Day, He Xiaopeng said in an interview with national business daily.

Image source: Every photo by reporter Kong Zesi (data map)

In addition, He Xiaopeng also revealed that after reaching the cooperation, Volkswagen studied the products of Xpeng Motors. "This is Tucki and Volkswagen reached a cooperation, Volkswagen executives told me. They think that Xpeng Motors’s spare parts procurement cost is higher than that of its peers, which has also triggered other incidents (referring to the announcement that Li Feng, the head of the procurement department, was suspended in Xpeng Motors, and several employees cooperated with the investigation. ）。” He Xiaopeng said.

In the above announcement, Xpeng Motors also said that two Class B pure electric vehicles jointly developed by it and Volkswagen have made great progress, and the feasibility study of the project has achieved positive results and has been completed. In addition, the two sides are actively evaluating more in-depth cooperation in smart electric vehicle technology.

national business daily