He Xiaopeng: It’s useless to be the number one among new forces, the sales volume of 3 million vehicles is just an admission ticket

Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1603

After the introduction of the new president, He Xiaopeng made his first appearance at an offline media event and released Xiaopeng’s next-generation technology architecture SEPA 2.0 “Fuyao” global intelligent evolution architecture. Wearing a green shirt and jeans, he talked about architecture, technology, new competition, and Xiaopeng’s organizational management issues in the past year.

He Xiaopeng said frankly that since the second half of last year, Xiaopeng has experienced a period of low tide. But he said that this is not the most difficult time for Xiaopeng, because the financial situation is still healthy. In 2019, Xiaopeng only had a few months of money on its books. If it was not P5 but G7 at that time, once the supplier for the prepayment was determined, it might only have one month’s money. “The next month Xiaopeng is equal to collapse”.

After the G9 storm, He Xiaopeng rethought how to make Xiaopeng Motors live better and carried out organizational changes for several months. He said that Xiaopeng Motors was lucky, and found the problem early and found a solution, which “boosted his morale”.

But he knew it wasn’t enough. “I used to want to live and live well, but now I think that if I live well, I will die. It’s just a matter of dying in three years or five years.” He Xiaopeng admitted frankly.

In 2022, Xiaopeng Motors will sell about 120,000 vehicles, ranking 12th in the annual new energy sales list. He does not think that Xiaopeng has widened the gap with other new forces. “Even if it becomes the number one new power, it is useless, because judging from the future competition situation, it will not be able to survive with 50,000 or 100,000 more units.”

The knockout competition has just begun, and he believes that the sales volume of 3 million vehicles in the future is just the ticket for car companies. A new decade from now, there will be only eight mainstream car companies left.

He Xiaopeng began to think about what core capabilities Xiaopeng Motor still lacks in order to achieve 3 million and 5 million units. He believes that only by achieving efficient R&D, cost balance, and high-end experience at the same time can it be possible to win a chance in the fierce competition.

The following are the main points of He Xiaopeng’s speech when he was interviewed by “Later Auto” and other media:

only eight

He Xiaopeng judged that in 2027, the penetration rate of the new generation of smart cars in the Chinese market will reach more than 35%.

In the past, the differences between cars were mainly based on brand, size and configuration. However, the emergence of smart cars has widened the gap in capabilities between car companies, which will change the competitive situation. Players in this track will quickly concentrate, and in the next 10 years, only the final eight will remain.

These eight companies need to have at least three to five million sales in the global market. The life-and-death line for mid-to-high-end models is 3 million, while mid-to-low-end models need 5 million.

To make it into the top eight, he believes that three basic capabilities must be possessed: first, a customer-oriented innovative architecture system; second, global-scale sales capabilities; third, software and hardware organization and management capabilities.

Launched 10 models based on the “Fuyao” architecture

Platformization is an effective way for car companies to invest in research and development of new technologies and reduce costs on a large scale. On this road, Xiaopeng has successively launched four complete vehicle platforms of D, E, F, and H. In November 2021, it launched the X-EEXA3.0 electronic and electrical architecture, and now it has released the “Fuyao” architecture.

He Xiaopeng said that the “Fuyao” architecture took 5 years of exploration and invested 10 billion yuan in research and development. It is compatible with E, F, H and new research and development platforms launched in the future. Core technologies in manufacturing and other fields.

Models under the “Fuyao” architecture are equipped with 800V high-voltage SiC silicon carbide platform, 800V XPower electric drive, XNGP intelligent assisted driving system, intelligent cockpit research and development platform Xmart OS and other technologies, and adopt front and rear integrated aluminum die-casting technology, the largest die-casting force Reaching 12,000 tons, one-time die-casting can be realized, and the torsional rigidity of the whole vehicle is increased to 42000N m/deg, which is 50% higher than that of the traditional body.

He Xiaopeng said that the “Fuyao” architecture will shorten the development cycle of Xiaopeng’s new models by 20%, the common rate of parts and components can reach up to 80%, and the common rate of cost can exceed 80%. In the past, Xiaopeng G3, P7 and other models had 6-7 types of battery packs for one car. In this process, there are a lot of repeated cost inputs in production line construction, engineering development, sample procurement, verification testing and other links.

One of Tesla’s cost control weapons is to increase the generalization rate. The generalization rate of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y is 75%.

The wheelbase bandwidth of the “Swinging” architecture is 1800-3200mm, which can expand the range of sedans, hatchbacks, sports coupes, SUVs, SUVs, MPVs, pickups and other types of vehicles. speed. The first model equipped with this architecture is Xpeng’s third SUV G6, which will be released at the Shanghai Auto Show. In the future, He Xiaopeng revealed that there will be about 10 new cars based on the “Fuyao” architecture.

Under the new structure, Xiaopeng should control the cost well, so that the perception of supply chain partners is “not every car is different, but all of them are the same as much as possible”; customers perceive “the car is more beautiful and the cost is lower. , the intelligence is more unified, the upgrade is faster, and the space is larger”, “everything in our architecture is unified”.

Breakeven by 2025

He Xiaopeng said that Xiaopeng Motors’ business goal is to achieve breakeven by 2025. “If there is a huge scale of growth, this time point can be postponed further. I think the ultimate success is a huge scale, not a small scale.”

There are two ways to reduce costs, “use standard equipment to achieve scale, and use innovation to achieve greater cost reduction.”

In the past, Xiaopeng was questioned because of too many product configurations. Now He Xiaopeng believes that the upper limit of the product’s ability can not be solved through selection and matching. It should be “full standard configuration at the most suitable cost” and “the most suitable cost.” It’s not about being the strongest.” The goal of the “Fuyao” architecture is, “All cars within 300,000 yuan, or even 200,000 yuan in the future, will be equipped with power technology and intelligent technology as standard.”

The standard configuration is to achieve scale and share the cost of components. “For example, from 100 yuan to 70 yuan, or 50 yuan.” And further cost reduction can only rely on technological innovation, “If it is reduced from 50 yuan to 10 yuan, it must be innovation.”

After Tesla and Weilai, Xiaopeng also adopted new technologies such as integrated die-casting. He Xiaopeng believes that the introduction of these new technologies will reduce the overall cost in the long run. Xiaopeng Motors’ factory debugs the integrated die-casting equipment. The yield rate was not high a few months ago, but He Xiaopeng thinks this is not a big problem. , fast and cheap”. In the past, one or two hundred parts were distributed to suppliers, which had to be welded and transported, and some had to be desoldered again when they were transported to the factory, a lot of things.

Urban XNGP experience surpasses Tesla this year

In the 2022 financial report exchange meeting, Wang Chuanfu, president of BYD, “bombarded” autonomous driving and said: “Unmanned driving is all nonsense, and things that are fake are all fooling around, and they are coerced by capital. It (unmanned driving) ) is an Emperor’s New Clothes.”

He Xiaopeng retorted when answering questions from the media: How many people thought that new energy vehicles would achieve today’s results five years ago or ten years ago? Autonomous driving, too, will take time to prove.

He said that there is no autonomous driving that is really doing well today because the first is that it is difficult in the city;

Under the “Fuyao” architecture, he believes that the capabilities of the Xpeng X-EEA electronic and electrical architecture will continue to improve, the experience cycle can be shortened by 30%, the speed of OTA can be increased by 300%, and the R&D cost will be reduced by 50%.

He Xiaopeng set a goal: by 2023, the driving ability of XNGP is equivalent to that of a driver with 4-5 years of driving experience, and the high-speed NGP will take over less than once every thousand kilometers. In 2025, the number of urban NGP takeovers per 100 kilometers will be reduced from the current 4 times to 1 time. In the first half of next year, pilot assisted driving from communities to companies will be realized in most cities. And XNGP’s experience in Chinese cities will exceed FSD’s experience in the United States this year.

Although intelligence is only ranked 8th and 10th in today’s decision-making considerations for car purchases by users, he believes that by 2026 and 2027, it will be ranked in the top 2 and 3. At that time, the autonomous driving competition will be “who can make the scene comprehensive, who can make the cost the lowest, and who can do a good job in the safety system and experience system”.

Therefore, even if it is still losing money, he believes that Xiaopeng Motors must also pay attention to intelligent research and development, “Firm up on its own path, stick to the core things, and don’t do unnecessary things.”

6-24 months to adjust the organization

At the beginning of 2022, He Xiaopeng saw the problem of organizational management. He said that he had made many partial adjustments, but none of them worked. After the G9 turmoil, he began to think about issues at the bottom of the organization.

“Entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs with more than 1,000 employees, will suffer big losses if they don’t pay attention to organization and management, not small losses.” He Xiaopeng said.

He believes that Xiaopeng Motors did not do a good job in planning before, and the good ideas in terms of brand, product and sales have not been better integrated. In the past two months, Xiaopeng Motors has introduced new executives in these areas. In January this year, former Geely executive Yi Han joined Xiaopeng as vice president of marketing. In February, Wang Fengying, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, joined Xiaopeng Motors as the president, responsible for product planning, product matrix and sales system.

He Xiaopeng himself has stepped up efforts in product and research and development. “Xiaopeng’s research and development used to be managed by two teams, but now I manage all six teams. There is no need to have any doubts about this issue.”

On April 12, Xiaopeng Motors stated in its annual report that the phased organizational structure adjustment has been completed. But He Xiaopeng said that there will be a period of “stabilization” in the future, and it will take some time for it to really play a role. He was patient enough for this. “If it can be improved in 6-24 months, it will generate huge value.”

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