Multinational vehicle company's new energy vehicle strategy

For any industry, the interaction between companies, technology, and policies can affect the industry's development trend. Different multinational auto companies have chosen different new energy auto technology routes under the guidance of different market characteristics and policies. What kind of industrial logic do they have?

Premier Wen Jiabao wrote "Several Issues on Science and Technology Work" in "Qiushi" magazine, which triggered the industry's attention to the actual status of domestic new energy vehicles.

The article points out that there is still a big gap between China's new energy vehicle technology and developed countries. When domestic electric vehicles are developed, "main equipment and materials are imported." The next step in the development of new energy vehicles must focus on solving issues such as technical route issues, key core technical issues, investment issues, and policy support issues that must be clearly identified and resolved as soon as possible.

For any industry, the interaction between companies, technology, and policies can affect the industry's development trend. However, under the guidance of different market characteristics and policies, different multinational auto companies have chosen different new energy automotive technology routes and methods. What kind of industrial logic do they have? Whether it is worthy of our reference, the benevolent see the wise see wisdom.

The secret of Prius's success so far, Toyota Prius should be considered the most successful new energy car. At present, the Prius has developed into the third generation and has sold more than 3 million vehicles worldwide. Among the hybrid vehicles sold in the United States, the Prius once occupied more than half of the country's total. However, 20 years ago, all car companies including Toyota could not imagine this achievement.

After the "oil crisis" of the 1970s, major automakers began to look for alternative power sources that could replace oil. GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda and others have all developed their own pure electric vehicles. However, like the bottleneck faced by electric vehicles a century ago, a series of technical problems to be overcome, such as battery operating mileage, manufacturing costs, and charging facilities, have made it difficult for electric vehicles to be widely used. At the same time, the interference and obstruction of the oil giants in the automotive industry is also an important reason for the collapse of electric vehicles during this period. General Motors recalled and destroyed all 1,117 EV1 electric vehicles that it had produced.

However, forward-looking auto company leaders did not give up their efforts to find alternatives to oil. Toyota Eiji, who was the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, launched the “Global 21st Century (G21)” project in the late 1980s, requiring the company’s top research team and development engineers to develop new models for the 21st century to replace traditional cars.

Pruis, the world's first mass-produced hybrid car, is the product of the G21 project. After 1000 Toyota R&D personnel spent a billion dollars, they finally launched the first-generation Prius in 1997. By the time the third-generation Toyota Prius was introduced, the Toyota Hybrid had already sold more than 2 million vehicles, and the Prius has also been the single-model sales champion for the Japanese auto market for 13 consecutive months. Toyota plans to increase the number of hybrid vehicles to 1 million vehicles a year in 2010.

The success of the Prius, on the one hand, benefits from technological breakthroughs, and more importantly because of the change in government attitude. The legislation of the United States of California, established in 1998, stipulated that 2% of the total car sales by various automakers in the state must be "zero-emission vehicles," that is, cars that use electric motors. But the problem is that the electric car cannot be sold because its battery technology is not mature: it takes a long time to recharge, and the distance for a charge is limited. Most manufacturers, including Toyota, can hardly achieve the 2% target.

At this time, the Prius, which has both an electric engine and a gasoline engine, is on sale. The Prius was brought to the California Air Resources Committee of the state government's Zero Emissions Restriction Authority at the beginning of the sale, and members were given a test on the spot. The purpose of the test ride is to promote the environmental effects of the car, but this is not the only purpose. Toyota believes that in a situation where the zero emission limit is difficult to achieve, as long as the Air Resources Commission can recognize that hybrid vehicles are part of the "zero-emission vehicle," then virtually no one can achieve the policy of using it in the same way, it can reproduce its significance.

Afterwards, as expected, the California State government decided to amend this limit and make concessions, acknowledging that in addition to electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles are also considered as zero-emission vehicles, both of which meet the zero emission limit.

On the other hand, in order to encourage the nationals to purchase such environmentally friendly and energy-saving products and make up for the disadvantages of high prices, the U.S. Federal Taxation Administration also grants a subsidy of US$2,000 to each vehicle. It is reported that the price of the Prius in the United States is about 20% higher than that of its class. After obtaining a $2,000 subsidy, the actual price of the Prius is not much higher than that of a gasoline-powered car of the same class. And many advocating environmentalists are even more proud of owning the Prius.

In addition to the United States, the Japanese government also gave the Prius one quarter of its sub-subsidy over its class.

At present, Toyota, which has more than 30 years of hybrid vehicle R&D production history, has gradually increased its search for suppliers. In this process, Toyota consistently maintains 100% of the key technologies of hybrid vehicles (such as engines, motors, generators, etc.), and outsources non-critical technologies (such as batteries, battery controls, transmissions, etc.) to have strong technical capabilities. The parts and components partners (which have a cross-shareholding relationship with Toyota) have made Toyota maintain its leading position in technology in hybrid vehicles.

Relying on its technological superiority in the key components of hybrids, Toyota Motor has further expanded its hybrid vehicle production scale by externally supplying core components and the cost has been further reduced. Why does Universal choose Volt?

The Chevrolet Volt will be listed in China at the end of 2011. This will be the first extended-range electric vehicle in the domestic market. China is also one of the first markets outside the US to introduce the Chevrolet Volt. This is only five years away from the development of Volt.

Volt's concept began in the spring of 2006 with the aim of being superior to the Prius, which is technically more successful than Toyota. More importantly, this will get rid of Toyota's control over hybrid technology.

Volt is different from other cars in the world. It comes with a sophisticated battery pack and a small fuel engine. GM explained that the design of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle is to eliminate driver's mileage anxiety and solve the problem of limited mileage for electric vehicles. The Chevrolet Volt can travel up to 80 kilometers in pure electric mode without the need to consume a drop of gasoline; it can also rely on the power generated by the engine generator to travel an additional 490 kilometers.

The Voltec drive system installed on the Chevrolet Volt can meet the daily travel needs of most consumers and is not limited by infrastructure, urban and rural landscapes, and hot and cold weather. "We are convinced that this is the best electric vehicle solution on the mass market," General Motors said.

According to Larry Burns, former vice president of R&D at General Motors, GM considered several options to catch up with Toyota. “We feel that if we only design a hybrid vehicle, it will be difficult to make any technical achievements. Because the automotive industry will inevitably develop plug-in hybrids eventually. Even if GM designs its own plug-in vehicles first, It will not be much ahead of other companies."

Therefore, GM determines that it needs an electric vehicle. But before this, GM still needs to make another decision, that is what the performance of the new model should be like. The mileage and cost of electric vehicles are directly related to the size of the battery pack. If you don't have a battery, the mileage that is driven purely by electric power may be only a few miles, but the cost is relatively low. If you install more batteries, it means higher prices, which will also encounter resistance at the consumer.

GM finally decided that the longest range of pure electric drive for new models is 80 kilometers, because it can meet the commuting needs of most people. Since the Chevrolet Volt went public in the United States in 2010, sales have been very strong. Orders brought by corporate teams are also very strong. General Electric has already announced that it will purchase 12,000 GM electric cars. The model of the first shot is the Chevrolet Volt.

According to the current progress, GM can deliver the Chevrolet Volt to all 50 states in the United States by the end of 2011. Chevrolet distributors invested more than 550 Volt prototypes in markets where Chevrolet Volt was first introduced in California, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington, DC Specifically for the user test drive. By the end of the year, more than 2,500 US distributors will receive a dedicated Chevrolet Volt test drive. This exhibition vehicle full contact project is attracting more and more consumers to visit the Chevrolet exhibition hall.

General Motors expects to produce 16,000 Chevrolet Volt in 2011. Due to strong demand, the company has increased the production of Volt in 2012 from the initial 30,000 to 45,000, and recently adjusted it to 60,000 again.

While expanding the sales scale, GM hopes that Volt will reduce its price while upgrading, and will bring profits to the company in 2020 with the increase in sales volume. Volt's success has helped GM enhance its corporate image and revive the company's momentum.

The "Tesla" effect GM still invests heavily in research and development of the Volt extended-range electric vehicle when it encounters difficulties. It is not unrelated to the stimulus of another lay manufacturer.

In late June 2010, Tesla (TSLA, Nasdaq), an American electric vehicle manufacturer, successfully listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange of the United States. Compared with the previously announced IPO plan, Tesla temporarily decided to issue 20% more shares because the stock was sought after by the market.

Tesla's successful public listing made it the first new energy automobile manufacturer to achieve IPO in history. It was also the first car manufacturer to carry out an IPO in the United States in 54 years after the 1956 Ford Motor's public listing. As Tesla is expected to remain at a loss for the next two years, this public offering will provide it with a stable development reserve fund.

In 2003, two electronic engineers with no background in the automotive industry, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, founded Tesla in California, and PayPal founder Elon Musk ( Elon Musk) injected $55 million into it as the earliest venture capital investor. To date, Musk has invested $300 million in Tesla's operations after selling the shares of PayPal and another company. He has also become Tesla's CEO and majority shareholder.

Since then, Tesla has been relying on venture capital to maintain. However, its investors are notoriously famous. Apart from Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, they also include Mercedes-Benz and Toyota, two traditional car manufacturers, of which Toyota has recently reached an agreement with Tesla. The strategic investor, who is interested in cooperation, plans to invest in the Nummi vehicle manufacturing plant in California for 50 million U.S. dollars in Tesla.

When Tesla started its first nationality, when the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, became the world’s first pure electric sports car, Tesla Roadster, more people began to pay attention to its progress on electric vehicles. The Tesla electric sports car has three major selling points: the speed can be accelerated to 100 kilometers within 4 seconds, exceeding the explosive power of Ferrari; charging a 240-volt home socket for one night, it will be able to travel 250 miles (about 402 kilometers). Special charging facilities; its other highlight is energy saving and environmental protection.

Although Roadster received a large number of orders on its first appearance, the movie stars George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, including Sergey Brin and Larry Page, became its users. However, Tesla had already burned 230 million U.S. dollars in investment over the past seven years since its establishment, and it only generated revenue of 148 million U.S. dollars. Tesla plans to produce Model S, a luxury electric car, next year, and is expected to continue to lose money. The Model S is scheduled to go on sale in 2012 and can be used 160 miles (257 kilometers) per charge, with an estimated price of $57,400. Tesla’s current annual production of sports cars is about 1,000, and Musk plans to bring the annual production capacity of the Model S sedan to 20,000. So far, the U.S. Department of Energy has provided Tesla with 465 million U.S. dollars in concessional loans to help it further develop electric vehicles.

Tesla is named after Nikola Tesla, who is known as the father of physics and the guardian god of modern power. At the beginning of the 20th century, this great scientist had invented the "Tesla effect" through his genius invention: artificially created earthquakes through the super-transmission effect of small input and strong output. At the time of the IPO of the Tesla electric vehicle, the automotive industry started a "Tesla" effect of the energy revolution.

In the United States, there are not a few Tesla-like companies. We only know that ZAP, Tiger Trucks, and CODA Automotive, which is owned by Myers Electric Vehicles, have imported electric cars from the United States with prototypes imported from China. ZAP's Xebra zebra electric vehicle prototype is a tricycle manufactured by Shandong Jinda Road; a tiger truck uses a Changan micro-card, Myers Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd. bulk sales of Tianjin Qingyuan electric vehicle company's low-speed cars, and CODA launched The prototype vehicle used in the highway electric car was Hafei Saibao.

Under the stimulation of emerging electric car manufacturers, traditional car giants began to wake up. Japanese auto companies are the most active. Nissan is launching Leaf, a pure electric vehicle. It hopes to produce 500,000 electric vehicles globally by 2015 and will occupy 10% of the global electric vehicle market within 10 years. Toyota will soon introduce the plug-in Prius, Mitsubishi's pure electric vehicle i-MiEV has been listed and achieved a good sales performance.

And the three major automakers in Detroit that went through the 2009 bankruptcy reorganization need a clear action to tell investors and consumers that they are on the road to the future. GM did not stop the development of its plug-in model Volt even during its bankruptcy reorganization and will be the first in North America this year. Ford also said that it will invest US$1 billion in R&D and production of electric vehicles and will launch at least five electric vehicles in the next five years. European car manufacturers, who have always been enamoured of retrofitting traditional gasoline and diesel engines, have also taken active actions. For example, Daimler-Benz has established a joint venture with BYD for the development of electric vehicles, and Volkswagen has launched the world’s first electric car test drive at the Shanghai World Expo. .

Even the traditional oil giants have changed their views. Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, believes that by 2050, the number of cars on the road may reach 2 billion, which is more than twice the amount of existing cars, and 40% of them. It may be an electric car.

Perhaps inspired by the popularity of Tesla's electric sports cars, at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2010, Lotus, Porsche and Ferrari launched models that were partially powered by electricity. These cars are equipped with gasoline engines to provide backup power for electric motors. Ferrari boss Montezemolo hopes that all models of the company will be equipped with a hybrid system within five years.

The emergence of new energy and new energy vehicles is changing the world of automobiles. In fact, starting from the alternative carriage, the car has changed the world's pulse. Just as Google was not making money at the time of its birth, the market is expecting new energy car companies such as Tesla to innovate in traditional manufacturing – not only at the technical level but also at the business model level. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen pointed out that just as digital cameras make traditional film cameras degenerate, electric cars will also bring “destructive innovation” to the automotive industry.

Traditional automakers are often capital, technology, and labor-intensive industries because they have hundreds of billions of dollars of capital, huge investment factories, and tens of thousands of employees. The Tesla electric car follows the concept of division of labor and modular production in the IT industry. It produces cars in the United Kingdom, purchases power systems in Taiwan, and finally assembles in the United States. The operation mode of the “Golden Triangle” allowed the initial capital to reach US$300 million. Tesla, which has only 400 employees worldwide, deconstructed a one-stop production model for the traditional automaker.

This has become commonplace in the IT world. Tesla’s CEO and major shareholder, Elon Musk, said: “We are a Silicon Valley company. We are more like Apple and Google in terms of operations and DNA than GM and Ford. The latter will always learn This will not happen.” In Tesla’s senior executives, there are semiconductors, chemistry and materials sciences, and only one R&D team in vehicle manufacturing is always dug out of GM.

Why is Tesla, still in loss, sought after by the capital so hot? The doubters admitted that Tesla was a pioneer in the field of electric vehicles, but they doubted Tesla's ability to continue as a small pure electric vehicle maker. Most people in the traditional car industry give negative answers.

But adventurous investors do not think so. They have seen from Tesla the changes in the DNA of the future automotive industry: it is shifting from greasy mechanical forging processes to lighter carbon fiber materials that rely more on chips. Intelligent technologies and software technologies eventually transformed the car from a bulky machine to a lighter one. In addition to products such as batteries and automotive enclosures, core modules such as automotive design and software will be able to achieve light asset operations.

In fact, Tesla’s founders are planning to do so: In the future, Tesla may license powertrain patents to traditional vehicle manufacturers for the production of complete vehicles without investing in large factories and production lines. "Like Intel Inside, we want to be Tesla Inside." Russell Lian, general manager of Tesla Taiwan Branch, said in an interview with the media that Tesla's ultimate goal is not to sell a Taiwan electric car, but like Like selling CPUs, electric vehicle power control systems including batteries, motors, and controllers are sold to major automobile assembly plants. In 2007, Tesla Energy was founded and expanded its battery control technology to mowers, motorcycles and even satellites.

In the traditional automotive industry, forward-thinking entrepreneurs are also working in this direction. Magna, one of the world’s top ten auto parts suppliers, decided a few years ago to make a battery management system and make it the most competitive battery to achieve the battery regardless of where it came from. Function and life-time optimization, etc., and achieve scale effect as quickly as possible by satisfying different models and manufacturers.

Othmar Peier, senior vice president of global marketing and sales at Magna Electric Vehicles, estimates that after the annual production of electric vehicles of 150,000 to 200,000 units, the cost of parts can be reduced to the existing products. The level of competition. "We estimate that the next year may be achieved if we can provide different models." At present, the Fox electric car that Magna and Ford have cooperated with, and began to undergo market inspection in 2011.