Huawei ultimately failed to become the “Bosch of the smart car era”

The news of Wang Jun's suspension adds another layer of credibility.

On February 6, a photo circulated on the Internet. There were several familiar faces in the photo: Avita Technology Chairman and CEO Tan Benhong and Huawei Car BU CEO Yu Chengdong stopped to talk in front of a new car. Huawei Rotating Chairman Xu Zhijun hugged He started to look to the other side to see some people, but Wang Jun was the only one missing.

Since cooperating with Avita in HI mode, Huawei Car BU COO Wang Jun has often appeared on Avita's scene and interacted with Tan Benhong on the same stage. Now, Yu Chengdong seems to have replaced Wang Jun's role.

Just a few days ago, there were wild rumors that Wang Jun had been suspended from his job. The specific reason was unknown.

If true, it means that Huawei Auto BU is undergoing the largest personnel adjustment since its establishment in May 2019, which will also profoundly affect the future layout of Huawei's three smart car business models.

Veteran general Wang Jun, from the creation of the car BU to the final elimination

Wang Jun can be regarded as the starting point of Huawei's car BU.

In April 2019, when Huawei's smart car solution BU had not yet been formally established, Wang Jun, who was the director of Huawei's Japan Carrier Business Department, was recalled by Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun to prepare and lead this department.

One month later, Ren Zhengfei issued a document, and Auto BU was officially established. It is positioned as a provider of smart automotive components and solutions, and is managed by the ICT Management Committee. Wang Jun serves as the president, and the top person in charge is Xu Zhijun.

Under Wang Jun's management, Che BU began to recruit troops everywhere.

In one year, the number of people expanded from 200 to 2,500, forming five core product departments, including intelligent driving product department, intelligent cockpit product department, intelligent network product department, intelligent electric product department and intelligent car cloud product department, etc. Each product department has a corresponding person in charge. For example, the director of the intelligent driving product department is Su Qing. At this point, the Huawei Car BU created by Wang Jun has basically taken shape.

With a team and products in place, Wang Jun’s next thought was how to expand his business.

Previously, Huawei mainly sold single components such as motors and electronic controls to car companies as traditional Tier1 (first-tier supplier) and Tier2 (secondary supplier), which is the so-called parts supplier model, focusing on segmentation. The output of each "point" ability in the field.

Although this model has won Huawei customers from almost all mainstream car companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, BYD, FAW, SAIC, and Chery, it has not fully utilized the full potential of the vehicle BU, from smart electric to smart cockpit, and then When it comes to intelligent driving, the latter is fully capable of “connecting dots to make things happen”.

So in October 2020, Wang Jun led Che BU to create another higher-level business model-Huawei Inside mode (HI mode for short), including a new computing and communication architecture and five major intelligent systems. Driving, smart cockpit, smart electric, smart connectivity and smart car cloud, as well as a full set of smart components such as lidar and AR-HUD, provide car companies with full-stack smart car solutions.

In Wang Jun's words, by integrating the resources of Huawei and car companies, "from demand definition to design solutions, both parties jointly develop." Under the HI mode, Che BU got off to a good start, first reaching cooperation with BAIC, and then expanding its customers to Changan and GAC.

Just when Wang Jun was preparing for a big fight, CheBU's organizational structure suddenly ushered in the first round of major adjustments.

In November 2020, Huawei transferred the Automotive BU from the ICT Business Management Committee to the Consumer Business Management Committee, and at the same time reorganized the Consumer BG IRB into the Smart Terminal and Smart Auto Parts IRB. As a result, Yu Chengdong, who was formerly the CEO of Consumer BG, became He became the general person in charge of Huawei’s smart terminal and car BU.

Some people speculate that this may be related to the fact that the U.S. government's chip sanctions against Huawei officially came into effect in September of that year. This incident severely hit Huawei's mobile phone business (attributable to the original consumer BG), causing its revenue to decline sharply.

Huawei Consumer BG urgently needs access to other services with capacity comparable to the mobile phone market to save itself, and the emerging smart cars are undoubtedly the best choice.

After Yu Chengdong took over, changes began to occur inside Che BU.

In April 2021, at the Shanghai Auto Show, this scene happened:

On one side, Wang Jun, President of Huawei Automotive BU, and Liu Yu, Chairman of BAIC Blue Valley, jointly released the JiFox Alpha S, the first cooperation model in HI mode, which excited the outside world;

At the same time, on the other side, Yu Chengdong invited the media to Huawei's global flagship store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai. Just like launching a mobile phone, he jointly launched the Cyrus Huawei Smart Selection SF5 with Jinkang Cyrus, announcing the first step in Huawei's automotive business. Three modes - the smart car selection mode was born.

The so-called smart car selection model is a step forward on the HI model and is close to the role of Tier 0. That is, Huawei is deeply involved in product definition, vehicle design and intelligent solutions. At the same time, it opens Huawei's retail channels across the country to car companies, and its reach extends to terminals. Sales not only help car companies "build good cars", but also help them "sell good cars."

For a moment, the car BU seemed to be under dual leadership, and the HI mode and the smart car selection mode seemed like "each one plays its own role."

This situation also alerted the company's senior management. In May 2021, Huawei quickly issued an internal document, adding Yu Chengdong as the CEO of Che BU, flanked by his platform.

Since then, Yu Chengdong’s people in Consumer BG have been continuously transferred to Car BU:

In July 2021, Bian Honglin, President of the Hardware Engineering and Product Development Management Department of Consumer BG and CTO of Consumer BG, replaced Su Qing, who was dismissed for saying that Tesla was "killing people", and served as the director of the Intelligent Driving Product Department of Auto BU. Not long ago, Li Wenguang, the former vice president of Huawei Consumer BG mobile phone product line, also came to work at BU and was appointed deputy director of the intelligent driving product department...

On Wang Jun's side, the inherent power continues to shrink, and even he has been "downgraded": In September 2021, Huawei made another personnel appointment, and Wang Jun was transferred to the position of COO of the car BU and president of the intelligent driving solution product line. At the same time, the position of president of CheBU will be abolished.

In other words, after this round of adjustments, the superior-subordinate relationship that Wang Jun will report to Yu Chengdong has been clarified.

Now, news has spread that Wang Jun has been suspended. If true, it will mean that the original BU founding team has been completely eliminated, and the "new force" Yu Chengdong is completely at the helm.

Three business models compete in a horse race, Huawei Smart Selection wins

Wang Jun's suspension seems to be just an ordinary personnel adjustment for Huawei.

But in the eyes of the outside world, it reflects that the car BU business led by him, especially the HI model, is not progressing smoothly.

Taking the JiFox Alpha S HI version as an example, first of all, it was affected by the lack of supply of Huawei's autonomous driving kit, which greatly delayed the launch time. This new car was originally expected to be mass-produced and delivered around November 2021, but the final delivery was delayed. By July 2022, the best window has been missed.

To make matters worse, the sales performance of the JiFox Alpha S HI version after its launch was not satisfactory. In 2022, the total sales of the JiFox Alpha S will be only more than 6,000 units. It is self-evident how sluggish the sales of the HI version are.

Such results made BAIC very dissatisfied, and even Huawei's car BU was filled with complaints, saying that the huge investment was in vain.

It is understood that Huawei invests more than one billion US dollars in the automotive business a year, directly investing 7,000 people, and indirectly investing more than 10,000 people. When cooperating with BAIC Jihu, Wang Jun once revealed that almost everyone in the team worked on it, "basically All In."

Such a large sum of money has also resulted in Huawei's HI model being able to only be rolled out in a limited way. So far, it has only appointed three partners - BAIC, Changan (the cooperative model is Avita 11) and GAC.

Wang Jun once admitted to Caijing that there are not enough manpower and resources to support more cooperation in the short term. "Because the solution cannot be reused, Huawei has to deploy a dedicated team for each cooperative car company, which is very costly."

This reflects to some extent that Huawei's HI model does not have standard solutions, but is hampered by high customization. However, after high investment, Huawei did not make the Extreme Fox Alpha S HI version a hit.

"The problem is serious. If it cannot become a hit, the business model cannot be closed-loop."

Wang Yanmin, president of Huawei's terminal smart car selection business, pointed out at the 2022 China Automobile Forum that Huawei hopes to break the deadlock with its smart car selection business.

In 2022, the AITO smart car selection brand created by Huawei and Cyrus lived up to expectations. With its three models of M5, M7, and M5 EV, it created annual sales of more than 75,000 vehicles, and delivered more than 10,000 vehicles in a single month for several consecutive months. , becoming the biggest dark horse in the new energy vehicle market.