CEO and brand finalize one after another, Baidu Auto 'hurry up'
Image source: TechNode
Baidu's car making story is becoming more and more clear.
Recently, it was reported that Xia Yiping, the former co-founder of Mobike, will serve as the CEO of an electric vehicle joint venture established by Baidu and Geely. On February 22, Baidu officially responded to Future Auto Daily (ID: auto-time) that this news is true.
In December 2020, rumors that Baidu will build cars off the market continue to spread. Car companies such as Weimar, Geely, Guangzhou Automobile Group and FAW Hongqi have all approached Baidu.
Almost at the same time, introduced by Baidu veteran and current Baidu Capital chairman Ren Xuyang, Xia Yiping met with Baidu CEO Robin Li and exchanged views on the future development trend of smart cars. The two hit it off. Then, Xia Yiping officially joined Baidu to build cars.
Xia Yiping graduated from the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, UK. Before joining Mobike, Xia Yiping worked in a traditional car company. According to his LinkedIn account, Xia Yiping has worked in Ford Asia Pacific and North America, responsible for the localization project of Ford's intelligent vehicle system SYNC products in China. He also served as the head of Fiat Chrysler's Asia-Pacific Smart Car Alliance Business Unit.
According to Xia Yiping's disclosure to the media, Baidu is the actual leader of the joint venture, and Geely plays the role of a strategic partner and investor. The new company will use Baidu's in-vehicle software and Geely's engineering technology to transform some of Geely's existing car production facilities to produce cars. In addition, the two companies are discussing the use of Geely's Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) for future product development.
Geely's SEA structure is one of the reasons for Baidu's cooperation with it.
Baidu's investment in technology has always been high. According to the financial report data for the fourth quarter of 2020 and the whole year, Baidu's core technology research and development expenses accounted for 21.4% of revenue, which is much higher than the average level of the automotive industry. The SEA architecture is an open pure electric vehicle platform. Baidu's adoption of this platform can save a lot of research and development costs. According to Geely officials, the research and development cost of the SEA structure is as high as RMB 18 billion.
In addition, the SEA architecture also provides the possibility of landing Baidu's technology.
Liao Qing, an employee of Baidu Apollo, told Future Auto Daily that the new joint venture company is operated as an independent company system. Baidu will provide resources and technical support. The relationship between the new company and the Baidu Apollo team is 'semi-commercial'. “Huawei” means both strategic cooperation and commercial cooperation.
Liao Qing further revealed that, in the future, Apollo will mainly focus on technology, which will be open to all OEMs including Baidu Motors, for the B-side. The new joint venture company makes products and experiences, and is oriented towards the C-side. Similar to 'Apollo is Android, and the joint venture company is Pixel.'
'The vision is good, but it depends on the ability to execute (how).' Chen Ning, a secondary market investor, believes that 'Baidu has a moat of technology, but management has been criticized.' In recent years , Baidu executives change frequently, and autopilot-related business executives also frequently leave, almost becoming the 'Whampoa Military Academy of the Internet.' 'The secondary market is more worried about whether the management can implement the project.'
In the fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call, Robin Li revealed that it usually takes about three years for a new electric vehicle product to be launched from the establishment of the project. Baidu and Geely will work hard to launch a new electric vehicle within three years. car.
But no one can predict how the market structure will evolve after three years.
Currently, new car-making forces represented by Tesla are enjoying great success in sales and stock prices. Traditional car companies such as Dongfeng Motor, SAIC and Great Wall Motors have also launched new high-end smart electric car brands. . In addition, the strength of new competitors is also quite strong. Apple is expected to release Apple cars in 2024. Foxconn is moving faster and will launch the first three new cars at the end of this year.
It seems that Baidu's lagging time can only be compensated by technology.
'Autonomous driving' technology is one of Baidu's most shining auras. At present, Baidu Apollo has built three open platforms for autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, and intelligent vehicle linkage. Official data show that the number of its global ecological partners has reached 210, 55,000 developers, and 700,000 lines of open source code.
The good news is that the capital market is very buying. Relying on the ARK Fund, which Tesla is proud of in the US capital market, currently holds Baidu stocks worth more than 1.36 billion U.S. dollars, Baidu is the only stock in ARK's stocks. Under the blessing of multi-channel capital, Baidu's stock price also rose again. On February 19, Eastern Time, Baidu's stock price rose by 14.06%, a record high. As of the close of the day, Baidu's stock price was reported at 339.91 US dollars per share, with a total market value of 115.935 billion US dollars.
(At the request of the interviewee, the characters in the text are pseudonyms)
