"The Smart World S7 is no longer a future prospect; it's here and now."
Without claiming to be "way ahead," at Huawei's HarmonyOS Eco-Spring Communication Conference on April 11th, Huawei's Executive Director, CEO of the Terminal BG, and Chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, Richard Yu, joked with this statement.
Throughout the entire press conference, it was evident that Yu Chengdong attached great importance to it, delivering a detailed presentation that lasted for an hour.
Previously, Yu Chengdong announced that the Zhijie S7 would commence mass delivery. Yin Tongyue, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd., also mentioned that the factory built by Chery for Zhijie could achieve the production level of "one Zhijie S7 delivered every minute."
The Zhijie S7 is a smart car model created through the collaboration between Huawei and Chery Automobile, and it is also the first sedan in Huawei's Smart Selection car series. However, the performance of the Zhijie S7 seems not to be in line with the collaboration between the two tech giants.
In November 2023, the Zhijie S7 began pre-sale with a starting price of 258,000 CNY. Data from the China Automobile Dealers Association shows that in December of last year, the Zhijie S7 sold only 784 units in its first full month on the market. In January and February of this year, its sales were also only 604 and 794 units, respectively.
On April 11th, the Zhijie S7 underwent an update, introducing a total of 5 versions with prices ranging from 249,800 to 349,800 CNY.
In terms of configuration, the new version of the Zhijie S7 is equipped with the same 192-line lidar as the Wenzhen M9, with a maximum detection distance of 250 meters, representing a 20% improvement over the industry average. The entire lineup is equipped with the Huawei Megalodon 800V high-voltage battery platform and 800V high-voltage ultra-fast charging, with energy consumption as low as 12.4 kWh per 100 kilometers and a range of up to 855 kilometers, with 215 kilometers of additional range added in 5 minutes of charging.
The most notable feature is that the new version of the Zhijie S7 debuts the Huawei Visual Smart Driving HUAWEI ADS Basic Edition, which can achieve "easy driving on national highways and urban roads without relying on lidar and high-precision maps" for intelligent parking. With a price reduction and enhanced features, Huawei has shown considerable sincerity. Yu Chengdong emphasized multiple times that models equipped with advanced smart driving systems priced below 300,000 CNY are sold at a loss, and the Zhijie S7 is no exception.
Tesla has long been hailed as the "pioneer" of visual smart driving.
At the press conference, Yu Chengdong also compared the HUAWEI ADS Basic Edition with Tesla's EAP. In detailed tests, the HUAWEI ADS Basic Edition surpassed the "pioneer" of visual driving in terms of coverage of high-speed NCA (high-speed autonomous navigation driving), exit ramp passing rate, and intelligent parking in irregular parking spaces and diagonal parking spaces, Yu Chengdong said.
High-end products also require efficient delivery capabilities. This may be why Yu Chengdong announced the start of mass delivery of the Zhijie S7 at the beginning of the press conference, before delving into various hardcore technologies.
At the end of last month, Yu Chengdong had already hinted on Weibo that the Zhijie S7 would start mass deliveries, with a large number of new Zhijie S7s already leaving the production line and on their way to customers.
Since the start of pre-sales on November 9, 2023, the Zhijie S7 had garnered over 20,000 pre-orders in just 20 days. However, starting from 2024, the Zhijie S7 encountered difficulties in delivery.
On March 16th of this year, Yu Chengdong mentioned at the 2024 China Electric Vehicle Hundred-Person Forum that the Zhijie S7 faced supply shortages and factory relocation, delaying its market launch and mass production. However, he also mentioned that normalcy is expected to be restored from April onwards.
Zhang Xiaorong, director of the Institute of Deep Technology Research, mentioned to Beijing Business Daily reporters that the delivery difficulties of the Zhijie S7 may reflect some challenges in the implementation of the Smart Selection car model, such as issues in supply chain management, production coordination, and quality control.
The Smart Selection car model requires Huawei to provide a full-stack solution while also involving software operations and marketing, among other aspects, which may increase complexity and execution difficulty.
"However, this model may also bring Huawei deeper industry influence and a larger market share," Zhang Xiaorong said.
Yu Chengdong also mentioned that the Wenjie New M7 has accumulated over 174,000 orders in its 7 months on the market. The newly launched Wenjie M9 has accumulated over 70,000 orders in its 3 months on the market. Yu Chengdong revealed that the monthly delivery capacity of the Wenjie M9 is currently 15,000 units, and he hopes to quickly increase the monthly shipment volume to 25,000 units. "We are accelerating the increase in production capacity of the Wenjie M9," Yu Chengdong said.
In addition, the Wenjie New M5 will also debut at the Beijing Auto Show on April 23rd.
Not long ago, Xiaomi SU7 was released, followed closely by Zhiji L6, marking the beginning of a new round of competition in the new energy vehicle market. This might also be why Yu Chengdong lamented that "there's no way around it, the current car market is too competitive, and the Zhijie S7 is selling at a loss."
In March of this year, Guosen Securities mentioned in a research report that the HarmonyOS Smart Travel model's sales in 2023 were supported by Wenjie as its core, including the M5, M7, and M9 models, achieving a total vehicle sales volume of over 90,000 for the year. The Zhijie brand also released the S7 model in November 2023, contributing a small portion of the sales. "In 2024, we estimate that the HarmonyOS Smart Travel model is expected to achieve sales of over 500,000 units."
Beijing Business Daily reporter Yang Yuehan
Image source: Screenshot from video
Developer Conference Set: HarmonyOS Ecosystem Accelerates
On April 11th, Huawei held the HarmonyOS Ecosystem Spring Communication Conference, during which Yu Chengdong announced that Huawei will host the Huawei Developer Conference in June, and the HarmonyOS NEXT Milky Way Edition will also enter Beta in June.
HarmonyOS NEXT Milky Way Edition is also referred to by the public as "pure HarmonyOS." In January of this year, HarmonyOS NEXT Milky Way Edition, which no longer supports Android, was opened for developer applications. At that time, Yu Chengdong mentioned that the newly released HarmonyOS NEXT Milky Way Edition would be a completely independent "pure HarmonyOS," with official commercial use scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.
On April 7th, Huawei announced that over 4,000 apps had joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem. From January 18th, when Huawei announced that the first batch of over 200 app developers were accelerating the development of HarmonyOS native apps, to the end of March, the number of apps had increased 20-fold to over 4,000. In March this year, Huawei announced that by early 2024, the number of HarmonyOS ecosystem devices had reached 800 million, including smartphones, PCs, tablets, smart screens, in-car systems, and other frequently used terminal devices. Thousands of enterprises and institutions have initiated the development of HarmonyOS native applications. At the application level, apps such as Alipay, Taobao, Meituan, JD.com, DingTalk, Gaode Maps, and Xiaohongshu have been integrated, with over 5,000 HarmonyOS native applications expected to be developed by the end of the year.
Shenzhen has become the first city at the municipal level to promote the development of HarmonyOS native applications. In early March this year, Shenzhen released an action plan document supporting the development of HarmonyOS native applications, setting the development goal for HarmonyOS native applications in 2024. The country's first HarmonyOS ecosystem innovation center has also been unveiled in Shenzhen. In addition, various applications related to people's livelihoods, media, automobiles, and daily life in Sichuan, Guangxi, Shandong, Hebei, Anhui, and other regions have also joined HarmonyOS.
