Whose "avatar" is Avita?
Huawei’s Yu Chengdong recently stood on Avita’s platform, saying bluntly that he is "confident that Avita’s intelligent driving assistance will become the best in the world, no one."
It signals that Huawei and Avita will continue to cooperate in depth.
A few days later, Avita also began to secretly poke the price reduction. In the Avita 11 warm spring limited-time car purchase discount plan, the price reduction method of "full car purchase directly deducted 10,000 yuan balance" saw Avita’s anxiety and nervousness.
Avita can be said to have been born with a golden spoon in her mouth.
Standing behind Mr. Avita, Mr. Tianyancha showed, were the three biggest players in the domestic automotive industry chain – Changan Automobile, Ningde Times and Huawei.
On August 8, 2022, the Avita 11 and the joint limited edition model Avita 011 were officially launched. Among them, the most exciting is the "boss" standing behind Avita.
On the one hand, it is Changan Automobile, which is firmly in the forefront of its own brand, and on the other hand, it is the "Ningde Times", which is famous in the field of new energy batteries. There is a "complain" news that car companies work for it. What is more exciting is that Huawei, which had absolute influence at that time, also joined the queue.
All three companies are leaders in their industries, and it is no exaggeration to call it a "three-strong alliance".
Tianyancha shows that in 2022 alone, Avita has conducted two rounds of financing, with a post-money valuation of only 10 billion yuan, and the arrival of Huawei and Ningde era has brought enough gimmicks to Avita, such as Huawei’s full-stack smart car solution, the first model under the CHN platform, and so on.
This also makes Avita debut is not ordinary, the first model Avita 11 has three configurations, the price range is 349,900 yuan – 409,900 yuan.
As of February 5th, the first model of Avita, Avita 11 in 38 days, has delivered more than 2000 vehicles; it is worth mentioning that when Avita 11 first pre-sale, had won the order of 5000 vehicles in 10 days, lock single average price (including optional) more than 400,000 yuan, also can be regarded as the scenery.
Under the "limelight" of Avita, we can also see Avita’s internal and external worries, executive changes, delivery doubts, the retreat of new energy subsidies, and questions about the "Chinese content" of the former extreme fox. Can Avita’s Huawei HI model support the ambition of independent listing? Where will the core of Avita’s products lead? Where is Avita’s imagination in the new energy field that is about to face a reshuffle in the new year?
1. With high-end power, whose incarnation is Avita?
Avita comes from under Changan Automobile, and in English it is "Avatr", which means "avatar".
On June 25, 2022, Avita invited Zhu Huarong, Chairperson of Changan Automobile, Xu Zhijun, Chairperson of Huawei, Zeng Yuqun, Chairperson of Ningde Times, and three business leaders to gather at the Avita booth of the Chongqing Auto Show to jointly launch the "new generation of intelligent electric vehicle technology platform – CHN". Whether it is the coincidental name and the guest coffee position behind it, it is enough to be called luxurious, and it is enough to show the importance and love of the three companies for Avita.
So what is the origin of the favorite of the three families?
In 2017, Changan Automobile launched the "Shangri-La Plan", which plans to build three new energy special platforms in 2020 and stop the sale of traditional fuel vehicles globally in 2025. At the same time, the "Changan New Energy Industry Fund" was established to cooperate with NIO, Bosch, Ningde Times and other companies to build a new energy vehicle circle. Time comes to 2023, less than two years before the deadline for Changan Automobile’s "Shangri-La Plan".
According to the latest production and sales data released by Changan Automobile, in 2022, the sales volume of Changan Automobile 2.3462 million, an increase of 1.98% year-on-year; the sales volume of independent brands 1.8746 million, the sales volume of independent brand passenger cars 1.3904 million, and the cumulative sales volume of independent brand new energy in 2022 271,200, accounting for 19.5% of the current period. In the new energy matrix of Changan, Deep Blue is positioned as 20~ 300,000 range, and the target in 2023 is 400,000, while Changan Deep Blue has just exceeded 10,000 units in December 2022. The task of positioning 200,000 is undertaken by the Changan brand, while Avita is in Changan 300,000 above the layout.
According to Tianyancha data, as of now, both Changan Automobile and Changan New Energy hold shares in Avita, and the proportion of the former is slightly higher than that of the latter, which also means that Avita has to be "higher" than Deep Blue to a certain extent, which is enough to show that Avita’s "incarnation" is the "incarnation" of Changan’s impact on high-end new energy.
At the same time, Avita’s marketing style is very "Huawei flavor", which is first reflected in "design". It is the same as the angular technology of major manufacturers in the popular sense. Avita’s models are more rounded, with closed air intake grilles, split headlight design, thin and narrow light strips, slippery back roof, through taillights, small size tailwindows, and round and full fenders and wide wheels, showing Avita’s avant-garde sports attributes. This is the same as when Huawei’s Mate series was borrowed from Apple by mainstream manufacturers. The avant-garde round frame backplane design, Leica’s joint name, Porsche’s joint name, etc. that were much higher than the average sales price made the Mate series a hit, and firmly occupied the high-end market, becoming a "typical" of domestic mobile phones.
In addition, there is Huawei’s HI model blessing, that is, under the premise of "not building a car", Avita’s suppliers supply full-stack intelligent solutions related to intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent supply parts, trying to explore a "HI" cooperation model belonging to Huawei. At this point, Avita is also Huawei’s early "car" exploration.
2. Huawei’s blessing, Avita expands outward
Avita went on the market in June 2022 and did not start delivery until the end of 2022. The long delivery period in the middle also made the public have some doubts. After all, many "major events" happened in the new energy field during this period. There were frequent news of Weimar falling behind, Xiaopeng’s sales halved, and the high-end G9 controversy continued. Extreme Krypton quietly climbed to the first place, and it was difficult for the traveler to deliver. The slower delivery speed also made booking customers nervous.
So, at this stage of time, where are Avita’s internal and external competitors coming from? According to Dcar data, Avita 11 is positioned as a medium and large SUV, with a body height of 1601. The body heights of the NIO ES7 and Xiaopeng G9 are 1720mm and 1680mm respectively. Coupled with Avita’s slippery-back roof design, Avita’s rear space and storage space are greatly compressed. But another angle is that Avita’s wheelbase is 15mm more than that of the NIO ES7 of the same level, 2975mm, and 25mm more than that of the Flying R7, which realizes the shaping of the "sense of space" from another angle.
From the configuration and price, Avita needs to face competitors such as NIO ES6 and Tesla Model Y. In the face of these competitors, Avita’s core competition may only be Huawei HI technology, namely Huawei Inside HI.
Under the CHN platform, Avita 11 applies Huawei’s full-stack smart car solution, which can realize high-speed, urban full-scene parking, and is equipped with 16 driving safety assistance systems. The technical level is infinitely close to "L4", which belongs to the industry’s leading level. In terms of hardware, Huawei is equipped with 3 96-line medium and long-range lidars, 6 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 13 cameras from Huawei.
In terms of power, Avita 11 is equipped with Huawei Drive ONE dual-motor electric drive system, which can achieve zero-hundred acceleration time of 3.98 seconds in the long-range version.
In terms of energy replenishment, Avita 11 uses Huawei DriveONE 750V high-voltage platform technology, with a charging power of up to 240kW. It can charge from 30% to 80% in 15 minutes (data from Avita official data).
It can be seen that Avita has strong competitiveness at the same level in product technology. If it can make up for the shortcomings of the delivery level, it may become a new force in 2023.
3. Under internal worries, Avita is still "struggling"
According to 36kr, Wang Jun, who is in charge of Huawei’s HI model business, has been suspended and will leave Huawei soon. At the same time, Yu Chengdong, who is in charge of the smart selection model and creates the "miracle" of the world, will become the only person in charge of Huawei’s "car BU".
In April 2021, at the Shanghai Auto Show, the industry was also full of expectations for the extreme fox autonomous driving technology under the Huawei HI model. At this time, the person in charge of Huawei car BU was still Wang Jun. A month later, Yu Chengdong was appointed CEO of Huawei car BU, and then Wang Jun’s title changed from president of car BU to president of car BU COO and intelligent driving solutions product line.
In fact, the Huawei HI model is a project that requires a lot of investment, which is described by Wang Jun as "to be a cold bench for ten years", which means that the input-output of Huawei’s early HI model is relatively low and will be so for a long time. The core investment of the HI model is ADS intelligent assisted driving, which costs 5 billion US dollars and tens of thousands of manpower. However, one practical reason is that JIHU is not selling well. Since its listing, JIHU series has sold only 1,000 vehicles per month;
On the other hand, under the smart selection model, the sales volume of the world has been rising, and the car has been moved into the Huawei store. Behind it, Selix is far behind the BAIC after Extreme Fox and Changan after Avita. This also means that under the test of the performance of the car BU to achieve profitability within three years, the HI model may face challenges and choices.
In addition to the "changes" within Huawei, Avita also ushered in executive changes.
In December 2020, Wang Lin joined Avita and served as the chief marketing officer, responsible for brand strategy and user relationship development. In the past two years, Wang Lin led the marketing of the establishment of the Avita automotive brand and the launch of the first model. Before joining Avita, Wang Lin worked for companies such as Apple Greater China and Chanel China. Just as Avita’s first model, Avita 11, was about to be delivered, Wang Lin left.
Three months after CMO Wang Lin left, *******cheng, who had served as XPeng Motors CEO assistant and was responsible for Xiaopeng brand communication and public relations, joined Avita. According to Avita’s official news, on February 2, *******cheng officially became the company’s vice president, chief marketing officer CMO, and deputy general manager of the user relationship development center. He reported directly to Tan Benhong, chairperson and CEO of the company and general manager of the user relationship development center. Corresponding to *******cheng’s arrival, Avita released a large number of hc positions in February 2023 to start the New Year’s talent expansion.
In addition to talent expansion, according to the financial car report, Avita has exceeded 60 direct stores in the country, has covered more than 20 large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and has simultaneously completed more than 70 car dealers and more than 150 cooperative stores. Authorized, the channel touchpoint broke through 200 throughout the year, and Avita hit the sales target of 100,000 vehicles in 2023, and plans to launch two products in 2023. 11 single motor version and new medium and large sedan E12, the current Avita is more like waiting for the test after the review, facing the delivery link.
It is worth mentioning that just recently, Huawei’s rotating chairperson Xu Zhijun, Huawei car BU CEO Yu Chengdong and Avita were accompanied to visit the new car. This is the first public appearance of Yu Chengdong after Huawei’s internal personnel adjustment. Shortly before December 2022, Avita will become the second car brand to enter Huawei’s flagship store, and use the model of leasing store display space and sending its own sales consultants.
Going forward in the world of inquiry, Avita’s success is also very important. If it becomes a further "success" of Huawei HI, failure may mean that resources are further tilted towards the smart selection model. After all, in addition to the world of inquiry, there are also Chery Xingtu and so on. Queuing up to join the Huawei camp, Avita’s pressure is not small.
References:
Data sources: Dcar, Tianyancha, Avita official website, Changan Automobile official website
Reference article:
IT Home: Avita Technology Announces *******cheng as Vice President, Responsible for Corporate Brand Marketing
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