Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 615 The World's Most Profitable Car Company
In a small meeting of senior executives at Hailan Auto Group, the details of Hailan Auto's launch event in May of this year were basically finalized.

The core issue is to expand the application of solid-state batteries, while increasing marketing efforts for the Hailan YEV and Hailan HEV models, so that the sales of these two core models can reach a new level.

It has been preliminarily decided to apply solid-state batteries across the entire range of the two mid-size sedans/SUVs, the Hailan SLMC and Hailan MEV, to further solidify and even enhance the high-end brand positioning of these two vehicle series.

It also forms a smooth connection with the higher-spec large luxury sedan, the Blue SLC, and the large luxury SUV, the Blue SEV.

As for the Aqua SEC coupe and Aqua SR supercar, they are mainly targeting the sports car market and are positioned for wealthy young people, which is very different from the conventional business and family passenger car market... Of course, these two cars are also genuine luxury models.

After years of development, the Lavande SEC has seen its sales volume gradually decrease while its price has gradually increased. Now, the cheapest entry-level model starts at over 600,000 yuan, while the more expensive ones cost over 800,000 yuan. Of course, even the cheapest entry-level model comes standard with L4-level autonomous driving technology and has a range of over 1,000 kilometers.

As a supercar model, the Aqua SR series is even more expensive, with the cheapest model costing over 1.2 million yuan and the high-end model costing over 1 million yuan... In addition, there are occasional limited editions, which are even more expensive, selling for two or three million yuan.

All of these models are high-end luxury models from Hailan Auto. Even in China, the cheapest one costs more than 300,000 yuan.

However, the four models, namely the Ocean Blue SLC, Ocean Blue MEV, Ocean Blue SEC, and Ocean Blue SR, are expensive, but their sales volume is not high, with a total annual sales volume of only 200,000 units.

The four high-volume models are the real contributors to sales and profits!
The two main models, the Aqua SLMC and Aqua MEV, have achieved high sales volumes. In the first quarter of this year, the Aqua SLMC sold 170,000 units, while the Aqua MEV sold 100,000 units. For these two luxury models, which start at around 350,000 yuan and actually sell for 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, these sales figures are quite impressive.

The products that contributed more to the sales of the Hailan brand were the Hailan YEV, a B-segment sedan targeting the end market, and the Hailan HEV, an entry-level mid-size SUV.

These two models have very high sales volume!
The Ocean Blue YEV sedan alone sold a staggering 230,000 units globally in the first quarter of this year, making it the second best-selling car model in the world.

The world's best-selling model is still the model from Aqua Auto, namely the Aqua HEV, an entry-level mid-size SUV that was only launched to the global market last year!

Before its release, this model had been refined within the Hailan Auto Group for two years, with a significant investment in research and development and numerous rigorous tests.

On the first day after its release, it received a staggering 180,000 orders, setting a new record for the best launch performance in history worldwide.

After a long period of production ramp-up, production has been successfully launched in multiple overseas factories and has entered local markets on a large scale. At the same time, it has been exported as a complete vehicle to markets in many regions around the world, especially in Europe, ASEAN and South America, which has allowed this mid-size SUV to unleash unprecedented market potential!
Of course, this is also related to the fact that people generally prefer SUVs, especially domestic consumers, who have a special fondness for SUVs and are more willing to pay a higher premium for them.

The Hailan HEV model achieved a staggering sales volume of 280,000 units in the first quarter of this year, shocking the world.

This has led to a very interesting situation: among the top ten best-selling models globally, Aqua Auto occupies three or four spots.

Hailan HEV is the world's best-selling vehicle.

The Ocean Blue YEV is the second best-selling vehicle globally.

La Mer SLMC is the fifth best-selling brand globally.

Although the sales of the Hailan MEV did not make it into the top ten, it still ranked in the top ten, which is quite good.

Quite terrifying... Of course, the high global sales ranking of several models under the Hailan brand is also related to Hailan Auto's business strategy.

Other large automotive groups employ a strategy of "sea of ​​cars," with numerous models and even brands under their umbrella. While the sales of other models may seem insignificant at a few hundred thousand or tens of thousands of units, they add up to a considerable number when combined.

Hailan Auto is different. They only focus on a few main models. Apart from a few luxury models that don't actually sell much, there are only four models that are truly high-volume sellers. Unlike other automotive groups, which have a dozen or more high-volume models.

However, this approach of focusing on developing a few core models has also significantly increased the global brand awareness and consumer recognition of these models, which in turn has boosted sales of these core models.

Relying on these four high-volume models, plus the well-known but poorly selling million-dollar SUVs, million-dollar luxury sedans, coupes, and supercars, the company has achieved significant success.

Hailan Automotive Group's Hailan brand achieved a staggering sales volume of 820,000 units in the first quarter of this year.

In addition, the MITE brand, which focuses on the Americas market, and the ELA brand, which focuses on the mid-to-low-end market, both under the Hailan Automotive Group, contributed 230,000 units in sales in the first quarter of this year.

The entire Hailan Automotive Group achieved a total vehicle sales volume of 1.05 million units in the first quarter of this year, ranking seventh globally.

It is also the only domestic car company among the top ten in the world... and it is a very special electric vehicle company.

Moreover, the progress has been extremely rapid. Previously, although Hailan Automotive Group had entered the top ten in global sales, it hovered around tenth or ninth place.

Starting last year, thanks to the explosive growth of the Hailan HEV model, its sales reached eighth in the world in the second half of the year.

In the first quarter of this year, it rose significantly to fifth place globally.

Looking at sales figures alone, being fifth in the world seems a bit low and doesn't quite live up to Xu Shenxue's reputation... When Xu Shenxue does business, he basically aims to be number one in the world, or at the very least, top three.

In the mobile phone industry, Zhiyun Mobile is number one globally, and Vcool Electronics is number four globally.

Xiaojiang Technology is number one in the world when it comes to drones.

In the aerospace industry, it remains number one in the world.

As for virtual devices, robots, and computing chips, they have no competitors.

Even if he treats it as a side business, Xu Shenxue has never really paid much attention to Yihai Technology, which is now the number one internet company in China. Although the company is not listed and it is difficult to calculate its exact ranking, it can still be in the top five globally.

In terms of influence, it can even be considered one of the top three in the world: Yihai Technology Group's competitors are a few internet giants such as Google and Facebook.

Yihai Technology Group is a global internet company with a huge proportion of overseas revenue, which is very different from a lot of domestic internet companies that can only operate domestically.

Whatever Xu Shenxue does, he's aiming for the top of the world... and the automotive industry is no exception! In the field of intelligent electric vehicles, Hailan Auto is undoubtedly the world's number one. However, when it comes to the entire automotive industry, Hailan Auto Group lags behind global giants like Toyota and Volkswagen in terms of sales volume, which are in the tens of millions of vehicles per year.

Meanwhile, Hailan Automotive Group is still striving to break through five million annual sales.

However... the above only refers to car sales figures.

If we're talking about revenue and profit, then it's a different story.

In April, Hailan Automotive Group released its financial report for the first quarter of this year.

In the first quarter of this year, Hylan Automotive Group's revenue was $51 billion. Of course, this revenue includes not only vehicle business revenue, but also battery business revenue, LiDAR and other auto parts revenue, auto after-sales revenue, charging pile revenue and other miscellaneous revenue.

The battery business and accessories business such as LiDAR also contributed significantly to the revenue figures.

With $51 billion in revenue, Hylan Automotive Group ranks third globally in overall revenue... surpassing established automakers like GM and Ford by a significant margin, and outperforming a host of traditional automakers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda.

It is second only to the two major automotive groups, Volkswagen Group and Toyota Group.

This is still talking about revenue; if we calculate it in terms of profit, it's even more terrifying!

In the first quarter of this year, Hyland Automotive Group's net profit reached an astonishing $13.5 billion, surpassing Toyota and Volkswagen to become the world's most profitable automaker!
Unfortunately, the core product of Hailan Auto is Hailan cars, which mainly target the mid-to-high-end market. Its products are high-priced and high-profit, with a very high gross profit margin, exceeding 30%.

With a gross profit margin of 30%, Hailan Automotive Group has become the automaker with the highest gross profit margin among mainstream automakers worldwide.

These days, it's hard to find another company besides Hailan Auto that can achieve a gross profit margin of 30% in the automotive industry... The reason is quite simple: the high premium brought about by autonomous driving, solid-state batteries, and other advanced technologies.

In addition to the high net profit of Hailan Auto Group, there are also high profits from battery business and lidar business... These businesses may not seem to be Hailan Auto's main business, but in fact they are very profitable.

Especially since last year, Hailan Automotive Group has begun to supply various smart terminal solid-state battery products and robot power battery products to major smart terminal manufacturers, especially to Zhiyun Group on a large scale. Providing such high-tech products to Zhiyun Group is quite profitable.

Meanwhile, Hailan Automotive Group also supplies LiDAR and automotive/industrial-grade cameras to Zhiyun Group for virtual equipment production. This has brought substantial revenue and profits to Hailan Automotive's LiDAR and industrial-grade camera businesses. Zhiyun Group's virtual equipment targets the high-end market, using top-of-the-line components.

It's hard to find a super customer like Zhiyun Group on Earth today, capable of procuring top-tier components on such a large scale while still leaving ample profit margins for the supply chain.

Even a giant like Hailan Auto in the electric vehicle industry can still make a lot of profits by cooperating with Zhiyun Group to supply products.

Hailan Automotive Group earned over $10 billion in profit in the first quarter through its own vehicle manufacturing business, supplying various parts and components to external parties, as well as charging piles, energy storage market, after-sales market, auto insurance business, investment income, and all sorts of other miscellaneous businesses.

To become the world's most profitable large automobile group!
This earning power makes Volkswagen and Toyota envious... They work hard to produce more than 10 million cars a year, and have a lot of additional businesses, but they still can't earn as much as the much smaller Hailan Auto Group.

This also shows the special features of intelligent electric vehicles... their added value is extremely high!
Well, this isn't referring to the 'electric vehicles' that many car companies and media outlets talk about, but rather the 'intelligent electric vehicles' that Hailan Automotive Group has always touted itself as.

Hailan Automobile Group's Hailan Automobile is different from other new energy vehicles on the market... This is not just Hailan Automobile's own opinion, but the mainstream opinion that has already formed.

If other automakers disagree, you can also develop your own autonomous driving system...

Unfortunately, for other automakers, autonomous driving is too far away. At best, they can only achieve L2+ level driver assistance, and they haven't even mastered L3 level driver assistance yet.

More importantly, even this L2+ level assisted driving is something many car companies can't develop themselves and still need to rely on EYEQ solutions from Zhiyun Group.

These days, there are actually more and more automotive-grade computing chips available. It's not just Zhiyun Group that has them; some domestic chip design companies and some overseas chip design companies have also developed computing chips, and some car companies are using them for driver assistance systems.

However, while automotive-grade computing chips are relatively easy to develop... algorithms are much more difficult.

Especially for traditional car companies, developing algorithms is too difficult for them, and they are being driven to the brink of despair.

This is also why Zhuyun Group's EYEQ series solutions continue to sell well globally... They sell chips, algorithms, and sensors as a package, and if you pay extra, Zhuyun Group can also provide customized adaptation solutions for customers' vehicle models!

To put it simply, as long as the customer pays, Zhiyun Group will handle everything for you...

This is very friendly to many traditional car companies and even some so-called new car companies with little technology... They only need to design and manufacture vehicles, and don't need to worry about driver assistance.

Of course, many ambitious and capable car companies still tend to develop algorithms directly or even design their own computing chips.

Tesla is a prime example... They have now begun using their self-developed computing chips, along with their own algorithms, and have made quite a splash. They claim that their driver assistance technology is not far from Level 3 and that they are poised to become the second automaker in the world to achieve Level 3 driver assistance technology.

As for Level 4... let's not even mention it, that thing is too abnormal... it's beyond their capabilities.

Level 4 autonomous driving already falls into the realm of top-tier artificial intelligence...

Globally, only Zhiyun Group is capable of handling this level of work.

Even Hailan Auto was developed using the underlying core algorithms provided by Zhiyun Group in its early years. Strictly speaking, Hailan Auto's engineers never designed the underlying core algorithms for its autonomous driving technology... They just used the existing underlying core algorithms for training!

In exchange for the right to use this underlying algorithm, Hailan Auto gave up 30% of its shares back then...

At the time, the cost was worthwhile. With the support of the underlying AI algorithms from Zhiyun Group, Hailan Auto was able to develop L3-level assisted driving, and later L4-level autonomous driving. Now, they are also using this algorithm to develop intelligent robots.

However, a usable general-purpose service robot cannot be developed in the short term. The robot project team within Hailan Automotive Group is optimistically expected to arrive next year or even the year after, but whether they can gain a corresponding market share is hard to say... There's no way around it; Zhiyun Group has set the bar for general-purpose service robots too high, making it very difficult for other companies, even Hailan Automotive, to follow suit.

(End of this chapter)