Ask The Intelligent Age: The Persistence And Change Of Automobile Supply Chain

Intelligence has become the general trend of automobile industry. With the rise of intelligent cars represented by Tesla in domestic and foreign markets, the concept of "software defined vehicle" seems to have become a consensus.

In the era of intelligent vehicles, in addition to the traditional parts suppliers, many enterprises are entering the automotive industry. Under the competition, the automobile supply chain is also changing.

Under the intelligent trend, what kind of change will happen to the automobile supply chain system? What kind of competition and cooperation relationship will be formed between traditional auto suppliers and new players? On November 21, a high-end dialogue on reshaping the industrial chain pattern in the era of smart cars was held at the 2020 China auto industry summit hosted by the 21st century economic report.

The dialogue was presided over by Zhang Junyi, Executive Committee of Ping An Group, deputy general manager and chief operating officer of Ping an intelligent enterprises. The participants included Jiang Jian, vice president of Bosch China, Shen Ziyu, CEO of yigatong technology, Shen Pei, general manager of smart travel strategy design of Tencent, Zhu Jiangming, chairman of zerocar, and Liao Bing, CEO of GAC Weilai.

In this dialogue, the participants shared their views on the trend of automobile industry chain in the era of intelligence from their respective perspectives, and combined with the trend of automobile electrification, the future of China's intelligent automobile industry was prospected. In the medium and long-term perspective, smart car is the key track for China's auto industry to break through. The construction and strengthening of supply chain will be one of the most important supporting forces to win the competition.

Software provides incremental value

Zhang Junyi: in the era of intelligent automobile, what changes are or will happen to the automobile supply chain?

Jiang Jian: from the initial mechanical device to the combination of mechanical and electrical equipment, and then to a "third space of life" in the future, there are more and more software components. Suppliers change from providing tangible products to providing intangible products (codes), while employees are from more mechanical engineers and electronic engineers to more programmers.

Shen Ziyu: highly centralized software is an inevitable trend. There won't be too many electronic components on the car, so the cost of the whole car will be reduced, and the number of suppliers will be greatly reduced. However, software suppliers will increase accordingly, and they are more likely to become developers on the whole vehicle, similar to mobile phone manufacturers and Internet companies.

Shen Pei: software development has two characteristics: one is the fuzzy boundary, the other is the rapid iteration. In the process of software supply, we can't do as before. After we have defined it, we can do it according to the definition. When we help a car company develop app, we need these functions of ABCD at the beginning. When we do it, we find that ABCD is not necessarily the function that the end user really uses.

Zhu Jiangming: from the perspective of vehicle manufacturers, from the perspective of cost structure, there are more and more components of automotive software, which is a very big trend at present.

Smart cars, whether gasoline or electric vehicles, require suppliers to have a more open mind. Only in this way can intelligent and intelligent driving be done, and then the system can be evolved through constant OTA upgrading. The earlier you open up, the bigger your market share will be. In my opinion, there is no end-to-end package now, which requires traditional suppliers to change their mentality.

In the future, Liao Bing's value in the automobile and software has become very clear. As for whether we should do vertical integration or horizontal integration, each enterprise can make different decisions according to its own situation.

Of course, vertical integration has very high requirements for technology and management. If we do not have this ability, we need to find our own position and carry out horizontal ecological integration. However, this combination is not easy to adapt to the existing automobile supply chain, because the automobile industry chain has been solidified in the past decades or even more than a hundred years of development, and the arrival of intelligent vehicles will be right The reconstruction of the entire industry chain has a huge impact. Many traditional players may not be able to develop or even survive in the future, and new players may not be what we have thought of today.

Competition and cooperation

Zhang Junyi: under the trend of software defined automobile, the original automobile supply mode has been gradually broken. What changes have taken place in the mode of cooperation between suppliers and automobile enterprises and between suppliers and suppliers?

Jiang Jian: Bosch has always adopted a more flexible way of cooperation in China. Some customers like a certain system or module and hope that you can provide a turnkey project, so that we can do it from the beginning to the end; some customers attach importance to one end, for example, as long as one hardware is used, the integration of the latter can be done by ourselves, and Bosch can also cooperate with it.

In recent years, more and more different types of suppliers have emerged, and our horizontal cooperation relationship has become more and more abundant. We have never cooperated with China's Zhilian supplier in the world, and we have never cooperated with a supplier of Zhilian in China. Relatively speaking, large multinational companies are slow to respond to customers because their processes are complex, but customers have a lot of requirements. This mode can force Bosch to provide better and faster services to customers, so this is also under trial.

Shen Pei: in my opinion, the future automobile supply chain, especially the supply of software, may be more and more result oriented. This means that the supply relationship will also change. Instead of Party B supplying to Party A, it is more about mutual advantages and mutual benefit, creating a win-win situation, which requires both parties to establish a stronger trust relationship. Therefore, I think that the automobile supply chain may form a core circle of friends in a small scope, and finally, a new software supply chain will be created by the interaction between the circle of friends and the circle of friends.

Zhang Junyi: will the future automobile industry need large-scale integrated automobile suppliers, such as solutions for the whole intelligent cabin?

Zhu Jiangming: if so, just like the real estate developers, the houses built are all of a kind of mode. I don't think everyone will like it. The intelligent cockpit can have a base, which provides some general modules. On this basis, each car company has to make its own personalized to meet the needs of consumers.

Liao Bing: it is possible that a system supplier similar to the intelligent cockpit will appear. But for a host plant, the problem is how you define your core competencies. If the host plant thinks that its core competence includes this part, it will not outsource to the third-party system integrator, and vice versa. The intelligent cockpit is only a part of the intelligent car. For the main engine plant, it needs more systematic ability to form its own core foundation.