What are the intentions of the new car-making forces in vying for the future of travel?

Text/Blake

Let me share a set of data first. Throughout 2019, Didi Chuxing, China’s largest online ride-hailing platform, has carried nearly 10 billion passengers. This is just Didi. In addition, there are many travel platforms such as Dida Travel and Caocao Travel, and their numbers are even huge.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 18 automobile companies have proposed to transform into travel service providers, including traditional automobile giants such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler, as well as Changan, FAW, etc. China's own brand enterprise.

Entering the travel field and transforming from an "automobile manufacturer" to a "mobile travel service provider" has become the mainstream choice for current car companies.

Among the many figures entering the field of future travel in this round, the new car-making forces are still particularly eye-catching. Some of them cannot even guarantee their future survival, but they insist on planning for future travel.

Let’s first take a look at what new car-making forces are planning for future travel.

Human Horizon “Smart City” System

When it comes to future travel, the first thing I think of is Chinese Express. After all, it is a new car-making force that aims to completely change the future of human travel.

In the world of Human Horizons, "zero accidents, zero emissions, and zero congestion" is its future urban travel plan, which sounds wonderful.

This is also where Human Horizons differs from most new car-making forces. Car-making is only part of what it wants to do, with the three strategies of "smart roads", "smart cars" and "smart cities" as its core The future urban travel solution is what it’s all about.

To put it simply, relying on 5G, cloud computing capabilities, artificial intelligence technology, and autonomous driving functions, we can achieve the purpose of convenient travel in an urban environment where cars, roads, and cities are integrated.

It is undeniable that Chinese Express has relatively good plans for future travel. However, practical problems cannot be ignored. Cars are easy to produce, but changes in the urban road environment cannot be achieved overnight.

Weima Motors launched the sub-brand "Jikexing"

In April 2018, WM Motors acquired a car rental company, Shanghai Junyou Car Rental Service Co., Ltd. , began its road to future travel layout.

On January 19, 2019, WM Motor announced that its smart travel brand Jikexing and Hainan Communications Investment Holding Co., Ltd. jointly created the travel enjoyment sub-brand "Jikexing·Hainan" The "Ye Xing" tourist car rental service was launched, and its first store in Sanya opened, accelerating its transformation into a new ecological service provider for smart travel.

It is understood that "Jikexing·Hainan Yexing" will further combine the characteristics of the Hainan market and plans to launch more than 2,000 new energy vehicles on Hainan Island in the next three years, covering mainstream travel service scenarios and gradually opening up and value-added services related to integrated travel (transportation hubs, scenic spots, hotel apartments, food shopping, etc.), becoming the largest integrated new energy smart travel service platform in Hainan.

On January 30, just 11 days after WM Motor announced the opening of its Hainan Yexing store, WM Motor and Meituan Taxi officially announced a strategic cooperation.

On July 3, Weimar Financial Leasing Co., Ltd. was established. Up to now, WM Motor has acquired and jointly established a total of 5 car rental companies.

Xpeng Motors launches "Youpeng Travel"

Looking at Xpeng Motors again, in August 2018, Guangzhou Xpeng Motors Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xpeng Motors, We obtained the full domain name of “Youpeng Travel”, and then intensively submitted a series of trademark applications such as “Youpeng Travel”.

In February 2019, Xpeng Motors’ official website released a recruitment message to “coordinate the growth of drivers; control accidents, passenger complaints, violations...”, which means that the company is about to launch a taxi-hailing business. Xpeng Motors stated at the time that this move was an exploration of travel, and there may be related layouts in the future.

On January 3 this year, Xpeng Motors announced that it had established a strategic cooperation framework with Xiaoju Auto Services, a subsidiary of Didi.

The two parties will leverage each other's advantages in products, markets, brands, data, etc. to carry out in-depth cooperation in the smart car industry chain business such as online car-hailing, social vehicle long-term rental, charging and maintenance.

Currently, the two parties have connected to the interconnection between the charging network of Xiaopeng Motors and the charging network of Xiaoju Car Service, the cooperation between Xpeng Motors and Xiaoju Car Service to build a website, and the car rental business of Xpeng G3 in Xiaoju The section is online, and Xpeng Motors urban service centers in some cities have completed experiences such as access to Xiaoju car maintenance.

It is worth mentioning that although many new car-making forces are involved in the travel field in their layout process, Xpeng Motors is the first among the new car-making forces to obtain an online ride-hailing operation certificate. company.

In addition, there are also new car-making forces such as Xinte, Leapao, and Yundu, which cooperate with various online ride-hailing platforms to provide operating vehicles to the platforms. It has almost become a phenomenon for new car-making forces to enthusiastically enter the travel market.

Who is driving it?

Of course, the high popularity of the travel market in the future has nothing to do with the profit pie behind it.

According to PwC’s 2030 Travel Market Report, the market will reach US$1.4 trillion by 2030, and China will become the world’s largest travel service market.

In addition, we have seen that car companies have multi-dimensional considerations when deploying their travel business. On the one hand, these new car-making forces value the vehicle data and user data generated by operating vehicles. This data can help them improve their products in the short term. In the long term, it is an indispensable database for research on autonomous driving technology.

On the other hand, the current competitiveness of new energy vehicles in the private market is obviously insufficient. Promotion to the operational field is also an option for car companies to digest new energy vehicle inventories.

In addition, the implementation of local policies in various places has also given new car manufacturers the confidence to plan for future travel.

For example, Chengdu issued the "Chengdu City Encouraging Pure Electric Taxi Pilot Implementation Plan" which pointed out that taxi operating enterprises and self-employed individuals who have contributed to reducing urban vehicle exhaust emissions and improving the urban atmospheric environment will be given “Green emission reduction subsidies”. Among them, cruising taxis cost 42,000 yuan per vehicle and taxis booked online are 12,500 yuan per vehicle.

Hainan has put forward the overall goal of "Green Travel in New Hainan" and a plan for large-scale promotion of intelligent pure electric vehicles based on the "Hainan Provincial Clean Energy Vehicle Development Plan". By 2030, the local government will ban the sale of fuel vehicles throughout the region and vigorously promote new energy vehicles.

Under the influence of local policies and the external market environment, the travel field has indeed become a new channel for new car-making forces to drive demand.

However, it is not easy for them to gain a foothold in the travel field. You know, Didi and other online ride-hailing platforms were the strongest players in the past, and traditional car companies have been coveting it for a long time. The pressure can be imagined.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.