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Apple Car Making Puzzle: The Dilemma Of OEM

2021/9/3 9:38:00 0

Apple Makes Cars

Smart cars are copying the entire iteration path of smartphones. With the maturity of the supply chain and the opening of the underlying platform, a new round of cross-border players rush into the "new energy car making tide". Apple has also made frequent moves recently.

Recently, in an interview with media including the 21st century economic report, Yoshino Akino, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and the father of lithium batteries, said that if Apple wants to launch the apple car electric vehicle by 2025, it is predicted that some relevant contents will be released by the end of this year.

It is understood that apple is negotiating with many Asian manufacturers to establish a complete auto parts supply chain. At the same time, Apple's car making team is also building a team of core personnel through high salary employment and internal job transfer. In addition, Apple has won at least 25 automobile related patents this year, covering 3D object detection, automatic driving strategy, mobile car key and vehicle safety. Apple's intelligent electric vehicle is accelerating to become a reality.

In the first half of this year, the sales volume of Tesla, a new automobile manufacturing force, reached 380000 units. Intelligent electric vehicles and automatic driving are being favored by more and more consumers. But it's clear that Apple has a lot of work to do before Cook says Jobs's "Apple reinvents the car.".

Apple's smart electric car is accelerating into reality. Visual China

Asian supply chain layout

Recently, Apple has made contact with several South Korean electric vehicle parts manufacturers on automobile projects, including LG, SK group, Hyundai Motor, Hanhua group, etc. In addition, Apple also held talks with Chinese lithium-ion battery suppliers, including BYD and Ningde times. It seems that Apple hopes to establish a complete electric vehicle supply chain in Asia, which will be designed and developed in the United States, and finally assembled into a complete vehicle in a OEM factory, which is similar to the layout of Apple's consumer electronics field.

For an electric vehicle with automatic driving ability, the most core components that need to be provided by the supplier are the power battery and the vehicle building platform.

As Apple hopes that cell suppliers can set up factories in the United States, South Korean companies LG energy solutions and SK innovation are building cell factories in the United States. Samsung SDI also said it was considering building factories in the United States.

But according to outside sources, apple prefers lithium iron phosphate power batteries. Although the performance of these batteries is slightly weaker than that of lithium-ion batteries, they are not easy to overheat. They are safer and cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. If Apple wants to use lithium iron phosphate battery, because there is no power battery supplier producing lithium iron phosphate battery in South Korea, Apple may not be able to bypass enterprises such as Ningde times and BYD.

One corroborating news is that it was reported that BYD had built a lithium iron phosphate battery factory in Lancaster, the United States, to supply batteries for BYD's electric buses sold in the United States.

Not long ago, in response to the owner's consultation, musk said that he preferred lithium iron phosphate battery, because it can charge up to 100%, while ternary lithium battery only recommended 90%. Of course, the deeper reason is that the lithium iron phosphate battery has better performance and lower cost through technical iteration.

According to the industry data, in the first seven months of 2021, the proportion of the loading volume of lithium iron phosphate battery is still greater than that of lithium iron phosphate battery, but the output of lithium iron phosphate battery has exceeded that of lithium iron phosphate battery. From a single month point of view, the output of lithium iron phosphate battery has been higher than that of lithium ternary battery for three consecutive months after the monthly output of lithium iron phosphate exceeded that of lithium ternary battery for the first time in recent three years in May; On the other hand, the number of lithium iron phosphate batteries loaded in July exceeded that of lithium ternary batteries for the first time in three years.

In addition, unlike Tesla, which built its own factory and produced its own new cars, technology companies like apple have always chosen the "OEM" route.

However, many traditional automobile enterprises don't want to "dilute" their brand value by cooperating with apple to become the OEM factory of apple. This is also the reason why Hyundai Motor failed to negotiate with apple at the beginning of this year. However, in the face of an investment of 3.2 billion US dollars, Hyundai still wavered. According to the news, Kia, a subsidiary of Hyundai, will act as the manufacturer of Apple cars, and the two sides will cooperate to develop cars.

If Apple and Hyundai reach a partnership, it will be a win-win for both companies. For apple, cooperation with Hyundai Automobile may be the best choice at this stage. Hyundai Group has a complete industrial network. For apple, which has just entered the automobile field, cooperating with Hyundai can quickly understand the situation of the upstream and downstream automobile industry chain, which is convenient for its subsequent development and layout.

At the moment when car companies are gathering to keep warm, Hyundai also needs apple to create more "gimmicks" for it. At present, although Hyundai has been involved in the field of new energy for a long time, it has not been able to enter the first echelon in terms of publicity effect or sales volume. If Apple joins in, Hyundai will undoubtedly gain higher attention and flow.

Can Foxconn continue its leading edge

At the same time, in the field of vehicle manufacturing, the industry has always believed that Foxconn will produce automobile products for apple.

As early as the beginning of this year, Foxconn has accelerated the layout of electric vehicles. In January this year, Foxconn reached a cooperation agreement with byton, and then established a joint venture with Geely Group. On May 14, FISCO announced that it had signed a framework agreement with Foxconn, and the two sides would start manufacturing pure electric vehicles in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2023, with annual production of more than 250000 vehicles.

On August 12, Foxconn released its second quarter results and held a conference call after the results. "We plan to start mass production of cars in the United States and Thailand in 2023," said Liu Yangwei, chairman of Hon Hai. As part of our global automotive strategy, we are negotiating with some parts of Europe to build factories. "

According to Liu, Foxconn's Thai plant mainly supplies to Thailand and Southeast Asian markets, with an annual production capacity of 150000-200000 vehicles. In addition, Foxconn's U.S. plant is currently in the process of site selection in three states, including Wisconsin. By the end of 2023, Foxconn's U.S. factory will start mass production to help Fisker and other auto companies build cars.

As they are used to firmly control their respective supply chains, Apple's long-term cooperation with traditional car companies is easy to fall into a power struggle. Foxconn and apple have been working together for many years, playing the role of OEM. Their loyalty has been tested and they are familiar with their temperament. Once Apple returns to the iPhone production mode and simply hands over the manufacturing to the pure manufacturer, Foxconn is undoubtedly the most powerful competitor.

In addition to building a car factory, Foxconn is also building its own vehicle building platform MIH (mobility in harmony). At the 2021 China automobile Chongqing forum held in June this year, Zheng Xiancong, CEO of Foxconn MIH, said that Foxconn's MIH platform can provide customers with three modes of cooperation: 100%, 80% and 50%. Among them, 100% cooperation means that Foxconn produces "OEM cars"; 80% of the partners intend to provide all hardware (including appearance and chassis) for Foxconn, and the software part is completed by partners; 50% cooperation means Foxconn can sell platform technology directly to customers.

Obviously, Apple's involvement in the electric vehicle industry is an "open secret", and the key is to follow what kind of technical path and business model to follow.

In a public appearance in April, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that Apple was already developing autonomous cars. This time Yoshino not only provides a clue for Apple's electric car, but also affirms the breakthrough point of battery technology.

As Yoshino said, with the development of automobile industry and it industry, the future mobile travel will also achieve some integration.

 

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