What about the automobile industry in Wuhan

Everyone knows that smart cars are the way to future industrial heights, and countless people are crazy about them.

On the first anniversary of Wuhan's relaunch, Xpeng Motors officially announced the signing of the "Xpeng Motors Wuhan Intelligent Networked Vehicle Manufacturing Base and R&D Center Project Investment Agreement" with the Administrative Committee of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. The project, which covers an area of about 1,100 acres, will build a complete vehicle and powertrain factory with a planned capacity of 100,000 vehicles, and is expected to go into operation in 2023.

Small Peng "settled" in Wuhan, so that more people speculate on the possibility of Xiaopeng to work in millet car. But the reality is that Xiaopeng has long been interested in Wuhan, Wuhan is eager to transform the city also really want to millet car to stay in Wuhan, but millet has no intention of falling into disarray.

Wuhan can't afford to wait. Although Xiaopeng is currently small, but the advantages of intelligent cars can make up for Wuhan in recent years in the decline of intelligent cars time, for its transformation "car valley" to lay the foundation.

Small Peng stopped, millet is still far away.

In fact, Wuhan has been working hard to attract Xiaopeng.

December 2020, Wuhan municipal party secretary and his party visited Guangdong, went to a detailed understanding of the production and the situation, test-drive new energy vehicles, and exchange with the CEO of Spence Automotive He.

Wang Zhonglin also put forward the hope that Xiaopeng look favorably on Wuhan, invest in Wuhan, rooted in Wuhan, to help Wuhan bigger and stronger automotive industry, to create a new pole of industrial growth.

Then He also visited the Wuhan Economic Development Zone, where the two sides had a good conversation. We don't know how much money Wuhan spent to pull Xiaopeng over, but according to Xiaopeng's current volume, there is a complete overcapacity.

Currently, Xiaopeng has an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles in the first phase of Haima's three plants. In addition, the original plan of annual production capacity of 100,000-150,000 units of Zhaoqing plant two, in Xiaopeng's planned annual production capacity of about 250,000-300,000 units.

Relative to less than 30,000 deliveries in less than a year, it can be said that the capacity is quite abundant.

So for such ample capacity, some people think it's the foundry of Xiaomi, which recently announced its entry into cars.

We won't comment on this speculation, but it's also clear from some of the rumors that Xiaomi hasn't been very active in building cars in Wuhan so far.

After Xiaomi's official announcement of the car, many citizens started reminding the city government to take Xiaomi's car on Wuhan's message board. The next day, Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone made a statement, the first time to set up a working task force to fight for the possibility of cooperation.

But Xiaomi has not responded to this. There is now this news that Xiaomi is trying to buy BaoWu car in Lu's hands.

It is known that BaoWo Automobile Industry 4.0 intelligent factory production line is brand new, the factory design is advanced, the degree of automation is high, with traditional fuel and new energy dual qualification. But the news is that Lei Jun bid extremely low, much lower than the price Lu paid for Bowo, so Lei Jun and Lu's negotiations are currently at an impasse. It's also understandable why Xiaomi hasn't made a statement about Wuhan so far.

After all, Wuhan is in a hurry. Although hand in hand with Xiaopeng, but for Wuhan, the city of cars, it is not enough.

Wuhan elephant turn.

Wuhan has been enjoying the reputation of "China's automobile capital", has a huge automobile industry cluster. Only in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, there are 7 automobile enterprises, 12 automobile assembly plants, more than 500 auto parts enterprises, gathered in China, France, the United States, Britain, Japan, five major automobile system, known as one of the country's six passenger car base.

But judging from its performance in recent years, Wuhan's auto industry would be extremely bumpy if it had to be defined.

Before 2019, the main vehicle manufacturing chains in Wuhan are Shenlong Automobile, Dongfeng Honda, SAIC-GM, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle and Dongfeng Renault.

But Dongfeng Renault said goodbye to Wuhan outright last April.

While this doesn't shake up the entire Wuhan auto industry, the DPCA's demise is a major blow to Wuhan. From annual sales of 700,000 in 2016 to 50,000 in 2020, with annual output going from more than 100 billion to less than 5 billion, the DPCA took just five years.

I'm sure Wuhan's auto suppliers would have gone bankrupt long ago if it weren't for the establishment of Dongfeng Honda's Plant 2-3 and GM's plant, which gradually filled the gap in Shenlongkong.

What's more, conservative Wuhan seems to have become a slow, hesitant elephant in the room while other cities are scrambling to become new car makers.

Today, Azera has moved to Hefei, y tied to Anhui province, and has become a business card for the local government; Xiaopeng has received countless supports in Guangzhou, with its self-built factory landing next to Zhaoqing; Tesla in Shanghai; and even Changsha, which doesn't have the advantage of Wuhan's industrial cluster, has Baidu's self-driving cabs to work with.

But when it comes to Wuhan new energy, what can you think of? Is it Dongfeng and other traditional car companies in the new energy sputtering?

Everyone is now starting to boast about Hefei Azure's investment vision, but Azure had already started negotiating with Wuhan's Optics Valley a few years back. But when the project was about to settle, Wuhan stepped in and wanted Azalea to settle in the Wuhan Economic Development Zone. Unfortunately, at that time, Wuhan Economic Development Zone failed to seize the opportunity, but let Hefei pick up a bargain.

Thinking about Azalea has kept Wuhan suppressed for a long time.

Now, when Wuhan in September last year called out "China's car capital" to "China's car valley", must have begun to realize that the new car-making forces, although it is not worth mentioning, but at least in terms of intelligent, automatic driving, can give this traditional The transformation of the automobile industry to bring a ray of hope.

But as things stand, Wuhan doesn't have many options. The new car-making forces have all taken it, and even Jia Yueting's FF has been snatched up by Zhuhai.

While I don't know how much Wuhan paid for building a factory in Xiaopeng, it is conceivable that Wuhan today may have paid an extraordinary price for millet.

Million car purchase subsidies