Electric cars show duel between internal and external fists

At the Technology Forum of the 2020 China Automotive Forum on Aug. 14, a stark contrast was made between the content of traditional car companies and the "new forces" in car manufacturing, which resembled the difference between internal and external boxing in China. The idea of the "new forces" subverting the traditional industry is being used by the traditional car companies to reverse the crushing.

In Chinese martial arts, there is a difference between internal and external boxing. When fighting, internal boxing is free to move the mind, body and mind as one, and the movements are not beautiful, but because of the internal strength, so it is very practical, and even deadly. Well practiced movements are also very elegant, that is the result of time polishing. The external boxing is practiced through a series of standard movements, practiced for many years will also be practiced internal energy, can also achieve the power of a fatal blow. In terms of time, external boxing takes longer to practice and it is more difficult to find the true meaning. And today's traditional car companies in the electrification, intelligent, they seem to practice the internal boxing, that is, more overall structure to develop a whole thinking, and then give solutions.

For example, Volkswagen has put forward the concept of "software-defined automobile", starting from the underlying architecture of the system, to realize the unified management of the system on the electricity, on the automated driving, on the car-based interconnection system, and on the expansion of "small plug-ins". This will be conducive to the sustainable development of intelligentization, reduce future research and development costs, and provide users with more and better value-added services, better user experience, and really make a car become the owner's friend and the third living space. At the forum, China's Huawei also put forward the concept of "software-defined automobile" and is seeking cooperation with car companies.

New car makers are doing the opposite, saying that certain features should be added to the car to form an automotive ecosystem that centers around the owner's life. Research and development starts with the integration of individual systems, ultimately forming a complete car-based system. This approach can easily be praised by consumers, but difficult in terms of integration, sustainability will face great challenges.

While both sides are thinking about the future of automobiles based on the concept of an "ecosystem," traditional automakers are more like "internal martial arts" - a practice that starts from the inside out and ends with the outside in. The "new forces" are more like the "external fist" - the mode of practicing from the outside to the inside, such as the Great Wall's "coffee". The new car-making "forces" are more like outside boxing - practicing from the outside in, like Great Wall's "coffee". From the perspective of R&D cost, in the short term, the "new forces" act fast, while in the medium and long term, the traditional car companies act fast and have obvious advantages in R&D cost. The development of new energy vehicles to today, has reached the stage of the underlying structure of the fight, or has reached the stage of the capital competition, the investment in this area is by no means the annual sales of one million units of the level of enterprises can afford, not to mention rely on the transfusion of the car-making "new forces"?

In terms of human resources investment, each car-making "new forces" have a competent technical team, but in front of the large group's R & D team of thousands or tens of thousands of people at every turn, it's just too small. In the solution of the same problem, the big group must be faster than the "new forces"; in terms of systematic thinking, the big group must be stronger than the "new forces". Although the car "new forces" more emphasis on user experience, perhaps they have some temporary advantage in the intelligent cockpit, but their shortcomings are the traditional automotive technology (such as chassis technology), if the chassis feeling is not good, the physical quality is not good, they will also fall in the most sensitive issue of user experience.

From this year's forum, the "new forces" in automobile manufacturing have given a very important revelation -- starting from the user's feelings to carry out R&D, rather than from the attack on the most sophisticated technology. This point is especially worth the attention of traditional car companies with the background of "engineer culture". The "new forces" should pay attention to the construction of the system thinking mode, without the underlying structure of the system will have no future.

In the duel between the internal fist and the external fist, it seems that the results of the match came out before the game.

(Image source: Internet)

This article comes from the author of the automotive home car family, does not represent the views of the automotive home position.