Two months after the reorganization of Wuling's new energy assets, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced its entry into the hybrid market.

On July 14, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced its official entry into the hybrid market, and will promote hybrid and plug-in hybrid products in the future. On July 19, SAIC-GM-Wuling further announced the details of its hybrid technology, the world's first single-speed electromagnetic DHT technology.

In response to the news of SAIC-GM-Wuling's layout in the hybrid market, there are many opinions in the industry. Some people think that this is SAIC-GM-Wuling seeing the dividends of the hybrid market, especially the current independent brands such as BYD, Geely, and Great Wall have successively launched hybrid technology to divide up the market. There are also views that SAIC-GM-Wuling needs to find profit growth points in the new energy market because the Hongguang MINI EV does not make money despite its volume.

It is worth noting that two months before SAIC-GM-Wuling announced its entry into the hybrid market, Wuling Motors issued a reorganization circular. The company and its subsidiary Wuling Industrial invested 305 million yuan and 300 million yuan to increase Wuling New Energy, respectively, and obtained corresponding acquisitions. 13.37% and 13.13% stake in the latter.

This marks Wuling Motor's "planning to invest in Wuling New Energy to build a new energy vehicle business segment based on the existing main business of commercial vehicles, and comprehensively develop and develop the new energy vehicle business". A key step has been taken.

Some analysts pointed out that, unlike Wuling's previous new energy vehicle business, which was mainly commercial vehicles, the restructured Wuling New Energy will cover the entire new energy market segment and industrial chain, including stepping into the field of passenger vehicles. Wuling New Energy plays an important role in the new energy vehicle market. In addition, it is reported that the company plans to allow Wuling New Energy to achieve independent listing in the future, or to land on the Growth Enterprise Market.

So, is SAIC-GM-Wuling's announcement to enter the hybrid market related to the future of Wuling New Energy?

Hybrid Technology Announced: DHT Efficiency 98%

From about 2021, the domestic new energy track hybrid vehicle market is full of gunpowder.

After BYD's DM system took the lead, many independent brands quickly followed suit. Great Wall launched the Lemon DHT hybrid system, Changan released the Blue Whale iDD hybrid system, Chery launched the Kunpeng DHT hybrid system, and GAC got Toyota's hybrid system. Technology authorization; and Geely brings the Thor power that claims to surpass the Japanese system in an all-round way.

So, can SAIC-GM-Wuling, as a latecomer and a supplier of "magic cars", hit the key points of the consumer market again?

According to official information, Wuling Hybrid has two paths, Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV).

According to the plan, two models will be launched in the second half of this year - Wuling Capgemini and Xingchen hybrid version.

Today, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced the hybrid technology -- the world's first single-speed electromagnetic DHT (Dedicated Hybrid Transmission).

SAIC-GM-Wuling said that the single-speed electromagnetic DHT can achieve smooth driving control at full speed through efficient electromagnetic combination, which is smoother, more efficient and more precise.

According to reports, this single-speed electromagnetic DHT is calibrated by its own software to achieve high-precision and fast non-inductive mode switching; the comprehensive efficiency of DHT reaches 98%, and the intelligent electronically controlled electromagnetic clutch has no oil transfer process loss and traditional clutch friction loss.

Judging from the current vehicle spy photos, Wuling Hybrid has also released some information, including: ejection start, teleportation, super energy saving, no charging, etc...

According to the previous declaration information of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the vehicle will use a 2.0L + motor + battery pack to form a HEV hybrid system. At present, only the maximum power of 2.0L is known to be 100 kW (about 136 horsepower), and it is equipped with a ternary lithium battery. The manufacturer is Liuzhou Huating New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

Wuling's launch of hybrid models at this time is obviously a hot spot in the market. Data show that in the first half of this year, the growth rate of domestic hybrid electric vehicles was as high as 194.3%, which was more than 80 percentage points higher than that of pure electric vehicles.

Moreover, from the perspective of the current industry development, hybrid is also the trend of future development. Domestic independent brands such as BYD, Geely, Great Wall, GAC, etc. have made a lot of technical investment in hybrid technology and have made considerable progress. In particular, BYD has sold more than 100,000 units for many consecutive months, and DM hybrid models account for most of them.

According to Wuling's plan, it has planned two technical routes for HEV and PHEV in the hybrid field.

From this point of view, it is more in line with Wuling Hybrid's short-term market expansion. On the one hand, SAIC-GM-Wuling's main audience is mainly in second- and third-tier cities, and its "non-charging" feature can adapt to the environment of imperfect local charging facilities.

On the other hand, it can also solve the problem of imperfect charging ecology in the short term.

Can the two "Wuling" develop synergistically?

Coincidentally, in May of this year, Wuling announced that according to the asset restructuring and investment intention reached in December last year, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Guangxi Automobile, Wuling Industry and Wuling New Energy have officially signed a capital increase agreement. Asset sale and related party transaction agreement for the next two years.

The 36-page announcement details the restructuring and business transaction model that will revolve around the newly established vehicle company, "Wuling New Energy". Wuling New Energy (full name "Liuzhou Wuling New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd.") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangxi Automobile that was established in June last year.

It is worth mentioning that the company's goal is to become an automotive technology company with cost-effective pure electric and hybrid new energy smart travel products.

Here, it is necessary to emphasize the difference between the "two Wulings": the assets of SAIC-GM-Wuling do not belong to the listed company Wuling Motors, and its performance is reflected in the financial report of the major shareholder SAIC Motor; Wuling Motors is one of the top 100 global auto parts suppliers. enterprises, as well as parts suppliers of SAIC-GM-Wuling.

To put it simply, SAIC-GM-Wuling is the manufacturer of "magic cars", and Wuling Automobile provides parts support for it.

After nearly 20 years of "obscurity", Wuling Motors tried to regroup with new energy as the entry point, and entered the passenger vehicle market through Wuling New Energy.

We have seen that at the product level, Wuling New Energy's public positioning is "to create a new energy vehicle enterprise with cost-effective pure electric and plug-in hybrid new energy smart travel products". Wuling Motors stated that Wuling New Energy will fully develop and develop the new energy vehicle business on the basis of the existing commercial vehicle business. This is believed to be the largest new energy passenger vehicle market in which the business will expand.

Then, according to the product layout of Wuling New Energy, the obvious consequence of the future is that SAIC-GM-Wuling, which is also fighting in the field of new energy, will usher in the same industry competitors in the system.

From the current point of view, the competition between the two seems to be more obvious, and both will use the hybrid as a future force.

Therefore, there will be variables in the interaction between SAIC-GM-Wuling and Wuling New Energy in the new energy business. The possibility of Wuling Automobile and SAIC-GM-Wuling in new energy products will become the key to determine Wuling's future development of new energy patterns.

From the perspective of competition and harmony, Wuling may be on the next stage.

From the standpoint of SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC's new energy business is still walking on one leg, mainly relying on the Wuling Hongguang MINI model under SAIC-GM-Wuling. Last year, SAIC Motor's total sales of new energy vehicles reached 733,000 units, of which Wuling Hongguang MINI sales exceeded 450,000 units.

However, the Wuling Hongguang MINI is a cost-effective mini-car, which mainly undertakes the task of earning points. It only makes up for the shortcomings of SAIC's development, not a gain. This obviously cannot support the important task of the transformation of the brand and even the group.

In March 2022, SAIC-GM-Wuling released the "two million, five billion" new energy strategy, with the goal of reaching one million new energy vehicle sales in 2023.

Industry analysts believe that considering its own brand characteristics and the current market conditions, SAIC-GM-Wuling's breakthrough to high-end pure electric products is obviously unrealistic, and it does not make much sense to deploy a low-end pure electric product. Therefore, at this crossroads, SAIC-GM-Wuling will use hybrid as a breakthrough, thereby liberating more "non-charging" new energy market segments.

Everyone knows that whether SAIC-GM-Wuling can succeed in hybrid vehicles depends on whether it can reduce the cost of hybrid models through its own system capabilities. Therefore, in this process, it is worth paying attention to whether Wuling New Energy can play a role.

If SAIC-GM-Wuling can achieve a better balance between cost and performance through its cooperation with Wuling New Energy, then it will be a win-win result for both.

On the one hand, due to the complexity of the cooperation structure and the fact that Wuling New Energy is a platform for the whole new energy industry chain built by Guangxi Automobile Group, there is not much room for SAIC-GM-Wuling to set up a new energy subsidiary alone. According to Wuling New Energy's development plan, it will focus on the development of pure electric and hybrid sectors in the future.

On the other hand, Wuling New Energy, which is still in the development stage, needs to expand its business. In the "Capital Increase Announcement", Wuling New Energy's latest restructuring, business transaction model, production capacity planning, etc. are disclosed. A source said, "The company plans to allow Wuling New Energy to achieve independent listing in the future, or to land on the Growth Enterprise Market."

At the beginning of the MINI EV's debut, no one could have imagined that this model could bring so much power. Today, SAIC-GM-Wuling's development of the hybrid market is bound to be the result of seeing its own shortcomings and market hotspots.

As we all know, SAIC-GM-Wuling, the manufacturer of the "magic car", has always been a special existence. Its product competitiveness is not just a collision with other competitors' parameters, but compresses the product cost to the extreme. The same is true for its development of the hybrid market today. Whether it can win more depends on the price, and the price is determined by its own system capabilities.

This year, Wuling, a supplier that has been "unknown" for nearly 20 years, has begun to expand its new energy business in a big way. Although the competition and cooperation relationship between the two in the future is unclear, the author believes that if the two parties can jointly provide domestic consumers with a cost-effective hybrid technology solution, it will create a new world in the domestic market.