Shangjie, born in the Golden Age.

Does the market still need a new brand?

This is a question that often arises in a highly competitive market. In fact, the answer isn't that important. Because what consumers always need is a good car.

Just like today, the Zunjie S800, priced in the million - yuan range, sold 8,000 units in 60 days. The Wenjie M8 and M9, priced above 400,000 yuan, achieved monthly sales of over 30,000 units. The answer is self - evident.

The time window is a dialectical topic. It may seem that the opportunity to enter the market has passed, but it also means that the industrial chain has matured to a great extent. All it needs is a good product and a technical team to polish a product that precisely meets users' needs, then gather industrial resources and ignite the market.

Shangjie, a brand jointly created by SAIC and Huawei, stands on the shoulders of two giants, looking out at a vast automobile market. It was born in the golden age of the intelligent electric vehicle industry, and also exists in the chaotic current where the market is in a mess with low - price involution, and there is an urgent need for intelligent high - quality cars. This is precisely Shangjie's advantage.

Before Shangjie, Huawei's Hongmeng Smart Mobility had joined hands with Seres, Chery, BAIC, and Jianghuai Automobile to successively launch four other "Jie" brands, all of which are positioned in the high - end luxury market. However, Shangjie, the brand resulting from the cooperation between Huawei and SAIC, targets the 200,000 - yuan mass automobile market.

Recently, Shangjie's first car, the H5, has been included in the new car announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Initially, the Shangjie H5 is a mid - to large - sized new energy SUV, offering both pure - electric and range - extended power options. It is expected to be launched in September this year.

Notably, according to Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Consumer Business Group, the Shangjie H5 will be equipped with the latest HUAWEI ADS 4 assisted driving system upon its launch.

You know, equipping a 200,000 - yuan product with Huawei's most flagship intelligent assisted driving technology, ADS 4, already represents the determination of both parties to succeed.

What has always been scarce in the market is good products, and behind this is the inseparable support of the industry and technology.

Shangjie H5, the disruptor in the 200,000 - yuan SUV market

Ma Huateng, the chairman of Tencent, has a well - known quote: Sometimes you haven't done anything wrong, you're just old. The implication is that as one gets older, it becomes difficult to understand the young's consumption trends and catch new technological trends.

This quote is especially applicable to the century - old automobile industry. Facing aging automobile brands and product concepts, China's intelligent electric vehicles are like a surging wave, sweeping across the entire industry. Especially since the wave of intelligent electric vehicles started in 2014, after rounds of development, the industrial chain and market awareness have been fully matured.

Chinese new energy vehicle brands have gradually targeted different price ranges, from the ultra - luxury million - yuan segment, to the luxury car segment, and even the affordable car market under the equalization of technology, showing a strong growth momentum.

This is the chaotic current of the industry, and also the opportunity for new brands. Shangjie is in such a niche position, aiming to capture the 200,000 - yuan high - quality automobile market.

Its first model, the H5, has been listed as a new product by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The wheelbase of the vehicle is 2,840 mm, the length is 4,780 mm, and the width is 1,910 mm. A mid - to large - sized SUV at the 200,000 - yuan level is a competitive strategy of using a superior product to compete with previous mid - level products.

Looking at the market, which products and brands have long dominated the 200,000 - yuan SUV market? The Volkswagen Tiguan, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR - V, Haval H6, BYD Song, etc. These are almost household - name products. According to industry statistics, the annual sales of these models can reach 200,000 units per model.

In other words, this is the real mass - market price range, and a market segment can accommodate up to more than a dozen popular models.

The opportunity for change lies right here. Facing the current wave of intelligent electric products and technologies, there are few automobile products in this price range that truly meet market needs.

Some have limited space and rely on their brand's past reputation, while others have outdated power systems and haven't kept up with the mainstream electric power technology solutions.

In contrast, today's pure - electric vehicles, even large 6 - or 7 - seat SUVs, have a range of over 600 kilometers, approaching 700 kilometers. Products equipped with range - extended systems all use large - battery solutions, and their pure - electric range almost exceeds 250 kilometers, approaching 300 kilometers.

In addition, products also need to compete in terms of energy consumption, ride comfort, NVH, and other product details, as well as overall vehicle qualities such as air suspension, battery, and body safety. That is to say, the intense competition in product strength in the intelligent electric mid - to high - end market has not yet fully reached the 200,000 - yuan market.

More importantly, the lack of technological strength is a particularly prominent problem for products in this price range.

After all, intelligent interaction and leading assisted driving capabilities require a systematic talent team and large - scale capital investment. Huawei alone has more than 2,000 people in its autonomous driving team. This is a high threshold set by resources, directly excluding many automobile companies and industry players.

From these perspectives, the Shangjie H5 is undoubtedly a well - deserved disruptor. It will be equipped with SAIC's latest electric power solution and Huawei's flagship - level intelligent interaction and driving assistance capabilities. It also inherits Huawei's Hongmeng Smart Mobility's ability to define products that "become popular as soon as they are launched".

This is a "warrior who makes no compromises" in terms of intelligence, electrification, and overall vehicle cutting - edge capabilities, and a "chosen one" to subvert the era. Behind it is the full - scale focus of the best resources of SAIC and Huawei in the intelligent automobile field.

Born mature, fully supported by Huawei and SAIC

In the industrial layout of intelligent electric vehicles, SAIC is like a sharp - nosed hunter. Over the past decade or so, SAIC has completed a full - chain industrial layout from Silicon Valley to the Chinese mainland, covering both electrification and technology.

As a leading enterprise among independent automobile manufacturers, SAIC has established a complete vertical industrial chain in fields such as power batteries and the new - generation centralized electronic and electrical architecture, which will fully empower Shangjie.

For example, SAIC's LingShu has independently developed the SOA software - as - a - service technical architecture. SAIC has also established a joint - venture company with CATL and is one of CATL's top 5 passenger - car customers. Today, the cost of power batteries has rapidly dropped to about 0.3 yuan per watt - hour, which will be a growth dividend for Chinese new energy vehicle brands.

Meanwhile, Huayu, a subsidiary of SAIC, has become a core supplier to Tesla, which can also empower Shangjie.

The full - chain industrial layout has also cultivated a deep pool of R & D talents for SAIC. This year, SAIC reorganized the R & D system of Dayang and gathered R & D resources. It is reported that SAIC has assembled a professional operation and technical team of over 5,000 people for the SAIC Shangjie project and is conducting in - depth cooperation with Huawei engineers across the entire ecological chain, including product definition, styling design, intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, production and manufacturing, sales and service, etc.

Many new brands have fallen into a production - capacity trap after their products became popular, resulting in disappointing sales. SAIC hardly needs to worry about this problem.

In terms of manufacturing, through decades of cooperation with Volkswagen and General Motors, SAIC has developed mature manufacturing capabilities and cultivated a large number of advanced production bases. It can provide strong support for Shangjie's first car to "become a hit as soon as it is launched and achieve large - scale production as soon as it is delivered".

Jia Jianxu, the president of SAIC, once publicly stated that in order to ensure the timely production of Shangjie models, SAIC has dedicated its most mature factory to the production of the first car. At the same time, SAIC will also invest in building a super - factory for the Shangjie brand, comparable to the super - factory of Wenjie in Chongqing.

As for Huawei, its maturity in operating the Shangjie brand is obvious.

First of all, Huawei's intelligent technology capabilities are far ahead. From the launch of high - level assisted driving in multiple cities in 2023, to the introduction of the map - less NOA capability that enables driving across the country, and then to the subsequent ADS 3 and now the ADS 4, Huawei is charging towards L3 autonomous driving. With real - world experiences, Huawei has demonstrated that technological leadership leads to product - strength leadership.

It is reported that Huawei has already built intelligent driving computing resources exceeding 10 EFLOPS, and the annual investment in this regard is in the billions of yuan.

Coupled with the continuous evolution of the Hongmeng cockpit, a full - set of Huawei intelligent technologies from intelligent interaction to high - level assisted driving will empower the Shangjie brand.

Meanwhile, in terms of the range - extended power system, Huawei has generally achieved a pure - electric range of over 200 kilometers, and the NVH performance has been optimized to the extent that users hardly notice the start of the range extender when driving at high speed.

Of course, Huawei's Hongmeng Smart Mobility is also evolving in terms of R & D efficiency and quality system for automobile products. Hongmeng Smart Mobility has created several popular models under the Wenjie and Zunjie brands. Through product optimization and iteration, it has also reversed the sales performance of the Xiangjie and Zhijie brands. Its high - efficiency organizational system that enables annual model updates for all models is almost out of reach for its peers.

More importantly, in terms of the quality system, Hongmeng Smart Mobility has accumulated a large number of standards from high - end manufacturing to body design. This quality - standard system, far superior to that of foreign brands, will also empower the Shangjie project.

"Stronger and more hard - working than you" is the core reason why Huawei's Hongmeng Smart Mobility has been successful in the mid - to high - end automobile market. After five years of trials, this set of capabilities has become highly refined and mature.

SAIC, on the other hand, has a complete set of industrial, technological, and manufacturing capabilities and is a powerful cooperation partner.

Standing on the shoulders of two technology and automobile giants, the Shangjie brand is fully supported. It can be said that it has achieved half of its success as soon as it was born. It is reported that Shangjie has started recruiting dealers, and in a short period, more than a thousand dealers have signed up. Market trends don't come out of nowhere.

The combination of high - quality products and large - scale production

Competition in the automobile market is extremely fierce. If a product doesn't sell well and the operating efficiency is low, it will almost certainly fall into a crisis spiral. The lever to pry everything is the product, the popular product, and even the high - quality product.

As a leading Chinese automobile enterprise, SAIC naturally has many good products and popular models. In the joint - venture system, it has created sales miracles. Among its self - owned brands, it has launched well - known brands such as Roewe and MG, and was also the first to experiment with the customization model at SAIC MAXUS. All these have helped SAIC set a historical record of being the national sales champion in 2018.

However, today's automobile market not only requires a continuous increase in sales figures but also a high - quality development era. It requires a user - oriented thinking and a business system that directly faces consumers, as well as the ability to produce high - profit - margin, high - quality products.

Now, judging from the information disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Shangjie H5 already has all the elements of a new - generation national high - quality car:

Its body size is larger than that of current 200,000 - yuan SUVs on the market, giving it an advantage in terms of space;

Its pure - electric range exceeds 655 kilometers. The range - extended version