In order to talk about Kan Kan after dinner, many people prefer to call it "three stupid new forces". He laughed at himself in Weibo, calling them "three poor people".
Although they are both leaders in the field of new energy vehicles, their human feelings are very different and their impressions of the world are very different.
Li Xiang is a "product tyrant", although I only believe in Jobs of thousands of people; Li Bin is the leader of experiencing Shintoism, always ready for a moth to throw herself into the fire and die a martyr; On the other hand, Tucki is a teenager dancing on a tightrope, planning and never fighting an unprepared battle.
Whether it is Li Xiang's product school, Li Bin's experience school or Tucki's strategy school, these three subversives in the automobile field all have unique personal endowments, which have formed their entrepreneurial cognition with different styles, brought them different moat advantages, and let them fall into different challenges.
0 1
Li Xiang is a famous "product tyrant".
In front of the team, he will throw an engineering sample to the ground and crush it with his feet, and then swear, "Which fool designed it, it is thick and big, and there is no sense of design at all."
Such examples abound in Li. Every time the topic goes deep into the product level, Li Xiang will become a "product tyrant", memorizing product details, strictly observing the user experience, and relentlessly challenging anyone.
He only pays attention to the product standards he wants. Even though the company is facing a crisis of survival, he still insists on his strict requirements for products.
He once said, "For a long time, Apple relied on an explosive iPhone. Why can't Li be alone? "
According to his request, not only Li, but every subsequent one will become an explosive product. To this end, when the new car was delivered less than a month ago, he had to make major changes to the car and asked to cancel the double handrails.
You know, this is different from Internet products. There is no need to change the code in the background. This seemingly small modification means a series of huge costs and delays in delivery cycle. But his reason is simple and unsafe.
Li Xiang's business logic is that explosives are the key to absolute success and have unparalleled potential energy. For example, Steve Jobs' iPhone, Zhang Xiaolong's WeChat and Zhang Yiming's Tik Tok are all the same.
There are also such examples in the automotive field, such as Wuling Hong Guang MINIEV and Tesla Model Y.
This desperate approach is quite paranoid and will also keep capital at a distance.
Under the most difficult background of 20 19 new energy vehicles, Li Xiang stubbornly chose the "pure electricity+extended range" technology that has never been used in the market, which made Li's financing problem worse.
Due to strict requirements on products, Li ONE is later than Wei Laihe 1 year. Fortunately, the products he created did not disappoint him and became a veritable explosion.
In February of 20021year, the monthly sales volume of Li ONE increased to 14087, and 9049 1 vehicle was delivered throughout the year, ranking first among medium and large SUVs in China. At the same time, Li is also the only car company in the new forces with a monthly sales volume of over 10,000.
Li Bin, on the other hand, established "experience religion" with user experience as a spear. This feature is described appropriately by a Weilai car owner: not only cars are bought in Weilai, but also life.
A typical example is 2021122. In the banquet hall of a high-end hotel in Harbin, a Northeast elder brother stood on the stage and sang loudly:
Brother Bin, I miss you. Weilai has made you very good. Brother Bin, cheer up, the US stock market is approaching 70 billion. Brother Bin, don't go. It's not easy to get together in the ice city.
Li Bin, who was sitting in the front row at that time, was moved to take half a glass of white wine onto the stage and drink it off in front of more than 0/00 audience.
A Weilai car owner once said that when attending a meeting in Changsha, Li Bin ate with them alone in a small restaurant, and almost every user's name could be called out. If you have any questions, you can find him on WeChat.
Moves like this have made Li Bin sought after by a large number of car owners. Even when Li Bin was in danger, car owners stepped forward one after another.
For example, in August last year, Lin Wenqin, a famous restaurant driver, died in a traffic accident while driving the autopilot function, which once again pushed Weilai to the forefront.
After the incident and related news came out, Weilai's share price plummeted, with the cumulative decline exceeding 10%. At this time, before the incident was finalized, Weilai car owners took the initiative to jump out and launch a statement to unite 500 Weilai car owners for Weilai platform.
According to the statement, the owner of Weilai clearly knows that Weilai's NP/NOP is a driver assistance system, and the owner should always keep driving attention while driving, and call on the media to find out the facts and be rigorous before reporting the incident.
Although the result is not helpful, it is enough to show Li Bin's position in the hearts of Weilai car owners.
In order to give users a better experience and service, Weilai has built an infrastructure to experience Shinto through direct mode, NIO House, user community, Weilai APP, "separation of vehicles and electricity" and other products.
Good experience with money will bring good reputation, but on the other hand, making brands, providing services and building power stations means burning money as quickly as possible.
Therefore, you can see that Li Bin and his Weilai automobile are mired in the quagmire again and again, because the automobile industry is a bottomless pit of capital, and no amount of money can stand the fire. Li Bin never seems to blink when he burns money.
He is more like a spiritual leader. Starting from his experience, he founded the worship of God. In the early days, Wei Lai seemed to be on the side of the sword. Who will believe that an automobile industry can be subverted by experience? It was an idiotic dream, but he really did it.
You can't live without being crazy. His letter really turned him into a priest who came to worship Wei. For this car dream, like a leader, he has a spirit of almost martyrdom and has put himself and the company in danger countless times.
If Li Xiang is a little grumpy and Li Bin is a little drunk, then Xiao Peng is the sober one.
02
He is another entrepreneur with unique talent. On the one hand, he is steady and rational, and every step is planned. Without the card that Wang fried, he could not easily get on the stage. On the other hand, he is keen on taking risks. As long as there is no threat to his life, he will try, but he is better at taking these risks step by step and everything is under control.
People who have been to He's office have an illusion that they have strayed into the office of the director of Jiangnan Leather Factory in the 1980s.
There is a dark brown Chinese counter at the top left, and there is a black sofa and a big conference table at the entrance. The environment is steady and low-key, similar to He's temperament.
But this boring and cautious man doesn't stop there.
He grew up in Huangshi, Hubei Province, with an ordinary family and ordinary parents. He Xiaopeng's motivation for starting a business is simple, that is, he wants to make money.
In college, he made a lot of money by helping his classmates assemble computers. Early contact with the Internet laid the foundation for him to create UC in the future.
In 20 14, UC was wholly acquired by Alibaba for $4.35 billion. He became a billionaire in Xiao Peng overnight.
With billions of stocks and cash, he did what a rich man in the secular eyes should do:
High consumption, he bought several good houses for his family in one breath; Alcohol, bought myself some old white wine; I had a good time and spent tens of millions on a yacht.
However, just when the bouquet blooms most beautifully, it is also the moment when it begins to wither. His novelty for Xiao Peng soon wore off.
A few months later, he talked about his middle-aged anxiety. I feel that my dream is coming and my passion for struggle is gone. What should we do next? I don't know the direction, and I have no direction.
During that time, he always shut himself in the office, his face was dignified, and he often felt pain, emptiness and hesitation.
Huang Ronghai, an old friend of He and an entrepreneurial partner in UC period, once said: He has a fire in his heart, which is a passion and desire that others can't easily see.
When he saw Musk's Tesla, the fire in his heart ignited again.
As early as 20 13, I had the idea of building a car. As a top product manager in the internet circle, his idea at that time was that the wind of smart cars might be blowing. Impatient, he immediately invested in Xpeng Motors, which was called "Operation Orange".
Only in the initial stage of Xpeng Motors, he was still an executive in Ali, making suggestions behind the scenes, mainly playing the role of entrepreneurial mentor.
No one knows what medicine was sold in the gourd at that time. But before long, he left in person.
It is not surprising that he stays out of it, because building a car is an unknown and extremely dangerous track, which is more than ten times more complicated than the internet industry. Well-known entrepreneurs, including Jia Yueting, are deeply involved in automobile entrepreneurship.
In Ali, his idea of building a car was shot before Ma Yun came. Lei Jun also advised him not to build a car, saying that Internet people had a narrow escape.
Now it seems that his son may have kicked him.
At the beginning of 20 17, he's son was born and a buddy made a phone call. He Xiaopeng thought that the other party had come to congratulate him, but he didn't expect what the other party said was: the track of smart cars has already opened, and if we don't do it, the windows will be closed in two years.
He Xiaopeng put the phone down, looked at his son's innocent face, thought of his son, and asked his father what do you do? You can't let your father be laid off at home, can you?
After putting down the phone, he decided to go all out to build a car.
On August 22nd, 20 17, He Xiaopeng left Ali. Seven days later, he went to Xpeng automobile company full-time.
On the same day, he sent a circle of friends: starting a business again, ups and downs, and the boy returned.
As a result, the clue of his investment in Xpeng Motors three years ago seems clear and desperate, but it can also be understood as prepared.
First of all, after three years of development, Xpeng Motors, which he led in investing, has begun to take shape in all aspects. In 20 16, he developed "Xpeng Motors BETA" based on Lexus.
Then, his connections in the circle are enough to make him not short of money in the early days. Xpeng Motors' investors include Ali, his old club, ggv capital, Jingwei, Science and Technology Venture Capital Fund, Wuyuan, Shunwei, etc. Most of them are old friends of He.
03
After leading Xpeng Motors, He Xiaopeng's strategy is also very different from Wei Lai's and his ideal.
The ideal Li should hold her breath, enlarge her tricks and build a walking iphone. Li Bin from Weilai has a special liking for experiences, such as the Queen's car and the NIO interactive robot. He wants to give the house a wheel.
Tucki believes in the ultimate cost performance, longer battery life, bigger screen, more space and cheaper price.
But making a car is different from making a toothbrush and a water cup. This is a big capital bet, which doomed you to pay a higher price for your love.
Li Xiang invested a huge amount of cost, time and money in the early stage for the explosion in his mind, and his life was hanging by a thread in the context of the sharp drop in subsidies for 19 new energy vehicles.
In order to create a god-like experience for users, Weilai spends money on various high-end offline activities, golf and concerts. Also in 19, Wei Lai once lived in ICU.
Tucki, which didn't fight an unprepared battle, followed a gradual mass strategy. Although life is hard, we should not forget that people have money. He once invested $65,438 billion in Tucki from his own pocket.
Tucki is not only stable in the back road, but also stable in marketing strategy.
For example, even the sales system, for insurance, is also half direct, half join. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, reduce the financial pressure by joining.
The same is true of He Xiaopeng in tactics. The early automatic parking function not only did not interact with the user's vision and voice, but also did not have a safety reminder, and there was noise when parking.
Driven by Tucki, G3, the first car in Tucki, was independently developed from perception and positioning to planning and control. The improved automatic parking can recognize the parking line, multi-angle parking and voice control.
It can be said that the automatic parking of Xpeng Motors almost surpassed all cars with similar functions in the same period. These functions have become the favorite of Tucki car owners.
Since then, Tucki P7 has released the standard version of Model 3, which requires better handling, comfort, noise, endurance and other aspects.
In terms of autonomous driving, Tucki should take the core technology into its own hands.
At that time, both Weilai and Ideality were using the supplier's visual perception scheme, while Tucki started full-stack self-research two years ahead of schedule. In addition, Tucki is also doing the design and research and development of Sandian.
In what words, the key technology that plays a decisive role in intelligent electric vehicles must be in our own hands, because only in this way can we maintain our leading edge.
In an interview with the media, He once said, "If you don't study it yourself, go to a supplier. You train suppliers, and suppliers will cooperate with everyone. Everyone will be on the same starting line as your next product. "
So you can see, along the way, compared with Wei Lai and his ideal, Tucki is neither the most valued nor the most watched, but he hardly took any detours and there was no major crisis. Think about it, what a terrible thing it is for a person who rarely makes mistakes in all aspects.
04
Of course, cautious Tucki actually suffered losses in the process.
In 20 19, Xpeng released 2020 G3 models. Compared with the old model, this new car has not only greatly improved its cruising range, but also upgraded its automatic driving. More importantly, the price is almost the same as that of 20 19. Vigorously promote the increase of distribution without increasing prices.
He definitely meant well, but he offended G3' s old customers.
Some old car owners who bought Xpeng Motors thought that Xpeng Motors concealed the fact that a new car was about to be released, so that they bought G3 with inferior battery life and function at similar price.
Later, some car owners even gathered in the sales stores in Tucki, held up banners and called Tucki "fraudulent sales", demanding to upgrade new models or return them.
He Xiao Peng realized the seriousness of the problem. He locked himself in his office and repeatedly asked himself: Why does he have to bear the blame for making better products?
This may be Tucki's deepest reflection on how to treat the user's value as an asset-heavy commodity, which is different from the Internet.
So not long after, he sent an internal letter to all the staff. The most important sentence was: "Everything is selling services".
Never make mistakes. If you make mistakes, correct them. This is the background of Tucki's life algorithm.
In the face of conflicts with users, Li thinks very radically.
For example, in order to ensure the user experience, the new Li ONE cancelled the double handrails, which was resisted by the owner and even the order was returned. However, Li Xiang still sticks to his decision and never changes. He even said, "I lost my order."
Tucki pays attention to principle and bottom line. If it is misunderstood by users, you can reflect on it and correct it when you know your mistake. However, if you are misunderstood by your competitors, you may even "scream". No matter who you are, you will definitely come to the end.
In 20 18, Tucki poached five Tesla engineers in Silicon Valley, and one of them privately backed up the source code of Tesla's autopilot system before leaving his job, and was sued by Tesla.
Although the court later ruled that "there is no indication that any Tesla source code, trade secrets or protected confidential information was transmitted to Tucki." Tesla also voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit.
But Musk still hinted on social media that Tucki was a thief.
It was the most angry time since he started his business in Xiao Peng. He asked the public relations department to draw up a response, but after seeing Zou Wen's response, he was even more angry and said, "Why are you so polite when others scold you?"
Tucki immediately replied in a circle of friends: Some people in the West have been using Pigou to make sounds.
This is probably the only recorded story of public anger in Tucki. More often, Tucki is smart, emotionally stable and invisible. A reporter asked Tucki how to evaluate Lei Jun, Li Bin and Li Xiang. Tucki thought for a moment and said, I don't know.
You will find that Tucki is a very interesting person, he is radical and steady, he is extroverted and introverted, he is low-key and aggressive.
All his characteristics, whether it is the strategy of commercial battlefield, the tactics of products or even the wisdom of doing things, show a "calm" side.
05
Huang Ronghai, an old friend of He, described He as good at summing up and constantly seeking change.
He used Xiao Peng to summarize the essence of things and then iterated. When I was in college, the most popular game was Red Alert. Everyone in the dormitory on the whole floor wanted to have a fight with He, but no one ever won.
Because others are playing games, he is looking for patterns.
He Xiaopeng was born as a software engineer, which cultivated his rational thinking preference. He even counted his time in minutes.
Go to work at 7 o'clock every day, go to bed at 12 o'clock, go round and round, and never change; Even the assistant's itinerary planning is accurate to the minute.
The three new forces have their own endowments, advantages and schools. "Three Silly" is simply the pet name of car owners.
It can be said that their unique personal endowment has formed their entrepreneurial cognition with different styles, which has brought them different moat advantages and, of course, brought them into different challenges. I believe that the future will also create their different life experiences.
So you sound as if Tucki didn't take risks in his card, but on the contrary, he is good at taking risks.
1999, the day before graduation, the tutor took a group of students out to look for a job. A * * * has three enterprises, two of which are state-owned enterprises and the other is AsiaInfo Technology, which was still in its infancy.
The instructor said that you can get off at any company you want for an interview. The car drove to AsiaInfo first, and four people got off at the same time.
The tutor added: "Think clearly. State-owned enterprises came next, and both of them returned the cars.
He Xiaopeng walked into AsiaInfo and never looked back. His way of doing things is also an evaluation of his adventure. What he cares about is a battlefield, which can give him an initial value for his future entrepreneurial system and let him give full play. With the operating system of this startup factory, his blueprint for starting a business naturally unfolded.
Five years later, he left AsiaInfo and participated in the creation of UC.
He is Xiao Peng, you say he is steady, but he is keen on taking risks. This understanding of risk can also be seen from a short story:
He Xiaopeng's son was very naughty when he was two years old. He is so curious about the pressure cooker that his little hands always want to touch it. Normal adults will definitely stop it.
He didn't in Xiao Peng. He grabbed his son's hand and let him touch it carefully. As a result, my son was burned and cried, and he never dared to touch the pressure cooker again.
He Zeng said in an interview: As long as life and health are not seriously threatened, children can take risks and explore something.
This may also be his life creed for himself. As long as your life and health are not seriously threatened, you should be able to take risks and explore everything you want to do.
As the pioneers of the first batch of new energy vehicles, all three are risking their lives and making big bets. They are all entrepreneurs with unique endowments, but everyone has different endowments.
Whether it is Li Xiang's product school, Li Bin's experience school or Tucki's strategy school, these three subversives in the automobile field all have unique personal endowments, forming their entrepreneurial cognition with different styles, bringing them different moat advantages and, of course, plunging them into different challenges. I believe they will have different life experiences in the future.
It doesn't matter what the result is. What's important is that we can clearly see that in the field of new energy vehicles around the world, these post-80s product bigots have given China a competitive ticket in the field of new energy vehicles, and also made it possible for China's new energy vehicle industry to overtake in corners.
References:
1 "He Xiaopeng: How to Come to Tucki", Interface News.
2 He Xiaopeng: Dreamer in the Air, Prism.
3 "Interview with He: Why should I make every effort to build a new car", Geek Park.
4 "Tucki goes up, he goes forward in Xiao Peng", later in LatePost.
5 "He: Building a car on the Internet, there will be no Hundred Regiments Wars", characters
6 "Li Xiang's ideal: good products don't need to brush the sense of existence", LatePost.
7 Li Xiang, explosive hunter, 36Kr.
8 "Product Tyrant Li Xiang", titanium media.
9 "Faith, Doctrine and Carnival: Is Wei Lai selling a car? Yuanchuan institute