Five months after the debut of the brand, Shangqi's intelligent electric high-end brand Zhiji Automobile welcomes the new node again. On April 19, Zhiji released the pre-sale price of its first model, the Angel Wheel version of Zhiji L7, on the first day of the Shanghai Auto Show, which is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
"Zhiji Automobile is the 'user' of SAIC's SOA strategy." While clarifying Zhiji's position in the overall business segment of SAIC, Zhiji Co-CEO Liu Tao revealed more details of Zhiji's development plan. "We already have a very clear listing plan."
Financial Associated Press Automobile: what role did Alibaba play in Zhiji Automobile?
Liu Tao: SAIC, as the seventh largest OEM in the world, is undoubtedly the first in China. SAIC does not face any financial pressure when it is working on Zhiji project. Therefore, we are not looking for the cooperation between Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba because of the demand for funds, but mainly to integrate the corresponding resources.
As we all know, Alibaba has a lot of accumulation in e-commerce and cloud computing, and Ali Damo has many forward-looking technologies, such as Ali cloud technology, cloud computing technology, massively parallel data security technology, as well as customer operation in new retail and other related technologies. This is the core reason why Zhiji Automobile seeks Ali investment. Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, known as China's Silicon Valley, has talent advantages in chips, software, data, intelligence, and many areas related to new energy. Based on the above reasons, we have introduced Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba as the two major shareholders of Zhiji Automobile.
Financial Associated Press Automobile: what is the strength of SAIC to do Zhiji car as a high-end brand?
Liu Tao: first of all, from a hardware point of view, it is the heavy investment and efforts of SAIC in the past six and a half years. For example, the chassis platform used by the Zhiji L7 dates from 2016, when SAIC secretly set up an internal project team, Project X, which is the predecessor of this car platform to adapt to the future pure electric exclusive architecture and the future SOA software architecture. Research and development work continues from 2016 to 2020, SAIC has made a lot of accumulation.
In addition, from a software point of view, SAIC just released the SOA strategy. Zhiji is the user of SAIC SOA and the core user of SAIC Software Center Zero Bundle. SOA platform is of subversive value to consumers. It will help Zhiji brand to create the product form that cars in the smart era should have.
Therefore, whether it is soft or hard capacity, or SAIC's manufacturing capacity, security capacity, supply chain capacity, quality control capacity, are fully able to support Zhiji, China's own luxury brand.
Financial Associated Press Automobile: does Zhiji Automobile have some considerations about financing and listing? What will be the focus of investment in the future?
Liu Tao: we have a very complete plan for financing and listing, and there will be round A, round B and round C financing plans, as well as very clear listing plans.
As for the focus of investment, first of all, SAIC invested Momenta for Zhiji project. In addition, SAIC has invested in some soft and hard companies that will become the origin of our empowerment, such as TTTech, a leader in aircraft flight control RTOS, a company in Europe and Austria. In terms of autopilot control, the real-time operating system is a technical barrier that can not be bypassed. SAIC established a joint venture with TTTech a long time ago, and Zhiji will also use TTTech's most advanced RTOS technology.
In addition, in terms of batteries, SAIC is not only a business partner of the Ningde era, but also an investor in the early Ningde era. Zhiji Automobile can be applied to the most high-end technology of the Ningde era.
