Lead

Recently, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue Automobile, said in an interview that "2025 will be the first year for the elimination of non-high-level intelligent driving vehicles." As the competition among new energy vehicle companies intensifies, the field of automotive intelligence has become the core point of fierce competition among major automakers this year. It must be said that grasping the two key elements of new energy and intelligent driving is tantamount to firmly grasping the market. Xia Yiping's remarks are not baseless. With the development of intelligent driving technology, a new round of brutal competition will soon revolve around intelligent driving.

Produced by | Heyanyueche Studio

Written by | Cai Jialun

Edited by | Heyanzi

1807 words in total

3 minutes to read

The competition in the automotive industry has gradually shifted from the first half of electrification to the second half of intelligence.

Not long ago, at the Jiyue end-to-end AI intelligent driving launch event, Xia Yiping said, "Without 50 billion, you can't do intelligent driving well." Now he has made the judgment that "2025 is the first year for the elimination of 'non-high-level intelligent driving vehicles'", indicating that the new forces in car manufacturing have shifted the focus of competition in the electric transformation to the racetrack of intelligent driving.

There is a widely circulated saying in the automotive industry: The first half is electrification, and the second half is intelligence. This assertion has been verified this year. Intelligent driving technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and more automakers have realized that in the era of intelligent driving, the traditional three major components are no longer the most important content for consumers. Smart cars and intelligent driving technology are the key.

△Is 2025 the first year for the elimination of 'non-high-level intelligent driving vehicles'?

The war for intelligent driving has already begun

In April of this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited China with the primary goal of facilitating the domestic launch of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. Not long ago, Tesla also announced on social media that it plans to introduce Tesla FSD to China in the first quarter of next year. This marks Tesla's second disruption in the field of intelligent driving, following its role as the first "catfish" in the domestic new energy sector.

Are domestic automakers ready for the introduction of Tesla FSD in China?

△Tesla announced that FSD is expected to be introduced to China in the first quarter of next year

The answer is yes. In May of this year, Xpeng officially launched its autonomous driving large model on vehicles, the first end-to-end large model to be mass-produced in China. At the recent Hangzhou Cloud Town Conference, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng stated that the company will achieve intelligent driving capabilities exceeding L4 standards globally within two years. In June, Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, announced at the 2024 China Automotive Chongqing Forum that the company would introduce a supervised autonomous driving system to batch users by the end of this year or early next year. Recently, Li Xiang announced that all models of Li Auto vehicles would be upgraded with the latest generation of "end-to-end + VLM" intelligent driving system, indicating that the company is ready for the end-to-end intelligent driving competition. Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution BU has launched its Kunlun ADS 3.0 intelligent driving system and began pushing it to users on September 10. Recently, Huawei released its L3 autonomous driving timeline, stating that it will launch L3 autonomous driving pilots in urban areas and commercialize L3 autonomous driving on highways in 2025.

In addition to new forces in car manufacturing and internet companies, domestic traditional automakers are also actively exploring new paths for end-to-end large models in the field of intelligent driving. In June of this year, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motor, demonstrated the company's full-scenario NOA through live streaming. The newly launched Great Wall New Energy Lanshan Intelligent Driving Edition adopts an end-to-end system. However, end-to-end autonomous driving technology cannot be achieved overnight and requires coordination between software and hardware, especially high requirements for computing power, algorithms, and data, making it necessary for some automakers that are not yet prepared to catch up quickly.

△Domestic automakers are ready to launch end-to-end large models

High-level intelligent driving entering the 150,000-yuan market is not a dream

As automakers enter the field of intelligent driving, the cost of intelligent driving technology has further decreased amid fierce competition. At the same time, driven by price wars among intelligent driving vehicles, high-level intelligent driving technology is no longer exclusive to high-end cars but is showing a trend of penetrating the 150,000-yuan household car market.

The recently launched Xpeng MONA M03 has a starting price of only 119,800 yuan, and the entry-level model is equipped with L2-level intelligent driving assistance technology, further driving down the price of self-driving models. This year, Baidu Apollo released the ANP 3 Pro, a pure visual city pilot assistance driving product, claiming that high-level intelligent driving can be standard on 150,000-yuan models. DJI Auto's 7V+100TOPS configuration scheme keeps costs below 10,000 yuan, making it no longer unrealistic for 150,000-yuan household models to be equipped with high-level intelligent systems.

In July of this year, the penetration rate of domestic new energy vehicle models exceeded 50% for the first time, signaling that the market share of intelligent driving vehicles will further increase. Most consumers purchasing new energy vehicles are not overly concerned with the electrical architecture and battery model adopted by the vehicle but rather focus more on range and intelligent driving capabilities. Although more and more consumers are interested in autonomous driving functions, their willingness to pay extra for them is gradually decreasing. In the domestic automotive market, household cars priced between 100,000 and 150,000 yuan account for a significant share. Whoever can quickly penetrate this segment with high-level intelligent driving systems will gain a competitive advantage.

△Xpeng MONA M03 indicates that high-level intelligent driving entering the 150,000-yuan market is not a dream

Commentary

With the onset of competition in end-to-end intelligent driving technology, many automakers have increased their financial investment in technology research and development. Many domestic automakers, led by BYD, have invested significantly more in research and development than their net profits. This underscores the fact that Xia Yiping's statement that "2025 will be the first year for the elimination of non-high-level intelligent driving vehicles" is not unfounded. Experts predict that by the end of this year or the first half of next year, several leading automakers will be able to scale up their end-to-end algorithms for vehicles. The second half of next year will be the golden period for the entire industry to achieve end-to-end mass production of vehicles equipped with intelligent driving systems. So, which companies will be the first to unlock the treasures of high-level intelligent driving?

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