NIO Inc. went out to sea.

Like XPeng Inc., NIO Inc. also chose Norway as the first stop.

Why Norway?

Li Bin said bluntly: "Norway is a country that is very friendly to electric vehicles. For example, the tariff on electric vehicles has been abolished. Cars exported from China only need to pay some transportation costs. This is a very realistic consideration." The volume of the Norwegian market is also relatively appropriate, not very large, not very small, the Norwegian automobile market structure is also relatively healthy, high-end cars, mid-range cars are generally more balanced, there are many high-end cars, Tesla, Inc. sells well there. "

But as soon as the wind of the conversation changed, it seemed a little heavy.

“Today, a company with a Chinese background is under great pressure to enter the market outside China. Compared with five years ago or 10 years ago, the pressure is an order of magnitude greater. We must be fully prepared mentally. We do not expect to become popular in the Norwegian market, always thinking about the enterprises that become popular, often die unsightly.”

As the head of China's second-largest car company by market capitalization, Li Bin still has a clear view of strategic issues, or he cannot help but see clearly, because Huawei's experience is still fresh in his mind.

01、Against the tide of globalization, Huawei suffers

Since Western traders opened China's doors with strong ships and guns in 1840, the only Chinese company that can be called high-tech and can sell its products all over the world is Huawei.

Huawei's success is due to globalization. But now, globalization is facing a countercurrent, and Huawei is the victim of Western countries trying to reclaim the dividends of globalization for various reasons.

The United States has sanctioned Huawei for a variety of reasons, vowing to exclude Huawei from the British 5G construction and replace part of the existing core communications equipment, China.

Britain and the United States are the leaders of the Western world, and whether they want to or not, they can only bow their heads and follow, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and India. It has been shown that Huawei is excluded from the 5G construction.

Huawei is also scarred after a round of sanctions. Huawei has been forced to spin off its glory mobile phone brand, and the global share of mobile phones has fallen out of the top five. looking back two years ago, we were still working for Apple Inc and Samsung for Huawei's sales, and we were about to become the world leader. In just two years, things have changed.

More serious than mobile phones is Huawei's core competitiveness, 5G communications equipment, which is constantly excluded from mainstream Western countries. The science and technology circle often says that technology knows no national boundaries, and if we do not do research and development and application under the global framework, the products will certainly have limitations. What happened to Huawei now is not only a loss for Huawei, but also a great loss for China's high-tech going out to sea.

The strong blockade in the West has also made Huawei see something clearly, so Ren Zhengfei did not involve terminal products when choosing smart cars as the way out, but focused on ICT, empowering terminal car factories.

In other words, for the entire smart car market, there are not many more Huawei cars and one less one. If you launch a car brand, you may not be able to break out of the siege, and you may have to be done by the United States, while focusing on ICT, if you can form an advantage in core components such as chips, intelligent operating systems, and lidar, you can eat the fattest piece of meat in the whole product chain.Microsoft Corp, Android, Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc do not have terminal brands, but the profit margins of terminal products are less than a fraction of them.

Of course, Huawei has deep technology accumulation, can do so, but for NIO Inc., XPeng Inc., they can only take the terminal road.

Now that these companies are starting to go out to sea, while we look forward to it, we can't help but worry whether Huawei's experience will be repeated in NIO Inc. and XPeng Inc..

Will the seemingly light Norwegian market lead to new blood in the future?

02、The western crackdown only needs one reason

As a West that boasts democracy and freedom, it has to be famous to crack down on Huawei.

Their favorite reason is national security.。

Because the communication equipment carries a large amount of data flow, it will inevitably become a data "concentration camp", especially in the electronic and network era, some important, sensitive and even confidential information will run on the communication equipment. If the communication equipment has a back door, it is easy to steal confidential information, which is undoubtedly a major hidden danger to national security.

But behind what seems reasonable in the United States is only the truth that has not changed for a thousand years:Only state officials are allowed to set fires, and people are not allowed to light lamps.

It is precisely because they have done more to steal information through their own IT advantages, and when they are done well, they will gain more benefits, and they will have a better understanding of the consequences if someone does the same. The Snowden incident in 2013 is the best proof.

actually,Business is still behind the national security.The two most powerful industries in the United States, one is finance, the other is IT, especially in the field of IT, in the core, key and most profitable areas, the United States basically monopolizes the world, and the market capitalization and revenue of IT giants are comparable to those of other countries.

This is also the problem with Huawei. It happens to be engaged in the business of communications equipment, but it turns its technology to the top of the world, and it even makes the business the whole world, and even shuffles all of America's important allies. Americans' anxiety, panic, jealousy and resentment eventually turned into a ban, a big knife fell, Huawei saw blood.

As the next information terminal, the smart car is undoubtedly the most promising electronic terminal to take over the mantle of the smart phone. coupled with all kinds of fancy applications such as self-driving, networking, sharing and so on, the data flowing on the smart car will be very huge, which will inevitably involve important, sensitive and confidential information, such as cameras covered with cars and captured images. All kinds of sound and image data of human-computer interaction can instantly go to the place it wants to go through the network.

Precisely because they have seen through the tactics of the United States, there are already voices in China who question whether Tesla, Inc. 's camera will become a "spy" of the CIA, and whether Tesla, Inc., which China has made great efforts to introduce, will become a wrong decision to encourage foreign spies. If the US security department asks Tesla, Inc. to hand over the key data captured in China, will Musk dare to say no?

But then again,If this logic holds, then NIO Inc. and XPeng Inc., who both belong to smart cars, sell their cars abroad, and foreign countries have reason to treat them in the same way. where will NIO Inc. go?.

03、Weilai meetingIn data securityDo you stumble over the problem?

At NIO Inc. 's strategy conference on May 6, Li Bin was asked the same question. His answer was:

"We will meet European standards for data protection. Europe has very strict regulations on privacy protection and personal data protection, and we have to demand ourselves with the highest standards."

Li Bin said he recently reread the clash of Civilizations and the Reconstruction of the World order, a book on international relations written by American political scientist Samuel Huntington in the 1990s. More than 20 years later, this book still gives me a lot of inspiration.

It seems that Li Bin has seen through the experience of Huawei and the long-term and arduous nature of the game and even confrontation between China and the United States, so he appears to be very cautious.

However, Li Bin is still confident that NIO Inc. will enter more countries.

"one country is certainly not enough, we will enter more countries in the future. As mentioned earlier, expanding in the global market is certainly a long-term plan. Norway is the first stop in the European market and plans to enter five European countries next year. "

What on earth gave Li Bin the confidence?

In fact, it is not difficult to understand the pattern of the automobile industry.

There are many participants in the automobile industry, the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China all have their own brands, so it is difficult to have one or a few monopolies.

One of the important reasons for Huawei's crackdown is that communications equipment is a few oligopoly industries, Huawei has basically knocked down the original Western equipment manufacturers, the United States is gone, Japan is gone, and Europe's Ericsson and Nokia are no rivals. I not only ascended to the leading position, but also far ahead.

However, in the automobile industry, we do not see the possibility that China can compete with the European and American powers.Not to mention fuel cars, China's independent brands have spent 40 years, but have not gained much core technology, but have gradually become contract manufacturers of Western brands.

When the electric car came, we wanted to overtake at the corner, but there was Tesla, Inc., who had already entered the game, and behind it, there were still menacing Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and General Motors. None of these companies is worse than NIO Inc..

As for the issue of data security, the United States will do the same, and it will be done if it does not enter you, and the Europe that allows you to enter is not a good person either. It knows that it does not have a decent IT enterprise and has to rely on foreign countries, but it does not mean that there is nothing Europe can do about foreign IT companies. Microsoft Corp, google, Apple Inc, Intel Corp, Amazon.Com Inc, Facebook Inc, are drawn up by the European Union for any disagreement, and the amount of fines can be beyond imagination.

If a Chinese company hits the rocks and may be fined to go bankrupt, it is not impossible. No wonder Li Bin said that he should use the highest European standards.

In that case, is there any reason for the West to worry about China's electric cars as much as Huawei?

04、Conclusion

The wave of global trade, which originated in Western Europe for hundreds of years, has not only promoted the spread of civilization and the progress of productive forces, but also woven a huge trade network dominated by the West. To this day, this network continues to export global profits to Western countries, allowing Western subjects to live a leisurely life.

The monopoly and blockade of the West in high-tech and high-profit industries and in emerging industries is the secret weapon for Western countries to continue to "live a better life."

However, China is trying to break through this monopoly and blockade, and want to share in this existing trade pattern, or use its own strength to reshape the trade pattern and give itself a place.

This will inevitably lead to encirclement and interception by people with vested interests, but in any case, China must and is bound to break through this blockade.