Haier Capital

Aug 9, 2022

Pandaily Haier Group, a leading Chinese home appliance firm, is planning to enter the automotive industry with the launch of its own brand of cars, according to sources cited in an August 8 report by Yicai . The ambitious project is now reportedly in planning stages, and it will adopt the OEM mode, although a specific launch date has not yet been determined. However, Haier has so far denied that it will launch its own brand of cars, claiming that it is currently building an industrial internet sub-platform in the automotive field, with related firms relying on its industrial internet platform COSMOPlat. This is aimed at empowering the digital transformation of automobile industry chain enterprises. At the same time, the company says it will take advantage of the technology and scenarios of smart homes to establish a new ecology of home-car interconnection with automobile enterprises. A few years ago, Haier entered the automobile field, and Haier Capital invested in a number of intelligent and connected automobile service providers, including PATEO, auto parts manufacturer Jiangsu Tong Ming Transtech Services Automotive Electric Co., Ltd. and other enterprises. Subsequently, Haier signed cooperation strategic agreements with SAIC, Geely and other car companies in 2021. However, judging from cooperative content, Haier did not enter directly into car manufacturing, but the automotive ecological chain. Through its industrial internet platform, it can connect automobile manufacturing enterprises, and intelligently connect the two life application scenarios of car and home. The above-mentioned insider also disclosed to Yicai that Haier will adopt the OEM mode. That is to say, if the product comes to implementation, Haier will cooperate with car companies for OEM. Last year, Haier reached strategic cooperation with Geely, SAIC and Chery, and it is still unknown whether the home appliance manufacturer will choose these enterprises for OEM. Haier is not the first home appliance enterprise to enter the automotive field. Midea, Hisense, Gree, Skyworth, Sony and other enterprises all have developed their own layout. There are mainly two ways: one is to build cars directly, and the other is to enter the automotive industry chain through investment and related ecological products.