People's imagination of the future is always rich and scarce.
Although technology continues to advance and new models emerge in an endless stream, after so many years, the cars in everyone's mind still stay in fixed forms such as cars, SUVs, and MPVs.
Even in science fiction movies, when self-driving technology has become a reality, people imagine that the future car is just without a driver, the interior is spacious enough for the seats to be placed face to face, and a bunch of large screens to enhance the in-car audio-visual entertainment experience.
If it is different from now, it may be that the unmanned cars in science fiction movies are often depicted as a "square box" of automatic driving, allowing passengers to repeat the daily work and life in the so-called "smart third space" in the movement from point A to point B.
Science fiction movies are both people's imaginations of the future and often rehearsals of reality.
Previously, Didi and BYD had launched a special model for the online car market, BYD D1, which looked like this square box.
When the time is moved to last month's Guangzhou Auto Show, the appearance of a large number of new energy MPVs represented by Lantu Dreamers seems to indicate that in the future automotive design trend, "landing into a box" will occupy a large proportion.
Today, another domestic new car manufacturer unveiled its new car, and more interestingly, the name of this company is called "Zhixing Box Car" (hereinafter referred to as Box Car).
The king of the B-end track?
The mobile Internet gave birth to online ride-hailing. Nowadays, everyone can pull out their mobile phones to call a car every day, and they don't really have to own a car of their own.
For manufacturers, the number of B-end travel vehicles in the country is as high as millions, which is naturally a cake that cannot be missed. It was in this way that BAIC BJEV achieved the glory of "seven consecutive championships" in domestic electric vehicle sales.
However, friends with rich experience in life must still remember the simple and rude "oil to electricity" model that BAIC BJEV pushed to the B-end market in the early days:
For passengers, due to the battery encroaching on a large amount of space in the car, resulting in a poor riding experience, the rear seats are like "little horses".
So far, many of my friends around me have said that the BAIC new energy models called by Didi will be cancelled and replaced at the first time.
For drivers, the overstretched mileage of these models and the extremely inaccurate display of battery life make them worry about charging every day and dare not turn on the air conditioner in winter.
The original sin of "endurance anxiety" of electric vehicles is suspected to have originated from this.
Even in 2021, domestic electric vehicles have gone through the early wilderness, from policy-driven development to competition for quality, online car-hailing still gives people the impression of cheap and low-end. The exclusive models launched by manufacturers for this market are also "simple" models such as Xiaopeng N5 and WM E.5.
Today's protagonist box car is aiming at this market gap and wants to create a smarter and better experience electric vehicle for B-end online ride-hailing.
Box Car founder and CEO Zhang Shuguang even threw out a bold statement: "Become the king of the B-end track."
So we got two new cars that really looked like a box – the BM-400 and the BM-600.
Among them, the BM-400 adopts a three-row five-seat layout, body length, width and height of 4530/1900/1790mm, wheelbase of 2850mm, providing 420/530km two NEDC endurance versions, supporting 600V high-voltage fast charging and power exchange, is expected to be listed in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The larger BM-600 has a three-row, six-seat layout, 4900/1900/1790mm in length, width and height, wheelbase of 3100mm, NEDC range of 600km, support for 600V high-voltage fast charging, and is expected to be available in Q3 2024.
The focus of this conference is on the BM-400, which is closer to the listing, and we will take a closer look at the highlights of this box car.
The design does not need to be introduced too much, the boxy shape of the BM-400 can be associated with keywords such as "square" and "box" at a glance.
The new car is based on the "Octopus" 1.0 platform developed by Box Car, the front and rear suspensions are greatly shortened, and the 4500mm body has a wheelbase of 2850mm to ensure sufficient space in the car.
Not only does the shape resemble a box, but the front and rear light groups, windows, rearview mirrors and other places of the new car are designed with square elements, which is also the LOGO of the box car.
At the same time, the front and rear parts of the new car are equipped with a display screen, which can display information such as parking, getting on and getting off, which improves the sense of technology and safety.
In addition, due to the online ride-hailing market, the BM-400 only has a left-hand door and a right-side door, but no passenger door and a left-hand door. This design is very suitable for the daily application of online ride-hailing, but I don't know if there are compliance concerns.
In contrast to the out-of-the-box exterior, a bolder design appears inside the BM-400: a three-row, 5-seat L-seat layout with the elimination of the passenger seat.
In view of the low utilization of the co-pilot seats of most taxis and ride-hailing cars, only the left seats are set up in the first and second rows of the box new car; the three seats in the rear of the traditional vehicle are moved to the rear position of the BM-400.
This interior layout allows the right door to open, and instead of the rear seats, what appears in front of the passengers is a "middle corridor" that can accommodate two 28-inch suitcases:
Not only is it more convenient to get on and off the bus, but it is no longer necessary to go around to the tail box to put luggage, and passengers can directly carry their luggage to the car. At the same time, facilities such as vending machines can also be configured in front of this "corridor".
At the same time, the box car official also emphasized that the BM-400 is the only mass production car in the world that can realize the direct access of the wheelchair to the car, providing convenience for the disabled to travel.
However, simply designing unique products clearly cannot support the ambition of "being the king of B-end tracks".
At a time when the product is still in its infancy, the box car is more for people to bring people a new form of imagination for the future travel market.
Enrich business formats and challenges
In the current market environment, the operators, drivers and consumers in the current ride-hailing market have relatively simple demand for business models, products and services.
At the operator level, the main profit model is to take a cut from the taxi fare, and only need to expand the scale and market share as much as possible.
At the driver level, the demand for models is economical enough and durable to obtain the maximum number of passenger orders at the lowest possible financial and time costs.
At the passenger level, the biggest demand is still to be able to move from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, and the plus points such as ride experience and value-added services are not just needed.
In the concept of box cars, future ride-hailing products need to provide quality services for these three ends of the population through better experience and richer intelligent functions:
For consumers, the unique layout of the new car based on the box brings a more comfortable riding experience for passengers. At the same time, the hardware such as the large screen and vending machine in the car is equipped with a linkage box HIGH DO system, which can also provide them with more value-added services such as audio and video and consumption during the trip.
For drivers, the advantage of the box car is that it can "run a little more, repair a little less": the 600V fast charging and power exchange scheme brings faster energy replenishment efficiency, and the whole vehicle electrification optimization energy saving strategy can dynamically increase the endurance of 20 kilometers.
In addition, under the premise of doing a good job of standard parts and standard interfaces, 75%-80% of the slight scratches of the box car can replace the cover parts such as front and rear bumpers, which can be completed independently by the driver, which greatly reduces the maintenance cost.
At the same time, in view of the reality that domestic ride-hailing drivers operate for 14 to 16 hours a day, Box Auto will develop a life package for drivers to facilitate drivers to rest in the car and alleviate work fatigue.
For ride-hailing operators, the in-car audio-visual, advertising and vending machine business can also bring more profit growth points.
In short, in the business model, it is not only purely by selling cars to make money, but also the bottom line of the box car to become the "king of the B-end market": I hope to emulate Tesla, rely on value-added services to achieve more profit growth points, become an urban intelligent travel service provider, and form a symbiotic industrial chain from four dimensions:
First, the city, to provide intelligent travel solutions for the future construction of the city, to create a city business card.
Second, passengers, to provide a comfortable ride experience and service for tens of billions of trips every year. At present, the number of people who take taxis in China every year is tens of billions of times, and box cars can only occupy 10% to 20% of the market share, and they can get enough development imagination.
Third, operators provide operators with more profit models and enhance their market competitiveness.
Fourth, drivers, to provide drivers with a safer and more comfortable driving environment, to provide a richer source of income.
However, the ideal is very full, and there is still a lot of uncertainty in the reality.
Although Box Auto said that the BM-400 has received 42,000 pre-sale orders so far, it is still only an intention to know that this is still only the intention - taking the BYD D1, an exclusive vehicle for online ride-hailing jointly created by BYD and Didi, as an example, the total sales volume from January to October this year is only more than 8,000 units.
What's more, looking at today's market, no car manufacturer has really run through the business model by relying on the B-end travel market alone.
Again, if you want to occupy a sufficient share of the ride-hailing market, it is not only possible to rely on innovative products alone.
On the official website of Box Car, we can also see the poster above. In terms of the product form of the new car in the box, we can indeed find a lot of innovations for the specific needs of online ride-hailing.
The needs are met, and as to whether they can also achieve commercial success, it will be time to give us the answer.
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