On December 15, another new car brand met with the public. Box Auto held its first brand launch in Beijing and launched two new models for the B-side. Zhang Shuguang, founder and president of Box Car, said that the two products will achieve mass production in 2023 and 2024 respectively, and Box Car will build a new travel value system around the city, operating partners, drivers and passengers.
Zhang Shuguang said that Box Car is committed to creating China's original "national travel car". In view of the operation and use scenarios of B-end online ride-hailing, it not only pioneered the L-shaped seat layout without co-driver seats, releasing the potential of space customization in different scenarios, but also increased the revenue of the operation end and the driver side through the self-developed "octopus" platform - modular chassis, and the digital intelligent interaction platform HIGH DO system.
The B-side box car was designed with revenue in mind at the beginning
The two pure electric products released by Box Auto are the BM-400 for the car, ride-hailing and taxi markets, and the BM-600 for the high-end travel market. Both products are in MPV configuration, with a range of between 420 km and 600 km, and are expected to achieve mass production in 2023 and 2024.
Wang Zhe, co-founder of Box Car and chairman of Yousen Technology, said that at present, box cars are planning two super-charging pile schemes of 240kW and 480kW, with a maximum voltage of 1000V. This set of equipment has the advantages of power sharing, intelligent scheduling, matrix control, flexible charging, intelligent charging, etc., and is expected to achieve a 10-minute endurance of more than 200 kilometers in 2022, and a range of more than 400 kilometers in 10 minutes of charging in 2023.
However, compared with other new and old car brands, the biggest feature of box cars is still the positioning of the B-end market. To this end, Zhang Shuguang said that box cars through the field research of many cities across the country found that the vast majority of taxis and online ride-hailing cars on the market currently use low-grade or reduced versions of family cars, while the car needs of different groups of people and different scenarios are obviously different, and the travel needs of contemporary users to upgrade are far from being met.
For example, in the travel car, there is a situation where the use of the passenger seat is extremely low, but it consumes a lot of space and cost; when passengers travel, they often face the problem of narrow space in the car, large parts cannot get on the car, pets cannot get on the car, and need to buy mineral water or rain ponchos outside the car. As a result, the box car through innovative design, maximize the space to the passengers, the first L-shaped seat layout, trying to reconstruct the travel space.
Box cars canceled the co-pilot seat
As a product specifically for the B-end market, the Box Car team has incorporated "low-cost wearing parts replacement" into the product definition. 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 by themselves, and this process can be completed independently by the driver, which greatly reduces the maintenance cost.
Zhang Shuguang said that from the overall environment, China's huge travel market provides fertile growth soil for box cars. According to China's Ministry of Transport, the total number of active cruise taxis in the country is 1.38 million, and the number of online ride-hailing vehicles is even higher. Based on the huge capacity of the mobility market, Box Car decided to focus on B-end travel.
Industry insiders pointed out that from the current B-end market, in addition to a few brands of specific models, all in the B-end market brands /products are still a minority. Other products that enter the B-end market often face the contradiction between strict cost control and maintaining brand image. In the future, whether the box car opens the treasure box or the magic box depends on whether the innovation of the box car can withstand the test of drivers and passengers in the relatively solidified B-end market.
Text/Beiqing - Beijing headline Yang Zheng
Editor/Chen Zhengzhong