China's new car-making movement is a journey.
The Xinhua Dictionary tells us that "Cheng" means "a passage of the road", that is, on this train, some people will come up, and it is inevitable that some people will go down.
Among so many passers-by, the future is one of the few that will be remembered.
The future is very unique, it has chosen a very niche and difficult market area: electric high-performance sports products, before, no Chinese original brand has conquered this range, it often means a high difficult test of design, industrial manufacturing, performance tuning; and it is not easy to be with those who have only launched a concept, it is no longer difficult to deliver a mature product to the user.
The future, not only has its own factory and other production systems, but also decently did the construction of the sales system and user operation, and even compared horizontally with the new forces, the future mass production delivery time is still relatively high.
But then the future encountered the double heaven of ice and fire.
Ice is, due to the high price, slightly rough workmanship and the emergence of Model 3 and other extremely cost-effective models, the market performance of the first production car K50 in the future is not ideal, and the future has once faded out of everyone's vision; the fire is that not only on the market, the absolute sales and penetration rate of new energy and new forces are rising steadily, and there are many brands and models that have successfully gained a foothold in the field of "pure electric sports cars".
And many of the new forces that were once again joined the war after receiving new capital support.
So, when I received the invitation to the Future 2022 Strategy Conference, I was surprised, not unexpected.
After all, the cards in the hands of the future are all, and the "torture" of the previous period of time has also given them a long enough opportunity to think.
At the scene, the most eye-catching is still the many concept car designs that are put forward in the future, in addition to the K50 Spyder with minor modifications, there are also K20, a pure electric MPV and a prototype of a pure electric four-door sedan.
Although I know that even if Future announces that these cars are about to be mass-produced, no one will believe it, but it is important that Future is proving to people that it still retains a forward-looking understanding of electric vehicles.
At the communication meeting, Lu Qun, the founder of Future Automobile, repeated a sentence that touched me the most: Some of the things we did before were right, some were wrong, and now we have another opportunity, and we have to change the things we did wrong.
Subsequently, he talked about the direction of development after the future, which can be summarized by three "new".
First, is the new material, in the future K50, a large number of carbon fiber composite materials, carbon fiber brought by the direct benefit is lightweight and high strength, which has some help for low-carbon environmental protection, of course, better mechanical performance is also what consumers need, the future will not only continue to use new materials on their own mass production models, but also provide new material supply for the industry.
Starting next year, the future will focus on the development and production of aluminum alloy 3D printing technology, fluid metal body skeleton structure, new body connection technology, and light alloy body manufacturing.
Second, it is new energy, and the future will cooperate with photovoltaic manufacturers to add more solar panels to the car, which can recharge the whole vehicle and become an independent energy producer in the case of long-term parking.
According to the plan, the future will be launched in 2022 in the three types of light areas (the annual equivalent number of photovoltaic utilization hours in 1200-1400 hours) with photovoltaic charging technology to achieve an average daily cruising range of more than 50 kilometers.
Third, is the new intelligence, here CUE to the hottest meta-universe concept, the future will cooperate with the Goldenport Circuit and some content production companies to produce immersive in-car experience, develop meta-universe racing games, and create offline events based on the future K50 modified GT racing cars, combining online games and offline events to achieve a new racing experience that integrates virtual and real.
As before, the future chooses another path that looks cool, but also challenges many upward paths that are difficult to achieve.
We can't endorse every technology, but that's probably the DNA engraved in the brand of the future.
In my opinion, the real most important thing in this visit is the future K20 car.
Lu Qun also said that in 2022, in addition to the future K50 resuming sales and starting overseas exports, the most important thing is the K20 listing.
Like the concept car, the K20 production car we saw was a K-Car-like two-door car similar to the Honda S660, the long wheelbase was extremely compact, the four wheels were infinitely close to the four corners of the body, walking the streets and alleys of the United Kingdom was a good hand, the interior was also more personalized, you can even see the mobile phone holder and cup holder placed on the dashboard.
The two years of delay in the future are the two years of rapid development of new car-making forces, and smart cockpits and automatic driving have become the biggest barriers between manufacturers.
But coincidentally, it seems that the delay in these two aspects, at least for the K20, is not so much impact.
After all, if you plan to buy this car, it is most likely to be used to drive, and a vehicle with a target of urban transportation, the "usable" standard of the smart cockpit is easier to achieve.
If you want to rely on K20 to complete self-help in the future, you must do at least four things:
1, the price: since this car is for the largest range of civilian and young people, the easier it is to be accepted, the better;
2, performance: do not need the extreme, but to achieve battery life available, acceleration has fun.
3, reliability: the material can be cheap, manufacturing should be more meticulous.
4, on time delivery: a day earlier delivery, a little more hope.
In the title, I put the word "right," which can be both a tone word of reminder and that a future decision might be correct— and what the end result will be, it may be known by this time in 2022.
But in any case, the future this time, is back.
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