In the 400,000-level pure electric SUV market, Tesla Model Y sales have been far ahead of their peers. Although Tesla has negative news every month, it still can't stop consumers from rushing to buy, and the cumulative sales of Model Y as of November have reached 129,000 units. If there are 7 incredible things in the automotive circle, I think Tesla can come out on top. Taking a step back, there is really no car that can compete with tesla Model Y in terms of product strength and brand.
Until the advent of a car - Volvo C40!
The Volvo C40 debuted abroad in March this year, and the new car was only seen at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November. Although it is a new Ding, it has received high praise as soon as it debuts. In the recent overseas test drive, many foreign media have rated the Volvo C40 as "a very attractive coupe electric SUV", and overseas orders have also been queued until February next year, which shows its popularity. It is expected that in 2022, the Volvo C40 will also be officially listed in China.
After landing in China, in the face of the Tesla Model Y with good local sales, the charming Volvo C40 played two tricks, one called high-end and one called quality, and these two points are what Tesla is missing.
On the high end, the gap between the Tesla Model Y and the Volvo C40 is a bit large
Although Tesla has always claimed to be a high-end brand, I have never recognized this. First of all, Tesla, as a high-end brand, even some seams are uneven, and many car owners can still be seen on the Model Y today. Secondly, Tesla also follows the principle of saving the nesting doll in the design, and the Model Y and the Model 3 are not exactly the same in design, that is also connected by blood. You can even take a photo of the Model 3 and get the Model Y by directly fattening it. At least in terms of design, tesla model Y must be lazy.
In contrast, the Volvo C40 is much more attentive. Also as an SUV with a crossover style, the C40 does not simply adjust the proportions on the basis of the XC40, but incorporates a lot of personality elements. Compared with the traditional XC40, the C40 appears wider and lower, with a length, width and height of 4440mm* 1873mm * 1591mm, a wheelbase of 2702mm, and a wide-body coupe smell when looking at the photos.
At the same time, the C40 also has a lot of Volvo's classic elements and new technology integration. For example, Volvo's iconic Quake design was inherited on the C40, and the lamp source used Volvo's latest 84-pixel matrix headlights on each side, which can be linked with the camera at night to achieve active high beam occlusion. The sneaky roof design is a tribute to the classic model "Volvo P1800", coupled with the Viking Axe taillights, the classic Coupe line with the flashing LED light effect, quite a bit of the classic model futuristic feeling. Overall, the appearance of the C40 is a high-profile, personality style, which I think is more in line with the needs of young consumers.
In terms of interior, Tesla Model Y still can't support the high-end positioning, some people say that Tesla's interior is simple, I think it is simple. The interior of the Model Y has no design to speak of with the Model 3, the simple matte chrome and wood grain trim are all decorated, and the steering wheel is still the plastic steering wheel, which is even inferior to BYD Qin. Ergonomics is a joke, how can a car have neither an instrument panel nor a HUD head-up display, and even see the speed on the central control screen. If you have malicious intentions to guess, this set of design is to reduce costs as much as possible, the simpler the shape, the lower the cost, no dashboard and HUD can also be reduced a lot, so Tesla has so much room to reduce prices.
In contrast, the Volvo C40 is too aggressive. Originally, Volvo's interior was one of the best among luxury brands, and there was no problem in directly using it, but Volvo still upgraded a lot. Volvo officially calls the interior of the C40 a Nordic fjord mobile cockpit, of which the Nordics are well understood, the C40 for the first time introduced the Volvo 100%-Leather Free concept, the interior and seat materials are made of sustainable recycled materials. The use of this material is not only for environmental protection, the material itself has the characteristics of scratch resistance, low volatility and low odor, which is in line with the Nordic image of fresh air, green and healthy.
The so-called "fjord" refers to the two highlights of the C40 interior, the mountainous geomorphological aurora trim & fjord blue carpet. The MountainOusacle Aurora Trim is volvo World's first translucent backlit three-dimensional interior panel, its pattern is derived from the mountainous landform of Abisko National Park in Sweden, due to the three-layer plywood and LED lighting effect, visually will present a 3D-like effect, driving at night can also emit its own light.
The Fjord Blue Carpet is a design that echoes the exterior, and the color is exactly the same as the car paint - Fjord Blue. It is said to be a carpet, but the actual parcel area is far more than the general installed carpet in the car, and the central armrest box is almost all fjord blue wrapping, and the area is quite exclusively customized. The carpet material is composed entirely of environmentally recyclable PET plastic, which visually and tactilely resembles a bright-colored fur material. Whether it is the design concept or the workmanship material, to put it mildly, the Volvo C40 is far more high-end than the Tesla Model Y, and there is at least a hundred BYD differences between the two!
In terms of quality, the Tesla Model Y and volvo C40 are two extremes
Even as a person who hates Tesla extremely, I have to admit that Tesla has done a very good job in motor performance and endurance performance, which may also be the biggest reason why consumers choose Tesla. The opposite of performance is quality, almost every month can see Tesla's quality problems, so many can go to apply for Guinness records, consumers themselves see more and numb. Tesla Model Y car alone, there are "large-scale suspension shedding", "multiple air conditioning failures", "reproduction of brake failure" and other problems, this quality is almost the level of old man Le.
Although the Volvo C40 is not yet officially available, we can still get a glimpse of volvo battery quality from the XC40 pure electricity on the same CMA platform. In July, Volvo completed an extremely bold "underwater roaming challenge". The entire system was immersed in 1.7 meters of water for up to 12 hours, and after the fact, no water was submerged, and the IP67 waterproof and dustproof standard was properly established. The entire battery pack is wrapped in a high-strength aluminum frame, and a Sill member laterally reinforced aluminum rod is added to prevent deformation caused by accidents. And the DESIGN OF THE SPOC WEDGE STRUCTURE also prevents other components from invading the battery pack. Safety has always been the core competitiveness of the Volvo brand, and even in the field of electric vehicles, Volvo has guaranteed this safety quality and is undoubtedly a leader.
Write at the end
The key point of Tesla Model Y is obvious and fragile, except for the three-electric system, no other aspect does have the strength of a high-end brand. The vehicle itself has quality problems, which have seriously affected vehicle safety. Volvo C40 is towards these two points, one move high-end, one move quality straight to the Yellow Dragon. As long as the Volvo C40 has a reasonable price, I believe it will be able to win many potential users of Tesla Model Y.