One weekend afternoon a long time ago, I was sitting in a fast food restaurant starting with M, and the seat next to the floor-to-ceiling glass was a Weilai replacement power station, about ten meters away from me. To tell the truth, it was the first time I had seen the operation of a Weilai replacement power station up close (I had seen countless official demonstration videos before), but it was that time that made me think that changing power was a good way out for electric vehicles, although there were still many doubts and controversies about Weilai's power exchange model before.
Of course, although the later development plot of Weilai Automobile has also had ups and downs, at least for now, it seems to have come out of the dilemma at the beginning of the business and achieved stage success. I don't know if it is a commercial success, founder Li Bin seems to be very satisfied to live in the world of electric vehicles he has built.
This kind of "satisfaction" is vividly reflected in the video circulating on the day of "Cow Day" NIO Day in 2021.
Do you still buy a petrol truck?
I believe that many people have watched the video, Li Bin sat relaxed and smiled and said: "I simply don't understand why everyone still buys oil trucks now." With a smile from the audience, after a short pause, he stressed again: "I can't understand at all to tell the truth, this is how nostalgic it is to buy a gas car... For example, the oil car I can't think of anything good about smelling some gasoline. ”
When you see this video, it is estimated that you must not understand that Li Bin can't understand that everyone still buys a fuel car - is the fuel car not still driving well?
Li Bin's statement, whether it is a casual sigh on the spot or a deliberate attempt to spread and tease the public's emotions, is a statement that the ass decides that the head cannot withstand scrutiny, and even causes a lot of disgust from the outside world, which is a public relations crisis from the perspective of the brand. But that's not what we're going to talk about today.
What we want to talk about is, behind Li Bin's remarks, what confidence did Weilai Automobile give him?
Leaving aside other things, what Weilai presented at this year's NIO Day is indeed the one that has made him most confident to straighten his waist so far, especially the ET5 car. This is also the protagonist of the story we want to share with you in this article today (indeed not Li Bin).
Nio's car has never lacked justice
Recently, there is a strange phenomenon, after the grand release of a new car, there will be many people on social platforms to post orders, sometimes even make you feel that some groups almost have to be per capita car owner. Of course, I'm not doubting the authenticity of these orders, just... Just by looking at the pictures and parameters, I pay for it, which is something I wouldn't even do when I buy a mobile phone. The ET5 released on NIO Day 2021 is also such a car, but this time I seem to be able to understand the minds of these users who have paid for money, because with reference to the following information, this car is indeed a bit tempting.
Let's start with the dynamics.
At this stage, ET5 only provides one power specification, the first 150kW induction asynchronous motor, the rear 210kW permanent magnet synchronous motor, a total output of 480 horsepower, 700Nm, 0-100km/h acceleration time only 4.3 seconds.
You know, the acceleration performance data officially released by Weilai has always been a "virtual" target, which is a modest virtual. In other words, Tesla CEO Musk said "Tesla doesn't make slow cars" earlier, and today, Tesla that broke the 100 in 6.9 seconds has come, and now it seems that Weilai is the one who really "never makes slow cars".
In terms of brakes, the FRONT AX OF THE ET5 is equipped with a high-performance four-piston fixed caliper developed by Wei Ziyan, and the optimal braking distance of 100 kilometers is 33.9 meters. The arrangement of the front wheel rear caliper means that the "coefficient of justice" of the entire front axle is not low, in addition to making the steering knuckle more force-friendly when braking, the front steering lever can also make the vehicle more stable when cornering.
In addition, there is a five-link front suspension deformed from the double wishbones, which effectively occupies the commanding heights compared to the recognized benchmark BMW 3 Series in terms of specifications. However, compared with the previous game, the body anti-torsional stiffness of the ET5 is not high, only 34,000 N·m/deg, which is still used as a comparison between the sedan and the previous SUV (the sedan has a natural advantage over the pan-hatchback in the anti-torsion stiffness, and the pan-hatchback refers to hatchbacks, station wagons, SUVs, etc.). However, the anti-torsional stiffness is originally one of the dimensionality reduction blows of electric vehicles relative to oil vehicles, and ET5 still has a great advantage over oil truck players at the same price.
The BODY SIZE DATA OF THE ET5 IS ALSO A BIT INTERESTING, THE MOST AUSPICIOUS OF COURSE IS THE WHEELBASE, WHICH IS 2888MM. The easiest to highlight the identity of electric vehicles is the height of the body, which is 1499mm, which is nearly four centimeters higher than the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and interestingly, the Tesla Model 3 is slightly shorter than the 3 Series and C-Class. The most characteristic of Weilai is the body width, which is 1960mm, which is much wider than the same level of cars, but the width of each car of Weilai is above 1960mm, which is largely related to the power exchange attribute, which may make ET5 be bound to a certain extent in the convenience of daily driving. As for the body length of 4790mm, it can only be said that it is relatively unremarkable.
Of course, how these specific experiences from the essential level of the car have to be discussed later in the test drive. Given that people nowadays don't even need to sit in and feel the feeling before buying a car, they may care more about the following.
There are horns on the head and a tail behind it
NAD autonomous driving technology, all mass production commercially available ET5 will be equipped with a full set of autonomous driving hardware for the NT2.0 platform required for NAD as standard, including nio Aquila supersensitive system and Adam supercomputing platform. The full set of autonomous driving hardware of the NT2.0 platform includes 7 8-megapixel high-definition cameras, 4 3-megapixel surround view cameras, 1 ultra-long-range high-precision lidar, 5 millimeter-wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radars, 2 high-precision positioning units, 1 vehicle-road collaborative perception and 1 enhanced main driver perception. The level of hardware is almost the same as that of ET7, which is 120,000 higher than its own price.
Yes, the above paragraph is basically copied from the official information, in fact, there is no need to be very specific to understand what each component is used for, just need to know that the perception ability of this set of things is 6 times that of Tesla FSD in terms of resolution, and 3 times that of Tesla FSD in terms of detection distance. In addition to perception and computing power, the NIO Adam supercomputing platform can provide 1016TOPS of computing power, which is more than 7 times that of Tesla FSD.
When it comes to the automatic driving system, we have to say that the ET5 roof is in line with the ET7.
The official name given by Nio to these radars and cameras on the roof of the car is "watchtower layout". Many people may think that these raised things are not good-looking, affecting the flatness of the body, but they are indeed functional, the higher the position of the radar and camera, the smaller the probability of the field of view being blocked. But we can get inspiration from the hidden door handles that have been popular in recent years, and is it possible that these hardware that have to stand out on the flat side of the body be made hidden in the future? Need to use them and then stick them out?
In addition to the horns on the head of the ET5, there is also a tail behind it, and the most brilliant place in the design of the whole car is probably this little ducktail. Looking past from the rear side, this taillight even has a bit of a Porsche Taycan feel. It's just that the angle of the C-pillar slip back is not as natural as those coupes, and the triangle window is also too large, after all, as an electric car, it is necessary to take care of the dynamic shape and wind resistance coefficient, and to consider the rear head space, and the posture is difficult to control.
However, compared to the big brother ET7, the slightly smaller SIZE ET5 seems to be more fluid. However, ET7 has achieved a drag coefficient of 0.208, while at this stage ET5 has announced a drag coefficient of "only" 0.24.
Look at the stupid standard items
Before listing the standard items, let's first understand the price of THE NIO ET5, the basic price of the CLTC 550km 75kWh version is 328,000 yuan, and the CLTC 700km 100kWh version is basically priced at 386,000 yuan.
Like other models of Weilai, you can choose the BaaS battery rental plan, so that it only needs 258,000 yuan, and then pay the rental fee according to 75kWh battery 980 yuan / month or 100kWh battery 1480 yuan / month (don't ask me what will happen if I don't pay the battery monthly rent, I also want to know).
As for the automatic driving service, on the basis of the full set of hardware just mentioned, the software is used through monthly payment, 680 yuan / month.
Looking at the standard project of ET5, some of them will really subvert your imagination of 300,000 to 400,000 prices, first of all, frameless windows, panoramic sky canopy, these two are not too much. Then there is the 4K driving recorder, which is not difficult for Weilai, which is full of cameras, two 60W Type-C interfaces and a 40W wireless charging board, which is also necessary for new humans driving new forces.
Next is the incredible part, the whole car electric suction door, 320,000 8 cars do you dare to believe? 23 Dolby Atmos audio speakers, 320,000 8 cars can you believe? There is also an AR/VR immersive experience based on Qualcomm's third-generation digital cockpit platform, which opens up a new world of digital cockpits, no longer blindly piling screens into the carriages, which is popular.
If you feel that it is not enough, Weilai still provides optional items, such as five of the nine body colors need to add 10,000 yuan, three of the four rims have prices ranging from 3500 yuan to 9500 yuan, and there are nine kinds of interior colors, but you can also choose different grades of leather fabrics, the most expensive can be selected to 27300 yuan.
This is the most expensive ET5 you can buy at the moment
In addition, there are 4500 yuan of Moon appearance kit theme, 3500 yuan of qihui orange calipers, 4900 yuan of NOMI Mate 2.0 and 9500 yuan of suitable suits, specific things you go to the official website to understand it. Anyway, if I buy it, I will trade for 328,000.
Is production capacity related to explosive models or not?
Et5 is indeed the most explosive potential car in Weilai's history, directly targeting electric vehicles or the leader in the field of new power - Tesla. However, it is not so direct, because the current Tesla volume of models is actually less than 300,000 versions, in other words, the vehicle price of more than 300,000 Weilai ET5 is actually aimed at a high-performance version of Tesla. Although the 100-kilometer acceleration seems to be slightly less than a spark, et5 has given more acceleration in other dimensions than the acceleration ability of that tenth of a second.
However, the high-performance version of Tesla itself does not sell very much, and for those who only want to spend more than 200,000 yuan to buy electric vehicles, ET5 may not be in the range of choice, unless they choose the BaaS solution, which makes ET5 rub into the field of vision of consumers with smaller budgets.
This is a very good operation, Weilai has always claimed to take the high-end route, do not do less than 300,000 cars, which to a certain extent will circle the consumer group. However, through the battery rental program, consumers can buy this model that is not low-end through relatively less expenditure in the early stage, and there will be official recycling in the later stage to ensure that the retention rate will not be too miserable, and the brand image will also be maintained.
From the product to the sales model, Weilai has come up with a rich sincerity, then the next thing is the production capacity. Obviously, ET5 is to go to the volume, go a lot, and even occupy more than half of the sales volume of the Weilai brand, for Weilai, how to quickly make the production capacity keep up with the market demand, is the main task. They say ET5 will start deliveries in September 2022, so let's wait and see.
The protagonist of the last NIO Day has not yet been delivered
By the way, on the 2021 NIO Day, there is also good news from the protagonist of the 2020 NIO Day, ET7 will open the lock order on January 20 and the delivery on March 28. merely...... I don't know how many ET7 orders will be taken away after the ET5 is launched.
In short, the current Weilai is no longer the "fastest this year, the latest next year" Weilai, the most miserable Li Bin of that year, although he is now looking for scolding, but he is only looking for scolding.
Issue 1810
Author: Chen Houze