Last month, BMW organized a small interview in front of CES, and the theme of the interview was the new model and new technology that BMW had just shown at CES. Secretly unbanned, you can finally talk about the things mentioned in the interview.
To summarize, at CES, BMW released a total of one new model and 4 new technologies. The closest relationship with the consumer market is the flagship model of BMW iX, the iX M60 model.
M For BMW, it means high performance. The performance of the iX M60 is almost exactly the same as BMW's fuel-efficient SUV X5M, with 619 hp, peak torque of 1100 Nm, and an official acceleration time of 0-100km/h of 3.8 seconds. But the iX M60 sells for 996,900, more than 400,000 less than the X5M.
This is very much in line with BMW's consistent positioning of new energy vehicles, as the most popular BBA three luxury brands among Chinese consumers, the most attentive to electrification and intelligent transformation, BMW shows a strategy is very obvious, so that new energy models, than their own fuel models are more cost-effective, more standard with more technology configuration, plus purchase tax reductions, can attract stable consumers.
Such a strategy can make the pure electric model iX3 priced below 400,000 to obtain stable sales, after all, in that price range, BMW has a clear brand advantage, and the reliable reputation of a century-old luxury brand can directly increase sales.
But the iX M60 is in the million price range, BMW's brand does not have a particularly obvious advantage, even if you look at the performance parameters alone, Tesla's new Model X is not a star and a half higher than the iX M60.
So my first question is very direct: the iX M60 performance is indeed very strong, but also the benchmark X5M, but Tesla's achievable parameters, much higher than this car, BMW will be anxious when encountering this problem?
The answer was this:
What we offer consumers is a complete set of user solutions, not a parameter that is higher than competitors. We always think that the innovative BMW iX M60 is benchmarked against the new BMW X5 M, which is basically the same technical parameters, but better in terms of acceleration. What we want to provide users with is the overall driving pleasure or experience, including chassis tuning, suspension design, handling, etc., which have accumulated over the years in sports models and technologies, in fact, are integrated into the latest M products from generation to generation. Combined with the latest digital technologies, which integrate sound, visual interface and other aspects, we believe that we can provide users with a complete set of the best driving experience.
Pretty much like the official cliché, right? But in fact, there is rationality.
As a BMW owner, I know best how BMW shapes the joy of driving. My own M2 is not the strongest performance parameter in the same level of performance car, because of the large displacement, plus import taxes, compared to the same level of competitors, the price is also quite high, but M2 is definitely the most enjoyable driving pleasure in the same level of products.
In theory, BMW can indeed use chassis tuning, suspension design, handling and other experience in the field of fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, and give the BMW brand unique driving pleasure for its own pure electric vehicles.
Personal speculation, iX M60 chose the performance parameters to benchmark X5M, and did not achieve the same extremely high-performance parameters as Tesla's new car, there are several possibilities:
1. Simply to save face for their own fuel vehicles, you can't make electric vehicles appear much stronger than the performance parameters of fuel vehicles.
2. Although the size of the iX M60 and X5M is similar, but because of the addition of a large battery, even if BMW uses a lot of light materials, iX M60 is still heavier than X5M more than a hundred kilograms, reaching 2.5 tons, in order to ensure the driving experience that BMW insists on, such a weight can not do higher performance parameters.
3. BMW's current electric drive system, in order to ensure safety and stability, can achieve such results.
At the end of the day, for BMW, the situation is still slightly awkward on the flagship model of the flagship electric vehicle.
But relatively advantageous is that at present in this pricing range, pure electric competitors are not much, aside from the Porsche Taycan pure electric coupe and Mercedes-Benz EQS that pure electric luxury car, in the field of pure electric SUVs, BMW only needs to face the brand image gradually declining, and in the short term there is no desire to introduce a million electric vehicles Tesla.
On the other hand, the iX M60 is more like a smoke bomb, telling consumers who pay attention to the field of electric vehicles that BMW is very sincere, and the flagship of the pure electric SUV is very strong and expensive, but the same iX entry model, the exterior interior design and the technology configuration are basically the same as the M60, only selling more than 700,000, which is the main model of the real consumer market.
In addition to the new models, bmw's display of new technologies at CES also reflects the century-old luxury brand's new thinking on electrification and intelligence.
There are four new technologies in total:
1 High probability will not be mass production, but look at the cool electronic ink screen body
2 There is a high probability that the BMW suspension screen will be used on high-end models later
3 The My Mode driving theme on BMW's pure electric models will be updated soon
4 has been used in pure electric models, pure electric vehicle sound wave
The material of the electronic ink body is similar to the Kindle, very power-saving and can directly change the body color, this concept in addition to cool, the more interesting point is that when the body color can be adjusted in different areas, in the hotter area, let the body color change to white, as far as possible to reflect the heat, to avoid overheating inside the body, and in the colder areas, let the body become black, absorb the heat in the environment as much as possible, increase the endurance of the electric vehicle.
The aesthetics and practicality of this technology are very strong, but the reliability of electronic ink materials is not high, and it is difficult to transform into mass production technology in the short term, which can be understood as BMW's showmanship products at the CES technology summit.
The BMW Floating Giant Screen is a 32:9 screen that juts out of the rear ceiling and can reach a resolution of 8K, making it easy for rear passengers to watch streaming content. Although it is difficult to mass-produce the screen to achieve the standard of vehicle regulation, this technology is likely to be installed in the new BMW flagship model in the short term.
Once mass-produced, this is probably the best streaming screen to be installed in the car and have the viewing experience. BMW's idea of creating a digital experience is really straightforward, simply throwing a whole screen in the back row to improve the look and feel. It looks very rough, but in fact, to solve a lot of technical problems, on the one hand, the fragility and safety problems of the large screen, on the other hand, the suspension screen is usually placed on the roof, and it is difficult to withstand the ambient temperature received by the usual roof.
My Mode can be understood as a comprehensive sense of atmosphere presented by the collection of on-board large-screen themes, interior mood lights, comfort adjustment of vehicle seats, and different driving tuning on BMW's own electric vehicles. Looking very advanced, can make electric vehicle owners feel that it is more valuable to buy electric vehicles, this part is not much introduction, the meaning is not big.
During the interview, I was personally most interested in the sound of BMW's electric vehicles.
There are not many manufacturers who simulate the sound wave of electric vehicles, basically can be divided into two ideas, one is entertainment, which can simulate the sound wave of various fuel vehicles, and the other is the exclusive sound wave of electric vehicles.
But there are very few manufacturers to explain their methodology for making exclusive waves of electric vehicles. BMW invited Hans Zimmer to do the exclusive sound of electric vehicles, so in the interview, I asked this question:
Can you elaborate on what the workflow is like for making electric sound, how long do you need to spend on electric sound, how many tracks and samples are taken for each motorized sound composite sound?
The answer is this:
In the era of electric vehicles, sound is actually a very new topic, compared with the era of traditional fuel vehicles, the process of digitalization is revolutionary, or it is a new topic in the field of design. From this point of view, our concept is not to see the car as a machine, but as an art installation in which the driver and occupant interact with it. Man and such an art installation are working together to complete a performance or an interactive experience together, which is our understanding of the role that sound should play, and it should be an emotional expression of the interaction between man and the art installation.
From the moment we design sound, there is a dialogue between several departments within the company. For example, when we design the sound, we need to talk to the engineers and experts in the user interface department, and we also need to talk to the employees of the marketing and brand departments, what the BMW brand wants to express, what emotions it wants to convey, or what story it wants to tell to our audience, which is what we need to understand. Based on this, we design sound, conveying the brand story, conveying the brand's history and future, and conveying the brand's personality through sound.
The first step in designing the entire sound effect is more abstract, to start to set a tone, that is, the basic tone of the relationship between the entire sound and the product, and then start to design a complete set of sounds for a specific model. The specific design process takes a lot of iteration. As you can see in the video just now, we work with Hans Zimmer, a very famous film composer. The sound soundtrack of the movie "Inception" and the sound effects of the movie atmosphere are all made by him, and he has a lot of professional experience. We're moving the studio into a car, turning the car into a studio, and working on it for weeks or even months. The source of sound may be the sound of nature, the sound of an instrument, or the electronic sound generated by a computer algorithm, and we do not exclude all sources. We sample all the sound sources just mentioned in the process of all the sounds presented, and compose the music later.
In addition, on the basis of one model, we will equip different theme modes with different sound effects. Just introduced different theme modes, this is more detailed to the user's emotional expression in a certain scene, such as today in a specific period of driving you have this emotion, or want to express a certain emotion, emotion, we hope that in different themes can have different sound effects to express.
Finally, silence is also a sound. We tend to forget that quiet is also an expression of emotion, and sometimes we don't want any sound, and quiet is also very important. We have made a very convenient design, the user can turn off all the sounds during the use of the vehicle, allowing themselves to enjoy a completely quiet space, which is a factor in the sound design.
Although it is still quite abstract, but I myself in the iX test drive process, has already felt this exclusive sound, personal feelings are: really cool, very advanced, it seems that this electric car is very BMW, or more direct, it seems to be very expensive.
With so many new technologies released at once and a new model that benchmarks its own high-end sports fuel vehicles, BMW is quite determined about its own electrification and intelligent transformation.
Because of the success of the smart phone industry, most people will underestimate the difficulty of intelligence in the automobile industry, but the actual situation is that traditional car companies, if they want to achieve comprehensive electrification and intelligence, the first thing to do is not to overcome the digital technology of the car, but to first revolutionize their own lives, accept the new products with new technologies, stronger than their own most outstanding products, or even much stronger.
There is no doubt that this will be a painful process.
But the automotive industry exists for a hundred years, like BMW to survive a century-old brand, the transformation experienced, is not only the last decade of this, the reason why these century-old brands can survive, either led the change to occur, or quickly keep up with the change, make the head model in the change.
Surviving in the automotive industry has always tested the ability of decision-makers to determine the right direction and move forward firmly in the face of inconspicuous and unpredictable trends.
In this way, the efforts and attempts bmw is making now are useful to themselves and beneficial to consumers.