Extreme Krypton: Ambition and risk of doing while walking| auto industry and economy

Written by | Zhao Lingwei

Edit | Yu Jie

Produced | Automotive Sankei

After several rollover marketing incidents, there are many voices questioning whether Krypton is a project that is in a hurry, and now it seems that this statement is not right.

The original plan of The Krypton 001 was to belong to the ZERO product line under the Lynk & Co brand, and Geely's vision for it and the entire smart car began to be built seven years ago, the development of the Vast architecture began four years ago, and the development of ZEEKR 001 began three years ago.

Only at the last moment of the product release, Geely decided to set it up as a separate brand. Therefore, in the most important product planning and development process, this is by no means a temporary result.

But at the time of the brand's launch in April, it had to be admitted that almost all chains except for products were blank. In half a year, Extreme Krypton faced the direct sales system, marketing methods, user services and everything else that followed a new set of orders in the automobile market from 0 to 1.

This new order, including the veteran car company Geely, is also the first time to see, but because it is Geely, users have additional expectations for its own son.

But the bad thing of "the era" is too strong, and changing faces is never negotiable. Therefore, even in the face of constant controversy, the pole krypton must paddle forward with its broken oar.

Go first and find the soul on the road

The platform and products are well prepared by Geely, but when wearing the new clothes of "Extreme Krypton", it is still necessary to inject a new soul into it.

Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group and CMO of Extreme Kr Intelligent Technology, said, "Extreme Kr hopes to integrate extreme performance, intelligent technology, coupled with trend personality, leaving a deep imprint on people, so that everyone can really remember and agree, with the rollout of our delivery, the continuous expansion of the user base, our brand positioning will be clearer."

When asked about the accurate label and brand value proposition of Extreme Kr, Yang Xueliang said that he was still "looking for the soul", and after half a year to a year, Extreme Kr will tell the brand tone and characteristics in detail.

But in today's user enterprise atmosphere, this kind of learning while doing is risky.

For example, about the controversy over the preferential strategy before and after New Year's Day, Yang Xueliang said that in fact, the team thought of this problem, but because it would only cause trouble for a small number of users, but did not expect it to be so serious, because the previous traditional car companies' thinking was always to meet the needs of most consumers.

For Extreme Krypton, this is also a warning, "In fact, some problems are not necessarily very big, but users may care more about the attitude of the manufacturer and your value proposition, this change, we deeply feel."

The so-called user-oriented enterprise not only requires users to participate in brand co-creation, but also bears the various opinions of users. The change of the main engine factory from the simple relationship between A and B to the dealer to take care of the details of all users is cruel to the traditional enterprise driven by inertia, but it is imperative.

In the process of learning to become a new generation of car companies, Extreme Kr has experienced the shaking of user reputation, which is probably the largest tuition fee it has paid in the process of racing.

As a high-end intelligent brand in this era, from the car-making architecture that represents performance, to the software team that represents intelligence, as well as the standard direct sales system and energy replenishment network, Extreme Kr seems to have all the conditions for success, just waiting for a reason to become popular.

In the "high-end intelligence" label that thousands of troops are squeezing into, what the extreme krypton has to do is to find its own direction in the label.

Half-year-old extreme kryptonite early growth

A lot of things may not need to be fully prepared to start again, especially when there are no standard answers.

Starting first, then finding the rhythm, the extreme kryptonic attempt gives the late starter a confidence and motivation. It's just that this speed itself is also an ability, and this ability is not available to everyone.

In half a year, the Krypton brand has planned three product lines——

First, the "Z" product line where Extreme Kr 001 is located, positioning high-end luxury intelligent electric vehicles;

The second is the "C" product line, positioned in the popular market of medium/medium and large models;

The third is the "M" product line for future travel.

In the future, Extreme Kr will maintain the speed of 2 new cars on the market every year, in addition to the current 001, Extreme Kr has 6 new cars on the market before 2025.

In the planning of the future of travel, Extreme Kr recently announced a cooperation with Waymo, based on the Extreme Kr intelligent travel platform, will provide exclusive vehicles for the Waymo One driverless fleet.

Yang Xueliang explained that this is not simply to provide a car for Waymo, but to provide a solution that integrates soft and hardware. The platform for this driverless vehicle, called the Haohan-M architecture, is created by the Krypton European Innovation Center (CEVT), which is the R&D reserve of Kr for the future mobility market.

In the era of intelligent cars, the new tasks that users value and need to be personally assisted by OEMs include the construction of a supplementary energy system.

In the six months since the release of the brand, the self-built charging stations of Extreme Kr have been launched in 14 cities across the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen; the third-party charging network has covered more than 270,000 charging terminals in 326 cities across the country; and the home charging installation service has begun to serve 242 city car owners nationwide.

In 2022, with the establishment of the entire team of Extreme Kr, the system is gradually built and formed, and the resources are slowly allocated in place, many plans will soon be landed and promoted, including channels, refueling outlets and the number of vehicle deliveries will continue to increase.

It can also be seen that Extreme Kr has a very long-term plan in research and development reserves and prediction of future technology trends.

Write at the end

If the outside world can only evaluate the speed of light at the speed of extreme krypton in the dimension of time for the past half a year, then next, we can start to look at the entire adolescence of extreme krypton in terms of the number of deliveries.

Since deliveries began on October 23, 2021, ZEEKR 001 has delivered a total of 6,000+ units by the end of the year due to parts supply constraints.

In 2022, Extreme Kr plans to deliver 70,000 units of 001 to users. By 2025, Geely is tasked with achieving 650,000 annual sales, of which overseas sales are expected to be 100,000 units.

For a new brand, Geely gives Extreme Kr a pitiful amount of acceleration time. In these days when every second counts, Krypton can only continue to walk, learn, and do at the same time.