For several new forces with heads, the recent big moves have been continuous.
Last month, Weilai ET5 was just launched, and this month the new car interior of Xiaopeng's flagship model G9 was also exposed, and the price of the ideal second car X01 was also exposed recently, which also means that the three will have a bigger move in 2022.
In the past few years, for Wei Xiaoli, it is a struggle with life and death, and the three companies have successively had the risk of cash flow rupture, but fortunately, they have survived, and the annual sales have approached 100,000 vehicles.
After getting rid of the existential crisis, their next step is to compete for market dominance. How do these three do it? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
Short soldiers meet, and Wei Xiaoli's competition is fierce
In the previous years, although Wei Xiaoli also had competition, it was more than who had the louder voice and who could get the leadership of the electrification era. Specific to the product level, in fact, there is not much competition between it.
Weilai focuses on the market of more than 350,000 levels, and the main competitor is actually the traditional luxury brands of BBA; Xiaopeng's best-selling model is P7, mainly competing with Tesla Model 3 and BYD Han, and then the slightly lower positioning of G3 and P5; as for the ideal, it actually has only one car ideal ONE, as a 300,000-level six-seat range extender hybrid green SUV, positioned as a daddy market.
After the emergence of WEIO ET5, the situation has changed a lot. If you choose the battery rental plan, its price can be as low as 258,000 yuan, which has overlapped with P7. And its configuration is not even worse than the 400,000-level ET7.
Say a few simple, frameless windows plus electric suction doors, so that it has surpassed the same level of handsome elegance, 0.24cd wind resistance is the best in the same level; the whole series of standard Aquila Weilai super sense system, can provide 19 driving assistance functions, so that driving more relaxed; the whole series is equipped with a 23-speaker sound system, the sound power can reach 1kW, which is a luxurious audio level of sound quality, with a cross-level listening enjoyment.
Not to mention that it also has a maximum acceleration of 400 or 3 seconds per 100 kilometers, and a maximum endurance of more than 1000 km, which is definitely not good.
The recently frequently unveiled Xiaopeng G9 and Ideal X01 have a fairly unified goal, both aiming at NIO's flagship model, the ES8.
Xiaopeng G9 is more than 5 meters long, the wheelbase reaches 3 meters1, and is also equipped with 255/45 R21 Michelin Pilot Sport EV tires, as Xiaopeng's first mass production model equipped with XPILOT 4.0 function, its intelligent driving assistance ability is very strong, and it also adds an 800V ultra-high voltage supercharger platform to support super fast charging.
As for the ideal X01, its body size reached 5200*1998*1800mm, which is larger than the NIO ES8. And equipped with the second generation of range extender platform, will use a 1.5T four-cylinder engine as a ranger, the total cruising range of more than 800km, recently broke its starting price will be less than 400,000, this competitiveness is undoubtedly very outstanding.
Obviously, the emergence of Xiaopeng G9 and Ideal X01 will bring some pressure to Weilai ES8. Although NIO has advantages over the two in terms of brand image and service, it is undoubtedly not an easy task to deal with them.
Technical comparison, who holds the bull's ear?
Compared with the changes in product layout, the biggest difference between Wei Xiaoli and other new forces is that their technology iteration is faster and more targeted.
Take the NIO ET5, for example, which is already equipped with the latest Falcon semi-solid-state lidar. This new radar uses a 1550nm light source, and its two-dimensional micro-transformation scanning scheme detects a wide range of angles, such as pedestrians 150 meters away, tires 140 meters away, vehicles 250 meters away, and even road signs 120 meters away. Its detection distance far exceeds the safety red line of more than 150 meters in high-speed scenes, not only is the recognition more accurate, but the intelligent system can also be more relaxed, and it can be predicted in advance when it will follow the car and will drive, rather than frequent sharp braking.
The new car will also be equipped with the latest 150kWh battery pack, although the official promotion is a solid-state battery, but this new type of battery should actually be closer to the "mixed solid-liquid electrolyte lithium battery", compared to the traditional lithium battery It has a higher energy density and better safety. Weilai's official statement is that the energy density of this new type of battery has reached 360Wh/kg, completely hanging the mainstream ternary lithium battery at this stage. Of course, the 150kWh version has not yet been mass-produced, and it will take a while.
Compared with Weilai, Xiaopeng and the ideal technological breakthrough should not be underestimated. For example, Xiaopeng G9 uses the first mass-produced 800V high-voltage SiC platform, which can exceed 600A peak current when charging, can achieve charging 5 minutes of endurance of 200 kilometers, and the efficiency of the electric drive system developed based on the platform can reach 95%, which is more energy-saving than the old platform, and the energy replenishment speed is faster, which is not a new means to solve the anxiety of endurance.
The ideal upgrade is also very direct, the first generation of the range system is a 1.5T four-cylinder engine as a range extender, the biggest improvement is that the NVH performance has been greatly improved, and the thermal efficiency of the new hybrid special engine is more than 40%, which will also make the new car more energy-efficient.
It can be seen that Weilai is making breakthroughs in both aspects of intelligent driving in a higher dimension and subversive endurance, of course, the cost is relatively large; Ideal and Xiaopeng are focusing on the optimization of their own technology platforms, and the progress is also very obvious.
"Infrastructure" competition, who can beat the time?
These three have another characteristic, that is, they are all "infrastructure" demons, and they are all still in the state of "burning money". A large part of the huge amount of funds raised before and after the listing has been invested in the construction of services and channels, which is actually relatively rare in the new forces.
Taking Weilai as an example, the number of its substations has reached 778, and the number of newly built supercharge piles and destination charging piles in 2021 alone has reached 4582, and even created a new term, that is, "electric zone room". Combined with its flexible power exchange service, it can be said that with this "stupid method", it provides the best energy replenishment experience in the current new energy vehicle market.
In 2021, NIO also released its used car business, which greatly improved the value-preserving capacity of its models. 15 new NIO Houses and 72 service centers were built, and even NIO Life released 594 new products. In addition to providing 6 FOTA upgrade services to users of ES8, ES6 and EC6, Weilai App has carried out 16 version updates, which is also ahead of all car companies.
Xiaopeng focuses on layout charging services, and its brand supercharging stations have exceeded 660 seats, covering 228 cities. In terms of layout, it will be based on the big data of the owner's travel, give priority to ensuring the travel energy in the urban circle, and has laid out a supercharging network around the highway service area and the highway entrance and exit, which can well meet the needs of long-distance travel.
Xiaopeng also launched the first mass-produced 480KW high-voltage charging pile, which adopts a new charging gun liquid cold heat dissipation technology, and the maximum current carrying capacity can reach more than 670A. The key is also to use ultra-thin cables, light lifting weight, small insertion and pulling force, female car owners will not have additional burdens, which can be said to be quite intimate.
It can be seen that Weilai is actively promoting power replacement, Xiaopeng is overcharging in the layout, so what is the ideal of no mileage anxiety doing? The answer is to actively expand their sales and service networks.
In fact, many users have found that there are obviously more ideal stores around them. In the past December, Ideal has added 6 new after-sales service centers, located in Nanjing, Suzhou, Shijiazhuang, Changchun, Taiyuan and Urumqi. Its national retail centers have reached 206, covering 102 cities, in addition to 278 after-sales maintenance centers and authorized sheet metal spray centers, which can provide better service.
Kung Fu shoots
Entering 2022, Wei Xiaoli's product layout will begin to stagger, the competition between the three will officially open, and the previous situation of "well water does not violate river water" will be ended.
In terms of technology, the competition between the three has become more and more fierce, and there are great breakthroughs in performance realization, endurance, and automatic driving. However, what is even more valuable is that these three companies are actively engaged in "infrastructure" and expand their sales and service patterns.
The harder they fight, the more consumers benefit, and everyone who wants to buy an electric car may wish to wait and see.