2021 is the first year of the market-oriented development of new energy vehicles, and it is also a year in which new forces have achieved "stage victories" in car manufacturing. The new forces car-making head enterprises Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal have successively ushered in 100,000 vehicles off the production line, and have also entered the ranks of monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles.
It seems to be the most extraordinary, as easy as it is but difficult.
Mass production is difficult, delivery is difficult, brand building is difficult, user operation is difficult... Behind the "stage victory", it is a difficult road that the new forces of car-making have crossed.
The new forces are still facing another difficulty - the "difficulty of quality control".
In recent years, accidents such as broken axles, loss of control, and spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles have been common, and every time a new brand of a car has a product problem, it will cause strong public concern. Behind this, consumers' disdain for the new forces is more from "distrust", and the root of distrust is the fear that the quality of the product is not good.
At the same time, there should be a lot of doubts...
Can the new forces create a "good car" that consumers recognize?
In terms of quality control, where is the gap between the new forces and traditional brands?
As the first delivery of Xiaopeng Automobile in the new car-making forces in 2021, it is worth paying attention to, and its widely acclaimed "Pengpai quality" is more worthy of learning from the industry.
So, what did Xiaopeng do? And what correct path reference can it provide for the quality of new energy vehicles?
Two extreme tests, a glimpse of the good quality of "all-round" without dead ends
In fact, the reason why new forces are prone to various problems is not that the technology is not advanced enough, but more because there are deviations in the concept and quality control of the car.
Compared with other new forces, as early as the 2018 Xiaopeng first car G3 debut conference, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, emphasized the importance of "quality" several times.
With the rapid development of the new energy market, Xiaopeng still maintains its original intention of making cars and maintains extremely high requirements for the quality of its products.
This is not only reflected in its quality control of products, but also in the strictness of its testing standards.
In December last year, at the China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Tianjin, Xiaopeng P5 finally passed this rigorous test that exceeded national standards after nearly eight hours of "low temperature immersion" in the extreme cold state of -23 ° C. The test temperature required by the national standard test is only -18 °C, and the experimental standard of Xiaopeng P5 is -23 °C. In addition, its remote start project performance is also much faster than the 7 seconds required by the national standard, and the defrosting link has reached 99.8% of the defrosting area in 20 minutes, while the national standard requires only 80%.
Behind this outstanding performance, Xiaopeng used intuitive performance to completely dispel the "stereotype" of some consumers that electric vehicles could not be used normally in winter.
In other words, even in the cold northern region of China, Xiaopeng can still meet the needs of the vast majority of users.
If the extreme low temperature test of Xiaopeng P5 directly hit the pain points of users of winter cars, then the seawater spray test previously carried out in November further established the image of "high-quality electric vehicles" for Xiaopeng.
As we all know, seawater, as a natural electrolyte, can cause severe corrosion to metal parts, as well as for automobiles. The electrolyte sprinkled on the body of the car in one day by the seawater spray test is equivalent to the electrolyte content that the car can be exposed to during normal one-year use.
In this extreme test in the 751D PARK Plaza of Beijing's 798 Art District, Xiaopeng used more than 30 high-pressure sprinklers to spray the body-in-white of a Xiaopeng P7 for 550 hours without interruption.
In the end, the Xiaopeng P7 white body has no foaming, no edge corrosion, and no weld corrosion - front cover, front wall, front wheel package lower part, left and right fenders, left and right front door, left and right rear doors, left and right side doors, rear tailgate surface corrosion grade are all 0 non-corrosion, only the front cabin components, trunk and rear floor parts surface reached level 1 micro-corrosion, and the corrosion area < 0.05%.
The test itself, whether it is the test duration, the test standard, the body-in-white body for the sample, or the user's zero-distance contact, has created a number of "firsts" for new forces to build cars.
Whether it is a 550-hour seawater shower experiment or a -23 °C ultra-national standard extreme cold test, Xiaopeng uses the most intuitive and most perceptive way to prove its "all-round" good quality without dead ends, dispelling users' doubts. From another point of view, this also reflects Xiaopeng's awe of product quality and its determination to bring users a quality experience that exceeds expectations.
Based on this, Xiaopeng has undoubtedly set a quality benchmark with full gold content for the new forces.
Behind the "intelligent" moat is the hard process support of "whole system" digitalization
Nietzsche once said: In fact, man is the same as the tree, and the more he yearns for the sunlight in the high places, the more its roots must reach to the ground.
This sentence also applies to Xiaopeng. It is precisely because Xiaopeng has never forgotten to take root in the moat of "intelligence", relying on a series of technologies such as software and hardware self-development to achieve the first sales of the new power brand in 2021.
However, behind the leading product force blessed with "intelligence", the good quality empowered by intelligent manufacturing is the support point.
Located in Xiaopeng Zhaoqing Industrial Park, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, in full accordance with Industry 4.0 standards, from stamping, welding, painting, assembly to flexible battery assembly line to create a "whole system" digital intelligent production line.
For example, in the stamping workshop, pieces of steel plates are perfectly formed on the 6600t CNC large-scale automatic stamping production line, with 12 pieces per minute and a manufacturing accuracy of 0.1mm per minute. From point to surface, from surface to whole, it is Xiaopeng who ensures that every tiny detail is improved in order to manufacture intelligent new energy products that lead the industry.
For example, as the welding workshop based on the quality of the whole vehicle, Xiaopeng's first and second stage assembly automation rate is 100%, with up to 210 ABB industrial robots, and has the ability to manufacture steel and aluminum hybrid body; some welding stations use SPR self-punching riveting technology for lightweight aluminum plate welding, which can save 30% energy on welding machines, reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Moreover, the MES management system is fully applied in the factory, with the dynamic real-time display of vehicle location, video surveillance of key stations, QMS quality entry, automatic generation of production statistics reports and other functions, to ensure efficiency and quality.
In other words, under the opening of intelligent manufacturing, Xiaopeng has realized the traceability of the entire product life cycle.
Xiaopeng's intelligent production line covering the production of the "whole system" from top to bottom is undoubtedly "on par" with most traditional car companies and even luxury brands, which is particularly rare among the new forces.
It is worth mentioning that on top of the strict digital visualization production line, Xiaopeng has created a vehicle evaluation system for Xiaopeng Automobile based on the unique XPVES system.
The assessors in this evaluation system will stand independently on the position of users using products, in accordance with the unified standards formulated by the quality department of Xiaopeng Automobile, and carry out random sampling and review activities for vehicles that have been confirmed to be qualified with a professional and comprehensive vision.
Every vehicle from Xiaopeng factory will complete more than 1,700 dynamic and static inspections in a test site with an area of 30,000 square meters. This includes 18 simulated road conditions (including highways, wading roads, ABS roads, seams roads, etc.), with a cumulative journey of more than 30,000 km, ensuring that the factory is a boutique.
In general, whether from the perspective of process, quality control and even smart factories covering the "whole system", even compared with mature joint ventures or large factory brands, Xiaopeng is not behind.
It is also based on this strict "pinzhi manufacturing" that every new energy vehicle produced by Xiaopeng is guaranteed to have world-class hard-core quality.
Based on this, we believe that Xiaopeng, who is almost demanding on its own quality, can refresh consumers' cognition of new forces in car building while reducing consumer mustard.
Based on quality, we build a high value preservation of the "whole life" cycle of the car
"The retention rate of new energy vehicles is not good, and it will definitely lose money when you buy it!"
This is the advice that consumers hear most often when consulting the purchase of new energy models. In fact, due to the problem of product quality and ownership, the retention rate of new energy vehicles has always been a "heart disease" of consumers. However, Xiaopeng broke the stereotype of low value preservation of new energy used cars in the past.
According to the 2021 China Automobile Retention Report, the Xiaopeng P7 ranked second in the list of new energy vehicle retention rates in 2021 with a high retention rate of 85.67%, overpowering models such as tesla Model 3 and Porsche Taycan.
Compared with traditional brands, the first-year retention rate of Xiaopeng P7 is second only to the average level of Japanese cars, and it is stronger than other brands such as German. Behind this, the high retention rate of Xiaopeng P7 is not just a simple number, but also a testimony to the market's trust in its superior quality.
In other words, unlike other new forces, the high retention rate has become the best portrayal of Xiaopeng's "high quality".
As a result, Xiaopeng can not only bring consumers a high value preservation covering the "whole life" cycle of the car, but also break the "value ceiling" of new energy vehicles, so that consumers can buy at ease.
It can be expected that with the continuous expansion of sales, Xiaopeng will also bring a positive effect to the development of the new energy second-hand car market, and further eliminate consumers' "heart disease" of value retention rate. In the automotive market, using the most core "quality" as a weapon to knock on the door of consumers' hearts is a method that car companies will never go out of style.
As a pioneer brand of intelligent electric vehicles in China, Xiaopeng not only continues to lead in the field of intelligence, but also sets a benchmark in the industry with the good quality of "all-round" without dead ends and the hard process of "whole system" digitalization. With the dual blessing of quality and intelligence, Xiaopeng will not only reduce the "distrust" of the outside world for the products of new forces, and gain more consumer recognition, but also will have a stable foundation and motivation in the future new energy market.