Behind the new standard, Xiao Peng wants to tell everyone something

I don't know when it started, the outside world began to be particularly enthusiastic about the renaming of Xiaopeng Motors. Even He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, said bluntly that he felt quite "ordinary" to hear the name Xiaopeng. But soon, this kind of thought flashed in He Xiaopeng's mind. On the day of the Xiaopeng Automobile Brand Renewal Day press conference, the entry of "He Xiaopeng responded to the naming of Xiaopeng Automobile" once rushed to the fourth place in the Weibo hot search list. "Change the name, we don't change!" It all stems from this short but firm statement. How much a business can do has nothing to do with whether its name is ordinary or not. Great businesses in history and today, not a few are named after their founders. Because, behind a name, there is a kind of recognition, a kind of responsibility, and a kind of self-confidence. When Xiaopeng Automobile was founded in 2014, it was the era of "PPT car-making" that was popular. Whether it is a traditional car factory or the media, everyone looks at these new start-ups like a joke, and the "new car-making forces" are more like a kind of irony at that time. However, when the time came to 7 years later, we found that it was not car veterans or Internet giants who ignited the spark of China's automobile revolution, but several entrepreneurs who seemed to have nothing to do with car manufacturing - He Xiaopeng was one of them.

He Xiaopeng used an hour-long speech on the Xiaopeng brand renewal day to comprehensively depict the past, present and future of Xiaopeng Automobile. He Xiaopeng does not shy away from the problem, but He Xiaopeng is more convinced that China's automobile needs a forerunner to stand at the top of the era of change, and what he has to do is to use cognition, persistence and innovation to be the trend-leading trendmaker. What Xiaopeng wants to do is not just an automobile company. For Xiaopeng, what does technology mean? When the Xiaopeng Automobile team was just established, He Xiaopeng firmly believed that the future was the era of intelligent cars. Smart + electric + car, representing the combination of information, energy and industry, which will promote the huge changes in future travel and life scenarios, and the degree of change is even far more than apple brought smart phones to people's sides. At that time, it was not only the Xiaopeng family who had this idea. There are also many people who think that they have an idea, that is, they have the upper hand. However, the thought is only one step. After thinking about it, we have the ability to grasp the rhythm, have concentration, and persevere, in order to truly cross the impossible gap. Xiao Peng thought so, and he did indeed do so. Therefore, Xiaopeng is considering the closed loop of software and hardware from the underlying organization and genes. In China, Xiaopeng has achieved full-stack self-research in the field of automatic driving, and the Internet thinking of small steps and fast running and rapid feedback iteration has been vividly displayed on Xiaopeng's intelligent road. Car manufacturing is very expensive, but even in 2019, when Xiaopeng is struggling to operate, He Xiaopeng is firmly leaving behind the autopilot team with a huge scale of burning money, because He Xiaopeng believes that this thing can be achieved in the future.

From the cultivation of xiaopeng G3's ability to cut into the full surround vision algorithm with the parking scene in the early morning, to the release of the Xavier automatic driving platform by Xiaopeng P7, and on this basis, the self-developed NGP intelligent navigation assisted driving and VPA memory parking suitable for high-speed scenarios, to the introduction of lidar in Xiaopeng P5, the development of urban NGP after integration with the full surround vision algorithm, and then to the upcoming launch of xiaopeng G9 based on the Orin automatic driving platform next year to completely open up the high-speed + city + parking scenario. In the face of a brand new thing, Xiaopeng can move forward step by step with an orderly rhythm. On the surface, Xiaopeng's road to autonomous driving seems to be radical, such as lidar in the morning and early start of urban NGP. However, every step of Xiaopeng has strict project management and technical landing products, and the requirements for project organization ability and operation ability are extremely high. Among all the car companies in China, Xiaopeng is one to do, and it is currently the only one to do. The result of this is that Xiaopeng's car owners are willing to use or even willing to use various auxiliary driving functions. The installation rate of XPILOT 2.5 and above is nearly 90%, and the activation rate of XPILOT 3.0 is also nearly 60%. The cumulative driving mileage of NGP intelligent navigation assisted driving reached 11.98 million kilometers, and the memory route of parking lot memory parking also reached 20,731. If you look back at Xiaopeng's past 7 years, you will find a very interesting thing - since its establishment, Xiaopeng has never released a concept car or a display car. All of Xiaopeng's exploration is to be able to mass-produce it, so as to use technology to change the intelligent travel life of human beings. However, Xiao Peng understands better that in the face of an opportunity with huge space, there will basically be no one-trick to defeat the enemy. Therefore, Xiao Peng's approach is to run in small steps and turn the advantages into barriers step by step. In He Xiaopeng's heart, there is also an ideal of globalization. Some people may question whether Xiaopeng's current size and influence can support globalization, and many people around He Xiaopeng have advised him that he should do a good job in the Chinese market and then consider globalization. However, it is precisely because of the gene that intelligence is the core that Xiaopeng can lay out overseas markets earlier. Because what can really be globalized is actually scientific and technological capabilities. Only scientific and technological capabilities can have strong universality under huge regional differences and become the basis for opening up the market. If you don't change your name, why does Xiaopeng have to change the label?

The identity of a brand is one of the touchpoints of brand building. Therefore, when the logo of a brand changes, most of the outside world will focus on the evaluation of the design of the logo itself, and will also guess the commercial motivation behind the brand change. But in fact, the core purpose of most of the re-labeling is to let the market see the change, and let the visual graphics change become the key communication channel for user experience upgrades. This determines that the change of standard based on this purpose will not change dramatically, but it must be able to feel the change everywhere. Therefore, when He Xiaopeng half-jokingly ridiculed Xiaomi for spending 2 million yuan to turn the original square logo into rounded corners, but finally gained the recognition of the brand concept, in fact, Xiaopeng's bid change was exactly like this. On the surface, the new standard of Xiaopeng, which still maintains the X shape, has changed from four halves to two halves compared to the old standard, with sharper corners and more extensions to the four sides. However, it is precisely these changes that make Xiaopeng's positioning as a "future travel explorer" incomparably clear. The X itself evolved from the unknown "X" letter in eXplorer, with four halves becoming two halves, implying the wings of ambition, while the larger extension represents a stronger desire to break through boundaries. For today's Xiaopeng, it is not enough to simply understand it as "Xiaopeng Automobile". Whether it is the step-by-step promotion of intelligent driving of automobiles, or the three-dimensional exploration of robots and flying cars with intelligence as the core, Xiaopeng Automobile is evolving into an international technology brand. Moreover, just as Xiaopeng never only does concept display products when making cars, for robots and flying cars, Xiaopeng is also thinking of large industry and promoting these explorations step by step. Because Xiaopeng hopes to lead the future travel revolution through exploration of science and technology, and create a more convenient and pleasant travel life for human beings. To implement this vision and mission, it is necessary to do it rhythmically. Maybe these things are difficult to relate to the cars that everyone remembers today, but once one day these things have a chemical reaction, it will definitely be 10 times cooler than today. And the doubts in this process are not what Xiaopeng cares about.

In He Xiaopeng's heart, it wants future users to mention Xiaopeng when it comes to products that will be described as "very handsome, technological, intelligent, and high-quality", and when it comes to corporate brands, it will think of labels such as "exploration, sustainability, and social responsibility". When Xiaopeng is already running on this road, a new logo is the high-frequency contact point that shapes the user's brand experience, and it is also a lasting connection between the user and the brand on the spiritual level. The identity of a brand is the infrastructure of the brand spirit and the carrier of the accumulation of brand value. Therefore, visual design is only the foundation, more critical through the communication of visual design changes, Xiaopeng to "future travel explorer" positioning firmly in the user's heart, let everyone realize that Xiaopeng "intelligent, quality, exploration, cool, sustainable" brand core value, not source water, no wood. Just after the release of Xiaopeng Automobile's Q3 financial report, He Xiaopeng said that he would explore the Robotaxi business in the second half of 2022 through mass production of pre-installed hardware and software, which will be another centralized release of Xiaopeng intelligent technology reserves. As soon as the news came out, the potential commercial value immediately led Citibank to raise the target price of Xiaopeng Motors from $87 to $92. To do intelligent driving step by step without taking over, or to explore the three-dimensional future travel in multiple scenarios, Xiaopeng's original intention has not changed, that is, to be a technology company. This kind of culture and thinking, which is rooted in the bones, determines all of Xiaopeng's strategies, all its behaviors, and all the landing products. The change of bid is only so that everyone can see this matter more concretely. Reprinted: Tong Jiren Auto Review

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From February 14, 2022 to February 28, 2022