Source: NIO official
8-year-old Weilai officially handed out the "battle book" to the 106-year-old BMW.
On February 15, at the all-weather marketing communication meeting of Weilai, Qin Lihong, president of Weilai, revealed that the previously rumored "Gemini" Gemini is actually the code name of Nio's new model ES7, which will be released in mid-April 2022 and is expected to be delivered within the year. The ES7 is between the ES6 and the ES8, officially positioned as a medium and large five-seat SUV, based on the NIO NT2.0 platform, "in terms of comfort to pursue more extremes." Qin Lihong made it clear that after the launch of the NIO ES7, it will benchmark the domestic long-wheelbase BMW X5L, and expects that these two cars will be the "most anticipated big five-seat SUV" in 2022. "Traditional fuel vehicle companies and emerging electric vehicle companies will work together to meet the needs of different users." Although from the beginning of its birth, Weilai has locked its competitors into the luxury three giants BBA, but it is the first time that it has clearly launched a specific model to benchmark with BMW. As soon as Qin Lihong's front foot spoke, netizens talked about it on their back feet. Many Weilai car owners said that they "can't wait", and some car owners bluntly said sour, "tangled or not to order ET7", "sit and wait for ES7, have given up ES6". There are also netizens pouring cold water, "first profit and then consider who to surpass." Of course, some people also question that such a benchmark, Weilai is obviously rubbing BMW's fame. As for the price, delivery time and other further information of the ES7 that everyone is most concerned about, Qin Lihong said that "the hijab will be unveiled in mid-April."
ES7 stiff BMW X5L
ES7, Weilai has been plotting for a long time. In May 2021, JAC Motor issued a tender announcement saying that JAC WEILAI was preparing a new model, which was named "Gemini" and Chinese named "Gemini". It is expected to produce 60,000 vehicles per year and 5,000 Geminis per month. At the end of 2021, the ES7's spy photos flowed out, using a new style of five-spoke strip blackened wheels, and the charging port was located in the left rear position. The interior has yet to be revealed, and industry insiders speculate that it will adopt a layout similar to that of the ET7.
Source: NIO APP
In terms of intelligent configuration, since the ES7 is the third model built based on the Nio NT2.0 platform, netizens speculate that this car will be on par with ET5 and ET7, that is, equipped with Qualcomm's third-generation digital cockpit platform, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 car chip, and matching the latest Banyan car machine system, it will also be equipped with lidar.
The new car will be between the ES6 and ES8 in size. According to official information, the WEIO ES8 is 5022mm, 1962mm and 1735mm in length, width and height, with a wheelbase of 3010mm, and the body size of the ES6 is 4850mm, 1965mm and 1758mm, and the wheelbase is 2900mm. Some speculate that the body size of the NIO ES7 is about 4920mm, 1965mm and 1757mm, and the wheelbase is 2960mm. Referring to the price of ES6 and ES8, some netizens speculated that the starting price of ES7 may be 400,000 yuan, "blind guess ES7 priced at 429,800 yuan, 30,000 yuan more expensive than the ES6 performance version." Judging from the available information, ES7 still has the strength to compete with bmw X5L. First of all, the pre-price of the BMW X5L is 558,000-758,000 yuan (online price), which is much more expensive than the ES7. From the perspective of body size, the length, width and height of the domestic BMW X5L are 5060mm, 2004mm and 1779mm, and the wheelbase is 3105mm (network transmission), which is slightly better than the ES7 in space.
Since its inception, NIO has regarded BBA as a competitor. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, did not shy away from competing with BBA for jobs, "A large part of our customers are converted from BBA owners. Just like there will always be a McDonald's around KFC, "Basically, cities with BBA, Lexus stores, we will definitely cover, this is the strategy of Weilai Weilai."
In fact, Weilai has entered the BBA hinterland. According to Li Bin, the average selling price of Weilai models is 434,700 yuan, which is higher than the average selling price of Audi and BMW, and more than 100,000 yuan more expensive than the average selling price of Tesla China, and has initially become a high-end brand. In the BBA, NIO seems to be more interested in "beating" BMW. With the release of three products on the NT2.0 platform, THE PRODUCT MATRIX of WEILAI BENCHMARKING BMW is becoming more and more complete. Qin Lihong introduced that in addition to the WEILAI ES7 will be hard BMW X5L, WEILAI ET7 will be benchmarked against the BMW 7 Series, and the WEILAI ET5 will be benchmarked against the BMW 3 Series. Battery life anxiety is one of the pain points of electric vehicles. In order to grab the users of fuel vehicles, WEI has vigorously laid out infrastructure and strived to add electricity as convenient as refueling. As of December 18, 2021, the number of WEILAI substations has reached 733, of which the highway replacement network has completed the layout of 169 substations, while there are 3348 destination charging piles and 3136 supercharged piles, and more than 440,000 third-party charging piles. On February 15, WEILAI officials said that in 2022, Weilai's energy replenishment network will reach more than 1,300 substations, more than 6,000 supercharged piles and more than 10,000 destination charging piles.
It's not easy to win a BMW
Three years ago, many people said that the window period of Weilai was only a few years, and BBA was finished as soon as it made electric vehicles. But at present, "the first card of the BBA has been completed, and we are running in a relatively high position in the 100th meter of the marathon", perhaps this is the confidence that Qin Lihong dares to publicly benchmark BMW. In September 2020, BMW's first pure electric SUV, the iX3, was late. This car is an electric version of the BMW X3, and compared with the X3's outstanding performance in the field of fuel vehicles, the sales of the iX3 are difficult to be optimistic. Official data shows that in 2021, the BMW iX3 will deliver about 37,900 units worldwide. Qin Lihong revealed that from the share of insurance in the new energy vehicle market of more than 300,000 yuan in 2021, Weilai has ranked first, reaching 40.7%. In this field, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi sales of more than 20,000, more than 7,000 and more than 2,000 respectively, compared with more than 90,000 deliveries of NIO in the whole year. In order to increase sales, BMW iX3 has reduced its own price, significantly reduced by more than 70,000 yuan, "this is rare in the global automotive industry", Qin Lihong commented, in the field of high-end new energy vehicles, "Weilai and BMW are not backwards." Still, he still "respects BMW." Judging from a number of key parameters, BMW pure electric vehicles are indeed somewhat mediocre and lack explosive points. For example, the BMW iX3 has a range of 500 kilometers, while the Weilai model generally has a range of about 600 kilometers. In addition, the BMW iX3 does not have the mainstream function of OTA upgrades. This is derived from its "oil to electricity" car building idea, the iX3 and BMW X3 from the CLAR rear-drive platform. Luxury giants also seem to be indulging in their brand charm. "The BBA seems to think that consumers will identify with their brands before choosing a car." Automotive industry analyst Wang Meng said. At the same time, Weilai has pried away the young users of BBA in a variety of ways. User operation is naturally a major killer of Weilai. On February 15, according to Wei Jian, senior vice president of user operations of NIO, NIO held 1,107 activities for users in the past year. "Weilai users' cars are broken, there is no electricity, and even if they can't grab the goods in the boutique mall, they can find Weilai employees (to solve). In Weilai, being good to users is not a means, but an end. ”
But it is not easy for Weilai to win over BMW. BMW is also catching up with all its might. According to foreign media reports, BMW is developing its own exclusive platform for electric vehicles, and the new platform will be used in a new factory in Hungary after 2025. In 2023, BMW plans to expand its new energy vehicle products to 25 models, half of which are pure electric models; in 2025, BMW will also invest more than 30 billion euros in new technology research and development in hydrogen fuel cell technology and other fields.
Prior to this, the deep accumulation in the field of fuel vehicles will help BMW smoothly transition to the new energy era. On the other hand, WEILAI itself is also facing growing pains. Since July 2021, WEILAI has repeatedly lost the title of the new force. NIO officials have repeatedly attributed this to a shortage of spare parts supply. In 2022, NIO will push 3 new cars, and the supply of spare parts will still be a constraint on NIO's delivery. Qin Lihong helplessly said that this year's delivery target, he said it does not count, the supply chain has the final say, can only be "how much to produce and how much to pay." However, Qin Lihong expects that with the commissioning of the new plant in Hefei Xinqiao, THE DELIVERY of Weilai will rise to a higher level. In addition, rivals are also launching offensives into the high-end and luxury car field. Among them, Xiaopeng Automobile may open the pre-sale of the new flagship SUV model Xiaopeng G9 in April. The Great Wall Mech Dragon, priced at 488,000 yuan, will also be officially delivered in 2022. (At the request of the interviewee, Wang Meng is a pseudonym)
Author | Wu Xiaoyu
Edit | Li Huanhuan