The automotive industry never lacks slogans of technology, just to see who can really do it.
Two years ago, on NIO Day, Li Bin unveiled the NIO ET7 equipped with a 150kWh solid-state battery, which can achieve ultra-high energy density of 360Wh/kg and a range of 1000km. A year ago, GAC Aean released a graphene battery, claiming that this battery can not only last more than 1,000km, but also meet 80% of 8 minutes of charging.
From a technical point of view alone, NIO's 1000km endurance and GAC Ae's 8-point charge are of epoch-making significance, but until today, NIO's official website can not book such an ET7, and GAC Eian has no specific model to complete such an operation.
PPT cars, which seem to have gradually disappeared, are still constantly staged every day.
Hype up the way technology makes money
In fact, just after Weilai and GAC Aean respectively unveiled their own two technologies, the same thing happened, that is, the stock rose. In 2020, Weilai's market value once exceeded 100 billion US dollars, becoming the "world's third largest car company", approaching Toyota and Tesla, and Li Bin successfully raised 10 billion yuan after that. At the beginning of 2021, after gac group released the graphene battery poster in Aian, the stock rose and stopped that morning, and even rose in the tail of the graphene concept stock and the new energy vehicle concept stock.
No matter when the technology can land, the two car companies have received enough capital.
However, such an operation is not only two car companies, Weilai and GAC Aean. Intelligent driving assistance system has always been one of the big selling points of winding new energy vehicles, since battery life and charging can shout slogans, then intelligent driving assistance can also be.
With the beginning of the installation of high-cost lidar in new energy vehicles, more and more car companies have begun to spread the power of intelligent driving assistance of their own models. Taking the WM M7 as an example, it is directly on the promotional page of the official website that it can complete the intelligent assistance of the whole scene, and this car does not even have a specific listing time.
If technology can really achieve the Great Leap Forward through publicity and capital, then how can so many car companies be eliminated in these years? Technology takes time to polish, which some car companies have a certain say.
Only a little bit of progress at a time
In September last year, Xiaopeng launched the family's third model, the Xiaopeng P5. As the first car company in the entire automotive industry to mass-produce lidar, Xiaopeng P5 can be said to be the forerunner of intelligent cars based on lidar. At this time, many car companies are still in the stage of no physical publicity.
However, the installation of lidar does not mean that it can immediately complete a series of complex intelligent driving, Xiaopeng is very aware of this, so in February this year, Xiaopeng P5 OTA brought under the existing lidar blessing, a car mass-produced intelligent driving assistance can do to what extent.
In this OTA, Xiaopeng P5 has a new function VPA-L. The Chinese name of VPA is long-distance memory parking, and L is the English abbreviation of lidar. With the blessing of lidar, Xiaopeng P5 can achieve automatic parking across floors at a distance of about two kilometers from the target parking lot.
Regarding VPA, if you have some understanding of Xiaopeng's model information, in fact, in December last year, Xiaopeng P7 can achieve this function. However, because of the blessing of lidar, VPA-L can perform more complex operations. First of all, compared with the condition that VPA is about one kilometer open, the opening of VPA-L at a longer distance needs to deal with more complex road conditions, which is currently unattainable by Xiaopeng P7 millimeter wave radar and software computing power. Secondly, the automatic parking of cross-floors requires that the model is facing the undulating road surface from time to time, and these are the "weaknesses" of millimeter-wave radar, on the contrary, under the blessing of lidar, all-weather scene coverage can be achieved to achieve automatic parking across floors.
In fact, it is not difficult to see that this is the "most real side" of lidar at this stage, it is indeed better than the millimeter-wave radar on the market in all aspects, but it is also based on the functions that millimeter-wave radar can achieve to further optimize the function.
It is not that models equipped with lidar can achieve more complex intelligent driving, but there is currently such potential.
Xiaopeng P5 this OTA not only demonstrated the level of lidar can be achieved by the entire industry, but also guided consumers to correctly look at lidar.
generally
The three major selling points of new energy vehicles are intelligence, endurance and charging, so car companies also understand that as long as they play some routines in these three aspects, consumers will be willing to be hooked.
But behind the routine, car companies are also bearing the consequences. In 2021, Weilai's sales will inevitably lose the position of "new force brother", and THE TECHNOLOGY OF GAC AEAN has also been questioned by experts.
As a car company, publicity is certain, but it is also necessary to bear the risks behind the publicity.
Otherwise, just like Xiao Peng, slowly polish his own technology.