Recently, I have been discussing hybrid new cars with you, and I have not heard about pure fuel new cars for a long time, especially "large displacement" pure fuel vehicles. On March 17, Roewe Automobile launched a new pure fuel car, and simultaneously opened pre-sale, the pre-price of the three new cars in 166,800 to 192,800 yuan, named "whale".
When everyone is frantically promoting the hybrid car series, Roewe Automobile continues to open up the pure fuel vehicle market in another way, and it is also a pure fuel vehicle equipped with a strong combination of 2.0T+8AT, which will more or less arouse the desire of many users to explore. Today, let's have a good chat with you about this Roewe whale known as "domestic X4", how is it?
Why "domestic X4"?
As soon as the Roewe Whale car was unveiled, it was called "domestic small X4" by many users, because its overall appearance also adopted a sneakback design similar to bmw X4, which was very recognizable.
Of course, in addition to the overall shape of the coupe SUV, Roewe Whale is the latest design language of Roewe Automobile in all design details, which Roewe Automobile officially calls "whale aesthetics", including the front face grille, tail lights, tail wings, etc. are all designs related to "whale" elements.
For example, the front face design of the Roewe whale, especially the forward grille fold + cut design, looks very similar to the skin lines on the whale's abdomen. A total of 30 prisms are fan-shaped, and the middle is embellished with gold trim, which is full of detail, very visual impact, and very recognizable.
The design of the rear part of the car is inspired by the high posture of the tail fin when the whale jumps into the water, but this tail wing is not only integrated with the "whale design", but more importantly, it can optimize the aerodynamics, bringing the practical significance of reducing wind resistance, fuel consumption and noise.
In addition, the design inspiration of roewe whale's side exterior mirrors, body lines, etc. also adopts the "whale" bionic aesthetic design, which is indeed enough to see. The vehicle's exclusive 19-inch Michelin wheels, as well as the front and rear run-through head and taillight design, are also one of the design highlights of roewe whale.
Overall, although the design of Roewe Whale is more assertive and personal, it is very recognizable and easy to get the attention of young users. However, as a pure fuel vehicle, the design of Roewe Whale is somewhat "too strong", and it is easy to polarize.
Why push 2.0T+8AT?
I believe that many small partners will also think about the problem of "why roewe whale push 2.0T" after seeing the Roewe Whale car, after all, the current mainstream hot-selling models are basically around 1.5T, especially as a pure fuel vehicle.
If you are relatively familiar with the Roewe brand, in fact, the reasons behind it are also very well understood. Roewe Auto's best selling SUV model is the RX5 family, especially the launch of roewe RX5 PLUS, which has contributed a lot to its sales growth.
However, a careful comparison of the best Haval H6 and Changan CS75 sold by independent brands at present, it can be clearly found that the current Roewe RX5 is difficult to compete with, because Changan CS75 PLUS and Haval H6 both have 2.0T, while Roewe RX5 has only 1.5T power, which will inevitably narrow the user circle.
Instead of adding a 2.0T version directly to the Roewe RX5 PLUS, why not build a new car? And it can also bring more new upgrades at other levels, why not?
Roewe Whale adopts a new generation of 2.0TGI blue-core engine, its maximum power reaches 170kW, and the peak torque can reach 370N·m, which is basically consistent with the 2.0T power level of the same level. The main Roewe whale is equipped with a Aisin 8AT gearbox, which is obviously more acceptable to users.
Such a power level, although not particularly prominent, is basically consistent with the haval H6 and Changan CS75 PLUS, two independent hot-selling 2.0T models. Of course, this also shows from the side that the current power specifications are acceptable to users after measuring fuel consumption and power.
What else is there besides 2.0T+8AT?
Obviously, with only exaggerated design and a set of 2.0T+8AT momentum, it is obviously not enough to get out of the circle in the "fierce" SUV market. Therefore, Roewe Whale must show more sincerity, so that it is possible to grab some sales in the mouth of the "tiger".
In this regard, Roewe Automobile is very clever to delegate the intelligence that users value most as the second most competitiveness of the product to the Roewe whale. Roewe Automobile defines Roewe Whale as the world's first "bionic intelligent driving life body", bionic refers to its "whale-style" design, driving nature refers to the "2.0T + 8AT" gold power combination, wisdom is the essence of Roewe Whale.
First of all, let's talk about the "wisdom" at the driving level, from the perspective of intelligent driving hardware equipment, Roewe Whale is definitely very generous. There are 29 intelligent driving sensors in the whole car, even if compared with some new energy vehicles at the same price, the level of intelligent driving hardware is extremely high.
With the support of such a huge intelligent driving hardware, Roewe Whale can basically realize the intelligent driving function of the current mainstream pure electric new force products, such as the follow-up navigation intelligent driving (NGP intelligent driving pilot system) under the covered road section of the high-precision map, which can realize autonomous up and down ramps and switch speeds.
Automatic parking is no longer a conventional scribing position parking, the same use of surround view camera + radar fusion automatic parking, especially for non-scribing parking spaces or oblique, side position and other high-difficulty parking help is very large, which is still relatively large for urban cars, but also support near-field remote parking.
In addition to being smart enough at the driving level, Roewe Whale has also made corresponding intelligent improvements in terms of vehicles. The ring screen giant screen, which is composed of dual 12.3-inch IMAX high-definition screens, can support more applications, and with the built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 vehicle-level chip, it brings more intelligent experience possibilities.
Echoing such a high-end intelligent driver assistance and intelligent cockpit system, Roewe Whale is luxurious enough to feature the interior, including leather sports seats with memory and heating, BOSE sound system with 9 speakers, leather steering wheel with heating function, and 256 color atmosphere lights.
On the whole, Roewe Whale does have more advantages in terms of intelligent configuration and luxury materials, which is why Roewe Whale is slightly higher than some independent brand SUVs of the same level in pricing.
Although from the roewe whale body size (length, width and height 4702/1903/1691mm, wheelbase 2765mm) point of view, its post-listing competitors are mainly the current hot selling of several autonomous compact SUV. But Roewe Whale's main selling points are more personality, sports and luxury, plus it is a coupe SUV, so it is more of a competition for Coupe SUVs such as Geely Xingyue, Changan CS85 COUPE, Haval F7X and so on.
Referring to the sales of most of the previous self-owned brand coupe SUVs, the demand for such models by domestic users is not high, but in the context of today's "face value" era, Roewe Whale can indeed rely on its own high value to obtain certain attention, but it is also difficult to sell SUV such as Haval H6, the main home market.