Seeing the streamlined interpretation of the ideal L9 by my old friends in the ideal, my interest in this car increased sharply, and I wanted to see what a luxury car that really understood middle-class life really looked like.
With the deepening of my understanding, I found that there are indeed many highlights of the ideal L9, but there are indeed many controversies that follow.
On the night that the ideal L9 official map was just released, Li Pengcheng, vice president of Xiaopeng Public Relations, sent such a message in the circle of friends and Weibo:
To be honest, I felt the same way after seeing the ideal L9 for the first time.
Perhaps the motor power has increased slightly, the battery capacity has also increased slightly, although the ideal ONE also uses extended range power technology, but the ideal L9 does not follow the ideal ONE's huge intake grille, but the front face grille is basically all dried out, as if emphasizing that it is more like a pure electric SUV.
It is also this treatment that leads to the ideal L9 only has a penetrating light strip used by every family, but lacks other recognizable elements of the front face, and inevitably collides with Xiaopeng G9 and other products.
This is indeed quite tricky, when the LED light strip is getting thinner and thinner, the current face has begun to learn Tesla's gridless modeling, there is no support for brand recognition of the light cavity details and grille modeling, how to avoid design similarities has indeed become a big challenge.
If Audi loses the polygonal grille and headlights full of geometric elements, if BMW weakens the kidneys and angel eyes, there will be a large number of fans and users who spit on it for losing its soul. But apparently they didn't do that, on the contrary, the more others tried to make the front face cleaner, the more the traditional luxury brands with accumulation wanted to reflect their own differences.
You see the Design of the Audi e-tron GT reflects the grille contour by the same color as the body and the inverse color treatment of the surrounding area;
The Audi A6 e-tron is increasingly complex with light cavity details and grille textures;
The nostrils of both kidneys have become larger and larger, and they still retain the two headlight modules that resemble angelic eyes without the BMW iX and the upcoming i7 with a slender light strip;
You must know that this is still Audi and BMW, not a panicked follower.
Taking a step back, since the ideal L9 is still a range extended electric vehicle, I think it is understandable to retain the huge grille and even deliberately emphasize this element - after all, this design conveys both the electric motor and the engine technology form, and indeed can make consumers think of the unique selling point of your product's high endurance.
Why lose your own characteristics to cater to the public's stereotype of new energy?
In stark contrast to the controversial exterior, the interior of the Ideal L9 is a resounding industry acclaim.
The reason is also very simple - the configuration of this car is very targeted, the product characteristics are very distinct, the configuration of the trade-offs are very bold, but also full of product managers professional and unique thinking and attitude.
For example, the ideal L9 is not equipped with a very popular gimmick queen co-driver, Li wants to respond to the netizens' expectations for the co-pilot leg rest, but also did not shy away from taking the competitor ES8 to make a comparison, and said that compared to the cancellation of the co-pilot storage box, and even the air conditioner is also moved to the front cabin to ensure the co-pilot leg support space, as the ideal of the extended range electric vehicle neither has excess front cabin space, but also feels unnecessary; and if the co-pilot seat is moved backwards for the leg rest space, it will lead to the failure of the full belt on the B-pillar and the co-pilot airbag. Contrary to the original intention of safety first product development.
For example, some netizens think that the interactive screen that follows the rotation on the L9 steering wheel will affect driving safety, and Li wants to deny the design of not rotating in the middle of the steering wheel of the French car, "When you turn the steering wheel slightly, the screen information will not be disturbed, and if the situation of turning the steering wheel appears sharply, your eyes will definitely be looking at the road conditions outside the car at this time, and you will not stare at the screen on the steering wheel." ”
And for the question of the size of this screen is too small, Li xiang also has his own considerations, too large volume is easy to be mistakenly touched when turning sharply, thereby increasing the safety hazard.
Another example is the ideal L9's two-row seat leg rest and small table plate configuration, which is unconventionally only assigned to the seat behind the co-driver. Believe me, if it is the decision-making level of some traditional car companies, it will definitely feel that this asymmetrical design is a brain water, and consumers will complain about cutting corners.
Li wants to explain that the ideal L9 is not a commercial car driven by the driver and the boss in the car, but a family car that fully takes care of the safety and comfort of the main driver - in other words, the customers of the ideal L9 will mostly sit in the main car, and their riding experience is equally important. And because under the restrictions of air suspension and large wheels, the second row seats cannot comfortably use the leg drag by encroaching on the space of the three rows, so the small table plate and leg drag of the rear seat of the main driver can only be cancelled to prevent changing the position of the main seat and affecting its comfort and safety.
Instead of bending over backwards, it is better to allocate cost and weight to the blade.
Very direct, although it is a family car, the ideal L9 is important to pay attention to the owner of the family, but also the group of customers who pay money to buy this car. In contrast, many MPVs that advertise their families but do not pay too much attention to the needs of the main driver will inevitably seem to be a bit desperate.
Of course, there are also some debatable points, such as when netizens mentioned that they were disappointed in the interior design, Li Xiang thought that the interior design of L9 was simple and not exaggerated, and used the "structural interior design style of the British villa" to compare - I really did not get it, this looks a bit silly, lacks a sense of layering and lightweight A whole piece of IP, and what is the relationship with the British villa.
Maybe it's because I've never lived in an English villa, but my knowledgeable friend told me, what are the benefits of this design?
Of course, daring to operate against the norm is bound to lead to unconventional controversy. For some configurations that have been labeled with high-end labels in the minds of consumers and formed a consensus on the necessary consensus of luxury cars, it is often more difficult to easily abandon and persuade consumers to change their cognition than to create a new configuration.
For example, the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
This configuration mostly appears in the Land Rover Range Rover, BMW X5, Lexus LX570 these luxury medium and large SUVs, the advantages are as follows: the length of the door is shortened to facilitate the tailgate when the rear of the car is against the wall to open the tailgate, only need to open the upper door when taking small items, the lower tailgate can be flattened during off-road outings can become a rest platform, the existence of the lower tailgate can prevent the pants from rubbing the dirt on the rear bar when picking up and placing items, and the lighter upper tailgate can reduce the pressure on the roof and hinges.
For customers of luxury SUVs, these features can indeed reflect a certain sense of value.
However, in Li Xiang's view, when the tail box is too close to the wall, the lower door of the Heaven and Earth Gate will squeeze the space where the personnel are standing, and the closing will cause the opening of the object to be too small due to the cover above, so this configuration is not advisable.
I think that this is not a problem of the heaven and earth gate, but a problem of cover design, after all, the use of telescopic or upward cover can solve this problem very well.
Another example is the configuration of the roof luggage rack, whether it is The same level of competitors such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Lantu, or any medium and large SUV on the market, it is difficult to find a choice without a roof rack.
Because in the hearts of the Chinese people, even if the frequency of use of the luggage rack is extremely low, it can also enhance the image of the SUV off-road hardcore and conquer the distant places - even if a configuration is only 0.00001% of the probability can be used, there is also better than no, which also represents the value of money spent.
Ideal L9 has unprecedentedly cancelled the original luggage rack, and handed over to a third-party accessories factory to launch accessories including roof luggage, which users can purchase on demand.
The advantage of this is that the height saved can be used to enhance the head space in the car; the second is to make the horizontal area of the sunroof larger, and it can be seen from the renderings that the sunroof area of the ideal L9 is indeed not small; the third is to reduce the wind resistance and noise, while reducing the probability of roof leakage caused by debris blocking the front drain of the luggage rack.
Very decisive, the use rate of roof racks in domestic medium and large SUVs has never been high, and many people only love luggage racks for a "off-road temperament", but the form is obviously greater than the function, which pays an unnecessary price.
Compared with Li Xiang's explanation of denying the Heaven and Earth Gate, the idea of canceling the luggage rack obviously sounds more convincing. However, if you want to let the current consumers whose consumption concept is not independent accept this rational consideration, it is bound to require Li Xiang and the ideal to spare no effort to popularize science and adhere to it.
In Li Xiang's view, the choice of a configuration mainly involves six dimensions: product strength, weight, cost, quality, safety and supply. The product manager's important ability is to repeatedly verify rationally and emotionally for the scenarios of high-frequency use of accurate user groups, so as to allocate cost and weight to the top configuration of value (product force), and boldly discard the functions and configurations that are dispensable and brush presence.
You can say it's targeted, or you can insist that it's a way to save costs.
In any case, the founder personally went down, long for netizens to interpret the product definition and configuration of the trade-offs thinking and reasons, in the Chinese auto market and even the world should be the first time, Li wants to love the product and the sincerity of customers deserve a praise.
At least, compared with those companies that only invite users to co-create names and engage in several interior color collocations, saying that they are building cars with users, the courage to face the quality of netizens, sincerely say their thoughts, and efficiently respond to the demands of car owners and users are more like what a "user-oriented enterprise" should do.
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