Written by / Long Shihui
Edited / Kilig
Design / Zoi.
Good-looking skins are the same, but interesting souls don't necessarily vary. This may be an impolite but objective statement for the new car design of many new power car companies.
The reason for this feeling is that the large SUV flagship L9, which was actively exposed by Ideal Auto, was recently exposed, and the medium and large SUV G9 released by Xiaopeng in the middle of last year was "bumping face", and the "star ring light" was the original of whose home, and it was even more quarreled by fans on both sides.
The two new cars give people the feeling of "hitting the face", mainly because the front face adopts a through-LED headlight design, and the far and near light groups are embedded in the front surround the sides, with a through-channel heat dissipation opening below. The two cars are mainly in the position of the far and near light group, the Xiaopeng G9 is closer, and the ideal L9 light group is almost parallel to the through-heat dissipation port below. Coming to the rear, the two cars also "invariably" adopted the design language common in medium and large SUVs, and the taillights also adopted a simple through-type taillight design, which gave people a feeling of heavy board.
When the official picture of the ideal L9 was released not long ago, Li Pengcheng, vice president of Xiaopeng Automobile and general manager of brand public relations, "sure enough", sent a Weibo ridicule: Have the two designers held a meeting together? Then paste the shape of the front face and the rear of the two cars for everyone to compare.
Based on these two points alone, can we say that the ideal L9 "copied" the Xiaopeng G9? Not to mention, the details of the two cars, or engraved with the family's "brand", Xiaopeng G9's light group has obviously evolved from P7, and the ideal L9's through-the headlights are also the same as the ideal ONE. But no wind and no waves, the ideal L9 gave up the rectangular network design with high recognition on the ideal ONE, and instead used a pure electric vehicle like a large-area closed design, the sense of futurism is there, but also with other new forces that also flaunt the sense of the future "collide".
If that's not enough to prove that the skin bag is the same, you might as well go for a walk around the big car show, when you will find yourself suffering from "face blindness". Just look at the front face, Zhiji L7, Weilai et7 can not distinguish, Sony VISION S and even Avita 11 are walking in the same style:
Although each new force has played a new trick in the headlight group, the basic "thunder" of the closed front face, the through-type taillights are also extremely simple, and the interior is also the big screen. Looking at the futuristic sense and pioneering sense of each car alone, but you can't distinguish the personality and recognition of each brand from it, if you cover the LOGO, you can tell who is who? Because the design of the closed front face + through-line light group + large-screen interior has long become the standard of today's new energy vehicles, just like after the success of the iPhone, almost all new mobile phones on the market have a similar face.
Designer back pot?
New forces like "net red face", many people think that it is the appearance designer lazy pot, but in fact, it is not entirely. Many "unspoken rules" affect the design team's play.
One of the most widely complained about reasons is that a large part of the design is subject to suppliers, if different car companies choose suppliers from the same company or system, then it is inevitable that there will be a certain degree of "similarity". It is as if the netizens quarreled the most fierce "ring lamp", whether it is Xiaopeng P7 or the ideal ONE to bring up first, in fact, this answer is not important, because in the skyline ME7 listed at almost the same time, you can also see an element; and now not only the new forces, the design of the through-type light group is also used in many new cars, there is no way This element is too red, it is not clear whether the supplier has completed it, or it has completed the supplier.
Relatively speaking, when designing new energy vehicles, traditional car companies also learn from the trend of closed grilles, but at the same time maintain the soul of family design. In the case of BBA, EQS, iX and e-tron are more innovative on the basis of maintaining brand recognition. Of course, EQS's bow-shaped body and iX's oversized closed "nostrils" are a matter of opinion, but at least in terms of products, we see the attitude and inheritance of a brand in the electric era.
In the past, a fuel vehicle from development to landing, preliminary research, sketches, sludge models, program comparison, trial production, road test to finalization, more than 2 years of cycle is standard. The era of smart cars broke this rule, and the iteration cycle of a car was shortened a lot. The new forces that are still in the stage of profitability give designers less time and space to play, so designers must take a conservative and error-free route in the face of maximizing efficiency and demand, so from the flattening of Tesla, Mercedes-Benz first used the double screen, since it has been successfully verified by the market, the probability of overturning is almost zero.
Of course, the earliest new force in China Weilai has been established for only 8 years, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha and zero running and other mainstream new forces, still running in the direction of building a third car, talking about the unique design language, finding inspiration from family design, as if talking about corporate profitability is too early, but the homogeneous appearance shape does make the new forces of "shaking the sky" also have their extremely conservative side.
Therefore, from this point of view, in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, new brands and new models seem to bloom in a hundred flowers, but the space given to consumers to choose is not as high as the era of fuel vehicles. This point is not limited to the appearance of the shape, smart devices, three electric systems and other core components, after the presence of suppliers more and more strong, the role of car companies is also undergoing a subtle change, it is likely that the comparison of electric vehicles between different brands in the same level in the future, in addition to the adjustment style and automatic driving software is different, other feelings are similar.
There's no pejorative meaning here, and it's even good at the level of the average motorist. Because this change is what car companies have "co-created" from big data research and even with consumers. In the era of "consumer first", car companies should bear the brunt of making a car that consumers like, rather than making a car that consumers like. The team "retreats" behind the consumer, the advantage is that the "barrel car" is not easy to make mistakes in all aspects, and there are naturally fewer and fewer new cars with a soul.
Smart car = large phone?
These two days to see a very interesting list, some media to the mass production model co-driver screen made a list, to the size, function and the price of the second screen to do a comparison project. As a result, the new forces and new cars accounted for half of the country, and the high-he-HipPhi X (19.9 inches) and the Hongqi E-HS9 (16.2 inches) at the top of the list were more than 15 inches, while the big screen "initiator" Tesla was submerged in the list.
From the current point of view, this is a very "inner volume" but useless list, and Che Lizi believes that next year's list will replace a new car with an old car. Although the market share of new energy vehicles has soared to 20%, the core of consumer car purchase is still to look at the traditional three major pieces, brand reputation and after-sales service, and the size of the screen and the intelligence of the automatic driving assistance system have not become key factors. But looking back ten years later, when the era of full electrification arrives, who can say that intelligence is not the core basis for car purchase?
The endless emergence of new species and new waves of new forces washed away the traditional concept of car buying, and constantly subverting the market mentality is certainly a kind of progress and innovation, but have you ever thought of letting the smart car go down like this and become a mobile "large mobile phone"? Many people think that the more "fools" the better the automotive products in the intelligent era, so will the future car return to the "sofa + four wheels", plus the "origin" of a supercomputer?
This is not a matter of alarm, according to the current rhythm of the new forces, they are all piled up to do the most popular models in the mainstream market, and the screen size, intelligent configuration functions are strong or not, etc. have become a new arena. Admittedly, their new models expose from the appearance to the interior, driving style and intelligent configuration, the homogenization tendency is more serious, in the end can electrification and personalization coexist?
Of course, the new forces have taken the most popular and fastest electrification, but this does not mean that the imagination of electrification is limited to this. Electrification, is the ability to be some of the previous because of emissions, fuel consumption, cost has been marginalized by the classic model revitalization "rebirth", such as Volkswagen earlier released a concept map of ID.BUZZ, it is the 60 years ago "hippie van" resurrection, and "oil tiger" Hummer, also riding HUMMER EV to open the domestic market, last year Toyota Akio once exhibited Toyota 16 pure electric new cars, the most attractive is not placed in the first row of pure electric SUVs, but almost no information, Low-key rear electric FJ, electric pickup and pure electric supercar.
Perhaps it is difficult for the new forces that have not yet made a profit to take the risk of coming up with personalized works; consumers who attach importance to the personality of the car do exist, but after all, niche, family cars with a little performance, decent appearance but space, and powerful functions are the key to hot sales. Admittedly, how many "mediocre people" can the market absorb like this that have no shortcomings but lack characteristics?
Write at the end
Just as every good car design should not have limitations, every good designer wants to design a car that integrates his own experience, aesthetics, and is loved by consumers, rather than being led by the trend.
Now the "conservative" new forces will one day "open up", because the future of smart cars, certainly not a moving "large mobile phone".
-END-