Liu Tao: Power and driving control are the core values of the car

In the face of more than 60,000 car owners in China every month to run to the 400,000-level BBA products, Zhiji Automobile co-CEO Liu Tao frankly said to Wall Street, "I think these users are very helpless to make such a purchase decision." ”

The shock of this statement is no less than the previous weilai boss Li Bin's sentence "why buy a gas truck".

Stepping on the tail of March, Zhiji Automobile officially announced the L7 mass production debut model - Zhiji L7 Pro, and opened the lock single link for A-round users and angel wheel users.

The price of L7 Pro of 408,800 yuan directly cuts into the hinterland of BBA. However, as a domestic new energy electric vehicle brand, what exactly does Zhiji take to challenge the "big brother" of the three Tianzi generations under the traditional pattern, and what makes the attackers of this luxury brand so confident?

In the conversation with Liu Tao, we seem to have some eyebrows.

01

A tribute and challenge to driving control

In Liu Tao's eyes, electric vehicles are a "dimensionality reduction blow" for traditional fuel vehicles.

With a budget of more than 400,000, in the fuel vehicle to choose to choose only 2.0T four-cylinder, nothing more than the difference between high power and low power, Liu Tao believes that the price of 400,000 should have enjoyed the power of 3.0 V6 naturally aspirated engine, but consumers now have to buy a large-displacement engine at a higher cost.

In the era of electric vehicles, the power of V8 and the response speed of 20 times faster than fuel vehicles can be felt at a price of 400,000. It only takes 40 to 60 milliseconds to generate electricity from the electric motor to the wheel rim, while it takes 1000 milliseconds for fuel vehicles.

Zhiji Automobile has always focused on performance and driving control operation, which is the capital of Zhiji benchmarking and hard steel traditional luxury brands, and it is also the foundation of the luxury electric vehicle field.

Two years ago, as the no. 1 project of SAIC Motor, Zhiji Automobile established a project. As early as three years ago, zhiji L7 has begun to plan. Liu Tao said frankly, "When we planned this car, the ultimate handling and sports car experience was the most important one of the core highlights of our three products. ”

In Liu Tao's heart, he has always had an understanding of the core values of automobiles. He believes that the core value of the automobile, as James's machine that changes the world, is the human yearning for freedom, the exploration of unknown areas, and the dream of free exploration of boundaries. So cars should be pursuing power and handling.

The car's chassis, power, transmission, brake control, steering, roll control, it is a very complex, super multi-variable, super multi-degree of freedom dynamic system. The power increase brought by electric vehicles is obvious, but how to adjust is more important and difficult.

Liu Tao explained that car dynamics is a very complex, multi-degree-of-freedom dynamics system, often these parameters are interrelated, but they are also rising and falling, and it is difficult to have both fish and bear paws.

The German BBA is the benchmark in this regard, Liu Tao said that in the new world of intelligent electric, zhiji is to make the ultimate power driving control of the "German car" feeling.

To this end, Zhiji has recruited williams forward-looking engineering team to carry out in-depth technical cooperation. Williams, who won nine manufacturers' championships between 1980 and 1997, has a unique understanding of the overall competence and level of power regulation and these dynamic parameters.

With the tuning and blessing of Williams' forward-looking engineering team, after a year, the new car was tested and adjusted on two wheels and more than 100 chassis indicators and software parameters, further empowering the driving experience of Zhiji. Liu Tao said that in the future, it is also possible to provide a version with more advanced driving control capabilities based on higher-end products.

02

Price support and strength

Frankly, although electrification has changed the way the BBA era is played, a new brand of electric vehicles wants to win at the 400,000 level, making a strong differentiation and being recognized is the right way, and Liu Tao is well versed in the rules.

In fact, there is no shortage of consumption power in China, Liu Tao said, after the average GDP of Chinese exceeded 10,000 US dollars, China's consumption upgrade has accelerated significantly, which is very obvious in the field of automobile consumption.

In the past three or four years, the sales volume of luxury brands represented by BBA in China has exceeded 20% from 13% at the end of 2017 to more than 20% last year, and the trend of consumption upgrading is very obvious. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the year-on-year growth rate of more than 300,000 models reached 14.9% last year, much higher than the 3.3% of models under 300,000.

Liu Tao judged that this number will continue to go up in the future, even reaching a market share of about 30%, and the market capacity is huge.

As a future new energy luxury car company, Zhiji put forward 8 pursuits: power, control, interior, quality, health, intelligent driving, software, and intelligent products.

Liu Tao believes that as long as this is done, there will be a greater market share for smart electric vehicles in the future. Because the current user has not been met by the needs, everyone can see, depending on whether you have the ability to take, the capable company will definitely get enough market share.

However, for the new brand zhiji, the new experience, new value, new performance, new configuration, including new technology, must be far more than the original traditional luxury brand, consumers will give you a choice.

Speaking of this, Liu Tao confidently said that the first thing is to crush from the performance, and compared with a luxury brand 5 series directly, the power that Zhiji L7 can provide is at least 2 times more. Even the zero-hundred acceleration of the high-power version of the 5 Series takes about 7 seconds, and the Zhiji L7 only takes more than half the time.

Of course, 100 km/h acceleration is not all, Zhiji L7 can also provide four-wheel steering full drive system, Brembo fixed clamp type super forced motion system, Pirelli P Zero tires, 180 days + net taste process, interior materials from Europe wood trim and so on. Liu Tao said that from the perspective of configuration level, from the perspective of design luxury experience, and from the perspective of performance, it is far beyond the 5 Series.

There is no doubt that electric vehicles have entered the period of the Red Sea, but many new power brands have not "stuck themselves" in the polishing of driving experience, which is undoubtedly the highlight of zhizi.

"In terms of models with similar configurations, the price of the Zhiji L7 is at least about 100,000 yuan lower than that of competitors. At the same time, in terms of performance and control, we are also far higher than the competitors, in general, the price of 400,000 is very valuable for users. Liu Tao told us.

03

Exploration and breakthrough in the tram industry

Seeing the strong product strength and outstanding driving experience on the Zhiji L7, then it is necessary to return to the problem that all electric vehicles must face - how to alleviate the user's battery life anxiety and energy supplementation problems. According to Liu Tao, first of all, Zhiji Automobile will be connected to the head public charging operators such as the State Grid and the energy replenishment companies such as Anyue Charging under SAIC Motor, with a total of 232,000 charging piles.

Secondly, SAIC Motor Group behind Zhiji Automobile has made a lot of investment in charging network and charging ecology, and currently has 210,000 social public charging pile resources, which can be directly connected to the charging service network ecology of Zhiji APP. Users can enjoy the charging service of about 442,000 public piles, which can meet the daily energy replenishment needs of users.

In order to bring users a better experience in the charging process, Liu Tao said that they have conducted in-depth docking with the different operating service providers behind the 442,000 charging piles, providing one-stop services, integrating the payment process and charging service process, and users do not need to switch back and forth between multiple apps.

Not only that, Zhiji's exploration of charging forms has also taken a step ahead, taking the lead in trying and applying in the field of wireless charging.

The Zhiji L7 provides 11kW high-power vehicle intelligent wireless charging options, and its charging efficiency is almost indistinguishable from traditional charging. Combined with the fully automatic autonomous parking function, the vehicle can automatically park in the parking space for refueling. The user does not need to perform any charging operations, and truly achieves "no sense of energy replenishment".

Liu Tao said, "We have always believed that the user's demand for charging is not to add a lot of trouble to them and increase the burden." It is not that the shorter the charging time, the better, but the less effort spent on charging, the better. ”

In addition, Liu Tao told us that Zhiji is a user-type car company. They take the rights and interests of users very seriously. In the high-end luxury market, this service's interpretation of the premium is also valued by consumers at this level.

In the intelligent driving assistance system, Zhiji gives lifelong free use and upgrade rights to angel wheel customers, and for A round customers, the first three years are free, and in the fourth year, they can be directly bought out at a price of 8800 yuan or user data rights. In contrast, the subscription model adopted by other new forces will incur a long-term additional overhead for users.

On the other hand, in the environment of soaring battery prices, each family has not escaped the storm of price increases. The price promised by Zhiji for Angel Wheel and Series A users will not rise. In particular, it is worth mentioning that Zhiji has newly launched a battery staging plan, which is different from the battery rented by car companies such as Weilai, and Zhiji will hand over the final property rights of the battery to the user.

"No matter how long the battery is used, the battery belongs to the customer, and when the second-hand car is replaced in the future, the entire vehicle is sold with the battery." Liu Tao explained.

At the core, it is necessary to return to the authenticity of the car, and externally, it is also necessary to support the skin bag of high-end luxury electric vehicles. From technology to service wisdom has thought a lot and done a lot.

Liu Tao also "Versailles" a wave in the interview. He believes that there are still some young people who continue to be immersed in the traditional value system built by the BBA, but once these users drive electric vehicles, the old world cannot go back.

For the market of 400,000 yuan, as the vanguard of SAIC, Zhiji is confident and inevitable.

*The above content is a third-party product publicity, does not constitute investment advice, does not represent the views of the publishing platform, the market is risky, investment needs to be cautious, please judge and make decisions independently.