Abstract: The new forces are advancing by leaps and bounds, and there are fewer and fewer stories that can be told, and Zhiji chooses to return to the fundamental narrative of "the car should be easy to drive"
Text | Guo Yu
Editor 丨 Zhao Cheng
▲ Courtesy of the enterprise
In August 2020, a Porsche Taycan drifted 210 laps for 42.2 kilometers in Hockenheimring(Hockenheimring) in Germany, winning the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous drift of a pure electric vehicle. This is the way to prove that the performance of electric vehicles does not lose fuel vehicles after the giant Porsche entered the electric vehicle market.
Unexpectedly, two and a half years later, this record was broken in China.
On April 17, Zhiji Automobile announced the results of the Zhiji L7 challenging the longest drift distance of electric vehicles - 43.646 kilometers, 258 laps, 1 hour and 6 minutes. The Zhiji L7, which has not yet run on the road, has set a new world record.
Zhiji also hopes to use this way to prove that trams may not be easy to drive without oil trucks. Because behind the "longest electric drift" world record is the comprehensive strength of power, steering, chassis and suspension. These performances are also the stories that Zhiji wants to tell consumers about "driving control".
"Emphasizing driving control is an inevitable choice for zhiji L7." Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, told Caijingqiche (ID: caijingqiche). To this end, Zhiji spent 180 days calibrating the first round of 108 items of power and control, and invited williams forward engineering team to further refine.
With the rapid development of new domestic car-making forces, new entrants can tell fewer and fewer stories. The zhiji L7, priced at up to 400,000 yuan, tries to compete with BBA with driving performance, can this strategy impress consumers?
It is worth mentioning that Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, previously confirmed that Zhiji's public financing is already planned. Zhiji Automobile is a high-end pure electric vehicle project jointly built by SAIC Motor, Alibaba Group and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, with the first phase of financing reaching the order of 10 billion, of which SAIC Holds 54% of the shares, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech each account for 18%.
"Emphasizing that driving control is an inevitable choice for Zhizhi L7"
▲ Courtesy of the enterprise
"Zero hundred acceleration time", that is, the time required to accelerate from 0km/h to 100km/h, has often been used by new car-making forces to flaunt the performance of new products in the past two years, such as 3.8 seconds of NIO ET7, 3.8 seconds of Extreme Kr 001, and 4.3 seconds of Xiaopeng P7.
After all, zero hundred acceleration builds the most intuitive feeling of "speed", and the electrical structure of the tram has the natural advantage of crushing the same level of fuel vehicles in acceleration, and the impression of "trams are faster than oil cars" is easy to create. Zhiji L7 also took out a 3.87-second zero-hundred acceleration measurement result, ranking among the best in domestic new energy vehicles.
However, Zhiji's understanding and pursuit of driving control performance is not satisfied with this, and the comprehensive strength is a further space: the low center of gravity achieved by the lightweight all-aluminum chassis and horizontal battery cell solution lays the foundation for vehicle stability and inhibition of roll; the electrified four-wheel vector drive technology can make the rear wheel achieve a two-way 12-degree steering angle; the power of the dual permanent magnet synchronous motor is up to 425kW/725N·m, more than 2 times that of the same level of fuel vehicles.
"Because of the characteristics of the motor, it is not difficult for electric vehicles to be fast, but the power and handling performance of the car are not just a zero-hundred-acceleration parameter." Liu Tao told Caijingqiche that the chassis, power, transmission, brake control, steering and roll control of the car are a very complex, multi-variable, multi-degree of freedom dynamic system. "In other words, to achieve the performance of the same level of fuel vehicles, the entire dynamic system must be fully improved."
Behind this is a long period of research and development and tuning, why spend time and cost to improve the driving experience? "Power and driving control have always been one of the core values of the car, emphasizing that driving control is an inevitable choice for the L7." Liu Tao told Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche).
The main electric luxury, Zhiji in the driving experience is on par with the German car, such as BMW.
Liu Tao believes that Europe's overall ability and level in power regulation and understanding of some dynamic parameters are better than china, "so we not only calibrated the power and control of the first round of 108 items in 180 days, but also let the Williams forward-looking engineering team help us do the second stage of fine tuning." In the future, it is also possible to provide versions with more advanced driving control capabilities based on higher-end products, which is also a challenge for us. ”
Can the story of "driving control" be told well?
▲ Courtesy of the enterprise
If you had a car purchase budget of 400,000 yuan, what car would you choose?
The first answer given by many consumers will be "BBA" (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi). On the one hand, this is because BBA has long occupied the automobile market at a price of about 400,000 yuan, which is already synonymous with traditional luxury to some extent, on the other hand, there are only a few products that have been impacted by new forces at this price.
Nio's achievements in recent years seem to have brought about some changes. In 2021, NIO achieved sales of 91,000 units with five models (including undelivered ET5 and ET7), of which the ES6, which sold more than 40,000 units, was priced between 358,000 and 416,000. Although the annual sales of ES6 are only equivalent to one quarter of the SAME level of fuel vehicle BMW 5 Series (BMW 5 Series sales in January-March 2022 are 47,000 units), after all, WEILAI has gained a firm foothold in the high-end electric vehicle market, and the growth rate is also obvious to all.
With the precedent of Weilai challenging the BBA, the market prospects of zhiji L7 also have some more confidence.
Liu Tao believes that the pricing of 400,000 yuan is very reasonable. First, electrification reconstructs the rules of the game defined by the original BBA; second, intelligence allows smart cars to have unlimited imagination space in intelligent scene mining, which can bring a lot of innovative experiences; third, after the average GDP of Chinese exceeds 10,000 US dollars, China's consumption upgrade has accelerated significantly, which is very obvious in the field of automobile consumption.
In the first quarter of 2022, the sales of BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Audi A6 in similar price ranges were 47,000 units, 43,000 vehicles and 30,000 vehicles respectively, and the market potential of luxury brands is not small, the key lies in what cards Zhiji can play to impress consumers.
As Liu Tao said, "You may be a new brand, the price is closer to the luxury brand, but the new experience, new value, new performance provided by the new brand, the new configuration includes new technologies, must far exceed the original traditional luxury brand, consumers will give you a choice." ”
In the past three years, most of the stories told by new domestic forces have focused on "intelligence". Smarter human-vehicle interaction, smarter driver assistance, smarter services. But today, intelligence has become the standard of domestic new energy vehicles, even if it is a new product below 150,000 yuan can also emphasize intelligence.
Therefore, zhiji must find a new story on the basis of intelligence not losing to peers. Due to the previous large number of domestic electric vehicles concentrated in the low price, "the tram is not easy to drive" has become a stereotype of many consumers. If Zhiji wants to achieve brand attack, it is imperative to face the BBA, which is known for its driving control, especially BMW, and subvert this impression.
From this point of view, Zhiji L7 emphasizes that driving control is indeed an inevitability. Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche) learned that Zhiji has opened test drives around mid-April and is expected to be gradually delivered by the end of April. Whether the story of "driving control" can impress consumers, I believe there will be an answer soon.