Only from the car circle there is the Zhiji L7, it actually wants to keep a low profile.
At the Shanghai Auto Show last year, the Zhiji L7 was launched and announced a pre-price of 408,800 yuan. After nearly a year, Zhiji officially entered a period of relative silence until the new car was launched on March 29.
Choosing silence, the official may have a more intuitive consideration: in the past year, SAIC has focused its product promotion on Feifan Automobile, and Zhiji is waiting.
However, the times have always allowed Zhiji to carry the topic.
SAIC, Ali, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech three parties jointly create a wisdom self, like Avita, known as the "third pole" of China's intelligent car manufacturing, different from the traditional and new forces, naturally there will be no lack of attention.
In 2021, SAIC Motor will sell 733,000 new energy vehicles, but its sales will be mainly macro MINI EVs. If there is a width of SAIC, can it have a height? Just look at Zhiji L7.
In fact, whether SAIC and Tesla can be worthy of the same city derby in the field of new energy, Zhiji must succeed. So, before zhiji L7 really debuted, all aspects of it had been amplified.
Find yourself wisely
In fact, counting the wisdom of the self, it should be saicidal's third electrification transformation on the road to soaring. The first time was Marvel X, the second was R Car, the former had to be crushed, and the latter had to readjust its positioning, leaving the high-end market to the latecomers.
Success is experience, failure is lesson.
SAIC recognized a fact: the market positioning of the product, whether high-end or luxurious, is wishful thinking. The turnout of the market is the only measure of the success of all presets.
In the matter of building the Zhiji L7, SAIC first thought of the question of who to sell the product to.
On January 13, 2021, Zhiji released the "IM Zhiji" brand. Throughout the press conference, Zhiji has always emphasized a proposition: in the era of intelligence, what should the car look like?
In fact, at this time, zhiji L7 products have been finalized. What Zhiji has to do is to make a guiding product portrait to the target market.
This job was settled with the mass production version of zhiji L7, L7 Pro, which was listed at a price of 400,000+.
Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, said that the pricing of Zhiji L7 Pro has undergone a very detailed market analysis and user population analysis. An important consideration was mentioned: electrification refactored the rules of the game as defined by the BBA.
The constant changes in the market support this conclusion. The proportion of luxury brand sales represented by BBA has exceeded 20% by 2021, from 13% at the end of 2017. In 2021, models with a starting price of more than 300,000 yuan will grow by 14.9% year-on-year, much higher than models with a starting price of less than 300,000, and the latter's year-on-year growth rate is only 3.3%.
Therefore, Zhiji officially believes that the target users of Zhiji L7 Pro are hidden in the current BBA 56E series purchase group.
This decision is not bold. The market repays all the goodness of Zhiji, and it depends on whether Zhiji can take the product as the vanguard, break through the shackles brought by the new brand, and give back to this beauty.
Create yourself
It has to go back to the problem of speaking with the product.
When the team defined the product for the Zhiji L7 in 2019, the core highlights were three aspects: the performance of the supercar, the stunning appearance and the ability of high-level automatic driving.
At last year's Shanghai Auto Show, when the Zhiji L7 was statically displayed, the intelligent driver assistance system was equipped with 12 ultrasonic radars, 11 high-definition cameras, 5 millimeter wave radars, and 2 positioning units in terms of hardware.
Immediately after that, in June, the measured video of the Zhiji Automotive Engineering Test Vehicle autonomous driving 40 minutes 0 takeover on the road in downtown Shanghai flowed out.
All indications show that in addition to the appearance of the difference, in terms of performance and intelligence, the Zhiji L7 will be famous in the same class of cars.
However, the forecast only lasted until the end of the year.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show, WEILAI ET7 debuted, compared with zhiji L7, the former is equipped with 4 Nvidia Drive Orin chips, and the computing power is as high as 1016 Tops. The latter is equipped with NVIDIA Xavier chip, with a computing power of 30-60 TOPS. In the era of serious internal rolling of intelligent cars, what is more convincing than computing power? At the same time, the intelligent hardware configuration of Zhiji L7, which was once talked about, can not be much cheaper in the face of new products such as Weilai ET7 and even Xiaopeng G9.
I don't know if IT IS SAIC Chen Hong's "soul torso theory" fermenting. The advantages of Alibaba Intelligent Technology have not performed better in the Zhiji L7.
In fact, if you consider the price difference of 40,000 yuan between WEILAI ET7 and Zhiji L7, it may be acceptable. After all, the product positioning of Kezhiji has fully entered the luxury brand circle. Zhiji L7 has chosen a low profile in the most high-profile intelligence, and it cannot be said that it is not good, at least it is not eye-catching.
Choosing the "driving control" label is the answer given by Zhiji Automobile to "how to achieve differentiation in the era of electrification". Embodied by Zhiji L7, it becomes an inevitable option. Otherwise, it will be really difficult to find any more talk about the product.
As we all know, electric vehicles are not difficult to think fast, but the power and handling performance of vehicles are not just as simple as zero hundred acceleration. It should be pointed to a complete dynamic system of chassis, transmission, braking, steering, roll control and so on.
To this end, Zhiji L7 handed over the adjustment and verification of the chassis to the "F1 Nine Champions" Williams team.
At the same time, the rear wheel of the Zhiji L7 adopts ZF's second-generation AKC rear wheel steering system, which can achieve a total of 12° steering in both directions. This is achieved by the small turning radius at low speeds and the advantages of effectively controlling tail flicking and swinging at high speeds.
In addition, zhiji L7 adopts front and rear dual permanent magnet synchronous motor, bias rear drive, and later motor is the mainstay. To match this design, the Zhiji L7 is equipped with the "Mandarin Duck Tire" commonly seen in rear-drive vehicles, with a front 245 and a rear 275.
In this process of creating another way of creating a product, Zhiji should have tried his best. But in any case, it still leaves a bit of traditional car-making style. Again, it cannot be said that it is not good, at least not a popular element nowadays.
Tomoji made his debut 26 months after his founding. L7 may not be the all-attack and all-defensive player we think, but personality is a scarce commodity of this era, depending on whether you can add a "charm" suffix to "personality".
From brand positioning to product creation, whether it is the gimmick left to us by zhiji L7, or the real hope, it will be known after April.