The Zhiji L7 was listed in a new Guinness Book of World Record for fixed-circle drift (with a continuous drift of 1 hour and 6 minutes, 258 laps, 43.646 kilometers, breaking the previous Porsche Taycan performance and setting a record for the longest drift distance of electric vehicles), it needs confidence.
We know that the fixed circle drift is a very test of the extreme handling performance of a car, and it is presented in the form of live broadcast at the listing meeting, and any flaw in any link in the process may make the challenge and even the entire listing conference fail or even appear foreign. So at this point, I admire Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, for being able to make such a listing decision, and he also showed off his driving skills on the track of Tianma Mountain.
It was the first time I had seen a CEO driving his own car at The Pegasus Hill and being able to set the lap to 1:19:93 (the fastest lap for a driver was 1:12:94). As the largest product manager of Zhiji Automobile, this time it is to let everyone see Liu Tao's love for cars and driving (from the perspective of driving posture is also very skillful and natural), and has his own deep understanding of the pursuit of vehicle performance.
▲ Liu Tao's brush circle performance of driving L7 in Tianma Mountain was intercepted at the online press conference
And if you look at the full conference, you will definitely be infected by Liu Tao, and the Zhiji L7 equipped with pull-full is indeed a model that can reach the first-class level of the same level of control.
Unfortunately, because of the previous epidemic, they could not participate in their test drive on the track in Tianma Mountain, and did not experience whether the handling performance of this car was as the official said, but from the feedback in the circle, the overall performance should be very different. Of course, I'm still looking forward to actually getting the test drive a few days before I make my own judgment.
We have already written an article about the Zhiji L7 car before (Portal: "On the car, the Zhiji L7 is an ambitious car"), and the interpretation of the product level is basically in place. The main reason for writing this article today is to talk about the positioning of this car. Moreover, I think it is a relatively big problem.
"New World Driving Control Flagship", this positioning combined with the performance of the vehicle itself is no problem, and it has indeed done enough in terms of handling. The packaging of the concept of Snake move is also very well-defined – as flexible and explosive as a snake. The outside world can understand it at a glance.
But I would say that there is something wrong with using manipulation as one of the biggest selling points of the L7.
Let's start with a set of data to see how much influence the market has on manipulating this indicator in buying decisions. The 2019 China Automobile Consumption Trend Report released by the Huge Engine-Automotive Data Strategy Research Institute in 2019 and the China Automobile Association has a statistic, among the main considerations for Chinese consumers to buy a car, the three indicators of appearance, safety and price account for the top three, respectively, 15.6%, 10.3% and 10.1%. This is the analysis of the buying habits of ordinary consumers, if it is the middle and high-end market and the upper market level, the brand will definitely occupy a greater weight. But do you know what the proportion of manipulation is? Only 4.9%, ranked ninth.
This can also explain why there is a clear contrast between the direction of public opinion and the actual level of the market.
In fact, the vast majority of car buyers do not publish their ideas online, and their car purchase principle is to take care of their families. Most of the people who are keen to publish and share views like cars, and if they like cars, they naturally care about control, but a considerable part of this group is only addicted to online, and the actual purchase of a car should still take into account such as price, comfort, etc.
Over the years, many models that applauded and did not call seats were applauded because of the control, and then lost to the votes that users finally voted with their feet.
The Zhiji L7 is a large sedan with a length of more than 5 meters and a wheelbase of 3.1 meters, and its luxurious "big space" is comparable to that of the executive class.
Such a big car, I don't know how many people in the user group will actually go to the track to brush the circle. In fact, the leader brushing the circle at the press conference, the fixed point drift of the L7, many inside the circle are also looking lively, and the outside of the circle looks actually a face of ignorance - good performance I know, but I am insulated from the track, this is not a performance waste?
Although Liu Tao benchmarked the 5 series of the B brand at the press conference, we all know that including their relevant responsible persons also publicly stated in an interview with the media that Weilai ET7 is a direct competitor, and taking the 5 series benchmark at the press conference is "dimensionality reduction" to show off.
Since it is a direct competitor, the user portrait must also have a great overlap. Jiao Qiao, the head of Zhiji Auto user, described the L7 user group in an interview last year: "The user portrait of WEILAI ET7 may be half of the younger users, and our target group may be younger than Weilai's users." ”
In fact, "younger" is difficult to distinguish, after all, 400,000-level models, if they are much younger, they do not have this spending power, so the mainstream target group is at least around 30 years old. Buying this level of models, most of them have been dragged home with mouth, car handling is naturally important, but comfort is more important.
The two cards played by WEILAI ET7: automatic driving + second living room, are very accurate to grasp the most basic and important needs of the target group.
On the other hand, the Zhiji L7, after the end of the galloping conference on Tianma Mountain, we only know that the performance of this car is very good, and the fixed circle drift also killed Porsche to win the Guinness Book of Records, and then what? If the potential user is single, it is better to say, if you are married, take the control and tell the family heroine that this car is very cool, 80% will be scared back: what is the use of good control?
If the heroine calculates an economic account again: in the future, she will have to spend money to go to the track to buy a car, plus some modifications, and at least the tires will be changed to save a little, how can these costs be saved? And with me and the people around me, going to the track and driving such a big car (although its four-wheel steering is really good), the probability is really one in ten thousand.
There are a lot of people who miss their favorite performance cars when they are young (such as the Subaru BRZ and the like), why? When I was young, I had no money, but when I had money, I had a family. This consumption cycle still exists.
Having said that, after several years of market popularization of pure electric vehicles, users have basically been educated to get a consensus: the performance of electric vehicles is basically good, especially at the level of 400,000, many of which are higher than the same price gasoline opponents.
Take the competitor ET7, the official acceleration time of 100 kilometers is 3.8 seconds, which is 0.07 seconds faster than the 3.87 seconds of the Zhiji L7, so how to convince users that your control will have a qualitative breakthrough than the competitors?
The performance of the control itself is outside the cognition of the majority of users, and ordinary users simply cannot try the difference in the handling of two cars with similar performance.
To take an inappropriate example, unless you take a Prado, a Fit, you can clearly perceive the strength of the suspension support of the two cars, the filtering of the shock absorber, the steering sensitivity, and so on.
Comparing ET7 with L7, I think at least 95% of ordinary users are not comparable to the obvious difference in control, and even if they can perceive it, I think this difference is absolutely within the acceptable range and will not affect their purchase decision.
In some dimensions that ordinary users pay more attention to, such as battery capacity, motor power, etc., L7 is not dominant compared to ET7.
In the battery section, ET7 currently offers two battery options of 70kWh and 100kWh, which can support 530km and 675km respectively. A 150kWh version will also be launched in the fourth quarter of next year, with a range of more than 1000km. The L7 comes standard with a 94kWh battery pack with a cruising range of 615km, and will also be available in the future with a 115kWh version, which can provide a range of close to 1000km. The above mileage data is cltc standard data.
Both cars are four-wheel drive layouts with front and rear dual motors, and the total motor power of the ET7 reaches 480kW and the peak torque is 850N·m, which is higher than the L7's 425kW, 725N·m.
In terms of configuration, I will simply select a few ordinary users who will be more concerned to compare it.
ET7 has an air suspension within the cognition of ordinary users (rear suspension, front suspension is also the same as the L7), regardless of whether this configuration is necessary, but ordinary users have been educated by the market for so many years, will agree that air suspension is better than CDC variable damping electromagnetic suspension. Although I think the L7's overall active steering system (four-wheel steering) is more practical.
In addition, in the seat that users care about, the second row of ET7 has a seat adjustment function, and the trinity of heating, ventilation and massage, but the L7 only has one heating, which will be regarded as a slot point that is not sincere enough for many users. Some users who pay attention to the comfort of the back row may vote directly with their feet because of this.
There are other convenience and comfort configurations (such as the induction trunk), and the ET7 is also more thoughtful. Therefore, the setting of the L7 product configuration may not be flattering. Although its two screens are indeed large, such screens are also likely to cause polarization of word of mouth.
Of course, in terms of price, the two models of L7 are 368,800 yuan and 408,800 yuan compared with 448,000 yuan and 506,000 yuan of ET7, and the cost performance is higher, but this is the premise of product strength alone. If the brand and user operation and maintenance are taken into account, then the difference between L7 and L7 may not be enough to shake the user's purchase decision.
▲ This is one of our fans of NIO ET5, and the views expressed when we exchanged views with me about our previous article on L7 may be one-sided, but they are also representative
So what doesn't sell manipulation sell?
I think that excellent handling does not necessarily have to sell "control", and the performance of the vehicle brought by control can be derived from safety.
In the past, we said that the safety of electric vehicles was mainly around battery safety, and now with the advancement of technology and the improvement of market maturity, the proportion of battery safety has gradually declined from the user's purchase decision.
However, improving safety is not only the battery pack, electronic control system, etc., the control of a car can also greatly ensure the safety of the vehicle in some limit states, and these limit states are often related to life safety.
For example, many people like cars with soft suspension, especially when driving is not fast, and when the back row is often sitting on the family, the suspension soft is indeed more comfortable than the ride experience of the hard state. However, in some extreme environments, the suspension soft will have restrictions on the control limits of the vehicle, and situations such as the "elk test" may overturn because of avoiding obstacles, and a well-controlled car can avoid these.
Combined with the chassis tuning characteristics, suspension and four-wheel steering of the Zhiji L7, in fact, it is possible to summarize some points about daily driving safety and comfort in the control stability, if the press conference can do another "elk test" at the same time, run a good result out, that kind of intuitive risk avoidance ability in the communication of Zhiji such a newly born brand is also easier to convey to the end user.
Zhiji L7 is a good car, but the difficulty is that it is a nascent brand, and there is a Weilai in front of it. Why the ideal car can rise rapidly, because the differentiated product positioning allows the ideal to avoid the biggest competitors on the market. Zhiji wants to give the L7 its own positioning in combination with its product characteristics, which is understandable, but it is really difficult to control this open card.
Issue 1853
Author: Yu Jianliang