The rapid development of new energy models in the Chinese market and the surge in sales have allowed brands to once again raise the demand in the Chinese market to new heights in the era of electrification, as Gao Le, president and CEO of the BMW Group Greater China, said at the global launch of the new BMW 7 Series in Beijing: "Today's China's movement will lead the direction of the world tomorrow." Therefore, even if the 2022 Beijing International Auto Show is postponed, it has not disrupted the rhythm of several leading brands launching blockbuster new cars at China's traditional new car launch nodes. On April 19 and 20, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW's top three German brands have successively released the brand's flagship new energy products - Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, BMW i7 and Audi's electric concept car urbansphere, which shows the determination of the three luxury brands to regain the right to speak in the era of new energy vehicles.
In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, the voice and benchmarking of luxury brand flagship products are beyond doubt, whether it is Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 7 Series, which lead the design trend and scientific and technological progress of the automotive industry. In the electric era, the flagship products of traditional luxury car brands came a little later, and the new car-making forces took this opportunity to use their own standards to define the industry to seize the right to speak, and quickly expanded their market share. However, at present, the main sales price of the new car-making brand in the Chinese market is mostly concentrated in the range of 200,000-400,000 yuan, except for individual brands, there are few products involved in more than 800,000 yuan, and EQS SUVs and BMW i7 are million-level products, which is not only the ceiling of electric vehicle prices, but also the benchmark of luxury and technology configuration.
BMW's flagship begins electrification
On April 20, BMW released a new generation of 7 Series including the 7 Series pure electric version of the i7, which is also the first BMW large luxury car to provide pure electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel engine drive. With the recent domestic and BMW i7 debuts in China, BMW will provide five pure electric models for Chinese customers. As a flagship product, BMW i7 represents BMW's latest technology and luxury standards in many aspects, equipped with bmw group fifth-generation electric drive system, more than 600 kilometers of cruising range, but also the use of advanced computing platform and intelligent equipment, in the technology with L3 level automatic driving possibilities; BMW's latest dozen of innovative digital achievements are also applied to the new car, intelligent cockpit brings a series of innovative and artistic design, such as BMW surround interactive light belt, BMW suspension giant screen, There is also a glittering panoramic star-orbit canopy.
The new BMW 7 Series is further enlarged in size, with a length of 5391mm, a width of 1950mm/ a height of 1548mm, and a wheelbase of 3215mm, surpassing the Mercedes-Benz EQS and S-Class. In terms of appearance, BMW's iconic double kidneys have been further enlarged, and the split headlight design has been used for the first time, which also represents BMW's future design concept, and the familiar "angel eye" will change next.
Mercedes-Benz twin flagships create electric "ceiling"
The new EQS pure electric SUV, the first SUV model of the Mercedes-EQ brand, ushered in the world premiere on April 19, which is the first large luxury pure electric SUV of the Mercedes-EQ brand to accommodate 7 people (five and seven seats to choose from), with a length of more than 5 meters and a wheelbase of more than 3 meters.
EQS SUV as the flagship product of Mercedes-Benz pure electric SUV, and the previously released flagship sedan EQS formed a product lineup of the double flagship in the pure electric camp, both design and configuration represent the new height of Mercedes-Benz, the interior of the 1.41 meters MBUX super screen as the core, the sense of science and technology directly pulled up to the extreme. In terms of endurance, it is equipped with a ternary battery with a capacity of 107.8 kWh, and the cruising range of WLTP can reach 660 kilometers. With the help of fast charging technology, the charging power can reach 200KW, and the power can be charged from 10% to 80% in 31 minutes. As an SUV, the EQS SUV comes standard with a rear axle motor, the dual-motor model is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor at the front and rear, providing a maximum output power of up to 400 kW, peak torque of up to 858 Nm, a 4MATIC all-wheel drive system that monitors and adjusts the torque on the wheels up to 10,000 times per minute, and a smart "off-road" driving mode that raises the body by 25 mm after starting, creating a pure electric SUV that can truly off-road.
New car-making forces dominate the mid-to-high-end market
Luxury branding presses down from the top
Although the automobile market is facing the dual pressure of lack of core and stock competition, but the sales performance of the new energy vehicle market is still relatively GOOD, data from the Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in March this year was 445,000 units, an increase of 137.6% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales of 1.07 million units in January-March this year, an increase of 146.6% year-on-year. Whether from the perspective of penetration rate or growth rate, the sales performance of new energy vehicles is very outstanding.
From the sales data point of view, Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, ideal several head car-making forces in the 250,000-500,000 yuan in the high-end market still has a strong control, especially Tesla has broken 60,000 monthly sales of the performance is indeed a greater impact on the 300,000 yuan level of competitors, luxury brand electric vehicle sales are still difficult to catch up. But further up, these brands do not have models that are competitive with luxury brands, so it is clear that luxury brands want to show their true strength in the electric era through the brand flagship model, drive users' cognition of high-end models in their electric camps, and accelerate the launch of more abundant pure electric new cars that take on the task of taking the measure, and regain the right to speak in the electric era from top to bottom. Perhaps, as traditional car brands accelerate the electrification transformation through the product window period, the real pressure of the new car-making forces is coming.
Red Star News reporter Liu Aini