Mo Yilong is a former vehicle subjective evaluation engineer
The protagonist of this article is The flagship of Mercedes-Benz's pure electric products and the peak of the EQ series - EQS, priced at 1.0796-1.5186 million yuan. With this car, I would like to talk about some of my understanding of the Million Luxury car and some of the experiences of this car.
To be honest, I have been an engineer for so many years, the test drive opportunities of million-level luxury cars are very few, basically a slap can be counted, even after entering the automotive media industry, it is difficult to have the opportunity to test drive to this type of model.
The reason is very simple, one is that when I am an engineer, I am responsible for some civilian-level model research and development work, and the price is mostly concentrated in about 200,000; the second is that the vast majority of consumers have the ability to buy models that are basically concentrated near this price point, so the media is more willing or more able to receive cooperation orders for this level of models, and luxury cars, especially million-level luxury cars, people who can own it are a minority after all; third, I am not rich myself, and there is no million-level luxury car crowd around.
And for million-level luxury cars, is there any evaluation significance?
Yes and no.
For car companies, it is very meaningful and significant.
First of all, first-class models and ultra-luxury models have very strong premium rights. Compared with making a car of ten or two hundred thousand, earning that 10%-20% gross profit, this little money in the luxury car, may not be as expensive as a set of optional audio, and rich people will not be too entangled in these things, good wine and good food to greet the end.
Secondly, first-class models and ultra-luxury models are of great significance to the improvement of research and development capabilities. It is not that as long as you are willing to spend money on the pile configuration can become a luxury car, a closer look at the 200,000 or so models on the market today, basically there should be some, and even the standard configuration to the luxury car must be optional, then why can't they be luxury cars? Why can't it sell for millions?
I think that the focus of luxury cars is design, concept, frontier, distinctive nobility, and more delicate and higher quality pursuit.
To put it simply, when people have two or three cups of happy events, isn't it for the sake of the dopamine secreted when drinking to make themselves doubly happy, and the feeling of being slightly drunk on the head allows them to temporarily get rid of all kinds of troubles in the world? So what is the difference between Qingdao for 5 yuan a bottle and a bottle of Maotai for thousands of yuan? The difference is that Moutai can make you feel the mellow aroma of wine, let you not come out of the yue while being slightly drunk, so that you will not have a headache tomorrow after you are finished tonight, these feelings are the fundamentals that make Moutai a bottle of hard to find every festive season.
It's the same with putting it on a luxury car, it's about doing things to the extreme.
More delicate, more uniform and compact gap, more crystal clear and bright car paint, a variety of distinguished selection of first layer calf leather, each car pattern is different solid wood finish, shiny and full of texture of aluminum titanium decorative strips, high-definition delicate instrument screen display, twenty or thirty high-fidelity speakers and high-power amplifiers let you feel like you are in a mobile concert hall and so on.
Behind these configurations, a car company R & D team needs to have a very strong cutting-edge aesthetic and original design foundation, as well as for the control of more advanced and more refined craftsmanship, in order to let so many distinguished materials into the same small space to perform their duties, form a complete set of luxury processes, let you open the door at the moment of "uproar" a call out, you do not know why it is called, but it feels very luxurious and exquisite.
These are the results of thousands of days and nights of efforts behind the R&D department, and these successful cutting-edge technologies will be promoted and applied to more products and even industries in the future, creating an exclusive culture and brand tone, that is, forcing.
The last is to build a strong brand foundation for the volume model. Everyone has heard "drive a BMW, sit a Mercedes", indicating that for passengers or bosses, the luxury and comfort of Mercedes-Benz are well-known, and today, Mercedes-Benz is still one of the best kings, of course, there is RR Bentley and so on.
So with this foundation, car companies can better carry out the next step, after creating luxury IP, civilian products are responsible for harvesting, can't afford S600 or Maybach but want face is it, it doesn't matter, 200,000 A-class, 300,000 C-class, 400,000 GLC, etc. Are purchased, hanging this trident logo, we are Mercedes-Benz owners, how many people eat this set without me to say more about it. And these models are all products that make car companies profitable.
In summary, the evaluation of million luxury cars is of course very necessary for car companies, how to do a good job of a noble model, how to be a luxury standard, luxury car companies know best.
And for ordinary people like me, are these evaluations still necessary? There is no need, because everything that can be selected is full, the luxury is luxurious, all the experiences are much more than what we usually come into contact with, how much is left in the same million-level model comparability? It's just which logo you prefer.
All of the above is my nonsense, because I have no money and have not experienced the days of having money, so I do not understand the needs and ideas of the bosses, and I am entitled to entertainment.
So when I got this EQS, the moment I opened the door, I also "snorted".
In terms of appearance, everyone understands it, in short, when you see a real car, that sense of luxury cannot be described in words and pictures. The EQS I got was $1.51 million, so of course I listened to the Berlin Sound's mobile concert hall when I got on the bus, but I opened "Drunken Butterfly" instead of Pavarotti.
Compared with the Maybach S450 I drove a few years ago, EQS gives me a different feeling, its luxury is based on the current many pure electric technology models, the huge screen occupies almost all the panels in the front row, it may be that most of the pure electric models use this design, so EQS gives me the feeling is not original, a bit off the ordinary.
But after a closer look, in the end it is still a luxury car, the screen of 4K OLED, the display texture is delicate and exquisite, the operation response is sensitive and smooth, and the vibration of the screen adds a sense of feedback from the physical button, but this is not a cutting-edge technology, it can only be said that this 1.5 million car should be equipped with standard things.
The overall riding experience can only be described in one word: quiet, smooth, comfortable, efficient...
The addition of rear wheel steering technology makes this large administrative sedan more than 5 meters long as an ordinary B-class model, and the steering feel can be adjusted according to different modes, and the accuracy can also be remarkable.
With a weight of nearly 2.7 tons and a price of more than one million, it is logical for this luxury car to use air suspension, and the support performance and response of the suspension in different modes are also obviously different. In the comfort mode, the speed bump is almost all flattened, although the seat of this car is not as amazing as the original Maybach S450 set to give me, but the suspension of the road surface exquisite treatment, so that the riding comfort of the whole car is very good, no matter what bad road is walked, the body shake and action are very slight, without dragging mud and water.
There is only a comfortable mode, the first-order shaking is slightly obvious, you can feel the suspension of the recovery speed is deliberately slowed down, is to let you shake up, the image point is like a child's cradle, let people sleep very well. When adjusted to the sport mode, the suspension action becomes very crisp and clean, and there is no excessive roll in the corner at high speed.
Motivation is like a man's wallet, I can not use, but can not be without! So as a luxury car, and it is a pure electric luxury car, how can the EQS have no power? As long as you are willing to step on it, it can give you a strong sense of pushing back, making you the fastest boy in the traffic, oh no, boss. And how can a man say he is fast...
So in normal mode, the power adjustment of EQS is very smooth, the throttle is very similar to the logic of ordinary fuel vehicles, the difference is that there is no shift, so there is no need to talk about what is frustrated, very smooth, you want to slow it is slow, you want fast, it is fast.
The logic of energy recovery I personally always feel that Polar Star 2 is the best, EQS still needs a little precision to control the acceleration pedal, and only within 5% of the opening for you to play, so I personally do not particularly enjoy.
What the? You said that EQS as an administrative car, of course, the driver to drive ah, what is the matter with my boss? No, I personally feel that EQS is more like an administrative car for the boss himself, rather than a driver like Maybach.
Because the rear space of EQS is much smaller than that of the normal S-class, visible to the naked eye, although the length is placed there, it seems that these spaces have been encroached upon by the shape, For the minimum drag coefficient of the 0.2Cd mass production car, what needs to be sacrificed includes the head space of the rear row, so in order for the boss not to head, you can only lean the seat forward, which indirectly leads to the compression of the rear space, and in fact, even if it is compressed, the length is placed there, it cannot be very small, but compared to the S-class, the boss's posture may not be so elegant.
At the same time, the back row is a three-seat design, so the Xiaoice box in the middle of the previous S-class is gone, so how can I drink my Rafi! Serious administrative boss car where there are three people sitting in the back row! How embarrassing!
So I think the positioning of this car is more for those who occasionally want to drive their own cars on weekends to take their families out to play quietly, get rid of the disturbances in the business shuluo field, and only want to use the little time that is squeezed out, listen to songs, drive, blow the wind, and the EQS can give the owner the quiet, which is incomparable.
NVH is the most amazing part of me, driving on the speed limit of 80km/h on the ring line, I chatted with the co-driver brother, whispering softly is completely enough, what wind noise, road noise, tire noise, all give you a dead, there is no engine noise, at this time say a sentence "Hello Mercedes-Benz, I want to listen to a song "Love before the West Yuan", the 15-speaker Berlin sound can make you instantly return to that era.
Oh, I'm mistaken, we who listened to this song at the time may not be able to open EQS now. And I hope that all of you in front of the screen can be like this car in the future, smooth, stable, and rich, instead of listening to "Young and Promising" on someone else's luxury car.
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