21st Century Business Herald reporter Du Qiaomei and intern Chen Yihao reported in Beijing
Affected by the epidemic, the biennial Beijing Auto Show has been postponed.
However, unlike the plan to postpone the launch of new cars to September in 2020, most car companies have not disrupted the pace of product releases due to the postponement of the auto show.
In particular, luxury brands represented by BBA and joint venture brands represented by Toyota released a number of new cars and concept cars intensively in the week before the May Day holiday, opening up a strong lineup of cloud auto shows.
Today, let's take stock of the new products released on the luxury brand cloud.
First-line luxury flagship models have entered the era of pure electricity
Entering 2022, first-line luxury brands represented by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have accelerated their electrification offensive and consolidated their position in the luxury market.
After mercedes-benz's EQ brand flagship model EQS was launched in China in December last year, mercedes-Benz officially launched the EQS model in the world on the evening of April 19. The new car is positioned in a large pure electric SUV, which is in line with EQS, based on the Mercedes-Benz EVA platform, and is also the flagship SUV model in the current EQ family.
According to reports, the new EQS pure electric SUV is equipped with a rear axle motor as standard, and 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 kilowatts, with a peak torque of up to 858 Nm; the cruising range of WLTP can reach 660 km.
With the launch of this car, Mercedes-Benz's electric products have included EQA, EQB, EQC, EQS, EQE and EQV. With the launch of EQS SUVs, EQE SUVs and EQTs, the number of pure electric models will increase to 9; by 2025, Mercedes-Benz plans to increase the sales share of plug-in hybrid and pure electric models to 50%; by 2030, Mercedes-Benz will be fully prepared for full electric in the market where conditions permit.
Also on April 19, the Audi urbansphere concept car made its world debut, based on which Audi's first pure electric MPV will be born, which is not only the first concept car co-created with Chinese users, but its interior is also created by the Audi China Design Center for the first time. Audi stressed that the entire design has listened to the needs of Chinese users for high-end MPV models.
BMW, on April 20, the new generation of BMW 7 Series and its pure electric version of the BMW i7 debuted in Beijing worldwide, which also highlighted bmw's great importance to the Chinese market. Both new cars are based on the upgraded new generation of CLAR architecture, compared to the old models, the new car is not only larger, but also subverts people's cognition in terms of appearance and interior design, connecting the different concepts between traditional luxury and future technology.
Among them, bmw i7 is the fifth pure electric product brought by BMW Group to China, and the debut of BMW i7 means that BMW's pure electric product lineup has expanded into the large luxury car segment.
The new car is equipped with the BMW Group's fifth-generation electric drive system, which has a range of more than 600 kilometers, and adopts advanced computing platforms and intelligent equipment, making the new car technically possible for L3 automatic driving.
According to the plan, in 2022, the BMW Group will mass-produce and trial-produce 15 pure electric vehicle models, covering about 90% of the luxury car segment. By the end of 2025, the BMW Group expects to deliver a total of 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide, with one in every four new vehicles sold in China. BMW's "next generation" model, which represents a leap forward in next-generation technology, will begin trial production in 2024 and be introduced to the market in 2025.
Second-tier luxury launched a new energy counter-offensive
In the Chinese auto market, in the past two years, new luxury brands such as Tesla, Weilai and Ideal are rising, and constantly encroaching on the market share of traditional luxury brands, and are impacting traditional second-tier luxury brands represented by Lexus, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Lincoln, etc.
In order to regain the market, second-tier luxury has launched a new energy counter-offensive, from the strategic level to specific products, accelerating catch-up.
On April 20, Lexus' exclusive pure electric model, the new RZ, was officially launched in the world. The new car is based on the Lexus LF-Z Electrified concept car, using the e-TNGA pure electric architecture, this car will be a very important strategic model for Lexus to transform to pure electricity.
In terms of power, the Lexus RZ is equipped with a dual motor drive system, of which the maximum power of the front motor is 150kW (204 hp) / the maximum power of the rear motor is 80kW (109 hp), equipped with a power battery pack of 71.4kWh, and the endurance is not officially disclosed. The new car is equipped with a DIRECT4 electronic dynamic all-wheel drive system that distributes power between 0:100 and 100:0.
As lexus's exclusive pure electric model launched for the global market, starting with the new RZ, Lexus will start the brand evolution with pure electric models as the core. According to the plan, by 2030, all Lexus car series will be available in all-electric versions, and it is expected to achieve 100% pure electrification worldwide by 2035.
Lincoln released the first pure electric concept car, the Lincoln Star, on April 21, and the new car showed a vibrant design that was very different from the previous Lincoln models, foreshadowing the design language of the Lincoln brand's future pure electric car.
According to the plan, by 2025, Lincoln plans to launch three new pure electric models, when more than half of Lincoln's global sales will come from zero-emission pure electric models, and Lincoln's fourth pure electric model will be officially launched in 2026.
On April 21, Land Rover released its new generation of Range Rover in the Chinese market, with a total of 4 models launched in the early stage, all of which are extended wheelbase models, priced at 1.468-249.8 million yuan, and other models will be launched in the follow-up.
On the evening of April 27, Porsche pre-sold two new models of the Taycan family in China – the Taycan Cross Turismo, the former positioned as a pure electric crossover multi-purpose vehicle (CUV) and the Taycan GTS, the first pure electric member of the GTS series.
It is worth mentioning that, like the Taycan previously sold, the Taycan Cross Turismo has 4 versions of the model pre-sold at the same time. As a result, the Taycan family now offers a total of 9 models in the Chinese market (4 versions of the Taycan, 4 versions of the Taycan Cross Turismo and the Taycan GTS), covering both crossover utility vehicles and coupes.
Another detail is that the Taycan Cross Turismo is the first Porsche model to be carbon neutral throughout its life cycle, which is an important milestone for Porsche towards the goal of carbon neutrality across the value chain by 2030.
Low carbon and emission reduction are the general trend. Porsche's future is electrification, with the goal of achieving half of sales of electrified models, including plug-in hybrid or all-electric models, by 2025, and more than 80% of sales of purely electric models by 2030.
Reporter's Note:
At present, the competition in the era of new energy vehicles is gradually intensifying. In the past few years, Tesla has ridden the dust, Weilai and other Chinese brands have preemptively attacked, and the sales of traditional luxury brands in China's pure electric vehicle market are not very optimistic. With the increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles, China has gradually entered a new stage of development of electric vehicles to replace fuel vehicles, this trend in the high-end market is more obvious, and it is still unknown whether traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi can continue to lead the industry trend under the new competitive pattern.