Edit | Yu Bin
Produced by | Chaoqi Network "Yu see column"
In recent years, new energy vehicles have become a new growth point for China's economy, and last year, the sales growth rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 12%. The state's subsidies for new energy vehicles number in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This thriving new market naturally attracts many companies. Among them, there are both traditional car companies and some emerging companies entering the market across borders.
Huawei is one of them, but huawei's way to enter the new energy vehicle market is not to directly build cars. Instead, he chose to cooperate with the car manufacturer and integrate the Hongmeng system he developed into the car machine system. Take automobile intelligence as the entrance to new energy vehicles, so as to catch the east wind of the development of new energy vehicles.
On December 23, 2021, the Q&I M5 cooperated by Huawei and Chongqing Xilix was released, which received a lot of attention from the industry. Before the listing, Huawei executive Yu Chengdong once made a bold statement, saying that the target sales volume of the M5 in the first year of listing was 300,000 units.
However, in March this year, the M5 was officially launched, and the sales volume in the first month was only 3045 units, which was a huge gap with the sales expectations released by Yu Chengdong. So, why did the sales of the M5 fall short of expectations, and what problems existed in its products and marketing?
The configuration advantage is small, and the car and machine system is difficult to turn the tide
The Q&I M5 is the first model of AITO, a luxury brand co-founded by Xilix and Huawei. The price is 24.98-31.98 million yuan. This price is higher among domestic cars, which is in line with the price range of domestic high-end cars. So can the product power of the M5 occupy a place in the increasingly involuted domestic new energy vehicle market?
The main competitors of the Q&I M5 are the ideal one and the Lantu free four-wheel drive extender version at a similar price, and like the Q&I M5, these two cars also use range extender hybrids, and both belong to medium and large SUVs. Compared with these two cars, we can see the advantages and shortcomings of the M5.
First of all, the level of the power system is an important criterion for measuring the quality of a car, and the increase in the price of the car is matched by the increasing power level (except Lexus).
As a luxury SUV, the power advantage of the M5 over the two opponents is not obvious. From the engine point of view, in terms of the four-wheel drive flagship version of the M5, it adopts a 1.5T turbo engine with range extender hybrid technology, and zero hundred acceleration can reach 4.4 seconds.
The 313,600-speed four-wheel drive extended range version of Lando Free accelerates to 4.5 seconds. The ideal one acceleration level is poor, at just 6.5 seconds.
However, this is to compare the highest-configuration model of the Q&I M5 with competitors, and the low-end model of the Q&J M5 has zero hundred speed of only 7.1 seconds, which is no advantage over the competitors.
As far as the drive system is concerned, the low-end model of the M5 uses a rear-drive system, and the rest are all four-wheel drive. And Lan Tu dree and ideal one are all four-wheel drive. Therefore, the M5 has not opened up the gap with the competitors in the drive system.
Secondly, the interior materials and comfort of the vehicle are also important criteria for judging whether a car is luxurious. The M5 features a lot of leather in the interior, and the seats are equipped with heating, ventilation and massage functions as standard. After the test drive, some riders thought that the wrapping of the front seats of the M5 and the comfort of the rear seats were very good.
It seems that the M5 has a higher degree of comfort in the interior and material conscience, but the opponents of the same level it has to face are not weak in this regard. Landu free and ideal one also use a lot of leather materials, and the seat heating, ventilation and massage functions are also a non-falling.
There is also a very important reference indicator for buying a car, that is, the safety factor. The Q&I M5 looks very well-configured in terms of security configuration. The vehicle is equipped with 6 airbags, lane departure warning, lane keeping system and active braking system.
But a closer look at competitors' configurations shows that their efforts in security systems are not ambiguous. Landofree is also equipped with 6 airbags. Lane departure warning, lane keeping systems and active braking systems are also a number of safety features. Ideal one is also equipped with these safety features, along with knee airbags to protect the driver's legs.
The M5 has also made sufficient efforts in the auxiliary configuration of the vehicle, and the whole system is equipped with front and rear parking radar, 360-degree panoramic image, reversing warning system, automatic parking, automatic parking system.
But these configurations can also be seen on the ideal one and Lantu free. Even the Lantu free is more abundant in configuration, equipped with air suspension on the high-end model of the Lantu freee, which is a high-end suspension system that many million-level D-class cars will be equipped with, which can directly improve the comfort of the vehicle.
Comparing the power, comfort, safety configuration, auxiliary configuration, etc., it can be seen that the advantages of the M5 are not obvious. However, the most concerned thing at the beginning of the announcement of the Q&C M5 is the Huawei Hongmeng system it is equipped with, which will become the killer weapon for the Q&C M5 to lead other opponents?
This is the first time that Huawei's Hongmeng system has been applied to the car-machine system. According to some car owners, Huawei's Hongmeng system is quite smooth and convenient in the use of the car machine. Moreover, the voice response is timely, and there are few "artificial mental retardation" problems common to other intelligent car and machine systems.
Although, the Hongmeng system is the M5 has the advantages of the car machine system that other cars do not have. But in other aspects of automotive product power, the M5 has not opened up much of a gap with other competitors.
In the final analysis, the attributes of the car are still the means of transportation, so although the car will bring a fresh experience to the user in the human-computer interaction, the car is not a mobile phone after all, and a car machine system cannot directly change the product attributes of the car.
As a means of transportation, the driving experience of the car is the core competitiveness of its products. The factors that make up the driving experience of a car are very complex, including power, handling, comfort, etc. The hardware strength of all aspects of the driving experience that makes up the M5 is not particularly outstanding. Therefore, the sales volume of the M5 is unlikely to stand out in the increasingly fierce competition of new energy vehicles.
The hybrid system is facing innovation, and the extended range hybrid is likely to be eliminated by the market
Another noteworthy problem with the M5 is the extender hybrid system it uses. In fact, it is completely understandable that Cyrus uses hybrid power as the power system of the M5. After all, pure trams do not have universal applicability in the vast Chinese market.
In the cold and frozen northern region, the endurance of pure electric vehicles is very worrying, most of the electric vehicles on the market that claim to have a range of about 500 kilometers, in the winter in the northern region, generally only have an endurance of about 200 kilometers.
Therefore, the use of hybrid power is more in line with the actual needs of cars used in various parts of China. This plays an important role in broadening the market and having as many potential users as possible.
However, there are many types of hybrids, including oil-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, 48V light hybrids, and extender hybrids used in the Q&A M5.
The advantages of range extender hybrid are fuel economy and long cruising range. However, the disadvantages are also very obvious, the extender hybrid is more expensive to manufacture than other hybrid modes, and the energy conversion efficiency is lower. Its high cost is also the reason why models with range extender hybrids are mostly high-end cars.
However, in addition to the above shortcomings, extender hybrid also faces a huge challenge, that is, technical iteration. With the development of automotive technology, more and more new hybrid technologies are being introduced. Geely's Thor hybrid system and BYD's dmi system have both formed a huge impact on other old hybrid systems.
The advantages of extended range hybrid such as long endurance and fuel saving will be eroded in the next technical iteration, while its cost disadvantage is unlikely to be solved. Its technology is even more "primitive" by industry insiders, and it is only a matter of time before it is replaced.
Therefore, many manufacturers have abandoned the development of range extender hybrid technology and the production of related models in consideration of the disadvantages of range extended range hybrid and the development trend of the industry. And Cyrus is still obsessed with the range-extended hybrid, which can't help but worry about the future of the M5.
Marketing channels rely on Huawei, and offline stores are scarce
The sales volume of the M5 was less than expected, in addition to its product advantages are not obvious and the flaws of the range extender hybrid itself, there is also an important factor, that is, the weakness of the offline sales channels of Xilis.
The laying of Cyrus's offline stores nationwide is very rare, and according to statistics, there are no more than 30 Cyris 4S stores nationwide. Such a weak offline sales network is unlikely to support the expected annual sales of 300,000.
Huawei also noticed this, and in response, Huawei directly moved the car to huawei's offline experience store. At present, most of Huawei's experience stores in major cities have the original car of the Q&I M5 for consumers to experience. In addition, Huawei's offline experience store can also play the role of a 4s store.
But Huawei's help did not make the sales of the Q&I M5 soar. After two months, it was still tepid. For consumers, the price of the car is higher, and the indicators, configuration and performance are carefully compared when purchasing.
And most consumers need to test drive to determine whether the car is suitable for them. Therefore, they are still more accustomed to buying cars in 4s stores.
Huawei's offline experience store also has a test drive service, but it requires an online reservation. Whether consumers can get used to this new model of car sales in the internet age remains to be seen.
Online Huawei's publicity for the M5 is overwhelming, but it is still doubtful that it can be directly converted into orders. Whether Huawei's set of offline and online sales channels is feasible still needs to be tested by the market.
epilogue
The new brand of Q&I M5, which was founded by Huawei and Xilix, has just come out, which has indeed attracted a lot of attention, but the thunder and rain are small, and the original annual sales of 300,000 yuan are compared with the bone reality of more than 3,000 units sold per month now, and the gap is too large.
However, Huawei's strategy of entering the automotive market is very necessary, automotive intelligence is the trend of the times, and If Huawei can rely on its own software and hardware strength to control the automotive brain, it will inevitably gain huge business opportunities.
However, it remains to be seen whether Cyrus, as a car manufacturer with weak offline marketing capabilities and inexperienced products, can serve as a long-term partner in Huawei's automotive field.
Perhaps, after finding that many car partners are not very reliable, Huawei will also go to the sea like Xiaomi to devote itself to the field of automobile manufacturing.
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