Text/Hu Yao
Photo/From official
From the announcement of the pre-sale price in April last year to the expected delivery at the end of last year, the Alpha S HI version, which has been difficult to produce for various reasons, finally announced on the evening of May 7, 2022, in the form of online live broadcast, it was officially listed at the price of 397,900 for the advanced version and 429,900 for the premium version, and the subsequent delivery will also enter the countdown.
As early as Last April, a video of the Alpha S HI version driving autonomously in the urban area burst the circle of friends. Unlike Youshang, who still limits the main application scenarios of autonomous driving to highways, the Alpha S HI version is the first time to truly realize "unmanned driving in downtown areas". It is also this video that makes many people exclaim - the era of unmanned driving is really coming!
However, at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show that followed, although the Alpha S HI version was also unveiled, it was tightly protected and covered, and the audience could not even see the true appearance of the cockpit in the car. What followed was a long wait and repeated postponements.
During this period, the M5 was launched and stole the title of "the first Huawei Hongmeng car". However, careful people will find that Huawei's intelligent driving technology does not appear on the M5. And Huawei left this blockbuster killer to the Alpha S HI version. After all, compared with the Hongmeng cockpit, Huawei's urban intelligent driving technology is the most difficult focus.
Standing at the top of the intelligent food chain
The human-computer interaction in the Hongmeng cockpit and the high-end intelligent driving provided by Huawei combine two Huawei-core intelligent technologies into one, so that the Alpha S HI Edition has three global debut titles:
The world's first mass-produced car equipped with HI Huawei's full-stack intelligent car solution (Hongmeng cockpit + intelligent driving, Huawei's package of intelligent technical solutions, full output, no reservations);
The world's first mass-produced vehicle that supports high-end intelligent driving on urban roads (Alpha S HI Edition implements Huawei's urban road intelligent driving technology for the first time);
The world's first high-end pure power production sedan equipped with Huawei's smart cockpit - Hongmeng car machine OS (The Q&I M5 has long been unveiled, but the Q&I M5 belongs to an SUV);
Although the industry has a joke about the new forces to build cars: as long as the fixed words are added enough, they can always become the world's first. But the three world premiere titles of the Alpha S HI version are very simple and have a real gold content.
For BAIC Group, it is the debut of Jihu New Energy's high-end flagship products; for Huawei, it is a sign of HI Huawei's full-stack intelligent vehicle solution and the beginning of large-scale commercialization; for the automotive industry, it is a benchmark for the intelligent level of mass production vehicles.
In the video before the press conference, we can see the driver release the steering wheel, the vehicle can identify itself, automatically pass through a variety of complex road conditions, and realize high-level intelligence such as valet parking. According to official information, the car has 34 high-perception hardware, forming a set of ultra-high fusion perception system with 360-degree coverage, truly restoring the 3D physical world and accurately identifying obstacles; MDC810 intelligent driving calculation platform, supporting 400 TOPS super computing power, can easily cope with the test of complex road conditions.
Under the blessing of Hongmeng cockpit, it is not only a travel tool, but also an intelligent terminal, which can be seamlessly connected with mobile phones, computers, PAD, smart home appliances and other products, and has core capabilities such as voice control, visual perception, on-board payment, and seamless circulation specially created for on-board scenes, and can be deeply integrated with various applications.
In terms of mechanical performance, it provides a customized version of the power battery system and the front drive asynchronous motor + rear drive synchronous motor composed of powertrain, Polar Fox Alpha S new HI version of the four-wheel drive motor peak power of more than 473kW, peak torque of more than 655Nm, the vehicle 100 km acceleration of less than 3.5s. While bringing the ultimate acceleration experience, the new HI version of Jihu Alpha S has the first 800V high-voltage mass production car platform in China, with a charging power of up to 187kW, which can supplement the cruising range of nearly 200km in 10 minutes, and charge from 30% to 80% in only 15 minutes.
Compared with zero hundred speed increase and peak power, the preemptive landing of high-voltage fast charging technology is probably more influential and meaningful to the industry.
It is said that in the research and development process of the new HI version of Polar Fox Alpha S, the engineers of the two sides have cooperated for more than 1200 days, the generalization test mileage has exceeded one million kilometers, and the technical first and leading position has been achieved in many aspects such as the layout of lidar and the integration of 5G antennas, which has played an important role in promoting performance, quality control, cost and mass production applications of smart cars. In other words, technologies such as high-voltage fast charging and urban automatic driving are actually doing research and development and rushing progress. However, alpha S HI version took the lead in achieving a balance between cost, quality control and commercialization, and took the lead in introducing it to the market. It's not hard to see why it's repeatedly delayed and difficult to give birth. A pioneering and revolutionary product, there is not much experience of predecessors to sum up, everything must rely on their own exploration, taking some detours is inevitable.
But for Polar Fox, no matter how revolutionary a product is, it ultimately needs to fall into the reality of sales. In 2021, The annual delivery of Jihu Automobile is only 4993 vehicles, compared with the hot new energy market, this number is not satisfactory, so does the Landing of alpha S HI version become its powerful sales booster?
Promote the Polar Fox challenge to target annual sales of 40,000 vehicles
The slow heat of the start did not lower the expectations of the Polar Fox car, and this year's target is still set at 40,000 vehicles. The launch of the Alpha S HI version has added another fire to the achievement of this goal. Because, this time Huawei is deeply bundled into the game. After cooperating with Xilix to launch The Circle, Huawei once again bet on its brand appeal and credibility.
Huawei's current path to involvement in the automotive industry has been clear, the first way is to do parts and technology solutions suppliers, such as Huawei Hicar on the car. The second way is the "Huawei Smart Choice" model, where Huawei is deeply involved in product definition, vehicle design, and channel sales, and inputs certain technical resources. This is the case with the launch of "QuestionIng Boundary" in collaboration with Cyrus. The third way, that is, the "Huawei Inside" model, the design and manufacture of products, are dominated by Jihu, but Huawei inputs a complete technical solution - this is the case with the full-stack smart car solution on the Alpha S HI version. Obviously, in the latter two paths, the degree of Huawei's involvement is quite deep.
In March this year, the sales volume of the M5 has risen to more than 3,000 units, gradually gaining a foothold. Huawei has once again proved its appeal in the automotive circle. For Jihu, which holds the two core competitiveness of "Magna + Huawei", Huawei has a higher degree of investment in core technologies, and the probability of success seems to be higher.
However, we should also see the price of about 400,000, and the market for pure trams in this price range is not very large. Like several main players, BMW iX3 and NIO EC6 are in 2000-3000 units per month, NIO ES6 is about 4000-5000 units per month, and Lantu FREE only has about 1000-2000 units per month. Although the market size is limited, the above models are all SUVs without sedans. For Alpha S, on the one hand, it is necessary to become a pioneer in this range market, on the other hand, this may be the biggest market opportunity. With the intelligent experience of the leading era and the appeal of Huawei, the Alpha S HI version should be able to support the price of 400,000. The rest depends on how to do a good job in end-user experience and sales scenario construction. And whether Jihu Auto can enter Huawei's sales system has also become another wait-and-see for the outside world to deeply bind the two.
Driving value view
For the psychology of the new energy buyers, in fact, as an author who has been in the automotive industry for nearly 20 years, he did not initially figure it out: why is it that when everyone faces Tesla, which was plagued by negative news in the early days, the fault tolerance and tolerance are still flocking, and so many traditional car companies with centuries-old car accumulation EV models are not their opponents at all?
When I learned about the reasons why my friends around me bought Teslas, they almost all said the same reason: buying electric vehicles (or to be more accurate, high-end electric vehicle products), the most important thing is the intelligent experience, which is far greater than the manufacturing process in their car purchase decisions, and even greater than the traditional brand influence. This is very different from the decision-making path of traditional fuel vehicles. It can be seen that the intelligent experience and the scientific and technological strength of the car companies represented behind it are the sharp weapons that determine life and death for a high-end electric vehicle.
Nowadays, on the stage of Jihu Automobile, Yu Chengdong has come, and the new HI version of Jihu Alpha S has also confirmed the identity of "Huawei's first CAR of HI", next, whether Jihu Automobile can break the wrist with Teslas, with the real car on the road, the ensuing feedback and mystery of the car will be a key moment to test its color. Whether the Polar Fox can smoothly get on the right track, success or failure is in this move.
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