Unsurprisingly, Yu's mouth was big again.
At the launch of the new HI version of BAIC Jihu Alpha S three days ago, Yu Chengdong said that "the automatic driving system we made is the strongest automatic driving system in the world today, there is no one", stealing the limelight of Liu Yu, chairman of BAIC New Energy.
As the first brand of the "Huawei Inside" model, Jihu, who has worked hard with Huawei for 1200 days, is undoubtedly the "most senior" member of Huawei's concept brand. In the transformation of traditional car companies, Jihu, which was established in 2016, can also be regarded as the earliest player.
However, it is such a polar fox that has been fighting for many years, and after entering the terminal market for more than a year, the peak of monthly sales in March this year was only more than 1600 thin.
As a life-saving straw for The Extreme Fox, on the eve of the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, the new HI version of the Pole Fox Alpha S supported by Huawei Technology debuted, and it became famous after participating in Huawei's automatic driving road test.
However, since the debut of the Shanghai Auto Show last year, The Pole Fox has returned to a full year of silence, and after experiencing many ticket jumps at the end of 2021, March and April this year, the new car was finally officially launched on May 7, and said that it was "about" to achieve batch delivery.
After waiting for a whole year, this life-saving straw with Huawei genes has finally arrived, so does this mean that the spring of the polar fox is also coming?
01 Is Huawei really a lifesaver?
It can be seen through the parameter configuration that the new HI version of the Polar Fox Alpha S has significantly improved in all aspects compared with the ordinary version, in addition to the more Huawei high-end intelligent intelligent driving assisted driving technology.
Hi version 4980mm body length is 50mm longer than the ordinary version, 1960mm width is 20mm longer than the ordinary version, in addition, the new car motor uses front AC asynchronous + rear permanent magnet synchronization, the maximum horsepower reaches 643 horses, zero hundred acceleration only takes 3.5 seconds, while the ordinary version only has a permanent magnet synchronous motor (the top is equipped with dual motors). In terms of charging efficiency, the HI version of fast charging only needs 0.25 hours to fully charge, which is twice as fast as the ordinary version.
In terms of vehicles, it is equipped with Huawei's Hongmeng system, which has a number of auxiliary driving functions such as automatic lane change, navigation assisted driving, built-in high-precision map, obstacle visualization display, remote control parking/driving out, etc., and the central control large screen reaches 21.7 inches.
Overall, the HI version is worth the money for 50,000-80,000 yuan higher than the price of the ordinary version. But does this mean that the HI version can bring a considerable sales boost to the Polar Fox? It is estimated that reality is bone after all.
At the press conference, Yu Chengdong repeatedly said that "our hardware is the first in the world, and the system is the most capable system in the world today, which is too good", and on the other hand, Dou Wentao is repeatedly reminding everyone not to leave the steering wheel when driving.
As for Mr. Yu's SOLO speech, neither demonstrating the high-end assisted driving ability of the new car, nor announcing the specific release time of the technology, it came and went or was similar to the exaggerated words that violated the advertising law at the Q&A conference.
When talking about the performance of Huawei's high-end automatic driving in the new car, Yu Chengdong, who has a big mouth, suddenly revealed a hint of subtlety, saying, "I hope everyone has a little patience, this car will run more and more smart." ”
One of the few links that show the product's assisted driving technology, the city's assisted driving ability and high-speed pilot driving do not mention a word, only show the polar fox APP valet parking capabilities, from the test video, it is basically similar to Xiaopeng's existing VPA function, and even when cornering, there will be no flashing warning.
Huawei's full-stack self-developed intelligent solution is almost the biggest selling point of this car, but after more than a year of waiting and multiple ticket jumps, the "blockbuster" conference of the threesome has not announced any new technological progress, nor has it announced the schedule of the release of assisted driving technology, and even the specific delivery of the vehicle is uncertain.
In particular, Yu Zong's "somewhat patient" rhetoric makes people can't help but germinate some negative associations. What is the geometry of Huawei's autonomous driving research and development, and where has the mass production of technology gone? Everything will have to wait until the media test drive experience in the near future to verify one by one.
As for the price, the price of 39.79-42.99 million yuan is in the same level of Weilai ET7, Zhiji L7, Zero Run C01, Nezha S and a series of competitors, which is really not too strong in terms of cost performance.
In addition, in terms of charging technology, although the new car has 750 volt ultra-high voltage charging technology, but the extreme fox has not yet announced whether there is a plan for a self-operated charging network, based on the current 400 volt public fast charging equipment, whether the new car's ultra-high voltage charging advantages can be fully utilized is still doubtful.
02 Sales continue to be sluggish, and it is not Huawei that is missing
Since the pre-sale of the first model in April 2020, Polar Fox has been in the terminal market for two full years.
But for more than a year since the first product was delivered, Polar Fox sales have been hovering at a low level below six hundred vehicles. Among them, the average monthly sales of αT models last year were only more than 260, and the average monthly sales of αS models were only more than 230. Cumulative sales in 2021 will be only 6,006 vehicles, which is double the 12,000 vehicle target set by BAIC.
Compared with the sluggish sales volume, beiqi blue valley production capacity is excessive. Its three major plants have a design capacity of 320,000 units, 50,000 units and 150,000 units, totaling 520,000 units, and the production capacity in 2021 has reached 160,000, 25,000 and 75,000 units, respectively, and the actual capacity utilization rate in 2021 is 0.08%, 0% and 8.32% respectively.
Excessive waste of production capacity is naturally accompanied by huge losses, the financial report disclosed that in 2021, the net profit attributable to the mother of Beiqi Blue Valley was -5.244 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the mother in the first quarter of 2022 was -960 million yuan.
The same as the transformation of traditional car companies, the later Lantu reached the level of more than 1,200 vehicles per month in five delivery months in 2021, but after more than a year of struggle, the combined sales of the two cars have just exceeded 1,000, what is the problem?
As the pearl in the palm of BAIC, the resources and technical support behind the Pole Fox are beyond doubt. In terms of product quality, Jihu is also superior in body rigidity and NVH in the same class of products. In order to establish the brand of Pole Fox, BAIC specifically found the only OEM for Magna, which was oem for BBA. The materials used by BAIC for the Pole Fox are all good materials for direct benchmark luxury cars. Some people believe that the problem of the polar fox is that the price is too high, but from the actual construction point of view, the high cost of the polar fox is clearly placed there.
Dashijun believes that the focus of the sluggish sales of Jihu is that although this brand has a high-end price, it does not have a high-end life.
As a new new energy brand, Jihu is still taking the old-fashioned marketing routine and service model of BAIC BJEV.
As a high-end brand, Jihu neither has its own exclusive charging network, nor does it have a highly granular user service network like Weilai, nor does it have a mature high-viscosity user operation system.
As a model for the recent rise of the high-end new energy market, in order to promote the return of BYD's Denza brand to the high-end market, Zhao Changjiang has vigorously aligned itself with the new power brands from the Internet since the end of last year. Through high-frequency user exchanges, the dusty Denza brand was quickly pulled back to the public eye, and it is reported that the follow-up in user services will also be benchmarked against Weilai.
In today's environment of new energy vehicle brands blooming, the lack of system marketing and user system is the core pain point of the Jihu brand that is difficult to break the circle and expand the scale of users, and the existing Jihu owners cannot get a sense of identity for a high-end experience.
Although the Cui Jian concert on April 15 successfully pushed the brand exposure of Jihu to a new peak, "it did not bring many orders, although the store traffic became more, more people came to see the car, the final link was screened for a round, and the final transaction was even less." Beijing a polar fox space sales bluntly.
The day after the concert, the WeChat index of "Extreme Fox" showed a cliff-like decline. On April 18, the index had fallen below average.
For a high-end new brand, the heavy publicity is only a trigger point for brand exposure, and targeted marketing and comprehensive after-sales service after exposure are the high-end value.
Write at the end:
So, back to the original question, will Huawei become a lifesaver for Polar Fox? The answer is self-evident.
For The arrival of the HI version of the model with high prices and extremely poor sales continues to be sluggish and the high-end service system is extremely scarce, it is estimated that it can only increase the sales of some special edition products for the Pole Fox, but it is difficult to support the main body of the sales of the Polar Fox brand.
Although Huawei's autonomous driving technology has been touted to the industry ceiling, but for most of the 400,000 level of high-end models of the target users, brand recognition and service experience is more indispensable competitiveness, intelligent driving technology even if blown to the sky, at this stage can not become a decisive product force of a product, but can only be the icing on the cake.
Coupled with the current technical progress of Huawei's high-end automatic driving in the new car, the market performance of the HI version of the model is full of uncertainty.
It is worth mentioning that Yu Chengdong had bluntly said in an internal meeting before: "Those companies that choose our car BU, including state-owned enterprises and central enterprises, want brands without brands, channels without channels, retail without retail, product design, experience in all aspects are not good, there is no line, even the new strength of car manufacturing can not do, who can he do?" If we don't enter the market and help car companies to do a good job in the design and experience of the car and sell it well, this business cannot close the loop at all. ”
Although Yu Chengdong's words are very difficult to hear, they also pinpoint the pain points of Partners such as Ji Fox. Xilis, which is also blessed by Huawei technology, has now become Huawei's foundry, and how long will the Polar Fox be stuck in the mud?
Therefore, compared with the prospect of the HI version of the model, The Extreme Fox should think more about what competitiveness can be obtained from Huawei? If you leave Huawei one day, can it become a high-end brand widely recognized by consumers?