Hello everyone, I am the president of the Electric Vehicle Commune.
To say that the biggest change in recent years is that the word "intelligence" has increasingly penetrated into people's lives.
Take smartphones, larger screens make visual effects more prominent, faster CPUs make the picture smoother, stronger lenses and algorithms allow ordinary people to enjoy the fun of photography, and even link with smart homes...
As the saying goes, "Once you use it, you can't go back."
Also "difficult to return" are the mushrooming of smart electric vehicles in recent years.
A friend once complained to me that he was willing to exchange his 5-series NAPPA leather seat for a new set of car machines, but unfortunately he couldn't change it. If it weren't for the family's obstruction, I would have sold cars to embrace new energy, and now I can only drive hard (hello Versailles).
Our slip cloth lee was also changed from XJ to ET5. In addition to driving dozens of kilometers every day to assist driving, he is also studying how to pay for the wool of electricity ... Sure enough, if you drive an economical and practical smart electric vehicle, the "pattern" will become smaller.
And some time ago, when I was looking for writing material, the opinion of a Skyfan R7 owner caught my attention.
To sum it up, it is one sentence: the car machine is the soul of a car.
After this major OTA update, the reaction of Skyfan owners is generally like this:
This makes me a little curious: can intelligent cockpits and intelligent driving really become the soul of the car as he said? Further, why can intelligence subvert the value system of luxury brands?
Today, let's have a good chat.
01. Luxury is being redefined
Some time ago, I believe that many people were brushed by the news of "big price reduction of fuel vehicles".
Behind this, it is not unrelated to the impact of electrification: for every additional new energy sold, one less fuel vehicle is sold. When the brand power of the joint venture is not enough to support the product premium, it is obvious that sales can only be achieved by reducing prices.
In addition to the joint venture brand in the whirlpool of public opinion, the luxury brand Mercedes-Benz has actually become the hardest hit area for price reduction.
The superficial reason is that a Mercedes that looks younger and sportier does not conform to the mainstream aesthetics of current users.
Such as a streamlined body with low wind resistance, a sporty back shape, a wide shoulder design, an integrated dome roof... These fashion elements seem to be only right when they appear on smart electric vehicles.
The deeper reason is that the "luxury" on which Mercedes-Benz lives is being redefined.
Taking the seat with the highest interior technology content, at present, SAIC Motor Holding Company and China's largest parts supplier - Yanfeng Seat, through equity acquisition, obtained the international leader Adient's domestic technology center and manufacturing base through equity acquisition, breaking the barrier of seat technology monopoly by foreign capital.
(Yanfeng's cooperation with many brands has brought hundreds of billions of revenue)
Jifeng, Tiancheng and other enterprises have also introduced and improved a number of seat production lines at home and abroad through the acquisition of overseas companies.
As a result, comfortable ergonomic seats, as well as the five-piece set of seat heating/ventilation/massage/lumbar support/leg rest representing luxury, have become "Wang Xietang Qianyan in the old days" and fly into the homes of ordinary people.
In the past, the silent glass that was only equipped on high-end models of luxury cars has also been lowered to the 200,000-300,000 level. The panoramic canopy, which can increase the lighting area, has also used a double-layer design with an 85% thermal insulation rate earlier.
In addition to this, there are audio, leather, air conditioning systems and much more... The president will not repeat them here.
One fact is that in the wave of electrification in recent years, the domestic automotive supply chain has been fully developed. The sense of luxury stacked by configuration is no longer exclusive to luxury brands.
And in terms of intelligent configuration, the traditional luxury big brothers really can't pile up Chinese brands!
Take the Feifan R7, which costs from 279,900 yuan, its intelligent cockpit is as tailored for the domestic supply chain -
The AMOLED large screen of the central control comes from BOE, and the latest iPad Pro also applies this new technology;
High-precision map of car navigation, which can provide centimeter-level lane accuracy and rich road condition information, from Baidu;
The voice system with a recognition rate of 97% and more than 500 voice commands comes from iFLYTEK...
The hardware of intelligent driving also has a bit of "forced industrial upgrading".
The Luminar lidar with a wavelength of 1550nm and a detection range of 500m on the Feifan R7, the domestic Tudatong (equipped on the NIO ET7) can already achieve the same level.
It is followed by Sagitar Juchuang (equipped on Xpeng G9) and Hesai Technology (equipped with Ideal L9);
ZF's 4D millimeter-wave radar has a detection range of 350m, and the domestic Senstec (equipped on the navy SL03) has also caught up with this level.
As for the 8 million pixels and 250m detection range high-definition camera, it is provided by Hikvision's holding company. After all, the "sky eye" cameras all over the streets are from the hands of this security giant.
(There is a saying, the hardware of Feifan is selected to be the top in the industry)
In terms of intelligent driving software, such as Feifan & SAIC Group Innovation R&D Institute, it adopts the method of co-creation and development, and launches a fully integrated intelligent driving software algorithm, which can achieve high-speed piloting assisted driving very robustly.
(Comments from a highly qualified media friend)
This is a world of difference compared to luxury brands that can't do lane keeping well and need to add money for adaptive cruise.
Although at this stage in the tires, suspension and other parts, we also need the support of top suppliers such as international giants Horse / Michelin / Pirelli, ZF / Tennek / Continental. But what luxury brands can buy, independent brands can also buy at the same price.
This also means that whether it is the hardware provided by the supply chain or the software developed by car companies, the advantages of luxury brands have disappeared, and they will inevitably face the next round of reshuffle.
Sadly, some luxury brands still don't realize when the definition of luxury has changed.
02. Excellent experience is the luxury of the new era
Indeed, for top luxury brands such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, hand-stitched high-grade leather and rare walnut from the northern latitude I don't know how many degrees can indeed raise the brand's pressure, after all, scarce is expensive.
However, the essence of luxury for the public is not a simple configuration stack, but a real experience in the life scene through the development of configuration and related technologies.
More typically, such as a friend of mine who opened NIO ET7, @M liked to call NOMI to help him open the nap mode during his lunch break.
Of course, things like air conditioning, stereo, seat massage, screen extinguishing and the like must have been adjusted by him in advance in the custom settings.
The owner of the sports car I met when I tested the C11 extended range version in Dali also liked the two functions of the co-driver display and the on-board KTV the most. Allowing grandchildren to give up the family's million-dollar luxury car shows the attractiveness of the on-board entertainment system.
This also means that for users in the new era, what is more important is actually the scene experience that can be "cool" and driven by intelligence, rather than simple workmanship and materials.
And the commune fan and Skyfan R7 owner @XiaoW, also shared his views on the big version of the OTA after the Skyfan.
His view is somewhat similar to "the car machine is the soul of a car". Since it has reached the era of the popularization of intelligent technology, what is more important is the comfortable experience brought by technology changing life, and the pleasure that comes with it.
For example, after this OTA push, Skyfan R7 has added 6 games such as The King of Fighters 14, The Legend of Sword and Fairy 7, and the World Rally Championship. As a post-80s generation, he had a feeling of dreaming back to his youth.
For people of their time, games are more like old guys who have accompanied them for half their lives.
Although the threshold for playing games is much lower than when they were children, compared to the era when crying and making trouble to buy a little bully, it is completely within reach. But when he stopped and waited for someone, he still wanted to have a few games.
And in order to be able to "connect" more comfortably with his children in the car, he did not use the mobile phone as a virtual controller (with some delay), but deliberately exchanged points for two Bluetooth handles...
For this, he also exchanged his wife's eyes several times.
If it weren't for the dual-zone independent theater of the Skyfan R7, which not only allows the co-driver to follow the drama at any time, but also meets the main and co-driver's mutual non-disturbance when charging and waiting, this car will most likely not be bought.
Of course, he also complained that it might be better if he could OTA the ambient lights that beat the rhythm in the future, and add a few more mini-games that can be played with the family, such as the Mario series.
Another example is AR-HUD, which can display lane-level real scene navigation, real-time ADAS, information points on high-definition maps, and even giant screen audio, which is also one of his most satisfying functions.
It is no exaggeration to say that he would choose the Skyfan R7, 50% of which is due to this AR-HUD.
It intuitively provides lane-level stereoscopic reality navigation guidance, and real-time rendered AR animations are also incomparably consistent with real scenes. Information such as charging stations and shopping places will also be projected onto the navigation map.
As for the "refrigerator color TV sofa" that some conservatives despise, it is not actually the "poor donkey" of smart electric vehicles, but the real existence of user needs.
Some time ago, a friend from my hometown complained to me: "Why are the screens of fuel vehicles so small now, even when driving, it is very inconvenient to see the navigation." ”
This also verifies from the side, often experience excellent details, is the user's just need.
Compared with the luxury led by car companies in the era of fuel vehicles, what is more important in the era of intelligent electric vehicles is actually the feeling of being led by users. Compared to reflecting the value of economic things, it is far less comfortable than reflecting the value of emotional "enjoyment" in the scene.
This is the fundamental reason why smart electric vehicles can crush fuel vehicles in terms of product power.
03. The old system, collapse!
Behind the Skyfan R7, it is actually the epitome of the changes in the entire domestic automotive industry in recent years.
From 2000 to 2010, our Chinese brand was just getting started, and some of them were just enthusiastic and immature technology.
At that time, domestic cars that were half as cheap as JVs were not even reliable in quality. If you want to impact luxury and high-end, it is like a fantasy.
From 2011 to 2015, with the continuous development of talents, independent brands that have begun to take shape can gradually create decent cars.
At this time, some brands began to try to hit the high-end. Although the technology was not advanced enough and the design was not amazing enough, it only ended up failing, but at least it was a bold attempt.
From 2016 to 2020, Chinese brands began to emerge and challenge joint venture brands with great fanfare.
In addition to the body design, the powertrain has also made great progress, and the supply chain system has been further improved through mergers and acquisitions and research and development.
Various luxurious functions and configurations, gradually installed on Chinese brands; The high-end brands WEY of Lynk & Co and Great Wall jointly built by Geely/Volvo have also been recognized by hundreds of thousands of users and are moving towards millions of unit sales.
It seems to be only one step away from the "luxury" that traditional car companies have played for hundreds of years.
But at this critical moment, a "demon wind" called electrification and intelligence blew out, completely changing the definition of luxury.
Just as we don't need to prove ourselves with foreign awards, luxury or not, should be decided by the user, not the car company; The functions of the car should be defined from the needs of users, not from the perspective of car companies.
As Premier Zhou said 60 years ago: "The people like it, you don't like it, how old are you?" ”
Perhaps we need to admit that in terms of mechanical quality, especially suspension and bodywork, Chinese brands are still several years behind traditional luxury. But for traditional car companies, the gap between them and independent brands in terms of intelligence has not been several years?
This is 2023, and traditional car companies need to use CarPlay to realize the most basic navigation and music functions of the car machine; What's funny is that except for low-end models, all series do not have CarPlay...
The 2021-2025 we are experiencing will be five years for car companies to begin to divert in intelligent experience.
When the traditional luxury brothers are still worried about the car system, Chinese brands have built intelligent cockpits with brand tonality, self-developed intelligent driving algorithms, perfected exclusive style car OS, and even did not hesitate to build mobile phones, just to bring users a more comfortable and richer car experience.
And different sensory experiences will become the biggest gap between brands and brands.
Just as BBAs did a hundred years ago: use their own technological advantages to create unique brand styles and new products, so as to redefine their own luxury.
This has to be said to be a victory for this new era.
04. Write at the end
Interestingly, after launching the "screen master" model that focuses on visual enjoyment and the Pro version of the model that focuses on technology enjoyment, the Skyfan R7 quietly changed its slogan to "new luxury, new smart enjoyment".
Let's not talk about whether Feifan's product positioning can be accepted by users, but we have to admit that in this new era of heroes, Feifan does play its own product label with its intelligence-driven scene experience and product concept that focuses on "enjoyment".
Although the brand is still very young, at least from the evaluation of media peers and owners of various brands, it is still positive. We can see that Feifan is using "texture" and "intelligence" to clarify its own differentiated counterattack.
Perhaps the emergence of a variety of new brands and the ability to accommodate various types of new products is the most beautiful footnote in this electrification era.
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