↓ Li Xiang's internal letter is exposed ↓
If I say that the Ideal MEGA is the most talked-about new car in March, no one should refute it. Since its launch, this peculiarly shaped MPV has stood at the center of the whirlpool of public opinion because of styling and pricing issues. In terms of sales, the number of MEGA products since its launch is only about 4,000 units, which not only does not meet the expected goal of "more than 500,000 sales champions of all categories", but is even less than the factory's production capacity of 5,000 units/month.
Perhaps aware of the defeat of MEGA, Li Xiang, who has always been active on Weibo, has not posted content for more than 20 days. And just this week, Li Xiang sent a letter to internal employees to reflect on the current situation of Li Auto. It can be seen from the letter that Li Xiang has admitted the problem of MEGA, they did not have a pure electric model before, but mistakenly thought that MEGA could soar like the L series, which eventually led to MEGA sales falling short of expectations. In addition, Li Auto pays too much attention to sales figures from top to bottom, and will reduce sales expectations and desires in the future, and pay more attention to user value.
In our opinion, there are two main points in MEGA's loss. First of all, the pure electric MPV itself is a very niche category, and the previous Denza D9 and ZEEKR 009 have proved that the prospects of this market are not big enough. After all, for users who buy MPVs, there must be a need for a family to travel long distances, at this time, the endurance and energy replenishment speed of the vehicle has become the key, after all, no one wants their parents, wives and children to wait for charging in the high-speed service area. Even if the ideal 5C charging is already fast, it will still face queues during peak hours and reduced power shunts.
In addition, MEGA has no advantage in price compared with competing products, with a starting price of up to 559,800, compared with Xpeng X9, which is cheaper than 200,000, there is no qualitative gap, and compared with the price of Extreme Krypton 009, there is no advantage in terms of performance and battery capacity. Therefore, Li Xiang not only lowered his sales forecast for MEGA, but also lowered the price of MEGA.
↓ Tank 330 orders are hot ↓
In stark contrast to MEGA, Great Wall's new tank 330, this off-road vehicle priced at 330,000 yuan and equipped with a 3.0T V6 engine has exceeded 3,500 orders in just 72 hours after it was launched. The Tank 330 appeared in the form of crowdfunding in March 2023, when the car was crowdfunded 1,000 copies, each crowdfunding raised 20,000 yuan, and the crowdfunding was completed in only 6 seconds after the crowdfunding was opened.
Subsequently, it took Great Wall nearly one year to complete the development and testing of the vehicle, and it was officially launched on March 16. The first batch of 1,000 Tank 330 units will be sold, mainly for the 1,000 users who participated in the crowdfunding at the beginning. If the original user who participated in the crowdsale abandons the purchase of the car, the first sales will be transferred to the new waitlist user. In other words, the Tank 330 has 3,500 backlogs in addition to the first 1,000 orders, which equates to a total of 4,500 orders.
The popularity of the tank 330 is not surprising, because it is equipped with a very rare 3.0T V6 twin-turbo engine in this era, with 354 horsepower, 500 Nm, 0-100km/h in only 7.2 seconds, and the original factory has a winch, metal bars, AT tires, differential lock, two-way adjustable shock absorbers and other configurations, at the price of 330,000 there is no other choice.
Although the acceleration of 7.2 seconds is not fast in front of the plug-in hybrid new energy off-road vehicle, for off-road veterans with feelings, or users who want to hold it for more than 10 years, pure fuel off-road vehicles are still more favored by them. Because of this, the total order of the Tank 330 can break 4500 in 3 days on the market, and it has become another phenomenal product.
↓ Model Y要涨价 ↓
Although the theme of the 2024 car circle is "price reduction", Tesla has to buck the trend. This week, it was reported that Tesla will announce a 5,000 yuan increase in the price of Model Y on April 1, and the current 8,000 yuan insurance subsidy and up to 10,000 yuan paint reduction policy implemented by Tesla will also expire on March 31. In other words, if you buy a Model Y from April 1, you will face an increase of up to 23,000 yuan.
The 2024 Model Y, which is currently on sale, was just launched in February this year, with a total of three configurations and a price of 258,900-363,900 yuan. The design of the new model has not changed, but the radar system has been eliminated, the number of cameras has been reduced, the number of camera pixels has been increased, and the dual HW4.0 driver assistance chips have been upgraded. This time, the price increase of the Model Y was announced, and there was a feeling that hesitant prospective car owners should hurry up and place orders, after all, if they don't buy it, the price will increase......
↓ The official picture of the new Kia K4 has been released ↓
This week, Kia unveiled an official image of the all-new K4 sedan, which will replace the current Forte model overseas, and is expected to make its debut at the New York Auto Show on March 27. In terms of styling, the overall style of the new K4 is still very sporty, with a split structure for the headlights and a whirlwind shape for the wheels.
Coming to the side of the body, it can be seen that the new K4 adopts the styling style of a fastback coupe, with the rear door handle hidden in the C-pillar, and the rear triangular window shape is also very individual. Although the dimensions of the K4 have not been officially announced, we predict that it will be built on the same platform as the Hyundai Mingtu in the Chinese market, with an expected wheelbase of 2,770mm and a length of nearly 4,800mm.
In terms of rear design, the all-new K4 has a pronounced fastback shape, with a short tail compartment size and a rear bumper that is retracted upwards to create a compact and sporty temperament. The taillights of the new car do not adopt a through-type design, but echo the shape of the headlights, which still looks quite individual.
In terms of interior, the new K4 adopts a through-type dual-screen design, the overall sense of hierarchy is very rich, and the two-spoke steering wheel also has a flat-bottom shape, giving people a tough and mechanical feeling as a whole. Compared with today's new large-screen forces in China, K4's interior design is more sufficient, but the sense of technology is not good. In terms of power, the all-new K4 is rumored to be powered by 1.6-liter gasoline and a 2.0-liter hybrid system, which is the same as the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage on sale.
When it comes to the K4 car, friends born in the 80s and 90s must be no strangers, because as early as 2014, Dongfeng Yueda Kia launched an entry-level mid-size sedan K4 in the Chinese market. This car uses the same platform as the Hyundai Mingtu of the same period, with a length of 4,720mm, a wheelbase of 2,770mm, and a 1.8L, 2.0L, and 1.6T engine, and was priced at 128,800-189,800 yuan at the time. In that era when B-class cars were generally more than 200,000, K4 was still recognized by the market for its excellent cost performance and good space comfort. In 2017, the K4 was renamed "Kaishen" and sold until 2019.
Today's all-new K4, it is no longer a special car for China, but has become a global car that debuted in North America, and the official said that the new K4 will replace the original Forte series. And the Forte car series will not be unfamiliar to everyone, in fact, it is the well-known K3 in China. In fact, in Kia's global naming strategy, the standard A-class sedan has three names, namely Cerato, Forte, and K3. These three names are the same car, but they have different names for different regional markets.
Kia Cerato
At the beginning of the Chinese market, Hyundai-Kia adopted the strategy of selling the old and the new together, so the first generation of the A-class sedan was called the Cerato, after the replacement was called Freddy, and then after the replacement it was called K3. Although these three cars have different names, they are essentially the same model, just different generations.
↓ The Audi Q6 e-tron is officially unveiled ↓
In the era of pure electric vehicles, Audi can be said to be early in the morning to catch up with the late set, although they began to explore electric vehicles more than ten years ago, and also launched the R8 e-tron such a conceptual product, but it has never had too good sales in the home electric vehicle market. Especially in China, Audi's electric vehicle sales have been overtaken by BMW and Mercedes-Benz. To turn things around, Audi recently unveiled the new all-electric Q6 e-tron midsize SUV, which is built on the PPE electric platform jointly developed by Audi and Porsche.
In terms of appearance, the Q6 e-tron still continues Audi's new family design language, the overall brand recognition is very high, and the body shape is also a relatively regular SUV style, and it does not blindly pursue the waterdrop shape for the sake of low wind resistance. In terms of dimensions, the length, width and height of the Q6 e-tron are 4771/1993/1648mm, and the wheelbase is 2889mm, which is considered a relatively entry-level mid-size SUV body, which is larger than the Q4 e-tron with the MEB platform.
It's just that I don't know if it's accidental or deliberate, the Audi Q6 e-tron and the Q6, a special fuel car for the Chinese market, actually have almost the same face. Although everyone is a Q6, it seems reasonable to look the same, but after all, the fuel Q6 is a model based on the MQB Evo platform, and the Q6 e-tron is a global car on the same platform as Porsche......
Speaking of the Q6 e-tron, the interior part of the new car still has an obvious Audi family style, the LCD instrument and the central control screen are curved integrated design, and there is a small entertainment screen in front of the co-pilot. At the same time, the steering wheel of the vehicle also adopts the upper and lower flat-bottom shape, with the enveloping cockpit line, and the overall sense of technology created is still good.
In terms of chassis architecture, the Q6 e-tron is built on the PPE pure electric platform, which is also the second model to adopt the PPE platform after the electric Macan some time ago. Due to the more advanced positioning of the PPE platform compared to the MEB platform, the Q6 e-tron finally moved away from the rear drum brakes, and the front suspension was upgraded from the MEB's MacPherson to a five-link. In addition, the handling and driving quality of the vehicle will also be better than that of the MEB platform model.
In terms of performance, the new cars released this time are driven by front induction asynchronous and rear permanent magnet synchronous motors, and are available in two versions: Q6 e-tron and SQ6 e-tron, of which the standard version has a comprehensive output of 285kW (388 horsepower), a peak torque of 855Nm, a 0-100km/h acceleration of 5.9s, and a top speed of 210km/h. The SQ6 e-tron boosts power to 360 kW (489 hp), short-term overclocking can reach 380 kW (517 hp), and the torque remains unchanged at 855 Nm, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds and reaching a top speed of 230 km/h.
In terms of battery, the Q6 e-tron is equipped with an 800V high-voltage battery, with a capacity of 100 kWh in the first version (94.9 kWh in actual use), and a range of up to 625 km in WLTP mode with the Q6 e-tron and 598 km with the SQ6 e-tron. If it is speculated according to the CLTC working conditions with large moisture in China, the range of both cars will reach the level of 700km. In the future, Audi will also offer a version with a small 83 kWh battery, which is expected to have a range of more than 500 km.
It is worth mentioning that, due to the restrictions of EU regulations, the Q6 e-tron does not use the mainstream CTC/CTB battery body integration technology in China, and even the CTP battery pack is not used, but uses the most traditional CTM battery. According to the official information, there are 12 battery modules in the 100kWh battery pack, and each module has 15 cells. The advantage of this modular battery is that it is dismantled and repaired, which is conducive to later recycling. However, the disadvantage is that the space utilization rate is low, and it is not possible to fit more cells in the same volume.
In terms of charging, although the Q6 e-tron uses 800V high voltage, the Germans are still relatively conservative about the charging speed, with a maximum power of only 270kW, which is about 3C charging rate, which is indeed weak compared with the domestic overcharging of 400 and 500kW. In terms of actual charging, the Q6 e-tron can replenish 255km of range in 10 minutes at 10% charge, and it takes 21 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%.
In addition, as an electric vehicle to be sold in the global market, Audi has also taken into account the compatibility of 800V models with older 400V charging stations. When charging with a 400V charger, the system divides the battery into two 400V units connected in parallel to achieve a maximum charging power of 135kW.
Overall, the Q6 e-tron, as an important model of Audi in the pure electric era, can be regarded as keeping up with the times in terms of hardware specifications, whether it is the front and rear five-link suspension, or the 800V architecture, or the parallel 400V charging technology, all make this model with the same platform as Porsche worth looking forward to.
At the competitor level, the Q6 e-tron's most direct competitor is the BMW iX3, which is currently selling very steadily in the Chinese market. If Audi wants to catch up, it will have to speed up the localization process of the Q6 e-tron.
* Do you think MEGA can still turn over?