The scene of the press conference of Zhiji Automobile
Zhiji's crazy face-to-face output of Xiaomi SU7 was finally exchanged for Xiaomi's concentrated firepower counterattack.
On April 8th, during the technical conference of Zhiji L6, Liu Tao, CEO of Zhiji, mentioned Xiaomi SU7 many times during his speech, and compared the parameters on PPT to set off the advantages of his new Zhiji L6, and even produced incorrect information.
For example, when talking about intelligent driving, Liu Tao joked that "Mr. Lei finished talking about intelligent driving in one minute", the background is that Xiaomi SU7 has just been launched and delivered, so the NOA assisted driving function is not perfect, and Zhiji currently has a mature urban NOA program mass production on the car.
When talking about the design, Liu Tao said that "our car is original, we do not copy it", here is an allusion to the appearance design of Xiaomi SU7 plagiarism Porsche pure electric car Taycan, the two seem similar from some perspectives, and Zhiji is an original family design.
Similar metaphors appeared many times at the press conference, but the fuse that really caused Xiaomi's strong counterattack was a factual error about parameter labeling. Zhiji incorrectly labeled the key parameters of the Xiaomi SU7 Max and marked the SiC of the Xiaomi SU7 Max as IGBT, when the fact is that the front and rear motors of the Xiaomi SU7 Max are SiC.
The scene of the press conference of Zhiji Automobile
At the end of the press conference, Pan Xiaowen, the product manager of Xiaomi Auto, first pointed out the relevant mistakes, and then Liu Tao, CEO of Zhiji, apologized on the officially verified personal Weibo account, but Xiaomi did not seem to give face. The Weibo account of the "Xiaomi spokesperson" posted three Weibo posts in a row to force Zhiji to bow his head, and even did not recognize the apology reply of Zhiji CEO Liu Tao himself, saying that "we do not accept personal understatement and informal apology", and demanded a formal apology at the company level, and the attitude and language were very tough.
After Xiaomi's quick response, Zhiji also apologized at the official level of Lightspeed, saying: In the just-concluded "beyond all yearning" Zhiji L6 super smart car launch process, benchmarking the recent Xiaomi SU7 product introduction process of the same level of traffic, due to the team's negligence in content review, a key parameter was mislabeled, and corresponding clarifications were made.
The official statement of Xiaomi Auto
The day after the end of the press conference, public opinion continued to ferment, and in the afternoon of the same day, Zhiji Auto's official Weibo released a message, saying, "Again, I would like to express my sincere apologies to Xiaomi Auto." ”
Official statement from Zhiji Auto
In this public opinion turmoil, both sides reacted quickly enough, and Zhiji seemed to have lost its reputation, but Xiaomi's aggressiveness also revealed its uneasiness and anxiety, because Zhiji L6 is a model with a high degree of overlap between positioning and Xiaomi SU7, and the two can be described as-for-tat.
"Lei's Comparison Method" to find out
In recent years, China's new energy vehicle companies have been beating "Tesla's various hangings" at the press conference, which is something that everyone likes to see, and now that the era of Tesla is over, the topic of Xiaomi cars, whether positive or negative, seems to have become a feast of public opinion.
In fact, in the past in the automotive industry, everyone basically did not directly benchmark other competing models with their real names, but since the new forces entered the automotive field a few years ago, they began to play new ways of cross-border marketing, and this phenomenon seems to have become the norm with the addition of Huawei and Xiaomi.
When it comes to comparison, Xiaomi can be said to be the originator of the "contrast world". Xiaomi, who has been fighting in the mobile phone circle for more than ten years, has already mastered the "Lei's comparison method", the core of this method is to use its own strengths to compare with the shortcomings of competitors, to fight each other's shortcomings with their own strengths, and to fight each other's none.
Not long ago, when Xiaomi SU7 was launched, it was also directly compared with Tesla Model 3, Porsche Taycan and other models at the press conference, one will be cheaper than Model3 30,000 to express the sincerity of rice fans, and then press the Taycan to the ground to rub, directly benchmarking the high-performance version of the Porsche Taycan Turbo.
The scene of the Xiaomi car press conference
Tesla and Porsche have never officially responded to such comparisons, and of course, Xiaomi has not made low-end errors in the parameter annotation of competing products. And this time, Xiaomi became the one to be compared, it did not show the bearing of Tesla and Porsche, but revealed anger at this behavior in its words, quite a bit of "the state official set fire to the people and did not allow the people to light the lamp".
As a new car brand that has only been established for three years, the first car it has built can be regarded as a major competitor by Zhiji Automobile, which itself has already shown the recognition of Xiaomi SU7 by friends. On the one hand, Xiaomi Automobile, which was born with a golden spoon for cars, and on the other hand, the son of SAIC Motor, who has invested the most resources, the high-end new energy brand Zhiji Automobile, they all have their own strong representatives.
It is only because of the strategic choice and the grasp of the rhythm of time that the two sides meet on the same battlefield.
About a year ago, when the Zhiji LS6 was just unveiled, Liu Tao made it clear that its goal was to benchmark against the Model Y, and there was another model that benchmarked against the Model 3, which is now the Zhiji L6, and what Zhiji wants to do is the best-selling segment. Coincidentally, Xiaomi's first model is also aimed at this market, so it is inevitable that they will meet each other.
The number one rival of the Xiaomi SU7?
The grievances between Zhiji and Xiaomi,It's not traceless,Before Zhiji L6 was released,The internal has been aimed at Xiaomi cars for dissemination。
A few days ago, Liu Tao, CEO of Zhiji, questioned the speed of Xiaomi Auto's three-year car manufacturing on Weibo, he believed, "Three years from the platform to do the first vehicle, from the native platform to do research and development, such a complex vehicle and parts test and verification plan, according to the rhythm of the manufacturer's research and development testing, it is difficult to complete without 4 or 5 years." ”
Zhiji CEO Liu Tao Weibo
The day before the launch of the Zhiji L6, the static experience video about the new car was released after the ban was lifted at the unified time, and you will find that more than half of the titles and covers of these contents are almost related to Xiaomi, which is obviously inseparable from Zhiji's marketing strategy.
From the point of view of the product itself, the positioning and price of these two cars are indeed highly overlapping, they are also medium-sized pure electric cars, and they also focus on intelligent technology and sports control, Xiaomi SU7The price range of the three cars is 215,900-299,900, and the pre-sale price range of the three cars of Zhiji L6 is 230,000 yuan ~ 330,000 yuan, which can be described as a face benchmark for Mai Mang.
Xiaomi SU7 has been on the market for less than half a month,It has already shown an amazing influence in the industry,The number of large orders on the market has reached 88,898 units within 24 hours,Now this year's production capacity has been sold out,Looking at the automotive circle, such a result can be described as unprecedented。
Zhiji L6, as the debut position of many technologies of SAIC Group, has indeed received more resources from the group, such as the "Grey Lizard Digital Chassis" and "First-generation Light-Year Solid-State Battery" technologies have been first equipped on the Zhiji L6, the former is a technology of joint debugging and joint control of the dynamic performance of the vehicle created through digital management, and the latter can directly make the vehicle range reach more than 1000km.
The scene of the press conference of Zhiji Automobile
These are not enough for the first time,ZhijiL6It is also equipped with the whole system"Grey lizard digital chassis"、Smart four-wheel steering system、Ultra-long-range high-precision lidar+NvidiaOrin X chip、Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295chip, etc.,From the perspective of configuration and price,ZhijiL6The product power is not inferior to XiaomiSU7,100 kilometers acceleration、Battery capacity and many other parameter configurations,Both have played back and forth。
In a comprehensive comparison,ZhijiL6Compared with XiaomiSU7The biggest advantage is"I give more",For example, digital chassis、Four-wheel steering systemThese are all XiaomiSU7The whole system does not have,But in terms of people, cars, and home ecology,XiaomiSU7Can achieve more scenario-based applications,It has super scalability,This is an ecological advantage that ZhijiL6 does not have。
As for the controversial appearance, this is a matter of opinion, Xiaomi Auto chose the copycat Porsche as the appearance language of the first product, after all, copying can never go wrong, this way will be more in line with market demand, in contrast, Zhiji's design language has a higher degree of originality, unique in design and very stylish, of course, this road is more difficult, and it also considers the acceptance of market users.
With the foreshadowing of the previous emotions and the direct competition on the product, it is not difficult to understand the anger of Xiaomi's official three Weibo posts within an hour, if Xiaomi allows Zhiji to step on similar behavior, the status of the rivers and lakes behind may not be guaranteed, it needs to establish a "majesty".
Flow is a double-edged sword
In 2024, China's auto market has ushered in the moment of life and death, and all companies have come up with the technology of pressing the bottom of the box to mass produce the car, which is not the strongest product, and it cannot be on the table at all.
Driven by Xiaomi, the marketing battlefield of the automotive industry has also begun to transform to the head-to-head confrontation mode of the mobile phone circle, and the previous decency seems to be less important, and the splashing traffic of Xiaomi SU7 has become the object of yearning for countless car companies.
The scene of the Xiaomi car press conference
Xiaomi's marketing king status is recognized by the industry,In the past ten years,Xiaomi has contributed a lot of textbook-level marketing cases to the industry,In the early years, the hunger marketing of Xiaomi mobile phones、Xiaomi computers thinner than a yuan coin、Xiaomi 4The era of "the art of a steel plate",Every marketing event has attracted huge attention at the time,Looking at the automotive circle and the technology circle,Huawei、BYD can wrestle with Xiaomi,Most brands are difficult to compete with it at the marketing level。
Although there are some historical black spots in Xiaomi's past, it has to be said that Xiaomi, which has grown up from the most fierce business wars, is really good at manipulating public opinion, and quarreling is also an art.
However, traffic is a double-edged sword for any brand, not long ago the ideal MEGA public opinion overturn is a typical case, when you start to pursue traffic, you may be involved in inexplicable emotions and disputes, the torrent of public opinion will let the outside world take a magnifying glass to look at you, the real information of the product itself is easy to be drowned in this storm of black miasma.
The current public opinion environment,It has been completely covered by social media and short videos,Traffic means your voice in the market,Since Xiaomi has become this traffic benchmark,It will inevitably be targeted by manufacturers in the industry,Zhiji is not the first,Nor is it the last。
Even if Zhiji's close-to-face output of Xiaomi SU7 was exchanged for the crazy counterattack of rice fans and a large number of bad reviews in the digital circle, Zhiji was still willing to brush his sense of existence in this way, not to mention that Zhiji also sacrificed a trump card this time.
Because for Zhiji, the most terrible thing is not to lose in the field of public opinion, but after today, no one will discuss him.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, author | Li Yupeng, editor - Zhang Min)