The Paper reporter Zhou Chunling
The automotive industry in 2024 is difficult, even harder than the 2023 year of Polar Volume. At the beginning of the new year, Europe and the United States strengthened trade barriers to China in an attempt to curb the pace of globalization of China's smart electric vehicles......
"This year is the worst year in the last 10 years and the best year in the next 10 years. Arguably, there is no better phrase to describe the automotive industry in recent years. However, it is this thoughtful sense of distress that inspires every automaker to actively explore the potential for breakthroughs, and makes the mainland's automotive industry show incomparable resilience and vitality.
Continental has achieved the world's first place in supply chain cost control, and is also far ahead in the automobile export business, and the technological height in the field of intelligence and electrification has made the global giants even more eye-catching. The current Chinese auto market, just like the top class of the whole grade, although it crushes other classes, the internal competition is intensifying. When negative factors such as the general environment is under pressure, the price space is tightening, and the market segment is becoming more and more crowded, the only thing that can be determined is that the low-level price war is unsustainable, and the quality battle driven by intelligent innovation is the direction of the long-term healthy development of the market.
Huawei's first smart car debuted, Zhijie S7 intelligent driving evolution, so in the "second half" of intelligence-based, how can car companies stand out among many strong players? Huawei's second important brand of Hongmeng Zhixing ecology - Zhijie is a case for reference.
Intelligence is not to install an original mobile phone holder in the car, not to equip the car walkie-talkie and embedded extended threaded interface, nor to simply control household appliances in the car. Its final form should be the realization of the Internet of Everything through ecology, which can allow cars to transcend the span of vehicles and scenarios and evolve into super mobile terminals.
In this regard, Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing is working in this direction, and Huawei's deep empowerment of automobiles is becoming an important force to expand the imagination of China's smart car market.
On April 11, 2024, Huawei's first smart car, the Zhijie S7, was unveiled at the Huawei HarmonyOS Ecosystem Spring Communication Conference, marking the further improvement of the construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem.
At the press conference, the entry-level Zhijie S7 Pro model was upgraded with an 82kWh battery pack to increase the range to 705 km, and the top-of-the-line model Zhijie S7 Ultra was upgraded to a 100kWh battery pack to increase the range to 751 kilometers on the basis of the previous Zhijie S7 Max RS extreme performance. In addition, the prices of the original Zhijie S7 Max, Max+ and Max RS versions have been reduced.
It is worth mentioning that Huawei's most eye-catching intelligent driving capability has been upgraded again: Zhijie S7 Pro is equipped with Huawei's visual intelligent driving HUAWEI ADS basic version for the first time.
Generally speaking, when new forces release new cars, the level of intelligence is good at first glance, but when it comes to specific SKUs, you can see the real sincerity and careful thinking. For example, some high-end intelligent driving products are only available on the top configuration, and low-end equipment needs to be equipped with optional or only equipped with conventional ACC+LKC quasi-L2 level assisted driving systems. Moreover, high-end intelligent driving is often only in the "PPT" stage when a new car is released, and the owner has to wait for a long time before it can be upgraded OTA after picking up the car.
The entry version of the Zhijie S7 Pro is equipped with HUAWEI ADS, and the basic version is an out-and-out high-end intelligent driving assistance system. It is reported that this system shares the same technical architecture as Huawei's high-end intelligent driving system on high-end models, which can realize NCA intelligent navigation assistance functions on national highways, ring roads, and urban expressways without relying on lidar and high-definition maps.
It is inevitable that the comparison between the basic version of ADS and related competitors was also shown at this communication meeting. According to official data, its coverage rate, ramp pass rate, system "downgrade" times and other hard indicators to measure the intelligent driving system are better than those of friends who use the same type of scheme.
At the same time, the basic version of ADS brings a "visible and parkable" experience in the field of parking, supporting 160+ parking scenarios including various standard parking spaces and grass-embedded brick parking spaces, with a parking space recognition rate of 96% and a parking success rate of up to 95%. On top of this, Huawei ADS Advanced Edition further extends this silky experience to urban roads.
Starting from 2023, the head new forces are all driving intelligently, and urban navigation assistance is the focus, and all of them are competing for the speed of mass production and popularization. Huawei, Xpeng, Li and other companies all announced their "opening goals" last year. According to the latest information, Huawei's high-end intelligent driving city NCA has recently been fully pushed and upgraded, without relying on high-precision maps, extending the coverage of intelligent driving to all public roads such as main roads and branch roads in 40,000+ cities and towns across the country, with more than 99.56% of the available road sections (about 90% of the other leading competitor), which is the system with the widest road coverage in China at the current time node. On this basis, Huawei also took the lead in this intelligent driving "Battle of Kaesong".
Not only is it widely covered, according to official data, in the actual use of users, the success rate of inbound and outbound inbound and outbound elevated highways in Zhijia City is as high as 99.2%. As of February 2024, the MPI takes over an average range of 270 km.
It should be noted that the high-end intelligent driving on the Zhijie S7 has been equipped with delivery. In the words of Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Car BU, "Huawei Intelligent Driving is a spot, not a future, and it is the best spot."
Intelligent driving is not a show-off, safety is the true meaningOn the basis of high-end intelligent driving capabilities, Zhijie S7 realizes front, rear and lateral active safety capabilities through the omnidirectional collision avoidance system CAS2.0, and protects driving safety in an all-round way. Its forward AEB has an effective range of 4-150 km/h and a maximum braking speed of 120 km/h (the mainstream level in the industry is about 60 km/h). For the lateral emergencies that are not easy to identify, its active risk avoidance effective range reaches 40-130km/h, and can actively identify water barriers, rows of cones, curbs, stationary and dynamic pedestrians, stationary and dynamic vehicles, and avoid the danger of distraction.
For reversing scenarios, the rear-facing active safety supports active braking from 1 to 60km/h, and actively recognizes pedestrians, sports two-wheelers and cross-cutting vehicles, greatly reducing the probability of accidents. After all, "security" is the best smart attribute.
Intelligent cockpit: Simplifying, Zhijie S7 is the first to be equipped with HarmonyOS 4 During driving, in addition to the steering wheel and two pedals, the cockpit is the most in contact with users, and this trend will accelerate more and more with the popularity of intelligent driving. At present, users still have many pain points when using the smart cockpit. System lag, multiple menu levels, limited ecology, and inability to understand user needs all detract points from the car experience.
HarmonyOS 4 is designed to address these pain points.
HarmonyOS 4 Super Launcher 2.0 allows you to seamlessly switch between mobile apps and mobile devices. HUAWEI MagLink makes it easy to expand the screen for the rear row, creating a magical space full of design, immersion, and technology, and carrying the joy of family travel. The richness of on-board intelligent ecological applications is no longer a problem.
Huawei's Pangu model will be connected to the in-vehicle smart assistant Xiaoyi, which will be pushed in May. Xiaoyi is about to become a "car expert", able to understand the user's natural language, and become a more intelligent private car consultant. The artificial intelligence model, which has been a hot topic before, has finally been introduced into the automotive field, so that innovation is no longer a "castle in the sky" style of showmanship, but can bring real experience improvement to users.
In addition, Zhijie S7 has the industry's only full-scene data transmission encryption, all-round sensitive permission control, and all-round personal data isolation capabilities, so as to achieve privacy and security.
It can be said that the intelligence of Zhijie S7 has opened up the all-round intelligence of the whole process of user car.
The empowerment of the whole vehicle and the full range of product capabilities are fully enhanced, and Huawei's "empowerment" of vehicles does not stop at the level of intelligence. Huawei is deeply involved in the definition and design of the vehicle, and participates in the entire process of developing the attributes and functions of the vehicle itself.
Nowadays, many new power model products highlight intelligent innovation, but in the traditional mechanical quality, handling feeling, there is still a certain gap from traditional fuel vehicles, but Zhijie S7 is not the case-
The main driver design of the new car is inspired by the F1 driving system, through the three-stage division of the view area, the pilot area and the driving area, combined with the olive sports steering wheel, to provide excellent driving vision and control experience, and fully release the driving desire.
The Zhijie S7 is equipped with Huawei's Turing intelligent chassis for the first time, so that the driving texture matches the combat atmosphere of the cockpit. Based on the luxurious chassis architecture and master tuning, it works with the multi-modal fusion perception system, HUAWEI DATS dynamic adaptive torque system, and HUAWEI xMotion intelligent body collaborative control system to perfectly combine intelligent control and mechanical tuning to improve the vehicle's driving performance under various working conditions with intelligent driving performance.
In the field of electric power, the Zhijie S7 is equipped with the HUAWEI DriveONE 800V silicon carbide high-voltage power platform as standard, achieving the fastest acceleration of 100 kilometers in 3.3s.
It is worth mentioning that the battery of the Zhijie S7 Pro has been upgraded from 62kWh to 82kWh Huawei 800V giant whale battery, and the range under CLTC comprehensive working conditions has been increased to 705 km. At the same time, the newly added Zhijie S7 Ultra four-wheel drive flagship version is equipped with a 100kWh Huawei 800V giant whale battery, and the cruising range under CLTC comprehensive working conditions has been increased to 751 kilometers.
The design and function of a car have always been mutually reinforcing. For example, in the fuel era, cars with longitudinal engines made the hood longer, and the engine layout that was only used on luxury cars evolved into the concept of "the front is high-end".
In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, thanks to the advanced concept of Hongmeng Zhixing, Zhijie S7 breaks the design ideas and architectural space constraints of traditional cars, and creates an integrated body structure and fluid gold surface through the One-Box body proportion, bringing low wind resistance while maximizing driving space and breaking the long-term design framework of high-end luxury cars.
In order to cope with the changes in the market, while the product force is full, the new Zhijie S7 also gives new and old car owners enough sincerity in terms of rights and interests. For example, from April 11 to May 6, you can get a total value of 30,000 yuan in rights and interests. For old car owners, they will be given 10,000 yuan in cash red envelopes and a MagLink tablet set worth 3,000 yuan. In this regard, the wisdom world is a bowl of water leveled.
Finally, the automotive industry chain is lengthy, it has never been an industry that can succeed alone, and the combination of vertical and horizontal, each exhibition will greatly enhance the possibility of success in car manufacturing.
With the change of the times, the way of industrial chain cooperation has also changed.
In the era of fuel vehicles, there are corresponding suppliers for the engine, gearbox, sensor hardware, etc. on a car, although the main engine factory will also work with the supplier to carry out adaptation work, but the relationship between the two sides is more of a customer and user.
In the era of smart electric vehicles, Huawei has created a new cooperation model. In addition to the most basic parts supply model and the HUAWEI INSIDE model, which is provided by Huawei, it can also provide car companies with smart car business (HarmonyOS Zhixing) - it is no longer simply supplying parts and assemblies, but participates in product definition and design from the beginning, and integrates its own technical data in the field of intelligence. This kind of "customized cooperation" with higher adaptability can more accurately control market demand and build brands.
Zhijie S7 is the first smart car of Hongmeng Zhixing, and it is also a strong combination of Huawei and Chery, two "science and engineering men". Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Group, said at the event: "Mr. Yu and I communicate offline once a month, online once a week, and WeChat once a day." These two companies with a natural awe of technology may work together to break the existing technical ceiling of smart electric vehicles, so that intelligent driving and smart cabins can leap from usable and easy to use to a new stage that users like to use.
At present, Hongmeng Zhixing plans to build 4 "model rooms" (partners) - Wenjie, Zhijie, and Xiangjie, and one is to be released. The first brand has already gained full recognition in the market.
According to public data, 31,727 new cars were delivered in March, winning the monthly sales champion of China's new power brands. This is also the third consecutive time since the beginning of 2024 that it has ranked first.
Zhijie is the second brand to land. Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's car BU, recently revealed on Weibo that Zhijie S7 has started large-scale delivery at the end of March. Since then, Huawei's HarmonyOS business will develop in a more balanced manner.