If the domestic auto market is compared to a river and lake, then all kinds of car companies, car company executives, and even brand fans are one of the important components of this river and lake. Due to the relationship of competition, the expectations of brand fans, and the pressure given by the market, it is difficult for everyone to achieve harmony in the true sense. Even when we are together, there is a distance between our hearts.
However, benign competition is conducive to the healthy development of the industry, if it is not benign or even with a trace of malice, even if this malice is not caused by subjective will, it may be led by some individuals to the rhythm, and there has been a slight deviation, then such competition will only be a chicken feather, adding laughter to the outside world. That's right, what we're talking about today is the "parameter turmoil" incident of Xiaomi Auto and Zhiji Auto that happened some time ago.
Originally, the horse-drawn carriage city didn't want to participate in this topic at all, and it didn't bother to rub off on the so-called "sky-high traffic". But just yesterday, Porsche China's President and CEO Ke Shimai, at the 4th China International Consumer Products Expo, when asked by a reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei "How do you think of the similarities between Xiaomi SU7 and Porsche?", he gave a big picture, high emotional intelligence, and awe-inspiring response: "I think maybe good design always has a heart. ”
Compared with the controversy between Xiaomi and Zhiji, the response of the president of Porsche China also made the horse-drawn carriage city change its mind and decide to say something.
Porsche's "high emotional intelligence" responded, who did it hit in the face?
The simple sentence "good design is always smart", which not only expresses the recognition and pride of its own brand design ability, but also does not say it explicitly, but it is suspected that it has slapped Xiaomi in the face again. Is it really just a "heart and soul"?
In fact, the reason why the president of Porsche China gave such a response is that, on the one hand, you can understand that Porsche does not regard Xiaomi as a level competitor, and it does not bother to rub this wave of traffic at all.
Judging from the product pricing and model positioning of Xiaomi Auto, there is a big difference with Porsche. At the same time, the customer portraits and user needs of the two are also fundamentally different. In other words, from this stage, Xiaomi's intended customers will not be able to add Porsche to the list of intended car purchases, and Porsche's intended customers will not choose Xiaomi.
And the reason why Xiaomi because of a "parameter" problem,Three times in a row asked Zhiji Automobile to formally apologize,In addition to Zhiji Automobile did wrong,Xiaomi Automobile also cherishes its own feathers very much,How much because of Zhiji's model,Just cover XiaomiSU7Intended customer groups,The two can be regarded as more direct competitors。
Xiaomi car because of a mistake by Zhiji,Become a "parameter victim",There is nothing wrong with choosing to fight back in anger,But the problem is that Xiaomi itself is not an innocent person in the absolute sense。 At the same time that Xiaomi and Zhiji continue to escalate the public relations war, some people suspected of Porsche pointed out that the Porsche Taycan parameters listed by Xiaomi Auto at the SU7 launch conference are actually problematic, and its most basic unit power conversion is wrong.
But even so, Porsche did not make a public apology as Xiaomi asked Zhiji, nor did it make any official response. Is it only allowed to set fire to millet and not to light the lamp?
Perhaps, as mentioned above, as a "benchmark" to be benchmarked, Porsche will neither be a share of the cake by Xiaomi Automobile, nor will it become a direct competitor of the latter. Even if the unit power conversion is wrongly marked, and at the same time, in the face of "Xiaomi SU7 is suspected to have many similarities with a certain Porsche model", I still feel that I don't have to tear my face with the other party. To put it bluntly, Porsche probably doesn't care at all.
On the other hand, it may also have something to do with Porsche's past experience in China. Once upon a time, "Porstech", which is much more "explicit" than Xiaomi, has already taught Porsche a lesson in the Chinese auto market, and it is very impressive.
As we all know, it is not new for Chinese car brands to have a "good heart" with some global car companies in terms of design. But Porsche is also well aware of the Chinese market, because of such "suspected plagiarism" and the other party to tear their faces, and even go to court, it is difficult to end up with anything good.
In the past, Daewoo sued Chery QQ and Dongfang Son, Fiat sued Great Wall Genie and a series of other cases, basically ended in the victory (or settlement) of the independent brand. The most exaggerated is Honda, which sued Shuanghuan for plagiarism of appearance, and after 11 years of infringement lawsuits, it was finally judged to pay Shuanghuan 16 million yuan in compensation.
Of course, there are still cases of winning infringement lawsuits. Jaguar Land Rover, for example, won against Jiangling Motors, which was ordered to stop production of the Landwind X7. However, this is also the only case in which a foreign car brand has won a lawsuit in China, and the litigation period is as long as three years.
Instead of tearing the skin of the face, it is time-consuming and laborious and difficult to win the lawsuit, so it is better to use the sentence "always have a heart" to carry out words that seem gentle but are actually slapping the face, so that more people have space for their own thinking. I have to say that the response of the President of Porsche China is really high-level.
The high emotional intelligence response of the president of Porsche China not only slapped the face of the suspected plagiarized Xiaomi car, but also waved the "most gentle" knife to the long-standing crooked evil spirit of the Chinese auto brand. Instead of arguing to convince you, leave plenty of room for imagination for self-reflection.
When will car companies stop fighting, and who will be happy to see it?
Returning to the parameter turmoil of Xiaomi Zhiji, I originally thought that the incident would subside after the apology of Zhiji who did wrong. However, according to Zhiji Auto's official blog post on April 10, after three formal apologies, a large number of harassment behaviors using insults, slander, and personal attacks appeared in the official live broadcast room, the comment area of the official account, and the live broadcast room of dealer stores.
Subsequently, Zhiji Auto issued a "report letter" to the relevant national authorities on April 11, saying that Zhiji Auto had been subjected to organized cyber violence, which seriously interfered with the production and operation activities of Zhiji Auto and its dealers, and hoped that the relevant national authorities would investigate such organized cyber violence and severely punish the organizers and upstream and downstream collaborators.
Before the relevant departments intervene in the investigation and announce the facts, the horse-drawn carriage city has no intention of blindly standing in line, let alone subjectively judging the merits of the incident. We just want to use this incident to talk about the current Chinese auto market, I don't know when the quietly emerging trend of car companies will hate each other if they don't agree with each other, and tear their faces at every turn.
In fact, since last year, this trend in the car rim has already shown its clues.
On February 28 last year, a screenshot of a lawyer's letter suing Zhejiang Geely Automobile Co., Ltd. and Geely Automobile Group Co., Ltd. for allegedly infringing on the intellectual property rights of Changan Automobile went viral on the Internet.
According to the content of the lawyer's letter, on February 23, 2023, Geely released the prototype of Geely Galaxy "Galaxy Light" at the "Geely Galaxy New Energy Strategy Conference" held at the main venue of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
At noon on the same day, Geely Automobile Group issued a statement saying that the content of the above-mentioned lawyer's letter was seriously untrue, the accusations against our company were groundless, misleading the public, and causing serious damage to our company's brand and goodwill, and issued a four-point solemn statement.
Also on May 25 last year, Great Wall Motor issued a statement saying that on April 11, it submitted reporting materials to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, reporting on the problem that BYD Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i use atmospheric fuel tanks and are suspected of failing to meet the emission standards of evaporative pollutants from the whole vehicle. Subsequently, BYD Auto responded that it "resolutely opposes any form of unfair competition!" and reserves the right to legal proceedings!"
In November last year, Yu Chengdong and He Xiaopeng launched a "space-off interaction" because of "AEB", which was suspected of mutual affection, and then many people in the industry joined in...... In addition, this Xiaomi Zhizhi has been "parameter turmoil", and we have seen too many mutual confrontations and connections between car companies and car industry bigwigs.
Where does this wind come from?
Judging from the timeline alone, the culprit may be the price war that started early last year and continues to this day. Due to the opening of the price war in the auto market, car companies have fallen into the general environment of volume products, volume prices, and volume technology. If you don't open the book, then there will be no volume, no traffic, and no sales.
If you encounter an opponent with a similar coverage of customer groups and a large difference in positioning range, it seems that it becomes necessary to roll up actively or passively. From the bottom of their hearts, everyone equates traffic and sales. Too many car company bigwigs believe that if they want to sell without losing, traffic is an important key factor.
So who is happy to see it?
If car companies are simply rolling products and technologies, then perhaps real consumers are happy to see it. Because car consumers, who are already becoming more and more rational, also need to continue to learn and improve themselves in the process of replacing the auto market with the "new". With the "interaction" and "literacy" between car companies, it will help everyone figure out their real car needs, and at the same time, they can also distinguish who has more cost-effective advantages.
In addition, there are also those "online violence organizations" and "water armies" that should not exist, and they are probably happy to see it, because there is a similar mutual hatred and even a "scolding war", and they have a "place to use". But like most people, the horse-drawn carriage market is very disdainful of them, these organizations and individuals that should not exist, not only illegal will not bring any benefits to our car market, only healthy competition will help everyone make progress together, but also contribute to the healthy development of the industry.
Although it is still fermenting, we believe that this incident will eventually subside. We only hope that everyone can learn some lessons from these episodes, and eventually become some cases where both car buyers and car sellers can avoid pitfalls.