"It is necessary to make the electric mixture the same price, and the electricity mixed with the same right. On April 22, at the pre-sale conference of ARCFOX Alpha S5, Dai Kangwei, general manager of BAIC New Energy, shouted this slogan. And for the Alfa S5 car, Jihu also gave a very competitive price. The Alpha S5 is available in two versions, the 708 MAX and the 650 ULTRA, with a pre-sale price of 199,800 yuan to 219,800 yuan. If the cash discount of 25,000 yuan is superimposed for a limited time, the pre-sale price of Alpha S5 comes directly to 174,800 yuan-194,800 yuan.
As a pure electric sedan equipped with 800V high-voltage architecture, pure electric range of more than 700km, and 000 acceleration in 3 seconds, the pre-sale price of Alpha S5 directly entered within 200,000 yuan. Referring to the fact that the pre-sale price is generally higher than the official price, the launch price of the Avifa S5 may be lower, while the price of competing products of the same level is generally higher than 250,000 yuan. This pricing shows JiHu's determination to quickly increase volume with the help of the high cost performance of the Alpha S5.
"The Alfa S5 drives like a BMW and sits like a Mercedes. This is Dai Kangwei's goal and evaluation of this car. In order to achieve this driving feeling and comfort comparable to that of a luxury brand, ARCFOX has made great efforts from styling, interior to hardware configuration. The body size of the Alpha S5 is 4820 mm× 1930 mm× 1480 mm, and the wheelbase is 2900 mm. For comparison, the Porsche Taycan has a drag of 0.22Cd and the Xiaomi SU7 has a drag of 0.195Cd.
As a high-performance electric sedan, the Alfa S5 is available in two power versions: single-motor and dual-motor. Among them, it adopts a synchronous + asynchronous dual motor combination, with a total power of 390kW, a total torque of 690N·m, an acceleration of 100 kilometers in 3.7 seconds, and a maximum power of 200kW for a single motor. In order to meet the driving needs of users in different scenarios, the Alpha S5 provides a total of 9 modes: Sport, Comfort, Single Pedal, Personalized, Slippery Road, AI Adaptive, Extreme Energy Saving Mode, Walking and Track.
In addition to "driving fiercely", the Alfa S5 can also "brake", and its 100 kilometers per hour braking is only 33.5 meters. Through the steering system with large gear ratios, the steering sensitivity of the Alfa S5 has been increased by 30%, and the steering is more "handy". At the same time, thanks to the Lingyun chassis platform jointly built by BAIC and Magna, as well as the refined tuning by professional tuning engineers, the Alpha S5 will also be more stable and comfortable when the vehicle passes over bumpy roads.
In terms of the comfort of the interior of the car, the Alfa S5 is also on par with the luxury brand. The total coverage area of the car is 5.2 square meters, and the light transmittance ratio of the whole car reaches 78.7%, bringing a wide field of vision; the instrument panel uses a large area of Microcloud fiber velvet high-grade leather; the integrated sports velvet seat adopts an 8-layer stacked design, and adopts a size that is more suitable for Chinese ergonomics, bringing a more comfortable riding experience.
In terms of vehicle range, which users are more concerned about, both versions of the Alpha S5 are equipped with 79.2kWh CATL ternary lithium batteries. In CLTC mode, the Alpha S5 has a range of 708 km for the single-motor version and 650 km for the dual-motor version. In terms of energy replenishment, thanks to the Alpha S5 equipped with a full-range 800V high-voltage architecture, it can replenish 380 kilometers in 15 minutes.
In the medium/medium and large electric car market, the recently popular Xiaomi SU7 is the primary opponent facing the Alpha S5. Judging from the pre-sale price, the pricing of Alpha S5 is set by Jihu Arcfox aimed at SU7, and the pre-sale price of 174,800 yuan-194,800 yuan after the limited-time discount happens to be the price that rice fans hoped to SU7 "make friends" before. Even without the 25,000 yuan cash discount, the overall pricing of the Alpha S5 is still lower than that of the SU7.
Currently, SU7 owners have a waiting period of up to 8 months due to limited production capacity. The long waiting period for pick-up will be where the Alpha S5 comes in. The problem now is that JiHu continues to work marketing to make Alpha S5 visible to more users.
However, opportunities and challenges coexist, such as Zhijie S7, Xiaopeng P7, Weilai ET5 and other competing models also see this opportunity, and make concessions on the price side, and even some friends in order to "rob" the SU7 order, launched a SU7 order to buy a car to enjoy a cash subsidy of 5000 yuan, which also makes the competition in this market segment where the Alpha S5 is more intense. In addition to the above models, models such as BYD Seal and Zeekr 007 are also strong opponents that Alpha S5 cannot ignore.
In 2023, with the blessing of a number of new models such as Alpha T Forest Edition, Koala, and Alpha T5, the annual sales of ARCFOX will reach 30,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 138%. From January to March this year, BAIC BJEV's cumulative sales were 10,122 units, down 33.03% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of Jihu, as the main force of sales, are not optimistic. The Alpha S5, which will be priced at 174,800 yuan this time, is expected to become a new sales growth pole for Jihu.
Next, ARCFOX will further improve the product matrix from sedans, SUVs to MPVs. According to the plan, in addition to the Alpha S5, ARCFOX will also launch the new version of the Alpha S advanced version and the new version of the ARCFOX Koala model within the year. In addition, the first Hongmeng Zhixing model cooperated by BAIC and Huawei will also make its debut at the upcoming Beijing Auto Show. This is a Xiangjie S9 positioned as a high-end intelligent pure electric sedan, which is expected to be launched in July and August. As BAIC, which has experience in manufacturing luxury cars of Beijing Benz, the arrival of Xiangjie S9 may open up a new situation for its new energy development and bring the ARCFOX brand into the public eye.
In April last year, BAIC Group said that in the next five years, it will invest at least 50 billion yuan, focusing on new energy and intelligent fields. As the vanguard of the development of BAIC New Energy, the development of Jihu is still very interesting.