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Recently, "Xiaomi SU7 owners were fired by Jiyue after buying a car for 5 days" has sparked heated discussions.
In response, the legal department of Jiyue Automobile said that Jiyue Automobile was not fired because Yao Moumou purchased a certain meter car.
The fact is: since the beginning of 2024, Yao Moumou has taken advantage of his position to register an account "Da Yao Tok" on multiple social media in his personal name, including Weibo, Station B, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Know Chedi, Video Account, etc., and continue to operate a car fan group for a certain rice brand.
At the same time, according to the timestamp of the publicity of Yao's above-mentioned social media account, his publicity and distribution behavior occurred many times during normal working hours. In addition, Yao Moumou also went to Beijing to attend the pick-up ceremony of a certain meter car on April 3, and spread it on the above-mentioned social media platform with the title of "Mr. Lei gave me the car door", which was publicly reported by many media.
Source: National Business Daily
Based on the above-mentioned behaviors of Yao, Jiyue Automobile unilaterally terminated its labor contract.
After the incident became clear, many netizens changed their sympathy for "Yao Moumou" to condemnation, and said, "Take my salary to help others work, you are the boss, can you bear it?", "I originally wanted to get some traffic, but I didn't expect to be eaten up by traffic". Some netizens suggested that "Yao Moumou" go to Xiaomi to work, but other netizens found that he was suspected of working for Xiaomi Group from May 2019 to June 2021 as a planning manager.
In fact, the relevant public opinion before and after the release of Xiaomi cars is more than that.
Several rounds of public opinion turmoil before and after the listing
In the knockout stage of new energy vehicle companies, Xiaomi's "high-profile" entry has undoubtedly given the automotive industry a lot of shock.
Since the beginning of the technology conference, Xiaomi has been a hot topic of automobiles, and the market is full of expectations. According to the data of Miao Jian Information Big Data Monitoring Platform, from December 25, 2023 to March 24, 2024, the related content of "Xiaomi Auto" and "Xiaomi SU7" has spread a total of 1,699,200 pieces on the whole network, and related topics have been listed on the hot search list of 12 platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Baidu, with a total of more than 230 times on the list, with a cumulative time of more than 1,400 hours on the list, and the popularity of public opinion has crushed all other single-brand models in the past 3 months. The topic of price is the focus of public opinion.
Source: Miao Jian Information
Lei Jun also relied on his personal influence to continue to speak out through his official Sina Weibo, publishing 319 SU7-related content in 3 months, with an average of 3.5 articles per day, responding to public opinion concerns in a timely manner, refuting rumors and false information, constantly creating and forming hot topics, and maintaining product popularity.
The main public opinion events are as follows:
1. False information to refute rumors
On January 2, 2024, a spokesperson for Xiaomi issued an article to refute the rumors: We recently paid attention to a picture about Xiaomi's automotive industry chain, and after verification, at least 50% of the content in it is completely wrong. It said it was deeply puzzled that the aggregation of information about the "industrial chain" picture was full of loopholes and misleading to the public and investors.
Source: Miao Jian Information
On February 23, 2024, it was reported that an early Xiaomi employee close to Lei Jun revealed, "Lei Jun is holding back his big move, and the first batch of owners who buy Xiaomi cars, if they don't have a Beijing license plate, may give away a license plate." In response, a spokesman for Xiaomi issued a response saying that it was completely untrue. The pricing, delivery and sales policies of Xiaomi Auto are subject to the official release.
On March 19, 2024, a spokesperson for Xiaomi issued an article to refute the rumors, saying that Xiaomi's road test vehicle conducted a closed-loop test on a closed-loop highway, and there were no violations such as illegal U-turns, overtime driving, and evasion of high-speed tolls.
On March 20, 2024, Wang Hua, general manager of Xiaomi's public relations department, refuted the rumor that "Xiaomi Auto will issue 1,000 Xiaomi SU7F codes", "As far as I know, there is no channel where F codes can be purchased first."
2. Deposits are non-refundable
On March 28, after the launch of Xiaomi SU7, a number of people claiming to be Xiaomi car reservation users said on social platforms that the deposit of 5,000 yuan paid could not be refunded, which was inconsistent with Xiaomi Auto's claim that "the deposit will be refunded for no reason within 7 days".
Some netizens bluntly said: "Lei Jun is not kind, Xiaomi SU7 redefines the car Dading".
3. Test drive accidents are frequent
On March 29, a consumer in Xiamen ran into a curb when he was test driving a Xiaomi car, and it was suspected that there was a problem with the air suspension.
On March 30, after turning right under a millet car viaduct in Wuhan, the vehicle suddenly lost control and crashed into the curb.
4. Insurance is expensive
"The insurance I bought directly at the Xiaomi delivery center has a total insurance price of nearly 9,000 yuan. A Xiaomi SU7 Max owner in Zhejiang said, "It's a bit expensive." ”
After the delivery of Xiaomi cars, some car owners said that the premiums were too expensive, and the premiums varied from place to place, with the Max version SU7 premium as high as 9,500 yuan, and the standard version SU7 premium at about 6,000 yuan.
5. The adaptability of the charging pile is poor
After the Xiaomi SU7 began to be delivered one after another, some users reported that they could not pull out the charging gun when using the Tesla charging pile.
Source: Taishan Finance
6. Order Exception Interception
Some consumers tried to place an order for a Xiaomi car, only to find that their order was abnormally intercepted.
Lei Jun responded on Weibo, saying that he would conduct a comprehensive investigation and handling of this part of the abnormal orders to ensure that the rights and interests of every consumer are not infringed.
7. The car is not delivered but the paint is peeled off
On April 4, Ms. Mo from Shenzhen publicly stated on her personal social media platform that the Xiaomi SU7 founding version of the car she ordered had not yet been delivered, and the front cover of the body had peeled off paint.
The solution proposed by Xiaomi Auto is to repair the paint and compensate 5000 points. However, Ms. Mo was not satisfied with the compensation package and refused to accept it and wanted to replace it with a new car.
8. Xiaomi cut corners
After the announcement of various technical indicators of Xiaomi Auto, the topic of Xiaomi SU7's use of aluminum wiring harness instead of traditional copper wiring harness has sparked heated discussions on social media.
The change has the public questioning whether Xiaomi is cutting corners.
9. Broken seat bulge
On April 5, some consumers said that the seats of the show car in the Beijing Xiaomi Auto Store were bulging and damaged in less than a week.
Source: Taishan Finance
"War" with Zhiji
It is worth mentioning that there are also 5 battles between Xiaomi and Zhiji in just 1 hour.
The reason is that SAIC Zhiji Automobile entered the core parameter of Xiaomi's "motor" incorrectly during the L6 listing process.
Source: Uncle Almighty
According to Zhiji Auto, the Xiaomi SU7 Max version uses the electric drive of the front IGBT and rear silicon carbide module, while the Zhiji L6 uses the front and rear dual silicon carbide electric drive. This caused the outrage of many rice fans. Subsequently, Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Auto, issued an apology on Weibo, and attributed the reason to "the research results of the product information are wrong".
At this time, Xiaomi released a number of Weibo counter-attacks, accusing it, as a holding subsidiary of SAIC, of making such a fallacy, whether it is a lack of professional ability or an intentional rumor to smear it.
In this regard, Zhiji Auto apologized twice: I have no intention of challenging the sky-high traffic of Xiaomi Auto, please be merciful. However, Xiaomi issued a response saying that "we do not accept an informal apology that is understated by individuals." Once again, we urge Zhiji to immediately make a public clarification and formally apologize to the public who have been misled by it!"
On April 9, Zhiji Auto's official Weibo released a "formal" apology letter, but the final official seal was from the "Public Relations Department of Zhiji Automobile Technology Co., Ltd."
In this way, the Zhiji press conference, which was originally not highly concerned, has been on the hot search several times in a row.
In just a few months, Xiaomi has been in the hot whirlpool of public opinion, and the discussion of Xiaomi's car products itself has also focused on price, technology, and design.
Some netizens even believe that Xiaomi SU7 is suspected of plagiarizing the appearance of Porsche.
On April 14, Michael Kirsch, president and CEO of Porsche China, said in an interview, "As for the similarities between the Xiaomi SU7 and Porsche, I think maybe good design is always in mind. ”
This is considered by the outside world to be a response to Xiaomi's "copying" of Porsche's appearance. Some netizens said that "borrowing" from Porsche has indeed helped Xiaomi Auto improve its design level, but it can only live up to public expectations by achieving its own aesthetic breakthrough on the basis of borrowing.
"Iron also needs its own hardness"
Whether it is public opinion or products, the ultra-high popularity of Xiaomi SU7's "debut is the peak" has made many car companies feel the crisis, and they have played the "price reduction" card in the second quarter.
For example, Xpeng Motors launched the 2024 Xpeng G9 car purchase to enjoy the intelligent driving subsidy, and the current car is reduced by up to 20,000 yuan for a limited time, starting from 243,900 yuan. NIO has launched a subsidy of up to 1 billion yuan for the replacement of oil vehicles, and the replacement of oil vehicles for NIO will enjoy an optional subsidy of 10,000 yuan (optional NOMI, car color, wheel interior material, etc.), and the exclusive car purchase policy in April will be superimposed, with a comprehensive maximum of 30,000 yuan (including additional optional subsidies, 1 NIO Phone coupon, etc.).
Geely, Chery, FAW-Volkswagen and other traditional car companies have also implemented trade-in subsidies.
The reason behind this is not only the strong entry of Xiaomi cars, but also the gradual decline in sales.
In the first quarter of this year, NIO and XPeng fell significantly on the sales list. NIO fell from the "runner-up" position in 2023 to sixth place, while Xpeng dropped from fourth to eighth place. According to the data, NIO sold 30,000 units in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%, and became one of the few companies with a year-on-year decline in sales together with Nezha Automobile. In the first quarter of this year, NIO only achieved 13% of its annual target of 230,000 vehicles.
Under the mission of impacting the high-end market, Zhiji sold 10,000 units in Q1, a year-on-year increase of 167%, and the annual completion rate was only 8.34%. After the sales of LS6 exceeded 9,000 units, the sales of Zhiji's single products began to decline.
And the ideal has also changed the strong momentum of last year, and this year has lost the new force sales championship for three consecutive months.
It is the question world that replaces the ideal and comes from behind.
Since its launch in mid-September 2023, the new M7 has delivered 24,598 units in a single month in March this year, and the total number of units under the Wenjie brand has reached 31,727 units in a single month. At a time when the competition for new energy vehicles is becoming increasingly fierce, Wenjie ranks first in the sales list of new power brands, with cumulative sales of 85,842 units.
Source: China Automotive Digital Research Institute
Chery's sales in the first quarter of this year also reached 529,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 60.3%.
Compared with the decline in sales of many car companies, behind the rising sales of Wenjie and Chery, it is inseparable from its strong core technology competitiveness.
Let's look at the question world first.
In terms of hardware, the new M7 is equipped with HUAWEI ADS 2.0 high-end intelligent driving assistance system, and is equipped with 27 perception hardware, including 1 overhead lidar, 3 millimeter-wave radars, 11 high-definition visual perception cameras, and 12 ultrasonic radars.
At the software level, Wenjie is supported by Huawei's ADS 2.0 intelligent driving. In March this year, the new M7 has completed the OTA upgrade and upgraded the urban NCA intelligent driving pilot. Without relying on high-precision maps, it has achieved a high-end intelligent driving experience that "can be driven across the country and can be driven when there is a road". Far earlier than the prediction of media peers and netizens, "the intelligent driving system will only be realized by the end of 2024". Although other new power brands have released the concept of "intelligent driving without a map" early, they have not yet truly realized OTA loading.
Look at Chery again.
At the beginning of its car manufacturing, it chose the engine with the weakest foundation of its own brand and attached importance to the core technology, and Chery had many highlights in 2023. Last year, Chery became the global champion of Chinese SUVs with a score of 1.43 million units+, and at the same time won the global sales champion of Chinese brand fuel SUVs in 2023. It has not only been recognized by the industry as the first quality of China's own brand new cars in J.D. Power's "2023 China New Car Quality StudySM (IQS)", but also created a golden signboard of lifetime warranty.
Over the years, Chery Group has applied for more than 29,000 patents and authorized more than 18,000 patents, including 32% of invention patents, ranking in the forefront of the industry, and has laid out a global R&D system including 8 R&D centers in North America, Europe and Shanghai.
Source: Gao's View City
In order to compete for the new track of electrification and intelligence, Chery Group also released the Yaoguang 2025 strategy in 2022, planning to invest more than 100 billion yuan in R&D and more than 25,000 R&D personnel. Chery's hard-core product competitiveness and technical confidence have made its star model, the Tiggo 8 Champion family, win the sales championship of mid-size SUVs and 7-seater SUVs of Chinese brand fuel models in 2023, becoming the fastest Chinese brand mid-size SUV and 7-seater SUV to reach 500,000 units.
In the first two months of 2024, Chery sold a total of 348,019 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 69.5%. Chery Group sold 200,992 units in January, up 107.5% year-on-year, and exceeded 200,000 units for the fourth consecutive month. In February, Chery Group sold 143,155 vehicles, ranking first among Chinese brands.
In overseas markets, Chery also performed well. In 2023, Chery Group exported 937,148 vehicles, up 101.1% year-on-year, ranking first in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 21 consecutive years. Up to now, Chery Group has accumulated more than 13 million global automobile users, including 3.35 million overseas users.
Some people in Shanghai's business circles believe that the reason why Chinese products can go global is that price is only the least important aspect, and more importantly, Chinese products can be widely popular only if they are superior in terms of technology and product strength, and can only be widely popular if they win the support of consumers.
In this way, if auto companies want to survive for a long time, they rely on excellent technical strength, rather than relying on the so-called "price reduction", "subsidies" and even public relations methods to attract attention, rub traffic, and earn popularity.
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(1) Continued strong performance, with nearly 530,000 units sold in the first quarter, how Chery "refined".Gao's view of the market.2024-04-08.
(2) Sales volume of new forces in the first quarter of 2024: "Ask Liai" Innovation Bureau, which zero sinks.CAIC Digital Research Institute.2024-04-10.
(3) Only now do I know where the confidence of Chery Yin Tongyue comes from when he says "you're welcome".Che Kuai Ping New Media.2024-04-05.
(4) Porsche's response to Xiaomi Auto: "Good design is always in mind".信网.2024-04-15.
(5) An employee of a car company was dismissed for buying a Xiaomi SU7?The company clarified: he was not fired for buying a car, he worked for a certain rice brand to publicize, and he was absent from work to pick up the car.National Business Daily.2024-04-17.
(6) Insufficient traffic, public relations to make up: Xiaomi vs. Zhiji Auto.Almighty Uncle.2024-04-12.
(7) The popularity of Xiaomi cars has triggered the "catfish effect" in the industry, and many car companies have played the "price reduction" card.红网.2024-04-02.
(8) Lei Jun "shows his muscles" again!20 days of madness and 10 major doubts about Xiaomi Auto.Taishan Finance.2024-04-19.
(9) Propagation Review | What happened to Xiaomi Auto in the first 3 months of listing?.Miao Jian Information.2024-03-27.