On April 25, the day of the official opening of the Beijing Auto Show, the brand New Energy brought its highly anticipated Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition to the 18th Beijing International Automobile Exhibition. This exhibition, which integrates cutting-edge intelligent technology and the concept of ideal life, is not only a visual and technical feast, but also a strong proof of WEY brand new energy to show its brand concept of "science and technology Wei for a better life". So, what are the highlights behind this new car? At the same time, how will WEY brand's expansion strategy in overseas markets be unfolded? EV Vision had the honor to interview Liu Yanzhao, CEO of WEY brand, Tan Jian, executive deputy general manager of WEY brand, and Zhang Botao, deputy general manager of technology of WEY brand, and conducted an in-depth interview with them to listen to the answers of WEY brand executives.
Actively respond to market challenges and promote the comprehensive upgrade of the brand
With the changes in the new energy market, WEY brand new energy has taken a series of new measures in the face of the challenges, aiming to promote the overall improvement of the brand. First of all, Liu Yanzhao mentioned that WEY brand new energy has always maintained an industry leading position in terms of products and technologies, thanks to its systematic strategy. At the recent press conference, WEY brand new energy demonstrated its NOA underlying support, including the Kyushu supercomputing center and end-to-end technical architecture, especially on the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition, realizing a comprehensive display from technology to products.
In terms of new products, WEY New Energy plans to accelerate the launch of the new Mocha and the new Latte, which will be equipped with the Hi4 powertrain. The company plans to realize the application of Hi4 technology in all models within the year, and fully enter the era of electric four-wheel drive, which marks an important step in technological innovation of WEY brand new energy.
In terms of sales channels, WEY Brand New Energy is considering the layout of direct sales channels to supplement the existing distribution channels. Direct sales channels not only help to enhance brand exposure, but also cover markets that have not yet been reached by distribution channels, such as emerging markets such as supermarkets. This dual-channel model will allow Great Wall Motors to connect terminals and real users more closely, so as to gain a deeper understanding of the market and collect user feedback.
What's more, in today's auto show, WEY brand new energy with the theme of "science and technology Wei better life", and at the same time launched the high-profile Blue Mountain intelligent driving version. The choice of this theme stems from a deep insight into current social development trends and scientific and technological progress. In the context of the increasing homogeneity of new energy products, WEY brand new energy recognizes that user experience is the key factor to win the favor of users.
Liu Yanzhao emphasized that although hardware integration such as 8295 chips is not an insurmountable technical barrier, the real competition lies in whether the intelligent experience of the vehicle is considerate and humane enough. WEY Brand New Energy is committed to improving the speech recognition and interaction fluency of vehicles through the introduction of AI and large model technology, so that it can more accurately understand user needs and provide more personalized services.
For example, when a user expresses an intent to travel, the vehicle's intelligent system is able to understand a specific location, such as Beijing West Railway Station or a specific airport terminal, and provide navigation services accordingly. This intelligent experience also includes the NOA technology architecture, which provides a full-scene solution that does not require high-precision map support, and is suitable for a variety of driving environments such as highways, urban areas, and townships.
WEY brand new energy intends to take intelligent driving technology as one of the main labels of the brand to highlight its investment and achievements in the field of intelligence and technology. Through the theme of "Technology for a Better Life", the company hopes to convey that its products are not only a means of transportation, but also a technology partner that improves the quality of life of users. This theme not only highlights WEY brand new energy's pursuit of science and technology, but also emphasizes the concept of a better life behind its products.
Performance, efficiency and safety benchmark, Hi4 has become the leader of the electric four-wheel drive era?
As an innovative technology of WEY brand new energy, the Hi4 power architecture provides users with significant advantages in many aspects. Zhang Botao introduced the five characteristics of Hi4 in detail, including extreme performance, high efficiency, quiet comfort, extreme four-wheel drive and extremely intelligent safety.
First of all, the Hi4's extreme performance is reflected in its two versions: the Performance version is designed for medium and large cars, ensuring excellent dynamics and acceleration even for larger vehicles, while the regular version is suitable for a wider range of models. Secondly, the extremely high efficiency of the Hi4 has been optimized in terms of fuel economy, through the efficiency improvement of different gears, especially the performance of the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition in terms of comprehensive fuel consumption.
In terms of safety, Hi4's Jizhi safety features are not only reflected in the off-road and passing capabilities provided by the four-wheel drive system, but also in its handling performance and stability, which makes the vehicle more reasonable in front and rear power distribution, thereby improving the safety of driving.
In addition, the Hi4's extremely quiet comfort and extreme four-wheel drive characteristics effectively improve NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) performance by reducing engine speed at high speeds and using a multi-gear design, providing users with a more comfortable and quiet driving experience.
Liu Yanzhao further emphasized that the main drive mode of the Hi4 four-wheel drive system is rear-wheel drive, which reflects the persistence and characteristics of Great Wall Motors as an SUV expert. The rear-wheel drive characteristics of the Hi4 bring better traction, handling, and refined driving comfort. The Hi4 is also highly regarded in the industry, believing that its low weight and the optimal ratio of front and rear axle loads make the engine always work in the optimal economic range, which is an innovative invention.
Regarding the deployment plan of the Hi4 power system, Liu Yanzhao said that WEY brand new energy will accelerate into the era of comprehensive electric four-wheel drive. The upcoming Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition has been equipped with the Hi4 performance version, and the new latte, new card and other models will also be equipped with Hi4 technology in the future, showing the firm layout and future development expectations of WEY brand new energy in the field of electric four-wheel drive.
WEY brand Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition A new benchmark for intelligence and comfort?
Since its launch last year, the Blue Mountain, as a strategic model of the WEY brand, has achieved good market performance in the large six-seater SUV market and has successfully ranked among the best-selling models. In the launch of the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition, Tan Jian emphasized that the model has been significantly improved in many aspects, which not only reflects the in-depth implementation of Great Wall Motor's intelligent strategy, but also demonstrates its leading position in the industry.
The Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition has achieved a major breakthrough in intelligence, equipped with Great Wall Motor's latest intelligent technologies, including the Coffee Pilot Ultra high-end intelligent driving assistance system and the Coffee OS 3 intelligent space system, the integration of these two technologies makes the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition reach the industry-leading level in intelligent performance, providing users with a more powerful and advanced intelligent cockpit experience.
In terms of interior design, the Blue Mountain Smart Driving Edition has been comprehensively upgraded, adopting a new interior color scheme, and redesigning the dashboard, steering wheel, and headliner to enhance luxury and comfort. A 7-liter smart refrigerator with an independent compressor has been added to the interior of the car, which can maintain the temperature even after the power is off, enhancing practicality. The second-row seats have been carefully designed to improve ride comfort, including the elevation of the seat R point, the widening of the seat cushion, the eight-point massage function, and the backrest ventilation function. In addition, the vehicle is equipped with the CDC electronically controlled damping system to maximize ride comfort and handling stability, enhancing driving pleasure and safety.
In terms of power system, the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition adopts the Hi4 performance version, which adopts a hybrid scheme of hybrid + four-gear + dual motors on the front and rear axles, which realizes both efficiency and performance. The five characteristics of the Hi4 power architecture – extreme performance, high efficiency, quiet comfort, extreme all-wheel drive, and extreme intelligence and safety – ensure that the vehicle can provide the best experience in all working conditions.
In terms of appearance, the Blue Mountain Smart Driving Edition has launched an exclusive new color of "Canglang Blue", a unique color design inspired by the cyan refracted by the giant waves of the equator in the sun, symbolizing the harmonious combination of nature and AI technology, which is expected to greatly enhance the recognition and attractiveness of the vehicle.
When it comes to intelligent driving, WEY New Energy has taken multiple measures to ensure the safety and reliability of NOA technology in different scenarios to enhance user confidence. Liu Yanzhao emphasized that the company adheres to the principle of technical redundancy and backup in the field of intelligent driving, which is in line with the importance of safety and reliability when he was in charge of tanks before. Thanks to technical redundancy, the tank is able to stay safe and move forward even in extreme conditions, such as countless tumbles and jumps.
Intelligent driving technology upgrade Strengthen new measures for safety and market layout
In terms of intelligent driving technology, WEY brand new energy has built an industry-leading supercomputing center - Kyushu, and introduced the first integrated intelligent driving model in China - SEE. In addition, the company also adopts redundant design in the radar and hardware configuration to ensure the safety and reliability of the system. Chairman Wei Jianjun put forward the concept of "no safety, no intelligent driving" in the live broadcast, clearly pointing out that safety is the premise of intelligent driving, and without safety guarantee, users cannot rest assured that they will not hand over control to equipment or vehicles.
In order to further improve the safety of intelligent driving technology, WEY brand new energy has accumulated a large amount of basic data through data backhaul and professional data collection, with the original data volume exceeding 100PB and the driving mileage of real users exceeding 200 million kilometers. These data provide massive data support for model training. The company also updates the screening strategy in real time, and uses the cloud large model to carry out effective data mining and automatic data annotation, so as to efficiently extract effective data. Through scenario generation and simulation, the company can quickly identify dangerous, rare, and extreme scenarios, and conduct scheme simulation verification for massive dangerous driving scenarios to improve model iteration efficiency. In this process, the company also focuses on data desensitization to better protect user privacy.
Regarding market feedback, Liu Yanzhao mentioned that since Mr. Wei's live broadcast of the Blue Mountain Smart Driving model on April 15, the market response has been enthusiastic, many people have asked when they will be able to pick up the car, and media friends have also shown strong interest in the upcoming experience activities in different cities across the country in May. At present, the first batch of cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Chengdu have begun to use, and Baoding, as the company's base camp, is naturally in continuous use. In the future, the company plans to successively promote it to first-tier and quasi-first-tier cities from August to October this year, covering core urban areas.
As for the promotion plan of NOA technology, the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition is the first version in the absence of high-precision maps. The company plans to transfer the technology to Alpine models, and will introduce a simplified version of NOA technology based on the positioning and pricing of Mocha and Latte. Tank brand models, such as the Tank 500, 400 and 700, are also planned to be equipped with NOA technology by the end of this year. This shows that the technical advancement and market layout of WEY brand new energy in the field of intelligent driving are comprehensive and in-depth.
Accelerate internationalization, enter the EU and expand into global markets
For WEY and Great Wall Motors, the internationalization process has accelerated significantly in the past two years.
Last year, WEY New Energy took an important step to enter the EU market, which is a high-end market in the company's internationalization strategy. Liu Yanzhao talked about the company's breakthrough in the EU market last year and the progress and planning of overseas exports, saying that Europe is the first stop of WEY brand's globalization strategy, and Germany is the first choice as the landing point.
Although there are some restrictions on new energy vehicles in China in the EU, this has not affected the delivery of WEY vehicles in the region and the high praise it has received. The company adopts the P2+P4 architecture in the European market, and relies on the forest ecosystem of Great Wall Motors, which can match more suitable technical routes according to the needs of different target markets.
WEY's pricing strategy in the European market is to compete directly with high-end brands such as BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi), and the price range is positioned at 40,000 to 60,000 euros. Among the sub-brands of Great Wall Motors, WEY Brand New Energy is undoubtedly the leader of new energy and intelligent technology, and its positioning within the company is the most high-end technology empowerment brand of Great Wall. Therefore, WEY brand's expansion to the global market also symbolizes a new height of Great Wall Motors in terms of technology and product experience.
Recently, WEY brand has successfully landed some products in the Central Asian market and tried in the Middle East market. Next, the Blue Mountain and Alpine models will also be shipped to the global market. Previously, the first batch of Alpine models was exported to Dubai, where they were well received by the market. The company plans to continue this export momentum and further expand its presence in the global market.
Write at the end
After in-depth exchanges with the senior management of WEY brand, we have a deep insight into the strategic measures and technological innovation taken by WEY brand new energy in the new energy market. Through continuous technological breakthroughs and market strategy adjustments, it aims to enhance brand competitiveness and user experience, showing remarkable efforts and determination. Especially in the field of intelligence and power system, WEY brand new energy has made significant breakthroughs, setting a new benchmark for the development of the industry. At the same time, the company also plans to deploy direct sales channels to strengthen brand exposure and deepen the connection with users.
Looking at the overall situation, WEY brand new energy is actively promoting new technologies to quickly respond to market dynamics, showing a deep insight and lofty vision for the future automotive industry.