On the Xpeng Motors 520 AI DAY, a speech by He Xiaopeng, founder and CEO of Xpeng Motors, caused heated discussions.
It interpreted the media's suggestion that Xpeng Motors may compete with Xiaomi Motors, saying:
In the new energy vehicle industry, from the blue ocean to the red ocean and then to the sea of blood, Xiaopeng has been tempered; Now selling well does not mean that the ability is strong, and the automobile industry is a long-term competition, not a short-term sales volume of one or two months.
This interpretation is relatively sharp, to the effect that although the current sales performance of Xiaomi cars is good, it is not because of its strong ability, and Xiaopeng Motors, whose sales performance is not ideal, is a strong player in ability; Looking at Xiaopeng Motors, we should not only look at the short-term sales performance, but also look at the long-term development of the brand and the enterprise. But what can support He Xiaopeng's point of view? Perhaps it was the Xpeng NGP intelligent driving system mentioned in 520 AI DAY.
He Xiaopeng said that in 2025, he will achieve a L4-level intelligent driving experience in China, and the wording is quite conservative, and the key word is "class"; Specifically, in the third quarter of 2024, NGP can be popularized nationwide, and every road in the country can be opened, and in 2025, intelligent driving in urban areas can be compared with high-speed intelligent driving experience.
However, whether it is Xpeng Motors or other smart car brands, in the process of explaining the intelligent driving system, more accurate words should be used, and English words such as NGP/NOA should not be used to define intelligent driving; Because now all the intelligent driving systems of C-end mass-produced commercial vehicles only meet the L2 level! The standard is assisted driving, which cannot be separated from the driver's monitoring at all, and needs to be prepared to take over during the use of the system. L2 is still a long way from the real intelligent autonomous driving, and at the same time, the L3 intelligent driving system is only recognized by a few cities, and the popularization and application of L4 is objectively far away, and L4 is only a high degree of automatic driving rather than a complete automatic driving.
At present, some car companies have exaggerated descriptions of the intelligent driving system of the car, often using all kinds of strange terms when packaging, and once the vehicle has an accident, it will become L2.
Now it is better to talk less about intelligent driving, and the intelligent driving system has become a double-edged sword.
What if it doesn't sell well?
The sales of the first car product created by Xiaomi Auto performed well, with the SU7 selling 7,058 units in April; In the same class, Xpeng P7 sold 2,383 units, G9 sold 2,180 units, G6 sold 2,132 units, X9 sold 1,959 units, P5 sold 626 units, and G3 sold 113 units, totaling 9,393 units.
The total sales of Xpeng's six cars are only 2,335 units more than the sales of Xiaomi SU7 alone, and it seems that Xpeng Motors is not selling well.
And the interesting thing is that the packaging of Xiaomi cars in terms of intelligent driving system is not very exaggerated, from the new car launch so far, its main promotion is design, performance, battery life or peripherals, of course, the design of Xiaomi SU7 is controversial, but Porsche's response is very tasteful. So what does this contrast mean? The author thinks that the results can show which car company understands the actual user needs better, maybe the Xiaomi car does not look so sci-fi, but it is down-to-earth enough.
On the contrary, the poor sales are nothing more than that the product does not meet the needs of users enough, at least not enough to meet the actual needs of mainstream car users at this stage; Therefore, if it does not sell well, it means that the level of product definition of car companies is not high enough, or even there are problems, and if these problems are not solved, their brand sales will only be bad.
The result?
Even if these car companies have a long-term strategic development plan or vision, what do they rely on to maintain long-term research and development if they have not made money in making cars? And although intelligent driving is the third word of the new four modernizations of automobiles, mature intelligent driving not only depends on the software and hardware system of the vehicle itself, but also relies on the corresponding intelligent transportation network system, and its construction cost is extremely high; At present, there are almost no cities with the construction of intelligent transportation road networks, and the popularization and application of L4/5 intelligent driving cannot be completed in ten or eight years.
Will you be able to hold out for a while?
Epilogue:
It is really hard to say whether the car brands that sell well now have the ability to do so, objectively there is indeed a phenomenal lack of accumulation of brands, and hot sales are bound to be short-lived, even if they are traditional car companies; However, most of the car brands that do not sell well are not capable, because they do not even understand the basic user needs, and product development does not pay attention to the present and only looks to the future, it will inevitably not be able to lay a solid foundation for the future.
The point is that from the perspective of car companies, the original intention must not be to engage in technology research and development, but to sell more cars; Then there is obviously no problem with the same results that can be achieved by other means, some technology research and development is destined to be a failure, and some unrealistic research and development directions must be water moon mirror flowers.
The purpose of car companies is to sell more cars and make more money, not to fight for technological achievements in a certain vertical field.
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