文｜Karakush
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Xpeng MONA's first model, the M03, made its online debut.
The main show is modeling, design, and appearance.
For Xpeng, it is relatively rare. Peng factory talks about design, generally five minutes to finish. Because of the lackluster appearance. Ten years after its establishment, Xpeng has become more accustomed to making up for the lack of design through intelligent definitions, from the bottom to marketing.
This path dependence gradually fails to control the abstract development of appearance. Since last year, "ugly appearance" has almost become the biggest humiliation for Xiaopeng in addition to "ugly name". "The car is a good car, the design is not good", which is regarded by many Pengyou as responsible for poor performance.
He Xiaopeng, who has been directly managing the styling and design team since the end of 2022, is deeply troubled by appearance anxiety. In the commencement letter at the beginning of this year, He Xiaopeng predicted that 2024 will be the first year for Xiaopeng to make strategic upgrades in the field of design.
In May, when He Xiaopeng went to Hefei to give Li Bin the X9 of friendship, he politely envied the design of Weilai, and further revealed that Xiaopeng would establish a huge styling team in Shanghai and introduce talents from overseas.
A month later, the first major appointment was revealed. Juanma Lopez officially joined as the vice president of Xpeng Design Center, responsible for the management and design decisions of the center.
This is the highest specification that Xpeng has ever come up with for design. Lopez has served as Head of Design Europe at Genesis Design, Head of Exterior Design for Ferrari, Head of Interior Design for Lamborghini, and Interior Designer for Audi Group.
Chaohao's experience and the experience of celebrities make us look forward to Xiaopeng's future aesthetic improvement, and at the same time, he has begun to play an endorsement effect, at the MONA press conference, Lopez and He Xiaopeng jointly interpreted MONA.
Xpeng has its own design face, which is an important signal on the debut. Although the on-site decoration still reveals the astringency, Xiaopeng has taken the first step to create a longboard of appearance - self-praise.
The outside world will soon realize that self-confidence is the best medical beauty for Xpeng.
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Whether MONA is good or not, this metaphysics will not be discussed.
The important thing is that Xiaopeng blows it to look good. He Xiaopeng said that it is "a good-looking and interesting car that Xiaopeng is willing to spend a little more cost (4 billion yuan) and a little time (4 years) to build for young people."
Xiaopeng hasn't boasted about his face for a long time. After P7 became famous, if P5 and G9 were still jumping on the edge of beauty and ugliness that could be attacked, retreated, and defended, G6 reached a consensus to be popular.
In stark contrast to the design is the power of the product. For example, the G6, with an entry level of 209,900 yuan, a range of 580 kilometers, is equipped with Xpilot as standard, and was the cheapest 800V product at that time. While being praised for being really fragrant, and being sprayed on the other hand, G6 seems to have become a test of human nature, is there any value torque for the ultimate cost performance?
The conclusion is there – if it is extreme enough. When 800V platform products of 200,000 or below began to emerge on the market, the sales volume of G6 broke from a high of 7000-8000+ in a steady state of monthly sales to 1000-2000+.
Xiaopeng was diagnosed with "second product syndrome" as a result, and it was accused that there was no explosion because it did not recognize the reason for the success of the P7, not intelligent driving or electric technology, but first of all, it was good-looking. This is certainly not to say that Xiaopeng gave up design and only made ugly things, which is unfair to the design team; But in the face of factors such as engineering and cost, design must not be a high priority.
In the past, Xpeng's design had two specific problems:
First, there is a lack of consistent design language, except that P7 and P5 have a relationship between the top and bottom, and G3, G9, G6, and X9 have their own ideas. They certainly have commonalities, such as a strong emphasis on proportion, explicit technology, minimalism, or some common family elements, but they rarely form a coherent brand image.
Second, it lacks aesthetics, and the G9 is a memorable type.
Xpeng has had a concept from a very early stage, to use the thinking of a product manager, from the perspective of users, not to do useless design, but to efficiently connect various sensibilities with needs. Functionalism is an interesting approach, but it doesn't address aesthetics, and it takes a designer who can establish a system of expression to trace back to its roots.
It can also be seen here that Xiaopeng has not spent as much effort as it does in terms of intelligent driving in terms of design. This is a strategic miscalculation, under the premise that the technical route is relatively stable, the marginal benefit of technology will continue to decline, and design is the main factor determining differentiation.
To the MONA series, has this two problems been solved? Actually, it's not too late. MONA is mainly responsible for the design of Didi, and the part that Xpeng can intervene in is relatively limited, and Lopez, who only joined in June, has only seen the actual car.
But Xiaopeng's self-confidence makes up for it.
First of all, "quantitative aesthetics" is proposed. Not only MONA's key indicators emphasize the engineering goals, such as the wind resistance Cd0.194 blown out of 10 wind tunnels to achieve the goal of reducing energy consumption by 15% and increasing the range by 60km; Or the golden body proportions, balancing the space and technical requirements.
In other words, the product definition is based on big data analysis of consumer preferences and market trends, and determines that it meets the user's purpose - in fact, it is still the classic concept of Xpeng, but the packaging "quantification" is such a simple, easy to understand, and high-sounding concept.
Second, the young narrative. Here's how He Xiaopeng shaped the story:
The first step is that Xpeng equals the spirit of innovation. All of Xpeng's products have technological innovations: G3 made visual parking fusion for the first time, P7 for the first time on full-scene voice and high-speed NGP, P5 brought LiDAR into urban NGP for the first time, G9 for the first time mass production of 800V high-voltage silicon carbide, G6 used the world's largest integrated die-casting for the first time, and X9 made a magic change of seven seats to four seats for the first time. Some are a little weak, but they don't get in the way of meaning.
The second step is to stand on the moral high ground and criticize and solidify class and capital. He said that he found that many people build cars to make money, and no one to make technology. Many companies prioritize product and marketing, integrate technology quickly, and it's easy to succeed but not fun, just a business. Xpeng is different, Xpeng is very sincere, serious about technology, and bring more innovation to the world.
The third step is to empathize with the rebels. Most of China's A-class cars, (very frustrated), because of the cost saving, but also want to sell to taxis, no one spends money to make a car with character within 200,000 yuan. But today, 00 people are 24 years old, do you still give them setbacks? To make different AI cars for the post-90s, 00s, and 10s, this is the original intention of MONA, which is different from the cars of mom and dad.
It can't be said to be particularly clever. But the messaging and emotional resonance are the same, that is, young, young, and young. Such a self-consistent narrative is rare in Xiaopeng.
Third, rhythmic public opinion guidance and dissemination offensive, amplify the voice of "good-looking", and establish the potential energy of "good-looking". In fact, when MONA announced the photo just after Reuters, almost all the reviews seen in the public domain were bad; With the development of static real shooting, KOLs and KOCs began to blow the wind, "the designer has understood", "the classic real car is better than the official picture series", "the first picture is put in beige, so you don't have to be scolded in vain" and so on. By now, flowers and rotten eggs are at least blooming.
Similar changes have been seen on the X9 before. When I first arrived, X9 encountered a lot of bad reviews for my appearance, especially compared with MEGA, which debuted at the same time, X9's overly spiritual lines were accused of being rustic; But with the praise of KOC and the foil of peers, the 400,000 cost-effective starship aesthetics are simply crazy bees and butterflies.
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The design itself, depending on the opinion, is another topic. But precisely because of this, it has a lot of room to operate, and the evaluation of the design can be influenced, guided and even distorted.
It's not that design is completely shaped by public opinion.
In the era of smart electric vehicles, representatives of good design, such as NIO. I have always believed that compared with battery swapping, design-driven brand value is NIO's core competitiveness. From the car, to the painting of the battery swap station, to the makeup of the fellow, to the cup sleeve of the special drink, every detail is "you can always trust the design of NIO".
Even so, NIO has been questioned. For example, the design for AD of LiDAR was sprayed with horns as soon as it was born, and after successive publicity and guidance, and follow-up by peers, it became a symbol of intelligent driving identity.
A more recent example is the ideal MEGA. Its styling is extremely controversial, regardless of the success or failure of the market, under the dirty water, its design innovation is still sought after by many people. This is not a natural choice to love and hate, and it is also cultivated under multiple traffic education, especially the big KOL's Lida Flying Brick before the official listing, you can't expect what kind of "authoritative" public opinion you will be affected by.
To share a personal feeling, when did I find MEGA very advanced. In fact, I saw an interview with a designer from a blogger, Ben Baum said that he is a fan of Dieter Rams, and that MEGA's design was somewhat influenced by his inspiration. Since I like Braun so much, I suddenly feel as if I can see the stream of consciousness of weniger aber besser from the MEGA, and I can't get rid of this impression.
Only some products can respond to the universal aesthetic of the greatest common divisor; Most of the time, it is possible to build a "good look" through public opinion warfare. It's basically a three-step process.
First, establish aesthetic justice for your ideas. The style itself does not indicate justice, it needs to be bound to a certain value, understand its good-looking, have a pattern, taste, educational background, and cognitive level, and stimulate a sense of identity.
Second, match the narrative with your target demographic. For example, authoritative recognition is a common law, even if Xiaomi SU7 has such a firm design, coupled with Lei Jun's strong appeal, and the endorsement of the Bangor platform, in order to establish some kind of trust.
Third, the oversaturated traffic delivery, the big currency has a miracle.
Actually, it's not just about design now. Technology is also a war of public opinion.
The day before yesterday, He Xiaopeng commented on the Weibo of Li Liyun, the person in charge of autonomous driving, and said that it is not time to reflect on the fact that the technical propaganda is too conservative. It will not blow that it is seriously injuring Xiaopeng, and in the past year, Xiaopeng's smart tag has been dissolved badly, which is very dangerous.
Xpeng is the first echelon. According to Li Liyun's sharing: In August 2023, Xiaopeng will have the technical ability to "open the whole country"; In January 2024, the unlimited XNGP that is "easy to use nationwide" will be released to some media and car owners; By July (in fact, it was the middle of the night yesterday), the 520 version of XNGP was fully pushed.
But I believe most people don't know that Xiaopeng's "nationwide" opened so early. Behind the silence there are considerations of rigor.
For example, when Xiaopeng speaks, it must be particularly solid: they have completed the verification of more than 6 million kilometers of real vehicle mileage, and they have achieved end-to-end large model growth iterations once every 2 days.
Because they pursue "easy to use all over the country", it is consistent, safe, comfortable, and old driver-like...... The goal is good, but the information is too complex, too specialized, too granular, and the public is too lazy to make a difference. They only remember that the first one was still Huawei.
Another example is BYD. In May, BYD released the fifth-generation DM system, announcing that the engine thermal efficiency reached 46.06%, and the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers was 2.9L, making China's fuel consumption enter the 2nd era.
This is not only BYD's long-term strategy, the return of the lonely investment from no man's land, but also the rise of the feelings of the family and the country, the grand narrative, is the Chinese brand to rewrite the history of global automobile fuel consumption, the Japanese-led hybrid myth has been completely broken by the Chinese brand, and the global plug-in hybrid has entered the Chinese moment. It's a great combination.
Although many subsequent technical discussions pointed out that this was the result of narrow-range working conditions, in the same way, the interpretation of information was too complex and too professional, and people could only remember BYD. In fact, under narrow-range working conditions, many independent enterprises, Geely, Changan, SAIC, Great Wall, and Chery have very good plug-in hybrid technology, but once the mentality of "plug-in hybrid is BYD" is established, other companies will be very uncomfortable.
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He Xiaopeng is already aware of the problem. At the beginning of the year, he also mentioned that he wanted to upgrade the strategy of brand and marketing. He said, "No matter how challenging and how much investment there is, we must make Xpeng's brand and marketing the undisputed first camp in the industry in the shortest possible time." ”
That's a good thing, hopefully soon.
I don't think that not being able to market and working hard is a quality worth boasting about. Some companies often use the latter as an explanation for the former, "because they are immersed in hard work, they don't know how to market". Actually, the two things are not mutually exclusive.
Doing it without blowing it is just as hateful as blowing without doing it. Only blowing but not drying, of course, is very punishing, but it cannot last long; It is not a virtue of hard work, but the lack of system ability or lazy government, which is a contempt or even misjudgment of the current competitive intensity, a numb and disjointed contemporary communication method, and a kind of disappointment to team efforts and user expectations.
Automakers need to change their mindset. Auto marketing is gradually changing from the normal rhythm of publicity to a more chaotic and agile pattern of public opinion warfare. Be prepared.