Among domestic brands, Aion has been following BYD in sales and scale for many years, and is losing its position as the "second leader of the millennium", under the premise that high-end brands are cold and the B-end market is shrinking, AION V, which originally accounted for only 5% of sales, has begun to become a "key minority" in whether Aion can win the battle to turn over.
Text丨Zhijia.com Zero sauce
Editor丨Langlang Mountain and Mingzhi Mountain
"You see that as soon as the price comes out, dozens of orders come in......"
After Xiao Yong, deputy general manager of GAC Aion, announced the price of the second-generation AION V Aion-189,800 yuan for Aion-189,800 yuan, a dealer brother sitting in front began to hold his mobile phone.
This price is 20,000 yuan cheaper than the previous generation model, and it is worth enjoying for dealers who are eager to open an order.
Although the general manager Gu Huinan sweated profusely and repeatedly asked the on-site media to wait, tirelessly listing eight selling points, the price is still the most concerned part of the market, especially for Aion, whose sales have been declining since January this year.
Although Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC, had triggered a price war in the industry in early June, the company has been caught up in it, and Xiao Yong has to admit:
"The all-new AION V has a lower price to gain a larger market share"
Xiao Yong and Ai'an have big goals:
"To be the top few in the 13-190,000 yuan pure electric A-class SUV market, or even to be the boss."
Unlike the chairman's hugging pipa, this is a head-on challenge to BYD.
After the press conference, the official released the "order battle report" without surprise:
In one hour and 20 minutes after it was launched, more than 10,000 units of the second-generation AION V were ordered.
Aion's sales have been out for half a year, and they still need low prices when they return.
01.
5% of the critical minority
"V", a letter that has represented victory since the beginning of World War II, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill used his big fat hand to implant the meaning of this "VICTORY" into the world.
The original AION V, which was launched in June 2020, also clearly included Aion's attempt to "win".
Looking at Aion's product series, in addition to the negligible small double-digit sales of LX, AION V is the highest-priced series among the three series on sale of "S, Y, and V", but in the comparison of monthly sales of S and Y, which are often 10,000 or 20,000, the market has not given AION V enough "V" response.
In order to cope with this situation, Aion chose to build a more high-end branch line, so that Haobo can support Aion to get rid of the stereotype of online car-hailing, so as to increase the price of Aion's products across the board.
On July 3, 2023, the 20 million new energy vehicles in mainland China rolled off the assembly line, and this honor fell on the head of Haobo GT.
Remarkable enough, isn't it?
But it wasn't until he and Guangdong Hongyuan pulled a wave of farce of giving and not giving away, that Haobo, who was born with a halo, was out of the circle for the first time.
And the monthly sales of several hundred prove that Haobo's dumb fire is almost a foregone conclusion.
The headaches don't stop there.
According to the monthly production and sales report released by GAC Group, from January to June this year, GAC Aion's total sales volume was 126329 units, a decrease of 39.65% compared with the first half of last year, and more than half of 2024, and the annual target of 700,000 units promised to be sold at the beginning was only 18% completed.
The high-end product line is cold, the online car-hailing market is saturated, and the sales target is less than 20% completed......
One bad news after another has made the "king of online car-hailing", who holds "S and Y", have to once again conquer the C-end market, which has no gaps.
In the first half of the year, the AION V, which sold a total of 8,582 units and accounted for an average of 5% of the total sales per month, became a key minority for Aion to win.
02.
C-end market = intelligent driving
Different from the popular PRO/MAX/Ultra simple product lines, the SKU launched by the pure electric power Aion-T-Rex when it was launched was as complex as the order page of an Internet celebrity coffee shop:
520 Smart Enjoyment Edition: 129,800 yuan
520 Zhihao Edition: 139,800 yuan
520 Zhizun Edition: 149,800 yuan
650 Zhihao version: 149,800 yuan
650 Zhizun Edition: 159,800 yuan
750 Zhizun Edition: 179,800 yuan
650 LiDAR version: 189,800 yuan
It is easy to guess the reason why Aion divides SKUs in this way: to split the key configurations as much as possible under the premise of price priority. The other configurations are not pressed, let's talk about the "650 LiDAR version" with more gimmicks in terms of size and length.
At the debut of Xiaopeng MONA M03, He Xiaopeng responded to netizens' questions:
"Taxis are primarily designed for whom, and certainly for passengers. The experience of the taxi driver's seat is weaker than that of the passenger seat, and we (Xpeng) consider the intelligent driving experience of the driver's seat more."
To sum up, He Xiaopeng's core point of view is that Xiaopeng Motors strives to develop an intelligent driving system, which is built for drivers, so:
There is a smart driving = no taxi version.
Ai'an, who tried to tear off the "online car-hailing" label, learned from the example and skillfully deduced:
C-end market = intelligent driving.
So before the launch of the second-generation AION V Tyrannosaurus Rex, Aion played a wave of big:
28 core cities around the world (including Bangkok, Thailand) have launched a mapless NDA public beta.
The new car's ADiGO PILOT intelligent driving system has five millimeter-wave radars, 11 high-definition cameras, and a new generation of solid-state variable-focus lidar, and its computing platform is based on NVIDIA's Orin-X chip.
Officially, the intelligent driving system can cover 35 types of main scenarios and 357 types of sub-scenarios, achieving more than 99% coverage of cities, suburbs, villages and towns. Among them, in conventional scenarios, daily scenarios such as traffic light start and stop, overtaking and lane change, cut in, centering, and merging can be achieved; In advanced scenarios, there are lane changes in congestion games, lane changes due to collision avoidance, left turns in the waiting area, roundabouts, U-turns, etc.
After the press conference, Zhang Xiong, deputy general manager of GAC Aion, added that the reason why Aion was able to launch urban intelligent driving so soon this time was because Aion had a long-term plan very early.
Aion can now use the end-to-end model of perception without relying on high-precision maps, and have an urban intelligent driving experience when it is listed, and can quickly roll it out across the country, and the follow-up algorithm will be iterated to the entire large model stage.
According to the plan, Aion Zhijia will be the first to open to some users in August, and then open to users across the country in September.
At the press conference, Momenta and other suppliers of the intelligent driving industry chain were also present, and the lidar supplier Suteng Juchuang used its own account to broadcast the press conference of the listed dragon, which not only swore sovereignty, but also gave the Tyrannosaurus rex a full card.
However, GAC's Heduo Technology did not get the opportunity to show up, and it can be said that Momenta has contributed a lot to the scene depicted by AION V in the field of intelligent driving.
This is another time that LiDAR has won over the pure vision solution at this stage.
In this regard, Xiao Yong responded that in his opinion, the pure visual intelligent driving solution at this stage is not mature enough and is not the best choice:
"LiDAR solution is the best choice at this stage, the best to use, the most reassuring, Aion to do to give the best to users."
This is comparable to the product rhythm announced by Aion at the GAC Technology Day, and the follow-up will be equipped with a pure visual route intelligent driving solution on Haobo in 2025.
However, it should be noted that if the pure vision scheme is really on the car as promised next year, then we can guess that either Haobo will launch models below 200,000, or Haobo, as an online brand, will have a lower cost of intelligent driving hardware than AION V.
No matter which of the above situations will occur, there will be a product/user intersection between Haobo and AION V, and how to choose at that time depends on Aion's own decision.
In Aion's official information, the 650 LiDAR version of the AION V is defined as "the only SUV with LiDAR in the industry within 200,000 yuan".
In this regard, Leap C16 is estimated to have something to say, the previously listed Leap C16 pure electric intelligent driving version and extended range intelligent driving version are equipped with lidar + NVIDIA Orin-X chip, which can realize the use of NAC navigation assisted cruise in urban areas, and the use of intelligent navigation NAP on high-speed and urban expressways.
In addition, Leaprun's lidar is provided by Hesai.
03.
Unite all the "energy supplements" that can be united
Most of the online car-hailing owners operate within a fixed range, which is another difference between them and the C-end users who "say go" at every turn, in addition to the needs of intelligent driving.
Aion wants to do a good job in C-end service, energy replenishment is a topic that cannot be bypassed, and "unity" is a key word of Aion's Tyrannosaurus rex in energy replenishment.
The second-generation AION V battery capacity is 62kWh, 75kWh and 90kWh (depending on the supplier, the capacity will vary slightly), and all models use GAC Aion's 400V lithium iron phosphate "magazine battery", and all of them support liquid cooling and fast charging at 3C rate.
Cantonese people who can do business do not participate in the debate between real and fake 800V, Aion chooses the world's most widely applicable 400V platform, and realizes charging comparable to 800V supercharging through a series of innovations such as low-voltage silicon carbide technology.
"It's hard to fill the ground with a tap, but it's easy to pour it in if you pour it into the sand."
Gu Huinan's Guangpu explained this set of principles in a simple and easy to understand way.
While reducing costs, AION V can also achieve 125 kilometers of energy replenishment in 5 minutes and 370 kilometers of rapid energy replenishment in 15 minutes on a wide range of public charging piles:
"400V charging piles are everywhere."
The first thing that Aion-Tyrannosaurus rex unites is the 400V public charging piles all over the place.
Of course, GAC is not preparing wool only for male piles.
At present, Aion has built and operated more than 1,000 charging stations, a total of more than 7,000 charging piles, and built at an annual growth rate of more than 150%, of which the supercharging piles along the expressway cover 8 national high-speed aortas including Beijing-Shanghai, Xuguang, Changshen, Shenhai, etc., as well as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing and other economic belt expressways, Zhejiang Province 100% expressway and other regions.
In addition, Aion has also established a charging alliance with charging partners including PetroChina, State Grid and China Southern Power Grid, and jointly built charging piles with enterprises in the alliance, which covers 80% of the country's charging piles and 90% of highway charging piles
It is worth noting that in foreign markets, Aion has also joined hands with many charging service providers to build a seamless charging ecosystem, with more than 500,000 charging piles in the alliance, and its strategic deployment has covered core regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East.
At the press conference, Xiao Yong did not hesitate to praise NIO's battery swap system, of course, this is based on the premise that the two parties have signed a strategic cooperation agreement on battery charging and swapping.
NIO's sales volume has been stable for three consecutive months of more than 20,000, and the industry generally believes that its long-established battery swap route is about to complete the closed loop.
The cooperation with NIO, which has already established a system, is another decision of Aion in the unity of public piles and power grids.
Of course, not everyone can do it by uniting friends and businessmen.
04.
Old rivals
Cooperating with NIO, which has already formed a system, is Aion in Tuanjiegong
After talking about friends, let's talk about opponents, or the oldest kind.
Two days after the launch of the Aion Tyrannosaurus Rex, the 2025 BYD Song L DM-i and the 2025 Song PLUS DM-i were officially launched.
The new "Shuangsong" is equipped with BYD's fifth-generation DM technology, and five configurations are launched, with a price range of 135,800-175,800 yuan, which is within the pricing range of the second-generation AION V.
Different from the design language and body size of the AION V, the newly added Song L DM-i adopts the dynasty family style design in appearance, and the appearance of the PLUS is also the same as the previous model.
In terms of intelligence, the new "Shuangsong" is equipped with BYD's current main DiLink 100 intelligent cockpit and DiPilot intelligent driving assistance system, but its intelligent driving hardware does not provide lidar.
In terms of power system, the new "Shuangsong" has launched three versions of pure electric mileage of 75KM, 112KM and 160KM, 5 models, and the official NEDC fuel consumption of 100 kilometers is only 3.9L, which is significantly lower than the previous generation model. "Shuangsong" has a comprehensive range of 1500km with full fuel and full power.
OF COURSE, COMPARED WITH HYBRID CARS, THE BATTERY LIFE IS A BIT SILLY, BUT THE PURCHASING POWER OF THE NEW ENERGY MARKET IS SO MUCH, BYD HAS ALREADY MADE A MOVE, AND THE AION TYRANNOSAURUS REX WANTS TO BE THE BOSS OF THE PURE ELECTRIC A-CLASS SUV, SO IT CAN ONLY CALL BACK TO THE ENERGY SUPPLEMENT LINK AND CONTINUE TO BUILD PILES.
What's more, the EV version of the BYD Song is still on sale at 149,800-189,800 yuan.
Write at the end:
Before participating in the press conference, the author, who has always watched the excitement and does not think it is a big deal, was actually more curious about whether Sima Nan, who holds the title of "chief experience officer", will be present outside the product.
It is a little "regrettable" that the teacher did not appear, and Aion officials did not continue to promote his identity as the "chief experience officer" in the future.
▲ Source online