"The better the chassis, the worse the sales."
This seemingly illogical sentence has become a curse for some brands in the past.
DS, Genesis, Jaguar, Peugeot, Ford and many other brands have been held by this "curse".
Compared with "refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas", the chassis is too deeply hidden.
Under the trend of "selling cars in the market", consumers often only pay for the visible product power. Within 5-10 minutes, you have to give them a decisive reason to buy a car.
However, if the rim rolls down again, when refrigerators, color TVs, large sofas, etc. become standard configurations, what can be rolled up next?
Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, said: "The focus of the next volume must be the intelligent chassis. ”
Chassis, the next tuyere?
Before the holiday, the all-new Zhiji LS6 was officially launched, with a price range of 239,900-302,900 yuan and a limited-time equity price range of 216,900-279,900 yuan, with a total of 5 configurations.
It has just been a year since it was first launched in October last year. As is customary in the automotive industry, this is a facelift of the year.
But attentive friends will find that Zhiji uses the word "brand-new".
The new comes from the "Grey Lizard Digital Chassis" and "Intelligent Four-Wheel Steering System" that appeared on the LS6 model for the first time.
The million-dollar "luxury car" that played "in place" out of the circle looked up to the U8, and the Yi Sifang technology equipped with 4 motors was used. The Zhiji can also "turn in circles" through the rapid reversal of the front and rear motors, combined with the different deflection angles of the front and rear wheels.
Looking at the super luxury Porsche, which is always copied homework, in order to solve the problem of poor handling performance due to the large body of the Panamera and other parts, the rear-wheel steering technology was introduced. At low speeds, the front and rear wheels are deflected in the opposite direction to achieve a smaller turning radius. At high speeds, the front and rear wheels are deflected in the same direction, achieving a more stable lane change experience.
It's just that Porsche's rear-wheel steering option price is 27,600 yuan, and Zhiji LS6 is standard for all systems.
In Liu Tao's view, it is unfair if only a small number of users can experience the leading technology of the times, "It is not the result that urban elites want to see." ”
At the communication meeting, Liu Tao even emphasized: "AI digital chassis and rear-wheel steering must be standard, because this will be the entrance to the intelligent era of intelligent pure electric vehicles." ”
The chassis technology of the all-new Zhiji LS6 is not limited to this, and the air suspension, which was not present in the old model, is complemented by the new model. It has an adjustable range of 70 mm and 5 gears, and can automatically adjust the height of the vehicle according to the speed.
In addition, the CDC electronically controlled dynamic damping adjustment shock absorber can actively adjust the shock absorption soft and hard according to the real-time driving status of the wheels and road condition information, making the ride more comfortable.
Anyone can pile up hardware, how to give full play to the maximum value of these hardware, Zhiji thought of "intelligence".
Liu Tao once said that the emergence of the digital chassis of the Lizard has transformed the working mode of automobile chassis hardware into intelligent teamwork, integrating a series of chassis system control modules such as intelligent four-wheel steering system, electronically controlled shock absorber CDC, air spring, and electric drive system, and unified control by a set of algorithms.
For example, when driving in rain or on snow and ice, the Zhiji VMC responds in a timely manner based on weather information to ensure that the wheels follow the established driving path.
When encountering outdoor off-road conditions, the Grey Lizard digital chassis can intelligently adjust the steering angle of the rear wheels and the braking force of the outside vehicle, and actively turn on the anti-rollover mechanism, reducing the possibility of rollover by 33%.
Combined with the NOA available nationwide, the vehicle will predict ramps and curves in advance according to road information, and automatically reduce the height of the air suspension to reduce roll.
In the price range of 20-300,000 yuan, the chassis performance of the all-new Zhiji LS6 is indeed "unique". At the same time, Zhiji has also become the only two car companies in China's new energy vehicle industry after Huawei that can truly mass-produce "digital chassis".
Smart cabin, smart driving, synchronous upgrade
Although there is a trick of "intelligent chassis", in the field of medium-sized SUVs, which is the most competitive in new energy vehicles, the performance of intelligence cannot be outdated.
In terms of vehicle design, the all-new Zhiji LS6 has not changed much, basically following the style of the old model, and only improving some key details.
For example, the Falcon intelligent lighting system equipped on the exterior of the vehicle for the first time has a 165° wide-angle illumination range, in addition to functions such as follow-up lighting and intersection lighting, it also supports "ghost probe" traversal warning, which is very practical.
The internal use of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P chip, compared with the old 8155, the computing power has been increased from 8TOPS to 60TOPS, which can provide more delicate scene rendering for the central control, and ensure that the hardware is sufficient for a long time.
However, to say that the core of the PK of the current high-end new energy vehicles is intelligent driving.
From the brand launch in 2021, to obtaining the first batch of L3 road test licenses in 2023, to IM AD 3.0, which is the industry's only self-developed player with Xavier/Orin high and low computing power dual platforms, Zhiji's pace in intelligent driving has never slowed down.
The all-new Zhiji LS6 is equipped with LiDAR and NVIDIA OrinX chips as standard. In addition to stacking hardware, Zhiji has also summed up a set of methodologies in the development of intelligent driving systems.
Xiang Jiao, deputy CTO of Zhiji Automobile, revealed that Zhiji Auto's IM AD intelligent driving solution is a L2/L3/L4 common platform and co-model development. Among them, the pure vision solution and the lidar solution are promoted simultaneously, the former is used to enhance the performance of L2 intelligent driving, and the latter plays a reliable role in long-distance, small object detection, rain and snow and other complex weather. Replacing the extreme idea of "either/or" with the idea of synchronous development can more effectively improve the user experience of the intelligent driving system.
According to the official data released by Zhiji: the cumulative utilization rate of IM AD of Zhiji users is 91.38%, the user mileage penetration rate is 23.50%, the average cumulative mileage of TOP10 users is 70859km, the mileage penetration rate of TOP10 users is 54.21%, the longest mileage of a bicycle in a single day is 1404km, and the longest daily duration of a bicycle is 12.6 hours ·· ·
A series of data sets off a sentence once said by Liu Tao: "The intelligent driving safety level of IM AD has reached 6.7 times that of human driving." ”
Specific to the product level, IM AD intelligent driving has been upgraded to an end-to-end large model, and perception and planning are integrated into an end-to-end large model, imitating human "long-term memory", while retaining the D.L.P artificial intelligence model, similar to human "short-term memory". This can realize the rapid learning of the system, ensure the rapid accumulation of high-quality training data, and save training costs.
On the day of the press conference, the "national use" of NOA in the city without a map can be realized, which is a direct proof. This is the core reason why IM AD is known as "one of the fastest evolving intelligent driving systems in the industry".
It remains to be seen how much to walk
Zhiji's road to high sales has not been smooth sailing.
In 2022, Zhiji's first model, the L7, was launched, with annual sales of 5,000 units.
In 2023, Zhiji set a sales target of 45,000 units, and even with the help of the L7, LS7 and the first-generation LS6, it achieved sales of 38,300 units, but still failed to achieve the target.
In 2024, Liu Tao has said that Zhiji's annual sales target is between 120,000 and 130,000 units. Although it has achieved excellent results such as delivering more than 6,000 units for three consecutive months, the two first-generation products of L7/LS7 are not strong, and the sales of the old LS6 have risen and fallen, and the hope of completing the goal is very slim.
In the face of the media, Liu Tao frankly admitted that the first generation of LS6 was launched last year, and the delivery volume quickly climbed to 10,000 units, which made the team have a little fluttering mentality.
At present, the pressure on the sales of the entire Zhiji brand is all on the L6 and LS6 models. The marketing team will also learn from the lessons of the original LS6 and pay attention to every detail.
Of course, whether it is a pure electric mid-level sedan or a pure electric mid-size SUV, it is the most competitive model in the domestic new energy vehicle market.
The former has Xiaomi SU7, Zeekrypton 007, and Tesla Model 3, and the latter has Ledao L60, Zeekrypton 7X, Zhijie R7 and Tesla Model Y. The strong are like forests, all of them have extraordinary strength, and it is difficult to reach the sky if they want to break the circle in sales.
However, there is good news.
For example, according to the information officially released by Zhiji, the number of large-scale orders for the all-new Zhiji LS6 exceeded 6,000 and 11,000 units within 12 and 48 hours of its launch, respectively.
Li Weimeng, CMO of Zhiji Automobile, also revealed that since the release of the Chengdu Auto Show on August 30, the number of reservations for the all-new Zhiji LS6 has been rising. As of the press conference, the number of new car bookings has exceeded 30,000, especially from September 21 to September 26, maintaining a growth rate of 20%-30% every day, and some can even reach 40%.
From Zhiji's point of view, the track of "200,000-class medium and large SUV" is very volatile, but it is also a good thing. "If everyone brings out their own housekeeping skills and cooperates with each other to surround the Model Y, it will ultimately benefit the majority of Chinese consumers."
Revealing an easter egg, Zhiji's latest extended-range model is also under development, and the internal confidence in it is full of confidence, quoting Liu Tao's reply in an interview with "Travel 100 / AutocarMax": "The pain points faced by users using extended-range models today are the direction of Zhiji's innovation tomorrow." ”
epilogue
Inside Zhiji, the hot sales of the all-new LS6 seem to be on the rise.
It was revealed that the Lingang plant is ready to go and has reached a production capacity of 40JPH (Jobs Per Hour) to ensure the elimination of capacity bottlenecks.
How many orders can be delivered, there is still time to answer.
As the owner of the Zhiji LS7, the author found an interesting phenomenon, Zhiji is very common in big cities, but it is very unpopular in small cities. When charging at a charging station in Nantong, I am often surrounded by other tram owners.
Although the purchasing power of large cities is strong, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh tier cities are a vast world.
How to enhance the popularity of the sinking market and effectively convert orders may become the current Zhiji brand, in addition to polishing products, another idea to create increments.