In the appearance, author: Zhang Ranran, Hei Yinke, editor: Fu Xiaoling, Cao Binling.
I have to say that Xiaomi Su7 is a car with its own star halo.
The talent team is all elite and strong generals in the industry, Hu Zhengnan, who was responsible for the research and development of the ZEEKR architecture, and Huang Zhenyu, who participated in the production of BAIC ARCFOX Alpha T, are now all new forces in Xiaomi's car manufacturing.
In terms of chain supply, it has also caught up with the good time for the new energy automobile industry to mature, and with a wave of your hand, you can let a large number of first-class businessmen follow.
Superimposed on Xiaomi's ability to "** chain management master", as soon as SU7 appeared, the expectations of people from all walks of life continued to rise, and even began to fantasize that at the press conference of Xiaomi Automobile, Lei Jun told the story of how he persuaded executives overnight......
But more people, seeing the positioning of 300,000 pure electric coupes (rumors), show that they "don't understand", "don't agree" and "don't be happy".
For example, the capital market's sales expectations for next year are not very high: if the selling price is less than 300,000 units, the shipment volume in 2024 is estimated to be 5-60,000 units;If the price is less than 250,000 yuan, the shipment volume will be revised upward.
The pessimism of the market is not unreasonable, pure electric cars have the natural disadvantage of small space, and the cost performance is getting lower and lower under the frequent price reduction of new energy SUVsAt the same time, the capacity of the medium and large coupe segment is cramped, and it is very difficult to catch up.
But knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, and still preferring to go to the tiger mountains, it is not the behavior of a rational company. Xiaomi chose to start with a C-class pure electric coupe, and perhaps it had no intention of running at the beginning.
People who are more than 1.8 meters tall sit in the back of a Xiaomi car and may reach their heads.
Xiaomi SU7 is positioned as a medium and large pure electric coupe, and the problem of narrow rear space of pure electric sedans has always been the focus of consumers' attention.
The pure electric sedan closest to the body height of Xiaomi Su7 is Nezha S - in the mouth of test drivers, its "second-row seat backs can be adjusted slightly, but the big brother above 1.8 meters will be on the head".
Actually,Every electric car can't escape the problem of rear spaceThe chassis of electric vehicles has a heavy battery pack, and SUVs can move the longitudinal space in the car by lowering the chassis, while sedans with a naturally low chassis can only compress the cabin space.
As a result, the rear row of a pure electric sedan often brings people a bad experience of "sitting on a small bench".
Of course, smart car companies are also exploring solutions, such as using a panoramic sunroof to visually leave more headroom in the car. However, the large glass sunroof is not insulated, and the original passengers are just "sitting on a small bench", and now they have to "be burned", and the owners are disappointed.
There are also car companies that have made practical innovations, such as the Xpeng P7 to reduce the thickness of the battery, and the Porsche Taycan to start with the battery placement structure, but as far as the current effect is concerned, the contribution of these changes to the internal vertical space is still limited.
As a result, compact (mainly for online car-hailing), small and micro cars account for the majority of the domestic pure electric car market, while family medium-sized and above cars, except for the Model 3 and BYD Han, have achieved good sales, and the rest have received a mediocre response.
Going back to the Xiaomi car, the truth is similar:No matter how beautiful the coupe is, it is uncomfortable to sit in, and it is difficult for the owners to get up.
At present, it is not yet known what kind of improvement strategy the Xiaomi SU7 has adopted. Judging from the published data, its wheelbase is still remarkable, which can improve the comfort of the interior space to a certain extent.
However,Pure electric sedans are not only facing space challenges, but also the impact of SUVs.
In the era of fuel vehicles, there are not a few people who are willing to buy a car, after all, the cost of producing an SUV is about 10%-15% higher than that of a car, and the price of a car of the same level is usually cheaper than that of an SUV.
What's more, taking into account the psychology of domestic consumers who love big cars, SUVs often have an "emotional premium". Taking the BMW 3 series sedan and SUV as an example, the starting price difference in China is 100,000 yuan, while in the US market, the price difference between the two is only 170,000 yuan.
However, in the era of new energy, the domestic electric vehicle track is surging, and car companies have taken the initiative to beat down the ** of SUVs to quickly capture the hearts of consumers and complete the horse race.
This leads to:The advantages of pure electric cars have gradually been "wiped out".For example, the starting price difference between Model Y and Model 3 is only 2500 yuanVOYAH has even lowered the 2023 facelifted SUV model to the same price as a sedan.
The market share of new energy pure electric sedans has declined from 77% in 2021Q1 to 61% in 2023Q3, and the sales growth rate is lower than the overall pure electric sales growth rate.
This means that it will be more difficult for Xiaomi Su7 to impress consumers. In addition, as the first car of the new brand, the SU7 will have to go through some tests if it wants to increase its volume.
Generally speaking, the first car of a new brand often has problems with product design or quality control because of the lack of experience accumulation, taking the ideal as an example, the problem of "high vibration and noise of the range extender" complained by the owner of the ideal ONE has been alleviated in the L9 model.
Therefore, whether it is Wei Xiaoli or the new energy brand Zeekrypton of traditional car companies,The sales of the first car in the first year were less than 60,000, and the large-scale volume often occurred after the iteration, such as the ideal L9 sales exceeded 100,000 units in the first year.
Of course, now Xiaomi has more funds and more experience in the car-making team, and it will not necessarily re-follow the pits that old players have stepped on, and it is not impossible to "debut is the peak".
But even if it explodes from users, there is a question mark over whether the capacity supply will drop the chain, after all, the "production hell" of the Model 3 is still repeated in the industry.
On the whole, Xiaomi's first car wants to go in volume, and there are not many objective restrictions. But from another angle, Xiaomi may not be interested in this at all.
I need a mid-size SUV, and many rice noodles have grown up and become families, and I need a family car. ”
This is after being asked "If Xiaomi made a car, what would it look like?".When the rice noodles replied.
But as soon as the debut came out, it was not an SUV that was positioned, but a C-class coupe, and controversy arose one after another.
You must know that the three models of BBA's 56E have long occupied half of the C-class cars. In the eyes of consumers, buying a C-class sedan and choosing a luxury brand has almost become an inherent cognition.
Over the years, there has been no shortage of new energy challengers trying to enter the market for a piece of the pie, and they are still playing "big and small" dislocation competition: the product is positioned as a C-class sedan, but it is on par with the B-class car range. For example, the starting price of Leap C01 is only 19380,000 yuan.
But the results are not satisfactory, it can be seen that only BYD Han ran out, and the sales accounted for 56% of the C-class new energy vehicles;Combined, the average monthly sales of other new energy cars are only 150,000 units.
But more importantly, even with BYD, the overall sales of C-class models still account for less than 4%, with annual sales of about 90,000.
BYD Hanneng can run through, on the one hand, it is cost-effective;On the other hand, it lies in the plug-in hybrid version and space modeling, which is suitable for home travel scenarios and broadens the audience.
As mentioned above, Xiaomi Su7In order to highlight the coupe style, the body height is not high, which is obviously not the style of BYD, but a pure performance school.
And this kind of car,Not the public's favorite,Take Xiaopeng P7 as an example,Its post-90 users account for more than 50,Unmarried users account for 44,Obviously not pleasing to the family group,A big reason is that the owner feels that "Xiaopeng P7 directly gave up the back row。
It can be seen that in the current new energy coupe market, only Model 3 and ZEEKR 001 have achieved the achievement of "monthly sales of more than 10,000".
But Xiaomi, which has been planning to build a car for 2 years, cannot fail to find flaws in its positioningThe reason why it is facing difficulties may not be for the sake of running volume, but to establish the brand first.
After all, the main performance and image of the first car of the new brand can be regarded as a practice in the industry. For example, Tesla's first car was a sports car;The model arranged in the early stage of ZEEKR is also a hunting coupe.
What's more, the current low-end volume field is crowded with old players such as BYD, Chang'an Deep Blue and Geely Galaxy.
On the contrary, in the higher-level market, the configuration is full, and then a more than expected ** is released, which not only avoids the red sea of involution at the basic level, but also establishes the "cost-effective" tonality of the high-level market.
After all, Xiaomi mobile phones fought their way out of the Red Sea, that is, they created a cost-effective flagship - 1999 yuan Xiaomi 1.
At present, the new energy ** chain is more mature, and as long as Xiaomi is willing to pile up materials, it is easy to fill the configuration. Once ** is in place, it is already conceivable that the Xiaomi car conference will reproduce the scene of the 1st generation of Xiaomi mobile phones.
Based on the reputation established by the first coupe, a large-scale model can be launched in the future. It was revealed that Xiaomi has actually prepared two cars, the second of which is an SUV.
Of course, the preconceived deduction is perfect, but the reality is not easy.
For example, Qin Lihong, president of NIO, once said when talking about the sales of ET7: "For the ET7 (C-class luxury sedan), it was not perfect in the details of quality control when it was launched last year, so the reputation fluctuated. ”
On the other hand, the competition for C-class new energy cars has been crowded. At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, BBA, AVATAR, Zhijie, etc., all brought medium and large sedans with a length of 5 meters and a wheelbase of 3 meters.
And most of them follow the strategy of "full configuration and aggressive pricing". For example, the pre-sale price of the Zhijie S7 starts at 25With a starting price of 80,000 yuan, the competition range is directly stretched into the competition range of the Model 3 and other models.
According to Yu Chengdong, "this pricing, we have a fierce internal quarrel, and the group has also repeatedly calculated the cost, and the current pricing of the four models is loss-making." ”
Today, the pricing of Xiaomi Su7 is still hesitating. A person close to Xiaomi said to **, "The cost of Xiaomi cars is not low, even if the profit margin of the whole vehicle is maintained, the pricing must be around 200,000." Now the pricing of Xiaomi cars is hovering under the consideration of how much it loses. ”
I don't know if Mr. Lei will persuade the executives overnight again to beat the ** of Xiaomi Su7 to the point where fans scream for half a minute at the press conference.
Xiaomi's first car is positioned as a "thankless" medium and large pure electric coupe, which is unexpected and reasonable.
After all, in the business world, the story of "becoming fat in one bite" is often a ghost story, let alone the business of building a car.
As Lei Jun said: "The automotive industry is highly complex, the investment is large, the cycle is long, and the fault tolerance rate is low, and the current mainstream players in the industry are at least 6 years ahead of us. ”
For this war where everything is gambled, what he is doing is preparing for a long-term war, and the Su7 may be just the beginning of the Xiaomi car.