Yin Tongyue, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Holding Group, has mentioned on more than one occasion that Xingtu should become Chery's "BBA" and the "spire" of Chery Group's brand pyramid.
He believes that if China wants to become a real automobile power in the world, it should not only be the first in production and sales, the first in the market, but also the bright spots. The first thing is to go abroad and compete with foreign brands overseas. Secondly, it is necessary to create a group of real luxury brands. Only in this way can China become an automotive powerhouse.
So, how to make Xingtu into Chery's BBA?At the launch conference of Xingtu Xingtu Xingtu ES, Yin Tongyue further said: "Xingtu will light up the 'spire' Xingtu with new energy and help the high-quality development of China's automobiles. ”
Therefore, the logic of Xingtu to become "Chery BBA" is to build a world-class high-end brand through the product series of Xingtu Xingepa and with the help of the new energy track. As Yin Tongyue said, Xingtu will "light up" Xingtu, not only to help sales, but also to let the outside world see Chery and Xingtu, the new interpretation of the new energy vehicle era, and the leading trend.
However, although Chery has become an independent brand second only to BYD by virtue of its accumulation, Chery is currently significantly lagging behind in this new energy transformation war. In this regard, at the "2023 Chery Science and Technology Day" in October this year, Yin Tongyue admitted that "Chery 'got up early in the morning and caught up with a late set' in terms of new energy". But at the same time, it also said, "Chery will be welcome next year!."”
So the question is, can Star Era be a hit and build Xingtu into a "BBA" in new energy?In the dialogue with Dr. Gao Xinhua, Executive Deputy General Manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and President of the General Research and Development Institute, and Huang Zhaogen, Assistant General Manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and General Manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, the author found the answer to the question.
The Epoch ES is not only the culmination of Chery's technological innovation, system innovation, and user concept innovation, but also has created a new height in the industry in terms of driving quality, intelligent networking, product performance, etc., and will surely become the best ultra-comfortable pure electric flagship car in the market segment. This is Chery's summary of the advantages of Star Era ES.
Executive Vice President of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.
Gao Xinhua, President of the General R&D Institute.
For the selling point of the product of Star Era ES, at the listing conference, Gao Xinhua, who was born in technology, spent more than 80 minutes explaining. But in Huang Zhaogen's view, Gao Xinhua still hasn't completely explained the selling point. "There are too many selling points of this car, as the finale product of 2023, it is also the most volatile car, and it is the king of volumes this year. ”
However, we all know that today's China's new energy independent brands can be said to be "rolled to the edge of the sky", everyone is very rolled, why is Star Era ES the king of volumes?In this regard, Gao Xinhua summarized the three major product advantages of Star Era ES.
The first one is far ahead in terms of energy consumption. "I'll tell you the real figures, if you count the electric vehicles in China with a price of more than 150,000 yuan, all the cars, among the Chinese brands, the low energy consumption of the Star Era ES is absolutely the first. Gao Xinhua confidently said that everyone did not believe that they could go to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to investigate. Many car companies use 100-degree batteries, but none of them can achieve a range of 905 kilometers with a 100-degree battery.
The reason for such excellent endurance performance is in addition to the excellent energy consumption advantages brought by its own 800V high-voltage platform (117kWh ultra-low energy consumption per 100 kilometers), Gao Xinhua believes that the design of Star Era ES is also one of the main factors to reduce energy consumption. "The design of our wheels, the design of the mirrors, the design of the rear wing, including the underfloor, has a very complete set of wind resistance design to further reduce energy consumption. ”
Second, platform architecture capabilities are also strengths. Gao Xinhua believes that it is quite difficult to integrate multi-link and air suspension as standard. However, it can be seen that the Star Era ES not only did it, but it was the only pure electric model with air suspension within 300,000, which further lowered the threshold of air suspension.
Third, it is the safety collision of the whole vehicle, which is the absolute lead. Xinghua summarized the 5 safety of Epoch ES, which are active safety, passive safety, battery safety, functional safety and information safety, including personal privacy security. Gao Xinhua emphasized that the passive security capability of Star Era ES is really world-class. Behind this self-confidence, Chery has been paying close attention to CIE capabilities for many years, and has the strongest collision experiment configuration capability in China.
According to Gao Xinhua, Chery is the first independent brand to become the CIE department, and has the strongest collision test configuration capability in China. Thanks to this, Chery is able to meet the regulations of various countries around the world, including North America. Gao Xinhua further emphasized that the first demand of users to buy a car is safety, not autonomous driving.
The above three points are also the three most popular product technologies of Star Era ES. According to Gao Xinhua, the common purpose of these technologies is to improve comfort.
Assistant General Manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd
Huang Zhaogen, general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center.
What will not change in the future?Comfort is unchanged, safety is unchanged, combined with electrification and intelligence, we must do a good job in our intelligence and electrification, and we must achieve a level with the new forces of car manufacturing and Tesla. Huang Zhaogen concluded, "The car is first of all a means of transportation, a means of travel, what is the essence of a means of travel?It is still safe and comfortable, and then combined with the new era, electrification and intelligence. ”
We want to make Star Era equal to ultra-comfortable. When everyone mentions Star Era, they think of super comfort, and this brand is a success. Huang Zhaogen concluded.
With comfort and strong product strength, Chery is also full of confidence in the performance of Xingtu's first pure electric model, the Star Era ES. "We hope that this car can enter the top three in the industry in 2024 in the 200,000-300,000 level pure electric sedan. Although there are a few players who are very good at the moment, I think we can play as well. Huang Zhaogen said.
Market sales are always the best proof, "we now have more than 20,000 orders in hand", from the opening of blind booking in mid-October to the official launch in December, Star Era ES has accumulated a large number of orders. Huang Zhaogen said, "Now seize the time to work overtime to ensure the quality of the delivery before the year, this is the first thing we have to do now." ”
Star Era ES is very strong, and the current market reputation and orders are growing, but it is far from enough to support the high-end dream of Xingtu.
What will be the growth rate of the market next year, we can't tell. For next year's new energy vehicle market expectations, Chery Group spokesman Jin Yibo said, but he said, "One thing is certain, next year will be more volume, it is a comprehensive volume, next year not only the first volume, but also the product quality, more comprehensive." ”
Obviously, the challenge of the new energy market will be greater next year, and if Xingtu wants to grab the cake in the high-end new energy market, it also needs more rich product matrix to help Xingtu impact a larger mainstream market segment and get more sales growthIt also needs a stronger system to support the high-end quality of Xingtu in terms of product technology and marketing channels.
First of all, in order to make up for the shortcomings of new energy, Chery announced the "car sea" tactic, and plans to release five super hybrid 3 models in the fourth quarter of 20230 and 4 E0x high-end electric products, planned to expand to 24 super hybrid 3 within two years0 and 15 new E0X high-end electric products.
As for Xingtu, according to Huang Zhaogen, the launch of the Star Era SUV is also ready, and ET plans to launch in the first quarter of next year. The reason why the first model is a sedan, Huang Zhaogen's explanation is that the target market of Star Era is aimed at the 1-2 tier market. Therefore, the first product, the Star Era ES, is an electric sedan. In his opinion, "in first-tier cities, the demand for sedans is greater than that of SUVs. ”
It is understood that the Epoch ET will not only have a pure electric version, but will also launch an extended range version of the model to cover more user needs. At that time, these two models for the mainstream mass market will jointly conquer the high-end new energy vehicle market.
Secondly, in terms of sales and construction, the Xingtu brand channel will be expanded to 500 by the end of the year, of which 200 Xingtu channels are responsible for the sale of fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and the exclusive channels of the Xingtu sequence will increase to 200There are a total of 100 channels shared by Xingtu and Xingji. The perfect sales network built by Xingtu Star Era will also help to increase the volume quickly.
It is understood that due to the very good development momentum of the Xingtu brand and the entire Chery Group in the past two years, dealer investors are very willing to establish independent channels for Xingtu Xingera. This year, Epoch opened 4 investment promotion conferences, with more than 1,800 investors signing up, and among the 300 finalists, 20% were luxury brand investors and 60% were joint venture brand investors.
Finally, in terms of product technology, Gao Xinhua said that Chery currently has strong reserves in new energy technology. From the five points of Mars architecture, Kunpeng power, Xiongshi cockpit, Dazhuo intelligent driving, and Galaxy ecology, Chery has all the basic capabilities for the development of electric vehicles, and this is also Chery's confidence in the new energy market next year.
However, Gao Xinhua revealed that Chery still has a lot of great technologies, such as a very good motor at the end of this year, a 440 kilowatt motor. In this regard, with the help of Chery's strong R&D advantages, the Xingtu brand can be said to be in full bloom in electric drive, battery, autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, cloud, big data, AI large model, etc.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the domestic market, the overseas market is also expected to contribute a lot of sales to the Star Era ES. First of all, the Epoch ES and the Epoch ET that will be launched next year are both global models, developed in accordance with global standards, and there is no problem at all to enter the markets of the European Union, Russia, the Middle East, South America and other markets. Moreover, there is a great demand for high-end new energy vehicles in overseas markets. According to Jin Xin, at this year's Geneva Motor Show, some Middle Eastern customers were very interested in the Star Era ES, believing that the price of this car would reach 1 million yuan, and many potential customers in random interviews accepted the price of 70,000 euros.
Secondly, Chery Group has been deeply involved in overseas markets for many years and has established very complete sales and after-sales service channels overseas, which provides great convenience for Epoch ES to land in overseas markets. It is understood that Xingtu Epoch will also be sold overseas through independent channels, and in 2024, Epoch ES will enter the EU market.
Write at the end. The launch of the Star Era ES gave Chery an unceremonious confidence. In this regard, Yin Tongyue proudly said: In the past 26 years, Chery has never owed employees wages even in the most difficult moments, and it is the same overseas, our sincerity to users and our dedication to local public welfare have allowed users to see a "reliable Chery" and a "trustworthy Chery". In this regard, we are also very much looking forward to Chery's welcomeness. Only by being polite can Star Era light up the star journey and become China's BBA;Only by being polite can you go overseas and become a world-class Chinese car brand.