At the start of 2024, smart welcomed a new decision-maker in the Chinese market.
On January 9, the smart brand announced that Yi Han was appointed as the deputy CMO of the smart brand global company and the CEO of the China marketing company, responsible for the marketing, sales and service related business of the smart brand in Chinese mainland.
According to the data, Yi Han has been immersed in the automobile manufacturing industry for many years and has rich experience in automobile marketing. Previously, he was in charge of marketing management at Geely Automobile, and also held key positions in "Geely" brands such as Volvo, Lynk & Co, and Radar Motors, as well as leading "new power" companies such as Xpeng Motors.
For the smart brand, welcoming a new CEO in China at the beginning of the new year's industry competition is undoubtedly a positive signal worth looking forward to. In his past work, Yi Han has fully demonstrated his ability in brand building, marketing and channel management.
For example, during his tenure, the Geely brand achieved a leap of 400,000 to 1 million yuan in annual sales, Volvo successfully passed the transition period of domestic production, the Lynk & Co brand completed the construction of a product matrix from scratch, and Xpeng Motors brought high-profile products such as the G6 and X9 to the market, and made the Fuyao architecture widely accepted by the market.
For Yi Han, the smart brand is no stranger. In 2019, when Geely first established the smart project with Daimler, he was responsible for the overall marketing of the brand in the Chinese market on behalf of Geely, and was transferred back by Geely after the relevant work was completed.
It can be seen that Yihan's return will become an excellent opportunity for both his personal and smart brand development.
It is not difficult to foresee that after Yi Han takes over smart China Shuaiyin, he will consolidate the brand's market appeal in the world's largest automobile market and further increase the scale of product sales. This will undoubtedly build a solid foundation for the smart brand, which adheres to the strategy of "dual core in China and Europe, global layout".
At this moment, in front of Yi Han, the stage for play has been set up - according to smart's plan, this year and next year, the brand will launch new products on the market according to the rhythm of one new car per year. By 2025, four products will enter different market segments, including "areas where smart has never been before".
Behind the ambition of the smart brand, I can feel the confidence in it**. At the end of last year, a test drive around the entire smart range of products revealed this.
Although I have been exposed to many smart products before, the experience of missing the Barbus version many times is somewhat of a big regret in my heart. During my trip from Hangzhou to Anji, a smart Phantom 1 Barbus Performance Edition finally got my wish and became one of my happiest things at the end of last year.
As a high-performance modification brand with independent booths at major international auto shows, the combination of Brabus and Smart Phantom 1 makes this car add a slightly deep purity and wildness to the light labels such as cute, soft cute, trendy and new luxury.
Even if you just walk past the body, you won't miss out on this feeling – the 19-inch rotor dynamic wheels with red caliper livery, wind curtains on the sides of the front and Brabus Design body surrounds will remind you of the difference from the regular version in a very striking way.
Inside, the new car is also available in the black colour scheme of the Brabus version, with the seat headrests bearing the Brabus stamp and the illuminated Brabus logo on the steering wheel to further enhance its personality. The steering wheel is upholstered in Alcantara and leather for a sporty look.
Of course, as a high-performance version, the smart Phantom 1 Barbus is also outstanding in terms of intelligence.
What impressed me the most was the human-machine interaction system in the car. Different from the cookie-cutter menu-based interaction logic in most new electric vehicles, the cute and fashionable "Little Fox" and "Inspiration Planet" smart OS in the central control screen of smart elf 1 directly shorten the distance between people and cars. The "Little Fox" is always on standby on the Inspiration Planet, and can learn and interact with the user's voice through AI technology.
Any interaction is smooth and silky, which is partly due to the high computing power chip, but more importantly, the deep power of the underlying architecture of the smart car machine system.
In terms of dynamic performance, which the Barbus model is most proud of, the new car is equipped with front and rear dual permanent magnet synchronous motors, which can burst out 315kW of surging power, with a peak total torque of up to 543 Nm, and an acceleration time of 39 seconds, can be called a perfect match for aggressive driving enthusiasts, on the paved road from Hangzhou to Anji, truly do whatever you want, the car moves at will, bringing people a fast but not abrupt comfortable experience.
With the blessing of Barbus, the driving experience brought by superb mechanical quality is not a problem. The front MacPherson and rear five-link independent suspension take into account both sportiness and comfort. The TA has a 50:50 body weight ratio for a more agile handling experience. At the same time, it is equipped with the smart intelligent four-wheel drive system, which can realize three drive modes: rear-wheel drive, timely four-wheel drive, and full-time four-wheel drive, and it only takes 04 seconds. Of course, the TA can also quickly switch between the four driving modes of the Eco Comfort Sport Brabus.
In addition, the new car is also very strong in terms of energy replenishment, which can increase the battery from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes, and the range of 500 kilometers will dispel all range anxiety.
On the whole, the Smart Elf 1 Barbus Edition is not so much a battle-filled cheetah as it is a little wildcat. Usually it seems to be very "lazy", quietly stopping on the side of the road to "doze off", but if you try to tease, it will jump up and "scratch" you without negotiation.
It should be said that the in-depth contact with the smart Phantom 1 Barbus Edition made me feel more clearly the strong strength and sincere intentions of smart on the product side. With the return of Yi Han, the brand's strength in brand strategy and marketing will also be further expanded. In this way, the smart brand that enters 2024 will be considerable.
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*：smart