The surging new energy vehicle market has both opportunities and challenges. In the past, there were new forces in this new field, and after that, there were traditional factories riding the wind and waves in this wave. After the first half of the good and the bad coexist, those brands that are really strong and confident will continue to tell us their new stories in the second half.
As a veteran manufacturer, SAIC Motor released a "three-year action plan for the development of new energy vehicles" at this year's Shanghai Auto Show. Not long ago, Roewe officially released the official picture of the mid-to-high-end pure electric sedan D7, playing SAIC's first key card on the new energy track.
According to the information learned by Huanqiu Automobile, the D7 is only the first product of Roewe's new round of product offensive. In the next three years, Roewe will successively launch 8 pure electric and plug-in hybrid models. This means that Roewe Automobile, as an important business segment of SAIC's own brand, has truly started a new round of comprehensive adjustment for the era of electric intelligent vehicle competition, and has also conveyed such a message to car-making peers and user markets: Roewe's hole card is far more than D7.
Dare to "seek innovation" is the background color of Roewe
In fact, Roewe is not a latecomer in the upward trend of China's own brands and even the transformation of new energy and intelligent vehicles. Back in October 2006, SAIC officially announced that its own brand would be named "Roewe", which means "innovation and prestige". Subsequently, Roewe's first model, the 750, went out on the street with a classic cigar-shaped body shape, becoming the first independent brand in China to officially announce its entry into the mid-to-high-end market.
At that time, it was not easy to be independent in the automobile market. Especially for a state-owned enterprise like SAIC, which owns the two strong joint venture brands of Volkswagen and General Motors, it is a decision that requires strong willpower. Facts have indeed proved that in the first few years of development, Roewe has always taken the route of seeking victory in stability, and is waiting for the opportunity to break out step by step.
On July 6, 2016, when Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC, and Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba, unveiled the car livery covering the Roewe RX5, "the world's first" and "Internet car" were the biggest words in addition to the names of Chen Hong and Ma Yun. That's right, SAIC's technological innovation has allowed SAIC Passenger Vehicle to seize the upward opportunity. This is the first domestic product focusing on intelligent networking, known as the "world's first Internet" car. At that moment, Roewe can be said to have really gone from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and has become the protagonist from a supporting role. It is also from that moment that the enterprising spirit and innovative spirit have become the genes engraved in the bones of the Roewe brand.
Today, the all-new Roewe RX5 has become an unchangeable golden sign in the domestic SUV market with its unique excellent quality. Backed by SAIC's strong technical heritage, the all-new Roewe RX5 achieves the driving quality and driving control quality comparable to that of German cars with the engineering technology and process standards of the Tiguan L, and establishes a high R&D standard for American cars on the NVH, creating a quiet comfort comparable to Envision PLUS, and meeting the global five-star standard in terms of safety and quality. At the same time, with SAIC's unique independent R&D system, the all-new Roewe RX5 shows SAIC's profound innovation ability in intelligent cabin intelligent driving.
The outstanding achievements in the past are enough to prove that in the process of soaring independent brands and transforming towards electrification and intelligence, Roewe is not a legalist, but more often an innovator who is good at identifying the needs of the market. However, under the influence of various factors, this innovation has not been transformed into a comprehensive innovation of the Roewe brand. In the recent exchange between Huanqiu Automobile and Wu Bing, general manager of SAIC Passenger Car Company, he did not shy away from this, but in the eyes of the strong, the past has passed, and for Wu Bing and Roewe, how to grasp the present and reshape the golden body to become a god again is particularly important.
Not to take shortcuts is Roewe's biggest "skill".
It is not difficult for friends who pay attention to Roewe to find that the first half of 2023 is a rare quiet period for the Roewe brand. In Wu Bing's words, "In the past six months, there has been less talk, but there is no less work to do." In the past six months, Wu Bing led the Roewe team to more than 500 dealers across the country, carried out nearly 100 symposiums, and conducted a lot of discussions on the current problems and future development of the Roewe brand.
All the questions return to the same question, that is, what is the brand positioning of Roewe at that time? After full deliberation and discussion, SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle has made a comprehensive combing of the Roewe brand positioning, positioning Roewe as a mainstream national automobile brand, meeting the needs of the most mainstream and stable consumer groups in Chinese society, and providing multi-faceted solutions for fuel, hybrid and pure electric.
It is not difficult to see that the above plan has put SAIC's independent technology research and development strength to a comprehensive test. But fortunately, with the R&D and technical system established by the long-awaited night, SAIC is not afraid of this test. This kind of accumulation in technology research and development is the essential difference between SAIC and other new brands and new products.
However, the technological innovation of a brand is never achieved overnight, but by diligence and sweat, bit by bit. Looking back on the road of new energy exploration, as early as 2006, SAIC Motor has entered the field of new energy vehicles, and has made a comprehensive layout in the field of new energy-related components such as battery management systems and electric drive gearboxes, laying the foundation for electrification innovation in the "New Four Modernizations".
Drawing on the technology development standards and project management experience accumulated through joint ventures and cooperation over the years, SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle has established a R&D layout of "five countries and six regions", including two R&D bases in Shanghai and Nanjing, two global styling design centers in London and Tokyo, and two overseas innovation centers in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. In Anting, SAIC Innovation R&D Institute has invested more than 5 billion yuan to build a world-class passenger car R&D center, including a design center, a new energy laboratory, a chassis laboratory, a safety laboratory and other advanced R&D facilities.
Also in SAIC Innovation R&D Institute, it has built a R&D team of more than 7,000 people, with more than 50% of technical backbones and nearly 10% of technical experts above the core level. Many technical talents from the joint venture sector and self-training have jointly established a perfect independent development and positive research and development system for Roewe.
Among them, Lu Yong, executive vice president of SAIC Innovation R&D Institute, Xu Ping, executive deputy general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle in charge of product strategy, Qiu Jie, vice president of R&D Institute, is from Pan Asia, and Dr. Wang Dazhi, executive director of intelligent cabin intelligent driving, is a technical expert trained by SAIC Passenger Vehicle itself. Through the self-joint venture car company and the self-cultivated technical talent system, Roewe has maximized SAIC's innovation ability in intelligent cabin intelligent driving while adhering to the project management, product research and development, manufacturing and quality management standards of the joint venture, and brought product quality comparable to that of the joint venture brand.
At the same time, Roewe innovated in the development process, introduced the "product house" management tool centered on user scenario experience, and established an efficient cross-departmental collaboration mechanism, so that the development efficiency of new products "ran up".
"Powerful faction" is Roewe's hole card
In order to match Roewe's comprehensive transformation to new energy and intelligence, SAIC Passenger Vehicle has developed three new technology brands: "Nebula Pure Electric Systematic Platform", "Rubik's Cube Battery System", and "DMH Dual-Motor Hybrid Technology".
The Nebula platform has the characteristics of "highly modular, scalable, and upgradeable", mainly including, the ultra-wide energy matrix of the battery system of 44 150kWh, and the ultra-wide power range of the drive system of 150 600kW, which supports models from compact to medium and large, and covers a variety of body forms such as sedans, sports cars, SUVs, and MPVs.
The Rubik's Cube battery system supports a variety of electrochemical systems such as lithium iron phosphate, ternary lithium, and solid-state batteries, as well as the popular battery swapping technology and 800V fast charging, which realizes the efficiency of charging in 5 minutes and increasing the battery life by 200 kilometers.
DMH products have three core advantages: ultra-long battery life, ultra-low fuel consumption and ultra-quiet. Models equipped with this new hybrid technology will have a comprehensive range of more than 1,400 kilometers, meeting the needs of users in multiple scenarios.
As one of the earliest car companies to develop new energy, SAIC Roewe, which has always adhered to the "powerful" route, has the world's leading technology and independent intellectual property rights in the three major technical fields of "pure electric, plug-in strong hybrid, and fuel cell". The new three-electric technology developed for Roewe's new energy product series will be another set of strength cards that Roewe throws to the market and bases itself on the market.
Not long ago, at the SAIC Passenger Vehicle Design Center in Jiading District, Wu Bing confided in the global automobile reporter: from the blue wisp of the road in the early days of entrepreneurship to the automobile group with more than 7 million production and sales, SAIC can be said to be a crown in China's leading process, and SAIC Passenger Car is a bright pearl in this crown. In the context of the booming independent automobile business, SAIC Passenger Vehicle strives to take the lead in the collective upward trend of independent brands. Looking back at the past, SAIC Motor's passenger cars in the past seem to have gone slower, but more steadily. In the future, SAIC Motor, including Roewe, will accelerate the transformation of the brand into new energy, meet the needs of users with new products of reliable quality, and promote the sustainable development of the industry with the research and development of new technologies.