The First Day of 18th Shanghai Auto Show Media Day
On April 16th, 2019, the first day of the 18th Shanghai Auto Show Media Day, the new car companies that were arrogant and despotic two years ago began to save money. For big companies, transformation cannot just rely on slogans anymore. This year, they need to enter a substantial reform stage.
We are all worried, will the auto show be disappointing?
At 7:30 in the morning, when we arrived at the Shanghai Auto Show, we saw a large-scale security team training before entering the hall. Which company required such a large-scale security?
Someone did a rigorous analysis on Weibo: This is Mercedes-Benz’s effort to guide Chinese consumers to sit in the car instead of on the hood.
That being said, let’s move on. Finally, it was 8 o’clock, and we could enter the hall. Our original plan was to look at the Tesla mid-size SUV Model Y, but we didn’t see it during the preview the day before. Later, a netizen revealed the reason why the Model Y was not at the Shanghai Auto Show: “It was supposed to be on display, but it missed the shipping.”
Missed the shipping… I suddenly thought of the Model 3 with a missing wing mirror that we received at 42HOW. It seems like those who are loved will always feel confident.
Apart from Tesla, there are several head new automakers. The first one is NIO, and its booth looks like this:
NIO is a luxury brand stronger than Porsche, not only reflected in its factory’s advanced technology but also in the size of its booth.
Although NIO continues the BBA-level booth specifications, it can be seen that NIO has started to be more cost-effective this year. Tesla has introduced owner volunteer help with delivery, and NIO follows the same model by introducing owner volunteer help with the exhibition.
Actually, this is a unique phenomenon in the fanatic camp of intelligent electric vehicles. Tesla owners like to say “those salespeople are not as reliable as Teslas themselves,” while NIO owners say “those fellows are not as reliable as toners.”
NIO showed the first sedan ET Preview to everyone, and then said nothing. The press conference ended.
In comparison, XPeng is more sophisticated, providing detailed product details for the first mass-produced sedan, XPeng P7. 0-100 km/h happens in 4 seconds, NEDC range of 600 km+, and XPilot 3.0 autonomous driving assistance system driven by the next-generation NVIDIA chip Xavier. Tesla’s three key selling points, acceleration, range, and Autopilot, are all positively answered.
Especially Autopilot. Tesla iteratively upgrades from 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 2.5, all the way to 3.0, while XPeng went straight from 1.0 to 3.0, the iteration speed is amazing. Of course, let’s be frank, Xavier’s computing power is 10 times that of the Drive PX2 chip carried by Tesla AP 2.0, and power consumption is reduced to one-fifth of the latter, with comprehensive hardware redundancy and ASIL-D vehicle safety certification.
It’s amazing. If it wasn’t for the fact that it looked too much like a mix of the Tesla Model S and the FF91, I would have almost placed an order.
The last sedan comes from Skywell, the ME-S, which is a concept car. This car was approached by Volkswagen executives because it was too similar to the Porsche Panamera.
After 5 years since the departure of Vice President Zhang Hailiang from SAIC, Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Global Management Board of Volkswagen Group, Stephan Wllenstein, CEO of Volkswagen China Passenger Car Brand, Bernhard Maier, CEO of Skoda China, and Jochem Heizmann, former President and CEO of Volkswagen China, still gathered at the Skyworth booth and had a great time with Zhang Hailiang, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Skyworth, five years later.
This powerful industry network is a key factor for Skyworth ME-S to move from a concept car to a mass-produced car. I am ready to reconsider Skyworth if they are willing to rethink the pricing of the ME7.
On the other side of the exhibition hall, another scene of industry giants and new forces interacting is happening.
“You guys are really fast.”
“Not really. We have been developing for four years, built a complete factory by ourselves, obtained production qualifications, and just haven’t really done much promotion before.”
Li Shufu: “It’s not good to say nothing, I’ll give you a thumbs-up.”
Tell us about a product detail of the Ideal ONE. Nowadays, voice assistants in cars are nothing new, and the good ones can even interact with you through multiple rounds of conversation. However, there’s a problem with the Ideal ONE, a three-row 6/7-seater car — it doesn’t respond even when I shout at it from the back seat. How will this issue be solved?
It’s simple. Place four microphones in the front and back to locate passengers using audio algorithms. Problem solved, right? But there’s a catch. BMW X5 only has one microphone. Aren’t microphones expensive?
Look at that sliding rail on the roof of AIWAYS U7ion concept car. All they have to do is bury the microphone inside the voice assistant at the end of the sliding rail, and let the audio algorithm determine the distance. If the microphone picks up a voice from far away, it slides over to request a repeat.
If rear passengers want to put small items like tissues in the front, the co-driver must pass them over. If it’s a third-row user, you need to pass them twice. Why hasn’t the car industry solved such a simple problem after over 100 years of development?
Look at that sliding rail. It’s a real gamechanger. With a central armrest box that can move back and forth, co-drivers and rear passengers can play cards or board games. Forget about tissues!
Sorry, I got sidetracked by product features. Let’s get back to talking about the Lynk & Co.0 ONE—the car’s biggest selling point is clear product definition. “This is the best car for dads.” So anything that dads don’t need should be cut, and anything they do need, should be done exceptionally well.
There are too many negative examples to mention. Take the Eulove R1 Goddess version, for example. Why did you buy this for your lady?
Next to the R1 Goddess version is an AI Store set up by Great Wall Motors. An AI store? Later I realized that it meant “manually checkout, intelligent smartphone selection, and combination of the two.”
Like NIO, Great Wall Motors is also highly focused on providing a unified user experience and quality feel to consumers. Look at the Haval pillow in the AI Store and the R1 Goddess version outside. They’re clearly from the same design team.
Which car is suitable for goddess to drive? In my opinion, the car based on Toyota eQ and authorized by Toyota – the FAW Senia R8 is a good choice. And the advantage of Senia is that, although not mass-produced, it launches a new car every once in a while, which is a very persistent new car maker.
Of course, it seems somewhat unreasonable to launch right-hand drive cars in China.
After seeing the new cars, I went to see the pure electric vehicles of traditional car manufacturers. However, when I arrived at the exhibition hall, their true colors were revealed. The Chairman of Daimler Global Management Committee referred to its Mercedes EQC as “The dawn of a new era” for the company. I thought I wouldn’t see the EQC at the Shanghai Auto Show, but finally found it in a corner after walking through the entire exhibition hall.
Mercedes-Benz, this is not right. This is a revolutionary product that should be placed in the most central position of the exhibition hall. Look at NIO and Tesla. ES6 and Model 3 are displayed in the main position, while EP9, ES8, Model S/X are on the side. Otherwise, who knows when Mercedes-Benz launches its pure electric vehicle?
When I went to the BMW booth, the new energy vehicle models exhibited were still i3 and i8, as if it was five years ago.
However, I was surprised to find BMW’s concept car iNEXT, which will be launched in 2021. But my emotion started to plummet after seeing its front face. In recent years, BMW designers have left and joined new car makers such as NIO, FF, and BYTON, bringing them unique and exquisite designs at the cost of hollowing out the century-old car manufacturer.
Give a piece of advice to BMW: cars are high-frequency, high-cost consumer products; many people will veto because of appearance.
Anyway, go and have a look at Audi.
Audi e-tron is a quite pleasing car model. The only drawback is that the silver grille is partially closed, which looks strange at close range. As a pure electric vehicle following A4/A6’s traditional fuel-sharing MLP (Audi Modular Longitudinal Platform), e-tron has a large 95 kWh battery pack and a 0-100km/h acceleration of as low as 5.7 seconds. Considering its smaller size than Tesla Model X, e-tron’s overall product quality is still good.
The pre-sale price of e-tron is 700,000 to 830,000 yuan.
Like Mercedes-Benz, e-tron was not placed in the core position of the booth. But Audi has its reasons. Two concept cars, AI:ME and AI CON, which demonstrate Audi’s future development direction, are the protagonists.
As for concept cars, L4/5-level automatic driving and 600-800 km of total battery range are always indispensable. I am not interested in those. What really impressed me is: Audi’s obsession with the grille is indeed deep. In the near future, these grilles will extend outward and cover the entire headlights.
Not only Audi is dedicated to using the geometric shape of the grille to cut the headlights. If you look closely at DS’s concept car DS X E-Tense, it has historically achieved both convertible and hardtop designs. When selling in left-hand and right-hand drive countries, the convertible seats and hardtop seats can be exchanged, breaking through the design of symmetrical and single-gullwing doors, which perfectly eliminates communication between the driver and passenger and ensures driving safety. It really makes people wonder: how much had the designer drunk at that time?
You might assume that only concept cars would be like this, but you cannot imagine French romanticism. While other booths display car model dolls and other peripherals, DS booth showcases ties and card holders.
Someone previously claimed that the interior design of Geely Geometry A applied numerous geometric elements, but DS has actually been a pioneer in shaping the interior design with geometric elements. Take a look at the diamond-shaped seams on the seats, the diamond-shaped scroll wheels on the steering wheel, the diamond-shaped UI on the central console screen, and the diamond-shaped chrome plating on the gear shift lever. DS has successfully crafted a unique interior design by shaping it with diamond elements.
After checking out DS, I suddenly became deeply interested in French cars. When I arrived at the Peugeot booth, a lion was staring at me from the media check-in area.
If you look at it from the front, it looks like this. Will you buy it? Dare you buy it?
After seeing the Peugeot lion, I found that the DS X E-Tense was still lingering in my mind. I decided to check out more concept cars to offset this, such as this Cadillac, no, this Nissan IMs concept car. Aside from the lack of paint and relatively casual-looking wheel rims, the design is still quite good.
In comparison, the Nissan IMQ lacked a bit of sincerity, and the scratches from a serious impact on the side had not been smoothed out before being displayed at the booth.
In 2012, Elon Musk suddenly pushed the specification of the production car’s central control screen to 17 inches, which caught traditional car companies off guard. However, BYTON quickly responded with a 49-inch panoramic screen. Tesla has already surrendered with its small 15-inch screen on the Model 3. However, Kia is clearly waiting for Tesla’s public apology. Kia, who has been waiting for a long time, has put a tablet in the concept car at this auto show to further pressure Tesla, hoping that Tesla will take care of itself.
After seeing more concept cars, I discovered an even more amazing secret. This is the interior of the AIWAYS U7ion concept car.
This is the interior of the INFINITI QX Inspiration concept car.
This is the interior of the WEY X concept car from Great Wall Motors.
This is the interior of the GAC MOTOR MILE Ⅱ concept car.
This is the interior of the Skyworth Auto ME-S concept car.
This is the interior of the BMW iNEXT concept car.
I would like to ask, has a company monopolized the production of concept car interiors worldwide, and is DS the only company trying to break the monopoly?Car companies showcase their creativity at the auto show. Some companies decorate their booths with a KTV/hair salon style.
Some companies decorate their booths like nightclubs.
Some companies decorate their booths like brand clothing stores.
Some companies even decorate their booths in the style of a five-star hotel.
Some companies are not focused on electrification and smart technology. Rather, they focus on the fragrance of soil, which is composed of 12 kinds of essential oils.
Finally, some companies have run out of ideas and simply decorate their booths like a 4S shop.
In addition to cars, visitors can also see spinning bikes.
Or yachts. In order to facilitate viewing of the yacht interiors, Jeep designed a four-step platform, but used isolation fences to keep visitors from getting too close.
There’s even a rocket!
After touring the auto companies, I came to the booth of cross-industry player Huawei. Huawei rented a booth with 1/4 of the area of NIO’s booth in a corner of a exhibition hall, exhibiting multiple sections including Huawei Cloud, Intelligent Connected Vehicle, Intelligent Energy, In-car Computing, and Intelligent Driving. They compressed the future development trend of the auto industry into 3 square meters of one section.
In short, it is “Bring Digital To Every Vechicle” in the upper left corner. Bringing the digital world into every car.
At the auto show, you can see all kinds of unexpected and inexplicable things. In order to reflect the youthful image of their brand, Volkswagen set up various irregularly placed stairs and platforms at their booth.
During CEO Stephan Wllenstein’s speech, all the media crowded under the stage to watch his speech. Some dedicated staff stood on the platform and held the handrail to capture more information from the executives’ speeches.
Executives from NIO and Chehaoduo showed satisfied smiles in the face of the continuous flow of people. They believed this was a success of product strength. In fact, this is not the success of product strength, but the success of the comfort level of their sofas.
They didn’t know that the media professionals would walk 17 kilometers a day.
Foreign executives participating in the auto show during their business trips are also very hardworking.
Models who are ignored on-site have an even harder time.
Models who spend the whole day in the rooftop tent have a different kind of hardship.
Beyond all the hardworking crowds, there is a group of people who work the hardest. You might think they are the Mercedes-Benz team called to maintain stability, but in fact they are the team from Zhongbao Hu’an (Shanghai) Security Service Co., Ltd. Every year at the Shanghai Auto Show, this company conducts security checks and maintains order for all exhibition halls and access personnel.
They arrive earlier than anyone else and leave later than anyone else to ensure the orderly progression of the auto show.
The fate of automotive companies is like these cars set up on the scene.
In this era of collision between industry innovation and conservatism, radicalism and conservatism, some automotive companies have already risen above the rest and are moving forward smoothly.
Some automotive companies are making steady efforts to climb higher.
Some automotive companies are undergoing various high-speed turns in order to smoothly transform.
Some automotive companies are experiencing key personnel changes during the transformation stage, which are like high-altitude disintegrations.
Some automotive companies try very hard, but the results are always disappointing.
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The worst part is that some car companies are rapidly declining with a downturn trend.
The world’s automotive industry belongs to you and us, but the mainstream players are ultimately led by Tesla, who pioneered the era.
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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.