Li Xiang’s 2020 | 42 Questions (Text Version)

On October 15, 2019, the Ideal One underwent another round of adjustments and optimizations, including the widely acclaimed “variable intake grille” and “double-layered soundproof and privacy glass in the second row,” as well as the controversial “cancellation of the outer side armrest for the six-seater model,” which sparked widespread discussion among the pre-order owner group.

Regarding the product logic behind Ideal’s latest round of adjustments and optimizations, 42HOW conducted an exclusive interview with Li Xiang. (Please click on the link for the video version.)

The following is the original interview text:

Da Ji: Why did Ideal suddenly release this version for the 2020 model of the Ideal One? Was it a last-minute decision or was it planned for a long time?

Li Xiang: It was planned for a long time. Initially, we had planned to release it at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show in April.

Actually, since the beginning of the year, when we were conducting more experiments, we found some parts that could be improved. At the same time, we gradually received feedback and suggestions from users. Some of the functions and configurations only needed short-term verification and did not require too many experiments to be implemented in the car. We could provide these functions and configurations to users relatively early. However, some functions and configurations needed a lot of experiments, and all experiments had to be completed before they could be implemented in the car. At that time, we gave ourselves a relatively ample time frame and planned to launch the 2020 version at the Beijing Auto Show next year.

We are basically the last new car company to enter the market, and the advantage is that we can see many mistakes and pitfalls made by other companies before us. Therefore, we hope to effectively avoid these pitfalls. If there is a significant difference in the product delivered to the early and later users, it would be unfair to the early users. Therefore, we planned to provide free hardware updates to old users after launching the 2020 version at the Beijing Auto Show next year.

However, during the testing process, we found that upgrading these hardware updates would require a significant amount of work. The changes in the suspension, glass, and the dismantling of the entire front bumper all require a great deal of work. I think, on the one hand, it would cause differences in the originality and consistency of users’ cars. On the other hand, the workload for our after-sales service would be too large.We reviewed the time required for related work and hoped to complete all verifications and tests after the Spring Festival. However, we have completed all tests ahead of schedule and met the requirements. Therefore, a few months ago, we discussed with the supplier to speed up the production speed to deliver the 2020 model to the car owners as soon as possible. This ensures that there will be no hardware changes for a relatively long period of time.

Da Ji: Can you tell me the approximate delivery time now?

Li Xiang: As we have already started small-scale production of the 2019 model, if we switch to the 2020 model, the delivery time will be extended by about a month. When we talked with some familiar seed users and told them about the obvious differences in configuration, they generally accepted the 2020 model.

Da Ji: There have been many configuration updates for the 2020 model, such as optimizing the outside armrest of the second-row seats and upgrading the suspension. How did you make specific decisions about these changes?

Li Xiang: Let me introduce the 2020 model first, according to its importance level.

The first one is that we provide a variable intake grille. This configuration is very helpful for extended-range electric vehicles and has three advantages:

In winter, the heating speed of the range extender is faster, and the temperature of the range extender is ensured;
When you drive only by the power provided by the battery, the active intake grille will close, reducing the drag coefficient by about 0.02. Our drag coefficient will be reduced from 0.34 to 0.32, which is a relatively good performance for a mid-to-large-size luxury SUV and an extended-range electric vehicle. It can slightly increase the range;
It looks better in terms of style. Many people say that they can see a large bracket inside the grille, but we never told users what it was exactly. In fact, the variable intake grille was designed in the grille very early on, but the entire debugging period was relatively long. Now we can install this configuration in the best state.The second part is about the suspension system that the Zeerun’s class leader mentioned in the video which seems to be a little unstable. In fact, when we were developing the suspension system, we tried two different tuning options. One of them is more geared towards off-road, and every aspect of this off-road-style tuning is very hard, so it feels a bit unstable. There is another style that follows the standard tuning of large city SUVs. The hardness of our parts is actually defined in the same way as that of BMW X7 and X5, so the comfort of Zeerun will be much better, and it won’t feel as unstable. Finally, we found that almost no one would like the off-road-style tuning, and the standard city SUV tuning performs much better. Therefore, this is an important improvement, but if we want to upgrade the suspension for users in the future, we will need to dismantle a large number of parts.

The third part is about the double-layer soundproof glass in the second row. The double-layer soundproof glass in the first row of Zeerun is actually very good, but what kind of phenomenon does it cause? For example, a motorcycle passing from the front, the passengers in the first row cannot hear it, but the passengers in the second row can hear it because the glass does not have such a sandwich design, which is actually key to the sound insulation effect. Although the cost of double-layer soundproof glass is not low, we decided to upgrade it for users, which will further improve the quietness of the entire car.

Further down the list are some more detailed aspects, such as the induction tailgate. Although many people had opinions about the lack of this feature when Zeerun was first released, after installing and providing this feature, our induction tailgate is the easiest among all the vehicles currently equipped with this feature. Its sensitivity and accuracy are very high.

Apart from that, there are some specific and detailed feature optimizations. For example, we provide two types of operating modes for the entire ADAS system. One is more like Tesla’s Autopilot 1.0 in the early days, which is what you are experiencing now. The other is more like the ADAS of BMW X5 and X7, where you handle the steering, but you don’t need to do any recovery yourself. After the steering is complete, the system will automatically recover. People who have used Tesla prefer the first method, but most users actually prefer the second method. Anyway, since they are holding the steering wheel, they can steer by themselves. We provide these two modes for users to choose from based on their preferences.In addition, there are some details to consider. Nowadays, more and more mobile phones provide 30W and 40W fast charging, while our car, whether it’s USB or Type C, complies with vehicle regulations. Therefore, the maximum charging power of Type C is actually only 15W, and USB is the standard power, which cannot meet the needs of fast charging for users. At the same time, the fast charging protocols of each mobile phone manufacturer are different, but each manufacturer will provide a standard 12V fast charging device. Therefore, we have added two 12V power sources. This was a lot of feedback from users, and it was relatively quick to implement the 12V power source because it is a standard component and does not require too much experimentation. Moreover, when designing, we had considered reserving such a space, so we quickly installed this configuration.

Finally, there is a core change, which is a configuration that I cancelled. However, this function that was cancelled is somewhat embarrassing for us, as we have been promoting ourselves as the only SUV model currently on sale that provides second-row double armrests and independent seats. It was a feature we were very proud of.

Double armrests are no problem in static experience, in exhibition halls, and in our test cars. But in actual extensive use, many of our staff who used the internal test cars to go out and play found that double armrests were a terrible design because it brought about a big safety hazard. On the one hand, it creates a big safety hazard. When the armrest is lowered, because the door structure of an SUV is different from that of an MPV, where the latter is pulled horizontally while the height inside the car is high, a person would first stand up and then get out. But the SUV door is similar to that of a sedan and even worse. During actual use, we found that nine people out of ten would forget the armrest there, resulting in a collision with their ribs. For young men, it might not be too bad, but for older people and children, it is a major hazard. Moreover, the armrest could be directly broken by many strong people, which is actually a very bad experience.

At the same time, many people say that they can leave the armrest up and have it always upright, but there is another problem, that is interference with the seat belt. Due to the existence of this armrest, it is basically impossible to smoothly grab the seat belt, so many people cannot touch the seat belt, and they won’t buckle up. We cannot accept this in terms of safety. We believe that the safety of second-row passengers is very important, and we have set up seat belt sensors for the second-row seats, which we remind passengers to use. So I am very concerned about this safety issue.The second issue is the convenience of the armrests and seat adjustment after the armrests are put down. Many people suggest placing the seat adjustment buttons on the inside of the seat, but this is problematic because it makes it impossible to adjust the seat if, for example, a child’s safety seat is installed. No car manufacturer would place the seat adjustment buttons on the inside of the seat.

In actual use, we encountered many problems. Although our original intention was to provide SUV users with the experience of an MPV, we found that there were problems in the actual process. I also figured out that many years ago, when we were designing products, we studied several important models, such as the Mercedes R-Class, a more than five-meter-long MPV that used a normal SUV door-opening method and did not have an outside door handle. The car itself needs door panels because it is not a sliding door design, which creates a communication problem between the two. The new GLS six-seater version of Mercedes-Benz and the X7 six-seater version of BMW both have separate inner handles and use the same outer door panel handle.

Later, we found that the dual armrest design had many problems in actual use that were different from static display, including various noises caused by interference between the safety belt and armrest.

Our product design philosophy is based on two things: safety and convenience. Safety is our top priority, followed by convenience. As a car is something that is used every day, convenience is very important. On the other hand, as the car involves personal safety, we place safety first and convenience second. This is the most important principle we follow when making many product trade-offs.

For example, we decided not to use hidden door handles, but we made the Bluetooth on mobile phones particularly convenient because we understand that the car is used by the elderly and children every day. Although this decision may go against our past design practices, we believe it is the right choice.

In addition, the 2020 model also comes with four noise-reducing tires and double-layered soundproof glass for the second row, which significantly improves the overall quietness of the vehicle. Because our car is a product that can comfortably take family members on long trips, we had to remove the outer armrests of the seats due to safety and convenience issues. We cannot sacrifice convenience and safety for a minor experience while lying down occasionally, as this is unacceptable to us. In actual use, the side-door panel design can achieve the same experience and function as the original outer armrests in all other situations.Therefore, the core issue here is not the cost, as the cost increase of a silent tire would just offset the cost of the armrest. We focus on providing a product that is safe, convenient, and adequately quiet for our own use and satisfaction. As a startup, we didn’t obsess over these costs in the early stages like traditional car manufacturers did, and we worked hard to achieve what we could provide value to our customers.

Da Ji: Were there any other departments opposed to the recent configuration update?

Li Xiang: Many departments were against it, but we believe that we did the right thing.

Da Ji: We can see that the speed of product iteration for the Ideal ONE has been very fast from last year till now. What conditions are required in your product development process to achieve this? And what kind of price do you have to pay for this?

Li Xiang: For us, it’s not a matter of cost but mainly a difference in our core positioning. 70% of our R&D personnel still come from traditional car manufacturers, who have strict R&D processes. However, they often found problems during previous research and development processes but didn’t make changes due to time constraints or other design change costs.

Why? Because they have many car models to produce which can help compensate for any shortcomings of one specific model.

We can’t do that. As we only have one model for a long time, this model is our livelihood. Hence, everything that should be changed or has a problem must be changed for us. Because there are no perfect cars, even BMW, as such an established enterprise, still has many bugs. We don’t care about such costs as long as it is the right thing to do. However, our modifying process is very strict, and we must complete all verification experiments before production.

Da Ji: How do you usually find out about these user feedbacks? Do you spend time reading comments on forums yourself?

Li Xiang: This is a great aspect of our team. In fact, 90% of user feedback was discovered during our entire vehicle testing and quality validation process, so we aren’t that panicked. User issues are also dealt with during the resolution process which is a normal process for car manufacturers during the entire R&D stage, later stages, and the entire production process.Because there may be 20-30% of problems encountered in the R&D process and various issues encountered during supplier R&D and the entire production process, they are combined together. Over 90% of them are known problems, and less than 10% are truly different from what users feedback to us. However, we do care about user feedback. Our operating department collects information through our APP, Weibo, forums, and every car owners group on number 42, and synchronizes every day. This includes media feedback and professional user feedback, which our entire team researches together, not just the marketing team, but also our R&D, quality, and manufacturing departments.

Therefore, market feedback actually brings us a lot of help, and market feedback can promote our entire R&D department, quality department, manufacturing department, and our suppliers and supplier quality management more effectively to improve these things, because everyone knows that the voice of the market is the most important thing. We just integrate the voice of the market with our internal work. Every market voice will have a solution and enter a plan, and then enter our entire automated process. When to solve it, we track it according to its priority.

Daji: You called yourself a product manager named “Li” during the process of being a product manager. How did you plan the product for this car?

Li Xiang: Many people think that when we make products, we decide on some performance, configuration, function, and experience, but as someone who has been in the product industry for nearly 20 years, I think deciding on configuration, function, and experience are secondary. There is something even more important. As a car, everything you have will be presented to the user as a product, presented to the consumer. Other than that is just irrelevant. Because the consumer buys this product, and maybe 10% of it is related to its services. But when doing any product, whether it’s at Autohome or for Ideal Cars, the first important thing is actually strategy.

What is a strategy?

In fact, a strategy is where we want to open up a market, at what time, and with which opponents to fight. This is the core, which means you have to be clear and selective about which battlefield you are fighting on.# Because there are many trade-offs to be made here, what does this battlefield mean? It means that the place you may attack is different. You may attack a mountain, a sea, or even a continent. But you can’t make a product and say I’m researching where to attack, because you may end up making a submarine, a cruiser, and spend a lot of money to find out that you only need to attack a mountain, and what you should have made is an armed helicopter or an armored vehicle. These products have lower costs and are more effective, but everything depends on where you want to attack.

As a startup company, when we choose our user group, we should cover 70-80% of it, not all users. You can’t say I’m choosing young users. What are young users? It’s not clear.

A good user group should meet two requirements, in my opinion. First, when you say the user group, everyone should have the same image of the user in their mind. Second, the market where we choose our user group must be growing.

As a startup company, I have no ability to operate in a declining market. This is actually the biggest difficulty for any company. We have been thinking about this issue for half a year at the beginning. Finally, we found that the growing population is around us, our peers who are parents, and Chinese parents have a very interesting characteristic.

Especially for users who can afford cars over 250,000-300,000RMB, they are not exactly the wealthy class, and 90% or more of them have parents helping to take care of their children. Whether it’s the parents of the husband or the wife, or both, they come to help take care of the children. If this group attaches great importance to safety, just installing a child safety seat in the car will be very painful for the whole family to sit together in the second row. Therefore, whether it’s a first-child family or a second-child family, as long as they have a strong awareness of safety, they will quickly find the need for three rows of seats.

This is a characteristic we have discovered, and there is also a very interesting characteristic. In China, for families with medium to upper incomes and one or two children, they don’t have many parking spaces, contrary to what many people imagine, like American families buying a sedan, SUV and an MPV, which is far from reality. Generally, there is only one or two parking spaces. If there are two parking spaces, the husband drives one and the wife drives the other. If there is only one parking space, one person in the family will be driving the car, and the other person will take public transportation or the husband will drive the wife to work and then go to work.Therefore, at this time, people’s demand for cars is a multifunctional one, rather than a personalized one. People always talk about travel cars, but you will find that they actually have no sales, because the parking space is determined by the entire building structure in China. In fact, people need a car that can play more roles, can be driven out and look decent. And it can also pick up children and family, go out with family on weekends, and such needs cannot be replaced by ride-hailing services. Ride-hailing services cannot help you pick up children or take your family out to play.

Therefore, users hope that a car can play multiple roles. This is a demand we see from users, and this demand is clearly growing, although China’s automotive market is declining, the largest decline is in first-time car buyers. For replacement and additional purchases, the entire market is still growing significantly. You can see this from the sales of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus.

Because this is a market we see for parents, and at the same time, there is a clear demand. In the past, when you wanted to meet such a travel demand, when you wanted to buy an SUV that could satisfy this demand, you would realize that you need a car model the size of a Mercedes-Benz GLS. BMW X5 also has a 7-seater version, Mercedes-Benz GLE also has a 7-seater version, and Audi Q7 also has a 7-seater version. You will find that their third-row seats are basically unusable, and the entire space cannot be used. There are two reasons for this. One reason is that they do not understand the needs of Chinese users because in Germany or the United States, it is impossible for parents to help take care of children.

For example, if we look at the Audi Q7, when you enter the third row, the second row seats need to be completely folded down. This is very inconvenient for children, the elderly, and installing child safety seats. Some car models can barely sit in the third row, but a baby stroller cannot fit in the trunk, because the trunk needs to have more than 50 cm of space when opening the third row to accommodate a baby stroller or a 28-inch suitcase. These kinds of needs are not met by anyone because on the one hand, they do not have such scenes in their lives. The second is that in the past, these medium and large SUVs all had a longitudinal structure, and they needed to fit V6 and V8 engines, which took up a lot of space in the car.

You can carefully measure the size of the Ideal ONE. Overall, it is about the same size as the BMW X5, but our interior space, from the dashboard to the rear trunk, is actually slightly larger than the BMW X7. This is because our horizontal layout structure saves a lot of internal space. This includes our six-seater version, second-row electric seats, and a larger trunk, all designed for this group of people in China.The third reason is also very important, we need to offer a cost-effective product. I always tell my team that you have to understand who you are competing with. So, as I just mentioned, we need to know what market we are in and who our competitors are. Actually, demand for electric cars is not that much, but everyone around us is driving one, and we are pioneers in this area. I’ll give you a realistic number, we draw a line at 250,000 yuan, and cars above this range have a relatively suitable size. For example, Tesla considers Mercedes-Benz and BMW as its competitors. This is an important starting point for the two.

In fact, we can take a look at all the electric cars sold in China above 250,000 yuan in 2018. These include Tesla, NIO, and BYD Tang, which sold a total of around 30,000 units. Tesla sold 11,000 units, NIO sold 10,000, and BYD sold almost 10,000. However, last year, nearly 3 million gasoline cars were sold above 250,000 yuan, nearly one hundred times the gap. So, for us, a big challenge is to know who we are competing with. This is very important. You can’t say that we don’t have competitors. There must be some.

Because the auto market is actually saturated, although electric car growth is emerging, the rate of growth is not enough for us to survive. We must compete with gasoline cars and figure out how to grab their market share. This is the most important thing. And when you are going to transition, you must have very good price competitiveness. You can’t say that an Audi Q7, which is sold for 800,000 to 900,000, can also be sold for the same price. That’s not going to work. We need to have very competitive pricing. So this is our competitive advantage, and it also caters to a larger audience.

In the past, people used to say, “I have 300,000 yuan, and I want a car that is smart, with driving assistance, high-end configuration, and can accommodate a whole family comfortably.” Basically there were no choices, and if there were, they were very expensive. We provide an effective choice for the user, so in terms of competition, we meet the three main demands of the user. Their core demand is that we have chosen such a user group. The second is that we meet their usage requirements. Thirdly, we meet their demands for pricing and economy. I think this is the angle we choose our users and market competition, and after determining these, we can develop our technology. Because we are a start-up company, we cannot do everything in marketing as other car companies do. Therefore, all our technology and innovations must meet customers’ needs, eliminate competition, and give us good cost advantages.If I want to win over users of traditional gasoline cars, I would like to offer Chinese parents a mid-to-large sized SUV that provides a driving experience similar to a six-cylinder engine. However, I found that the only technology we can choose is range extension. In the past, many traditional Chinese car companies have produced mid-to-large sized vehicles, but they did not use six-cylinder engines or good transmissions such as 8AT and 9AT. A four-cylinder engine cannot handle such a large vehicle, resulting in a poor overall experience.

Therefore, range extension is the technology we have invested the most in. Many people say that range extension does not require much technical expertise, but it is much more difficult than electric vehicles. At least in the past few years, we have filed some of the most patents for range extension, and we have a large number of researchers and a significant amount of investment in range extension technology. I think we are one of the best companies in the world in this area, which is our important strategy.

The second thing is that we need to do smart technology well, otherwise we will not be needed. For example, we were one of the earliest companies to use the Qualcomm 820A platform. All of the intelligent systems in our car are developed and controlled by ourselves.

The next thing is driver assistance. This is indispensable for intelligent cars, so we firmly suppress these three levels of technology and control everything related to them.

First, we must master the complete system; second, we must master the complete software; third, we must master complete control; fourth, we must master complete data; fifth, we must master complete updates. We can design these hardware components with our suppliers and have them help us produce them, but we must control all the core control of the hardware ourselves.

Since I am a start-up company, I cannot do everything. We can work with suppliers to do other things, and they can be the main drivers. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, we need to innovate in product development and tailor a good car for parents. We need to balance the different configurations and form a core strategy. Of course, this strategy has several underlying points, because the strategic decisions we make will determine how we can survive in the competition with other users and the degree of innovation.

Next, I will consider what will cause us to die. What will make us die is definitely safety. Safety is the result, and the cause of safety is quality. Therefore, we must control all the quality in a closed loop. From our own design and development to the entire supply chain and manufacturing, because we are not just a factory producing a simple product. When our factory produces, 86 suppliers help us produce various assemblies. If one of them has a problem, our car will have a quality issue.Therefore, the overall control and management, including our vehicle delivery, since I am an intelligent vehicle, its networking, its services, and its OTA, how we can do it well, there is a huge problem at this point, and we will die if we don’t handle it well. That’s why I decided to build the factory on my own from day one because I want to control everything related to quality within our own closed loop, which is the second level.

Then, what about the third level? A challenge for many new car manufacturing companies is how to effectively control costs. You can see that our office is actually relatively simple and worse than our experience store. I think there is no way because we have to use more money to build a better factory to make better products. And then, how to choose the best suppliers, and we have to save money to be able to provide users with services. Our cost is equivalent to the baggage you carry while running a race. I am running alone without too much baggage, so I am relatively relaxed. If you are running alone carrying two people, it will become more and more difficult.

I think these are our core three aspects, which also include whether we can innovate our business model to reduce our sales costs. Can we basically make the basic costs of sales become part of the entire car configuration and give better functions to improve the level of the car? This is what we are thinking about, forming the strategy of our entire company. After having this strategy, everyone can see the same thing, and we will make this product again.

Da Ji: What do you think of autonomous driving technology? Do you think there is a chance to catch up with Tesla in the future?

Li Xiang: I think that being able to obtain a long-term leading position in autonomous driving technology is actually our strategy. However, this strategy needs to be taken step by step. When we formulate our entire autonomous driving strategy, our core is safety, which is the most important. For example, if you use some “ghost probes” to do the testing, I am confident that we can do it much better than Tesla.

There are many scenarios in China, such as a pedestrian appearing in front of a bus. Our safety index and brake speed response will be better than Tesla. Tesla is indeed a leader in autonomous driving because they have several essential capabilities, including chip capabilities and real-time operating system capabilities called RT.An integration of microchip real-time operating system is an important indicator for achieving L4. However, we believe that everyone is still stuck at L3 due to safety redundancy. In order to truly achieve autonomous driving, where the responsibility lies solely on the car itself, I believe that starting from L3, the responsibility should already be on the car. For example, if accidents happen in scenarios such as HighwayPilot or Temporary Auto Pilot, it’s the car’s responsibility, not the driver’s.

Therefore, sufficient safety redundancy measures need to be implemented, including the use of laser radar for safety redundancy. For instance, if a manhole cover falls off, the camera might not be able to detect it, but the laser radar can. If a tire falls off the car, a camera won’t be able to recognize it, but a laser radar can. However, if accidents happen due to lack of functionality, such as failing to provide recognition functions to users for autonomous driving, the responsibility falls on the car, not the driver.

The second safety redundancy measure involves the actuation system. The braking and steering systems must have complete safety redundancy. For instance, if the steering system fails, and as a result, an accident occurs, it can lead to disastrous consequences.

The third safety redundancy measure involves using dual microchips for the computation system that meet the vehicle standards, which can adapt to different temperatures. These are the three obstacles in the development of autonomous driving today.

As for our progress in comparison to Tesla, I believe we have a big gap to close. We can currently achieve the level of AutoPilot 1.0, and make it more suitable for localization in China. If we continue our efforts, I am confident that by the time we achieve full L4 autonomy around 2024-2025, we can surpass Tesla’s autonomous driving experience in the Chinese market. However, this is a long-term goal, and we need to give ourselves plenty of time.

Regarding our ideal customers, they are those with wider budgets, households that own two or three cars, and those who recognize us as a reputable brand. However, in the future, to expand our brand and reach out to new users, we need to focus on our product quality, as quality needs to be verified by the market, compared to branding, which can be subjective. Therefore, we need to price our products with great value to neutralize the influence of branding.On the other hand, delivering high-quality products to customers and providing excellent service is equally important. In our early days, we did have some minor issues with software and product quality, but it was crucial for us to serve our first batch of customers well since they were the ones who helped shape our brand. There are no shortcuts here. Instead, we must strive to provide our early adopters with the best possible experience and resolve any issues promptly. In doing so, we can earn their trust and ensure that future customers feel comfortable choosing our products.

Moving on to user segmentation, our user base comprises three types of users. The first type includes users who have downsized from a more expensive car to our product. While these users may be more forgiving of minor imperfections, we are still grateful for their support and are committed to serving them well.

The second type of users comprises users who previously owned cars in the 300,000-500,000 RMB range, such as BMW 3 Series and 5 Series or Audi A4 and A6. They come to us either to upgrade to a more spacious car or to add our product to their car collection. Although they may raise some concerns after test driving our product, they still consider it a better choice than their previous car due to its higher level of functionality.

The last type of users is those who previously owned cars in the 100,000-200,000 RMB range and are now purchasing our product in the 300,000 RMB range. These users are the most demanding, but we value them as our best friends. At this price range, cost differences are negligible, and what matters most is the level of attention we put into our product. Their feedback is crucial in driving us to improve and meet their expectations.Although some people may say that you cannot expect to buy a BMW X7 for 300,000 RMB, some users have expressed their opinions that if we continue to approach the performance of the BMW X7 and other top cars based on their feedback, it will help us to grow even though it may not completely satisfy them.

Therefore, we carefully consider, research, and analyze every suggestion that users provide us, and we hope that users are critical of us from their perspective. In addition, when it comes to making choices, there is no perfect product, so I choose to use a MacPherson suspension to get more space and a double wishbone for better handling, both of which are related to positioning. For example, if our user positioning is that they want to take their family and children, we hope that they have more space, so we gave up the extreme handling because it’s actually not good for driving a 2-ton, 5-meter long car at high speeds.

In terms of performance, it can accelerate in just over 6 seconds, and when not in launch mode, it is 7 seconds, which is a standard 3.0T performance. There are many trade-offs involved, for example, if we choose a large screen for the interior, it’s difficult to create a sense of depth since it conflicts with the horizontal screen.

Moreover, there is no perfect car, and a car has more than 100 important indicators, which are related to our user positioning. Some may conflict with the user positioning, so we focus on making them suitable for our user group and strive to achieve excellence. In short, I don’t think there is any perfect car. Our efforts are focused on making a product that is the most suitable for our user group.

There are various areas for improvement in our products, just like any other car. However, our efforts are geared towards locking in our user group, so that when they spend money, we strive to be their first choice, the best option, and the most cost-effective choice.