Due to the impact of the epidemic, the rhythm of many car companies has been disrupted, and what should have been a very lively April has become relatively plain.
When there were doubts about Link Tour’s situation, Zhu Jiangming, the chairman of Link Tour, spoke out at the Link Tour S01 460 edition release event: “(we) do not need external financing within three years.”
With the support of Dahua, Link Tour seems to be very confident.
And it is precisely in the environment of the epidemic and external doubts that Link Tour has done two things in a row, including today’s launch of the Link Tour S01 460 edition.
On April 15th, Link Tour S01 460 edition was officially launched in Hangzhou, and the new car price range is 129,900-149,900 yuan. New colors of Morning Light Yellow and Night Eyes Blue have been added, and the NEDC cruising range is 451 kilometers.
Price reduction and cruising range increase
Link Tour released a total of two models at the press conference, with corresponding subsidies and cruising ranges as follows:
Link Tour S01 460 standard version: 129,900 yuan, NEDC cruising range 451 km;
Link Tour S01 460 Pro version: 149,900 yuan, NEDC cruising range 451 km.
Compared with the old Link Tour S01, the new 460 version (including Pro and standard versions) has lowered the price by 10,000 yuan. According to Link Tour Chairman Zhu Jiangming, S01 delivered about 1,000 units last year. Perhaps because the sales volume was not very good, the new model was simply reduced to below 150,000 yuan to further hit the market.
In addition, the official announced that users who purchase the S01 460 edition can enjoy three preferential policies: free lifetime road rescue, free lifetime traffic experience, and free exclusive charging pile installation.
At the same time, Link Tour will launch an old friend feedback activity for the first owners of the S01 380 edition who picked up the car before February 29, 2020. They can enjoy free lifetime maintenance, lifetime quality assurance for power batteries, free lifetime road rescue, and a maximum of 5,000 yuan in cash vouchers for car purchases.For the new S01, LI mainly made breakthroughs in battery life, while other parts were mainly optimized. The NEDC range has been increased from 380 km to 451 km. As for the battery, while it was previously revealed that LI would adopt 21700 battery cells, they did not disclose this information this time.
In terms of range alone, LI S01 is not particularly outstanding. However, in the price range below 150,000 RMB, S01’s NEDC range of 451 km is quite competitive. After all, there are few pure electric vehicles with a range of 451 km in this price range, and those that are smarter than LI S01 are much more expensive.
Furthermore, from the positioning of LI S01, its benchmark models are mainly fuel models such as Mazda MX-5 and Toyota 86.
However, in the purely electric market, vehicles in this price range are generally SUVs, and even those that are not are mostly pure electric sedans. There are basically no competitive models like LI S01. From this perspective, S01 should have a certain market.
But looking at its previous sales, LI S01 did not achieve good results. Compared with its high exposure rate, the sales figures are not very impressive.
The reasons for this are, firstly, LI’s brand power has not been improved enough; secondly, the practicality of LI S01 is not the top priority for most users in this price range. At this price point, most users may have higher requirements for practicality.
The more important reason is that both fuel and pure electric Coupes are niche markets. Therefore, it is a difficult thing to achieve excellent results in this market.
However, there are advantages to being in a niche market. Because the competition is smaller, there are more opportunities.
In terms of exposure, S01 attracted public attention when it was first launched, which has brought better brand exposure to LI Motors. The recent LI T03 is an example of this. As a result, in the future, when LI launches new products, the basic coefficient of traffic volume will be much higher.
Therefore, no matter how LI performs in sales, in today’s market of serious homogenisation of pure electric vehicles, LI Motors has indeed done a good job in differentiation.
Zhu Jiangming also stated that S01 will not be withdrawn from the market in the next 5 to 10 years. Instead, it will continue to upgrade and launch new models, with the goal of achieving and surpassing the product power of models like Porsche 718 and Audi TT.
Configuration remains attractive
Moving on to the product side, the new model is basically unchanged in appearance from the old one, so I will not describe it in detail. As mentioned earlier, the new model mainly adds two body colors – Morning Light Yellow and Night Eye Blue.The overall styling of this car still has a controversial style. Those who like it really like it, while those who don’t care at all.
In terms of configuration, the new model comes standard with multi-directional electric seat adjustment, seat memory function, co-driver easy entry function, and 17-inch wheels (previously optional for 2000 yuan).
There are two cameras on both sides of the vehicle’s rearview mirrors, one of which is a panoramic camera and the other is a blind spot monitoring camera, which is one of the hardware components of the driving assistance system.
Previously, we were invited to test drive the S01. Our experience was that the clarity of these several cameras was very high, and the 360-degree panoramic stitching was also done well.
360-degree surround view cameras are generally very useful for large vehicles, and having them on the S01 is like adding wings to a tiger. Even novices will not feel pressured when parking.
In addition, at the press conference, Leapmotor once again emphasized the vein recognition unlocking function, which is integrated into the door handle. The owner needs to stretch his finger into the sensing area of the door handle and then remove it, and the door will automatically pop up. Compared with fingerprint unlocking, vein recognition unlocking cannot be copied.
In my opinion, this function has a sense of science and technology and has improved the safety aspect, and it is currently the first vehicle that can use vein recognition for unlocking. But if I were an S01 owner, how can I not deliberately let my friends know that S01 needs to be unlocked with vein recognition to open?
Secondly, the S01’s face recognition startup is also a highlight configuration. After registering the vein and facial information in the system, you can completely get rid of the physical key, unlock the vehicle with vein recognition, and start the vehicle with face recognition. If you think it’s troublesome, the mobile app and the car key can also unlock the car.
Finally, the S01 can set the charging power within the car’s system. In the past, the overcharging of electric cars caused the vehicle to catch on fire. This function is particularly practical. However, among the electric vehicles on the market, it seems that only a few models, such as Tesla and a few other brands, can set the charging power within the car’s system.In terms of in-car entertainment, S01 is equipped with Leap On system, which enables features such as voice control, navigation, remote control, video sharing, cloud synchronization, and automatic parking.
What’s worth mentioning is that S01 is the only model in its class that comes with OTA capability, and according to LI Auto, more functions can be unlocked in the future, such as ACC adaptive cruise control, LKA lane keeping assist, LSF low speed follow, and other driving assistance features.
As for driving assistance, LI Auto claims that the S01 460 model has level 2.5 intelligent driving assistance functions, and is equipped with 22 high-precision sensors, which enable features such as APS automatic parking system, LDW lane departure warning, FCW forward collision warning, SLIF speed limit sign recognition system, BSV blind spot monitoring, and 360-degree panoramic imaging.
Looking at the configuration alone, S01 is a strong competitor among pure electric vehicles priced between 100,000-150,000 yuan. However, users who purchase cars do not only look at configurations, and they hope that while retaining the rich configuration, LI Auto can improve its brand power and overall product strength in the future, so as to bring more considerable sales.
In terms of power, the new S01 is no different from the previous model. The front axle of the S01 is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum power of 125 kW and a maximum torque of 250 N·m, which can easily drive the car weighing only 1.2 tons and accelerate to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds.
LI Auto’s future
One of the important reasons why LI Auto has survived and continued to launch new cars during the epidemic is its strong technological culture and background from Dahua.
This technological culture is embodied by the founder and chairman of LI, Zhu Jiangming. His name appears as the inventor in one of the patents shown in the following figure.
Compared to other new carmakers, it’s difficult to find the founders’ names in their patented inventions. In short, LI’s technological genes and engineer culture are very strong. Before founding LI, Zhu Jiangming also co-founded Dahua and served as its Chief Technology Officer.
During the press conference for the launch of the S01 460 model, Zhu Jiangming gave a very detailed response to media questions about technological issues.As the employees of Leapmotor said, Zhu Jiangming is always hands-on when it comes to technical issues. Therefore, I believe that if Leapmotor can adhere to the technology-based route in the future, it will have the ability to become a leading new force for car manufacturing after the wave.
In terms of product planning, Zhu Jiangming stated that in May of this year, Leapmotor T03 model will be officially delivered with a sales target to reach the level of competing models such as Ora R1 and Xpeng P7. Zhu Jiangming also revealed that the company may expand into the leasing business in the future and has collaborated with Didi.
On April 25th, Leapmotor will hold a partner conference, and its products will sink to third- and fourth-tier cities. The reason is that the S01 sold well in Taizhou, Zhejiang, and the feedback from users indicates that third- and fourth-tier cities may become new breakthrough points.
In addition, Leapmotor is expected to launch a new B-class SUV next year to further improve its product line and prepare for higher sales.
According to Leapmotor’s plan, only L2-L2.5 assisted driving levels can be achieved on the S01 and T03 models. However, on the upcoming C11 and C01 models, Leapmotor will create a new platform to achieve L3 and above assisted driving levels.
Therefore, Leapmotor will still focus on the technology route in the future. If that is the case, then I can rest assured.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, although the sales of Leapmotor S01 are average, it has had relatively successful performance in exposure and brand recognition among the second-tier of new car manufacturing forces.
In other words, S01 has done well in terms of differentiation. However, S01 also reflects a problem, differentiation is only successful when based on sales. S01 is too differentiated, so it only earns exposure but fails to increase sales.
Leapmotor needs to consider differentiation while considering the market. From the differentiated “territory” established by S01, it is difficult to reverse this differentiation. Moreover, Zhu Jiangming has also stated that S01 will not be phased out in the short term.
This raises a question, will S01 become Leapmotor’s totem in the future?
However, Leapmotor still needs to be reminded that when most brands are eliminated in the minds of consumers, it needs to occupy the top two spots as soon as possible based on the binary rule.
The corresponding measures are to introduce new products that are in line with its positioning, with excellent product strength and brand promotion, to achieve better results.
Do you think the Leapmotor T03 meets these requirements?
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.