Author: Qiukaijun

The Alpha T from Jixiong, which was launched in October last year, has a brand-new positioning: an all-terrain electric SUV. Jixiong is trying to break people’s inherent thinking that electric vehicles are not only tools for urban life, but can also climb mountains and cross the sea.

“What traditional luxury fuel cars can achieve, our electric vehicles can also achieve, and some may even do better,” said Wang Qiufeng, vice president of Jixiong.

On the evening of July 9th, the “Jixiong Action-ARCFOX Immersive Driving Experience Camp” was officially launched in Chaoyang Park, Beijing. Before the launch ceremony, Dai Kangwei, General Manager of BAIC Blue Valley, and Wang Qiufeng, Vice President of Jixiong, accepted a media interview. One of the two main pieces of information from this interview was the repositioning of the Alpha T from Jixiong.

In addition to the labels of endurance, intelligence, and luxury, which have no unique attributes, Jixiong chose to focus on performance, especially emphasizing full-terrain four-wheel drive, supporting three driving modes: sand, mud, and snow, and attempting to make the face of the Alpha T from Jixiong clearer.

This should be the manifestation of Wang Qiufeng’s marketing thinking after joining Jixiong, who was once the General Manager of Tencent Auto.

Jixiong Alpha T’s New Positioning

“The electric car is no longer just a basic means of transportation, nor will it have range anxiety…it can bring us driving pleasure, and even bring users more driving pleasure than we can imagine,” Wang Qiufeng said. “We have repositioned the Alpha T as an all-terrain performance SUV.”

Of course, marketing positioning cannot be without a foundation. The Alpha T is the world’s first all-terrain four-wheel drive pure electric SUV, equipped with three driving modes: sand, mud, and snow. In special road conditions, these special driving modes can help owners cope with starting, accelerating, and other aspects with ease, providing a better driving experience.

Dai Kangwei said that in the design process, Jixiong’s products focus on the tuning of chassis handling, pursuing the perfect balance between handling and comfort. “Daily driving on paved roads will be very comfortable, but in some extreme road conditions, including some sports handling performance, you can feel its good performance, such as track testing, muddy wet slippery roads, etc.”

The introduction of intelligent electric technology can also help improve handling. “In terms of motor control, our product’s response is in milliseconds, and through vehicle-mounted intelligent sensors and data collation, adaptive correction can be quickly done on some extreme road surfaces.”

Wang Qiufeng also revealed that this positioning adjustment came from user inspiration. “For early users who are very valuable to the brand, we have been engaging in deep interaction with them. They also give us a lot of suggestions and opinions, including the experience of using the all-terrain four-wheel drive system on the Alpha T in daily use. They will continue to communicate and give us feedback, and the interaction between us has also received a lot of data verification.”

The refinement of performance tags has not caused them to abandon emphasis on intelligent functions. Wang Qiufeng said, “In a car with a human driver, I hope we are the benchmark for global performance cars; in autonomous driving, we are the benchmark for global autonomous driving.”

Lynk & Co will release A-level models on the Lynk & Co platform

Currently, Lynk & Co has already launched two models, Alpha T and Alpha S. What other products does Lynk & Co have in the pipeline?

Dai Kangwei explained that because Lynk & Co comes from a newly designed forward-looking platform, the design is based on a platform-based and modular architecture design from the beginning, whether it is the power unit, battery unit, or suspension module. “We can achieve comprehensive coverage from A-level cars to six-seater and seven-seater MPVs. The IMC architecture can support us in iterating a new product in six months, which is also the advantage our platform itself has.”

She said, “In the next few years, we may derive A-level cars, B-level cars, and even six-seater models on this platform.”

However, she also emphasized a new product concept. “The delivery of a car model is not the end of a product, just the beginning of activating it when it is delivered to consumers. Our operations team will have a lot of positive communication with consumers, combined with the needs of consumers and some suggestions during the use process for improvement. These will help the improvement and upgrade of derivative products.”

Regarding autonomous driving, Lynk & Co’s Alpha T and the standard version of Alpha S have achieved L2 level. The HI version of Alpha S may be at the level of L2.5.

So, what is Lynk & Co’s plan for higher-level autonomous driving in the future?

Dai Kangwei explained that the landing of autonomous driving depends on the maturity of the technology.

First, she emphasized that the Lynk & Co IMC architecture can fully support autonomous driving abilities above L4 level, including braking systems, steering systems, battery systems, computing power, and sensor deployment such as lidar. “Whether it is the accuracy and transmission speed of sensors or chip computing power, including our information security architecture design, it can all be perfectly supported.”

Secondly, she said that this does not mean that they will be able to introduce L4, L5 or even higher-level autonomous driving products quickly. She believes that two observation dimensions need to be considered.# First, is higher-level autonomous driving technology suitable for the driving scenarios in China? This requires a lot of work, such as high-precision map data collection and road testing in various scenarios to draw conclusions.

Second, progress in national laws, regulations, and policies. She revealed that within the scope permitted by policies, such as gradually opening up specific roads, the HI version of the Foxconn Alpha S Huawei Edition will conduct corresponding test pilots in key cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to gradually nurture and mature autonomous driving technology.

Delivery of HI Version Foxconn Alpha S at Guangzhou Auto Show

Among the Foxconn products, the HI version of the Alpha S with support from Huawei is very popular. Wang Qiufeng revealed that the delivery countdown of the HI version of the vehicle has begun, and will start delivery at the Guangzhou Auto Show.

Wang Qiufeng also revealed that Foxconn will soon begin sales in Northern Europe. “Our product should be running on European roads in the first half of next year.”

As for domestic marketing, Foxconn is focusing on traditional channels while also seeking all opportunities to directly face consumers. Wang Qiufeng explained, “Around the end of April or beginning of May, we had already established 35 stores. Around July 15th, all 60 stores will be in place. In the second half of the year, we will continue to break through channels, and we hope to have 100 stores online nationwide by the end of the year.”

However, in the era of smart electric vehicles, the concept of channels has been generalized. Foxconn is also seeking all opportunities to directly face consumers.

This time, the ARCFOX immersive driving experience camp launched by Foxconn will continue in seven cities across the country, with plans to receive around 7,000 people offline.

The ARCFOX immersive driving experience camp also reflects Foxconn’s understanding of marketing for smart electric vehicles.

“We found that just relying on test drives is not enough. In order for users to truly like our product and have a fresh memory of the brand and product features, we should take a step further and immerse them in the actual scene… making consumers immersed in experiencing our products.” Said Wang Qiufeng.

During this experience camp, Foxconn also designed a special activity to showcase the performance characteristics of the Alpha T. Whether Foxconn can make the Alpha T stand out among many products remains to be seen.

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.