VOYAH NIGHT: The First User Night of Voyah Users Hosted on the “Zhinyin” Cruise Ship by Voyah
On the evening of October 16th, Voyah invited over 500 users to attend the first VOYAH NIGHT on the “Zhinyin” cruise ship on the Yangtze River. During the evening, Voyah Automotive announced the Voyah Free’s first OTA plan, the VOYAH Power, the User Ecosystem, and the Global Test Partner 2.0 Plan.
A detail worth noting is that due to user feedback that the design of the car key was not aesthetically pleasing, Voyah redesigned it. At a larger level, how does Voyah define its relationship with its users? Let’s take a deeper look together.
Putting Users at the Center
First, let’s take a look at Voyah’s user profile.
When the Voyah brand was launched last year, they mentioned that the main users of their first product were “new middle forces.” As we can see from the video, Voyah car owners include entrepreneurs, teachers, healthcare workers, IT and finance industry professionals, and many others.
Now, with more Voyah Free deliveries, the user profile of Voyah’s core strength is becoming clearer. According to Voyah CBO Xindian Lu during an interview, currently, 81% of Voyah Free users are from luxury brands’ trade-ins and replacements, of which 61% are BBA (BMW, Benz, Audi) users.
So why do users choose Voyah?
During the media communication session after VOYAH NIGHT, I got an answer.
Firstly, Voyah believes that in terms of the Voyah Free, its competitiveness is no less than that of BBA. With a 4.5 second 0 to 100 km/h acceleration, air suspension, excellent chassis tuning, and comprehensive driving assistance, the overall proportion of the high-strength steel in the car body is 75%, among which the proportion of hot-formed steel above 1500 MPa reached 31%. In the communication session, Voyah stated that safety is Voyah’s most basic bottom line.
On the other hand, the endorsement from Dongfeng, especially the first batch of users’ experience, shows a high level of recognition for Voyah’s quality control.
At the event, I also chatted with an owner who was waiting for delivery. When asked why he chose Voyah, the owner replied that the FREE chassis of Voyah was good, and the quality should be guaranteed. Those who spend real money to buy a car often pay more attention to the product. Therefore, Voyah has a strong appeal to consumers in terms of product strength.
Lastly, there is user collaboration. From August 2020 to now, Voyah has held seven global testing events for Voyah FREE users, covering road strengthening and durability testing, high temperature and cold resistance, corrosion resistance and other environment road tests that have attracted more than 2000 people and collected more than 200 optimization proposals, of which 130 have been implemented. It covers every aspect of detail workmanship, car-machine interaction, driving experience, NVH, experience optimization, intelligent driving, and more. Adjusting the key design and personalized parking services have brought Voyah closer to its users.
At this VOYAH NIGHT event, Voyah also announced the official launch of the second global testing program.
In addition, Voyah will also establish a car club fund to help users across the country establish car clubs and carry out activities in various forms, allowing for more communication and interaction between the brand and users, and among users.
Dr. Lu Fang, CEO of Voyah, said at the event, “Voyah will always put users’ trust first. As Voyah’s user base continues to expand, Voyah will increase innovation in products and services, accelerate the construction of service networks, and bring users a better smart electric car travel experience.”
It is evident that Voyah has already placed users in the C position.
Pleasant Surprises
Since the release of the Voyah brand in July 2020, Voyah has delivered Voyah FREE to approximately 1500 owners in 140 cities across the country, not only completing the transformation from 0 to 1, but more importantly, as Dr. Lu Fang said, the delivery of Voyah FREE marks a new starting point.
According to Voyah, the current ratio of extended-range and pure electric Voyah FREE purchases is about 8:2. Clearly, range anxiety is currently a major concern for consumers when it comes to new energy vehicles.For the 20% of pure electric vehicle users, replenishing energy naturally becomes the top priority that Voyah has to solve. VOYAH POWER has been officially released.
VOYAH POWER will solve users’ energy replenishment issues from six aspects, including exclusive private pile charging, public pile charging, Voyah station charging, destination charging, guest charging, and portable gun charging.
In response to the problem of incompatibility and non-interoperability of public charging piles, Voyah has cooperated with five charging companies, including State Grid, Southern Power Grid, Teld, Start Charging, and Fast Charging, with a public pile coverage rate exceeding 80% and achieving interoperability. Users can directly query and charge through the Voyah App.
For electric vehicle owners, this is undoubtedly a must-have. If they have to download different apps every time they charge, the user experience will be extremely poor. Obviously, Voyah has put a lot of effort into the most frequently used public charging piles.
In terms of home charging, Voyah provides two home charging piles of 7 KW and 11 KW. The home charging piles will be given away with the car, and can be remotely controlled to start and stop, and can also be reserved for charging through the App. Peak-valley electricity use can reduce user charging costs.
Regarding charging services, Voyah has launched a preset guest charging service for users.
In the future, Voyah will increase the construction and layout of charging piles on stations. It will screen frequent user travel scenarios and build charging piles accordingly.
Finally, Voyah has also designed a portable charging gun with a power of 1.7 KW, which is suitable for civilian sockets, making it convenient for users to use in emergencies.
Voyah solves users’ energy replenishment issues from six aspects, and if the overall system is built, it is still very competitive. Of course, like Tesla and NIO, the energy system involving infrastructure will be a long process.
With the energy replenishment issue solved, Voyah FREE will also usher in its first OTA upgrade of the entire vehicle function.
Based on the tracking feedback of nearly 1,500 user experiences, the first OTA upgrade of the entire vehicle function of Voyah FREE will be conducted within 2021, with 50 upgrade items. In the future, Voyah FREE will perform at least one OTA upgrade every quarter.
The most requested K song feature by users will also be added in this OTA upgrade. In addition, this OTA will also add 7 new features and optimize 42 functions. This includes optimization of quick parking operation, opening fuel tank and charging port on the car’s home page, displaying battery health status, switching power modes, and V-Moment distinguished mode.
As for the shortage of chips in the overall industry chain this year, it cannot be avoided by LYNK & CO. However, for the issue of delayed delivery to users (from the date of signing the contract for two months), LYNK & CO has launched a point compensation policy.
For delays of the 1st to 15th day, users will be compensated 1,000 points per day;
From the 16th day, users will be compensated 3,000 points per day;
Starting from the 31st day, users will be compensated 5,000 points per day.
At the same time, users who were unable to deliver on time will also receive uniformly issued points.
If you have no concept of LYNK & CO points, let’s go to the LYNK & CO app. Lifetime free charging + lifetime free maintenance requires 177,760 points, while the Huawei Mate 40 Pro requires 60,990 points. Generally, 10 points = 1 RMB, so LYNK & CO’s point compensation policy is still quite generous.
Speaking of the LYNK & CO app, let’s take a look at some data. As of now, the LYNK & CO app and mini-program have registered more than 700,000 users, and LYNK & CO has distributed 370 million points, of which users have redeemed nearly 200 million points. This “big community” has also gone through 10 major version updates, more than 20 small updates, added more than 600 new features, and optimized more than 200 functions, many of which come from user suggestions.
While the online app continues to iterate, the offline LYNK & CO has not stopped its steps.
Up to now, LYNK & CO has opened 30 LYNK & CO Spaces, and this number will reach 55 by the end of the year. In addition to LYNK & CO Spaces, LYNK & CO’s city exhibition halls will reach 110 in October. The delivery service center will reach 23 by the end of the year, and there are 51 authorized spray and repair centers. The sales team has grown from less than 100 at the beginning of the year to 1,700 today. LYNK & CO hopes to provide high-level and consistent service to users through the construction of a direct sales system and the training of service personnel.
Lastly, and most importantly, at VOYAH NIGHT, LYNK & CO announced that its second model will officially debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show. LYNK & CO users will have priority to preview the vehicle.According to previous reports, the second model will be an MPV. Like the VoyahFREE, the second model of Voyah will also have two power systems: range-extender and pure electric. It will focus on the high-end MPV market and will be launched in 2022. At the media communication meeting, Voyah stated that the second car will be the best car of its kind in the world. Let’s wait and see!
In the future, Voyah will also launch at least one new model each year, covering various segments of the market such as sedans, SUVs, and MPVs.
Looking at it now, Voyah has considered everything from energy supplement, software, APP, life mall, points to the next car, every step taken is for the sake of the users. It’s an interesting perspective.
Conclusion
In over 1000 days of entrepreneurship, Voyah’s achievements are not easy. In response to the skepticism towards traditional companies venturing into developing intelligent cars, Voyah has provided us with an answer – there are no traditional companies, only traditional ideas and people. To achieve success in creating new things, one must be more open-minded and more accommodating.
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.