Jianan Jia, posted from the co-pilot temple
AI4Auto Ref | WeChat official account
Ziyoujia NV, what’s the story behind this car?
As the second wave of new forces in carmaking in 2021, there are many unique labels on it:
Xiaoni Electric, former “Huawei prince”, teenage genius’s third venture…
Ziyoujia NV is the first mass-produced car of Li Yinan’s carmaking project “Niuchuang.”
Sold globally with electric two wheels, how well did Li Yinan’s first four-wheeled electric vehicle perform?
Furthermore, is Ziyoujia NV smart enough?
What kind of car is it?
In December last year, Li Yinan only announced his car brand “Ziyoujia”, but the development of the first car model has been underway.
At that time, Ziyoujia NV had already conducted three rounds of engineering trial production, and the research and development testing mileage had exceeded one million kilometers.
Now, Ziyoujia NV has entered small-scale trial production, and according to the plan, it will be delivered to customers in September this year.
Ziyoujia NV is positioned as a medium to large SUV with a wheelbase of 2910 mm, slightly larger than that of NIO ES6.
It is designed for five people, and there is currently no 7-seat version.
In terms of power systems, Ziyoujia NV covers both extended-range and pure electric models, covering two markets.
The full range comes with intelligent electric four-wheel drive, with an acceleration of 0-100 km/h in 5.9 seconds.
However, the range, battery, and motor technical parameters have not been disclosed.
Regarding product positioning, Niuchuang officials have a clear attitude: mid-to-high-end and family-oriented.
The style is “city-off-road fusion style,” switching between urban commuting, the whole family’s weekend short-distance travel, and cross-city long-distance travel for leisure and entertainment.
Did you find it?
The positioning of Ziyoujia NV highly coincides with that of the Ideal One.
In terms of exterior design, Ziyoujia NV is actually quite angular, not adopting the popular slender continuous headlights, but using split prototype headlights.
As for whether the style is similar to a certain off-road vehicle, it’s subjective.
Interior Design of the Ziyu Home NV
In terms of interior design, the Ziyu Home NV follows a minimalist approach, reducing the amount of stitching and seams wherever possible. For instance, the dashboard frame features a rounded rectangular design, and the upper dashboard is produced using a single piece of material with an incorporated IMG, thereby eliminating any visible seams.
The popular features that have become commonplace among emerging auto manufacturers, such as the dual main and co-pilot screens and hidden air conditioning, are absent from the Ziyu Home NV. Instead, the interior and exterior design of the car bears closer resemblance to established automakers.
The car’s attention to detail is noteworthy, with hidden wipers at the rear, charge progress indicator lights on the exterior, and individual temperature monitors and PM2.5 displays on each air vent.
The circular headlights and the outside charge progress indicator light on the Ziyu Home NV are characteristic features of Xiao Niu electric cars, indicating continuity between the two manufacturers.
How Smart is the Ziyu Home NV?
The Ziyu Home NV presented was still an engineering sample, with no official announcement regarding its vehicle connectivity and intelligent driving capabilities. However, there were a few clues.
The car features a 15.6-inch floating central screen that splits into two layers. The upper layer displays navigation, online music, and other applications.
The lower layer can be used to adjust driving modes, driving-assistance functions, and air conditioning settings, while the footer serves as the air conditioning settings section, and the bottom left corner reveals the submenu.
A few years ago, smartphone manufacturers integrated linear motors, but most car manufacturers did not emphasize the quality and operation of the car screen. Nonetheless, the Ziyu Home NV is fitted with six linear motors on the display, providing realistic haptic feedback upon touching any part of the screen.
This configuration is unique to the Ziyu Home NV, making it a potential selling point in the future.
It remains unclear whether the car touchscreen operates smoothly, the type of chip used, and the user interface’s reasonability. These questions should be answered once the Ziyu Home NV is available.
Finally, the most critical characteristic of intelligent driving, as of now, remains unconfirmed by the company.From the engineering sample car, it can be determined that the self-driving NV is not equipped with a Lidar.
On-site manufacturer staff explained that they believe Lidar is not a strong demand for current users.
What self-driving cares about is what kind of experience it can bring to users, and the focus is not on paper parameter configurations.
As for how intelligent the system is, Li Yinan has made it clear early on that the self-driving smart cockpit is all self-developed, and the intelligent driving aspect is purchasing third-party products, and the specific functions are defined by Niuchuang themselves.
This also explains the reason why self-driving progresses faster than other new car-making forces, after all, outsourcing the most difficult part of autonomous driving, one only needs to do the adaptation work on their own.
Li Yinan’s latest progress in car making
Why only start making cars in 2021?
Li Yinan explained it this way:
Car manufacturing is undoubtedly an industry with high capital threshold. In 2014, I judged that I couldn’t raise $3 billion to do this thing myself, but now I probably can.
When Niuchuang announced it, they had already received $500 million in investments from organizations such as IDG, COATUE, Plum Ventures. Li Yinan said he never worried about funds.
Currently, the Changzhou Dacheng auto factory acquired by Niuchuang has been basically renovated and will be put into trial production this month, with an annual production capacity of 180,000 vehicles.
In addition, Niuchuang’s core R&D team has exceeded 1,000 people, with its headquarters in Beijing and a research and development center in Shanghai.
So far, the first model of self-driving NV has only shown exterior and interior designs to the outside world, and the experience, intelligence, and price of the vehicle are all unknown.
However, Li Yinan also has his own definition of the product.
First, there is “no competition, no defined consumer groups”, those who buy self-driving NV will feel proud.
Second, self-driving NV is supposed to give customers a luxurious feel, but at not a luxury price, it is a high-end model with a higher cost-performance ratio.
So, do you think Little Niu’s four-wheel electric car is worth the wait? What is a reasonable price?
—End of article—
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.