Weekly Index
Weekly News
Tesla Texas Factory Grand Opening
On April 7, 2022, Tesla held a grand opening ceremony for its new Texas factory, inviting media and customers to participate in the Cyber Rodeo celebration. Musk described the Texas factory as a “machine that builds machines,” where all aspects of vehicle production, including drive components, bodywork, and batteries, are efficiently located in one factory.
On the one hand, to celebrate the completion of the new factory, and on the other hand, Tesla also showcased the new Model Y with the latest 4680 battery pack on site.
At the venue of the press conference, Tesla demonstrated how the 4680 battery pack is combined with the chassis using CTC technology, greatly increasing space utilization.
Meanwhile, Musk announced at the event that in 2023, Tesla’s three new vehicles – Cybertruck, Semi, Roadster 2 – will all be mass-produced, and a Robotaxi will also be launched. Tesla’s Robotaxi will have an “incredible appearance”.
Quick review:
Do you remember Musk’s enthusiastic promotion of Tesla’s products in 2019? He claimed that the Model S, which debuted in 2012, was the best electric car in the world, and remains so seven years later, with no competitors that can come close to it.
In the fast-paced automotive industry, only a few manufacturers have the ability to create evergreen models, especially in the field of electric vehicles. This undoubtedly reflects Tesla’s high-level product power, scalability, and overall industrial design and comprehensive foresight.
This is also why Tesla dares to not produce any new cars for three years after Model Y, and can achieve a sales volume of 936,172 vehicles in 2021, ranking first in new energy vehicle sales among all manufacturers.
Following the launch of the Berlin and Texas factories one after another, the Model Y has officially started to challenge the global single-model annual sales champion. A $60,000 “electric dad” aims to challenge the top-selling Corolla from the well-established Toyota brand worldwide. This is what we are experiencing now, and we may witness it personally in the next two years or so. This process will accompany a revolutionary change in car manufacturing and drive the transformation of the global automotive and energy industries.
NIO announces price increases and BaaS prices
NIO announced on May 10, 2022 that due to the continuous and significant rise in global raw material prices this year, the company will adjust the prices of its products accordingly. Specifically, the starting prices of all versions of ES8, ES6 and EC6 models will increase by RMB 10,000, while the starting prices of ET7/ET5 will remain the same.
The service fee for renting the long-range battery pack has been increased from 1,480 yuan/month to 1,680 yuan/month, representing an increase of 200 yuan/month. The service fee for renting the standard-range battery pack remains unchanged at 980 yuan/month. Existing customers are not affected by this adjustment.
In addition, customers can now upgrade their battery pack to the long-range version at a flexible price of 9,800 yuan/year or a monthly price of 880 yuan, which remains unchanged.
For customers who paid the deposit for ES8, ES6, EC6, ET7, or the pre-order deposit for ET5 before May 9th, 2022, the car purchase and battery rental prices are not affected by this adjustment.
Yesterday, NIO announced that due to the pandemic, its suppliers in Geelyn, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and other cities have gradually stopped production since March and have not yet resumed. As a result, NIO’s vehicle production has been suspended.
As a result of the above reasons, deliveries of recent orders will be delayed. NIO said it will work with suppliers to resume production and delivery of vehicles as soon as possible while meeting epidemic prevention requirements.
Quick note:
During the first three months of this year, dozens of automakers including Tesla, XPeng, Li Auto, BYD, and Jinkou announced price increases for their new energy vehicles, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan, mainly due to rising battery and raw material costs. This can be seen from the price of lithium carbonate. According to reports, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate exceeded 500,000 yuan/ton in early March, up 80% from the quoted price of 278,000 yuan/ton on January 4th.
The rapid growth in demand for new energy vehicles worldwide has created an escalating demand amplification effect in the battery and material sector, which is the main reason for the significant increase in lithium carbonate prices since last year. It is expected that the supply and demand balance for lithium resources may return to normal after 2-3 years.
NIO’s founder, chairman, and CEO, Li Bin, said that the raw materials, especially battery raw materials, have risen too much this year, and there is no sign of a decrease in the near future. Originally, he wanted to hold on, but with the pandemic, it’s harder now to bear the cost, and the price increase is just necessary. He asks for everyone’s understanding.
smart assistant #1 release
On April 8th, Smart Elf #1 unveiled its mystery in Berlin, Germany. It is positioned as a pure electric small SUV, designed by Mercedes-Benz and manufactured by Geely, based on the Geely SEA platform. Smart Elf #1 will be produced domestically and exported to Europe, and is expected to officially start delivery in December 2022.
- Based on the Geely SEA platform, positioned as a small SUV;
- Equipped with heated seats, lane departure warning and head-up display, and other configurations;
- Equipped with a rear permanent magnet synchronous motor with a peak power of 200 kW, a peak torque of 343 N·m, and can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds;
- Equipped with a 66 kWh ternary lithium battery pack, with a maximum range of 560 km under CLTC conditions;
- Supports 7.2 kW AC slow charging, 100 kW DC fast charging, and 150 kW DC ultra-fast charging. Can recharge from 5% to 80% in less than 30 minutes;
- The vehicle size is 4,270 x 1,822 x 1,636 mm, with a wheelbase of 2,750 mm, equipped with 19-inch wheels, and tire size of 235/45 R19;
- The front trunk has 15 liters of capacity, and the rear trunk has a capacity of 323-411/986 liters (second row of seats can be divided into 4/6, slideable/flat);
- Equipped with a 12.8-inch suspended central control screen, with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, vehicle system hardware with 12 GB of running memory and 128 GB of storage space, and equipped with a 9.2-inch full HD LCD instrument panel;
- Smart Pilot intelligent driving assistance system supports: Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Traffic Congestion Assistance (TJA), Automatic Parking Assistance (APA) and Adaptive Near-Far Light Adjustment.
Quick comment:
Joint ventures and collaborative product development between different brands will bring more unique and interesting products to the market.For the entire household electric vehicle market, smart fortwo is destined to focus on a certain niche area. In this way, it is difficult to talk about the advantages of economies of scale on costs. At the same time, considering the relationship between smart fortwo and the Mercedes-Benz EQ series, it is difficult for smart fortwo to be priced below 300,000 yuan.
The target audience of the pure electric smart fortwo may overlap with Mercedes-Benz’s pure electric models in recent years. Considering the equity structure of the smart company, how Mercedes-Benz handles the entry-level products of the EQ series and the product planning, pricing and sales channels of smart fortwo is very intriguing.
Avita 011 MMW Joint Edition Released
In April 8th, Avita released a limited edition Avita 011 jointly made with MMW in a quantity of 500. MMW is the abbreviation of the fashion brand 1017 ALYX 9SM founder Matthew M. Williams, who is also the current creative director of GIVENCHY, taking over the design power of Givenchy.
The Avita 011 is based on the Avita 11, both the interior and exterior are in all-black color scheme, making it a thorough blackening, even the red logo of Huawei HI turned black.
MMW’s logo is printed on the side skirt, and wind knives are added.
In terms of interior, the Avita 011 limited edition uses a lot of Nappa leather and Nuprima leather, and the design of the seats corresponds to the exterior of the vehicle. On the back of the front seats, the storage compartment under the center console of the front seats, and the straps for storage in the trunk, all can find the buckles designed exclusively by MMW.
Quick review:Avita’s opportunity to collaborate with MMW is closely related to its brand’s chief marketing officer, Wang Lin. Wang has held brand management positions at several global fashion companies, including Apple Retail Greater China and Chanel China, and has worked for over 20 years in the luxury, technology, and lifestyle fields. This collaboration with MMW also indicates Avita’s preference for fashion trends. Whether Avita can truly achieve a high-end brand through this collaboration will depend on the strength of its subsequent products and services.
Voyah Dreamer Announces Pre-Sale Price of 380,000-600,000 RMB
On the evening of April 7th, Voyah Dreamer officially announced its pre-sale price. The pre-sale price range for the 7-seater version is 380,000-480,000 RMB, while the pre-sale price range for the 4-seater custom version starts at 600,000 RMB. In terms of the car models, Voyah has temporarily announced two types: pure electric and extended range, both of which are dual-motor four-wheel drive models with the following specific details:
-
The pure electric version has a maximum power of 320 kW, a maximum torque of 620 Nm, and a 0-100 km/h acceleration of 5.9 seconds;
-
The extended range version has a maximum power of 290 kW, a maximum torque of 610 Nm, and a 0-100 km/h acceleration of 6.9 seconds.
Both of the currently announced Dreamer models come with air suspension and adjustable shock absorbers, with a front double-wishbone and rear multi-link suspension structure.
One unique feature of the Voyah Dreamer is its chassis structure: the front double-wishbone and rear five-link configuration is very rare in the MPV market.
The second-row seats in the Voyah Dreamer are consistent with mainstream MPVs, featuring aircraft-style seats with 8-way adjustment and massage and electric footrest functions to further enhance comfort.
In terms of intelligent configuration, the Dreamer offers aQualcomm 8155 chip, four-audio pickup zones, L2 level assisted driving, full-scene intelligent parking, and mobile phone interaction.
Quick Comment:
It’s a pity that LanTu did not reveal any information about the battery pack and range in this product launch event. Due to the pandemic, LanTu has also adjusted the market launch pace of Dreamer. It is worth paying attention to the battery pack and range of the subsequent pure electric extended-range version.
The pre-sale price of Dreamer from 380,000 to 480,000 yuan shows that LanTu is undoubtedly aiming for the high-end market. The main competitors at the same price are also well-known. The new energy MPV market is also of great interest, and there are still many play styles for high-end self-owned brand MPVs to explore. The feedback from the market will depend on the trial run of LanTu’s Dreamer, which was released first.
Finally, welcome to download the Garage App to learn about the latest new energy information. If you want to get more real-time communication, please click here to join our community.
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.