Author: French Fries Fish
On the first day of this month, I woke up 3 hours earlier than usual.
It was not because of the faulty alarm clock on my phone, but because of the friendly 3 consecutive calls from my friend.
“It’s been light for a long time. Why are you still lying in bed? I’ve been downstairs for over an hour. Come out and see the sun!”
Half-awake, I couldn’t understand why I should go out to see the sun in the middle of summer. It was as hard for me to understand the urgency and joy in his tone as I had already felt the sense of it during the 3 ringing tones before answering the call.
Not only the children nationwide, but also many grown-ups who had just been unsealed in Shanghai, like my good friend who called me, had a happy Children’s Day.
“The world is so beautiful that I feel like a newborn.” Whether it was exaggerated or not, he really sighed like that.
And on this Children’s Day, Buick was also “reborn.”
From “Three Bullets” to “Three Colors Shield”
On the evening of June 1st, Buick held its brand day event with the theme “Breaking New Ground.”
It’s nothing new to talk about “new” at a press conference, but Buick does have a new approach.
Against the backdrop of the epidemic, Buick “used available materials” and used the scene of online office as the form of the whole press conference, which can be said to be very close to the current situation.
From the first second of the press conference, I felt a strong sense of “entertaining.”
From the WeChat work group with instantly 99+ messages, to the daughter urging the working man to go home earlier, and to the boss who did not follow the script and directly played the “bomb” card… all of this was so real.
You can even see that the protagonist intended to complain to his colleague about the boss’s bad temper, but immediately changed to “extraordinary courage.”
These scenes are rare at the press conference of electric new forces, not to mention traditional car enterprises. It seems that Buick is really renovating itself.My mind was still hovering over the previous question, when Buick unveiled its new brand LOGO.
The original “three bullets” of Buick broke the circle that had bound them, and the level difference between the bullets was smoothed out.
The red represents SAFETY, the silver represents SOPHISTICATION, and the blue represents COMFORT, thus Buick interprets its brand DNA and creates a new Buick “triple shield” featuring these three elements.
“In transformation, evolution and breakthrough.”
This is Buick’s annotation on its own brand renewal.
Although this sentence is well said, I, as an engineering straight boy, am more concerned about the condition of the new car rather than the brand renewal.
Buick asserted that it will launch 12 new cars in the next three years, including five new generations of electric cars; however, the first car presented at the press conference was a concept car.
A concept car that has been “decentralized”
Electra-X, the first SUV concept car based on the AUTOnomy platform of Buick, is also a practice of Buick’s brand-new PURE Design concept.
Purity, Unconventional, Refined, and Expressive are the core design elements of PURE Design. “Subtraction for Anxiety” is the design concept of Buick Electra-X.
As for whether anxiety has been reduced, I am not sure, but the word “subtraction” definitely applies to the “concept” of the concept car.
As for the appearance of the car, different people have different subjective feelings, so I will not comment further. In terms of configuration, the 8155 car chip, 30-inch integrated curved 6K screen, panoramic HUD and other physical configurations are also fashionable, but they seem a bit far-fetched when placed on a concept car.
In comparison, I am more interested in the next-generation Super Cruise advanced driving assistance system. The reason is simple – Super Cruise is a set of advanced driving assistance systems that can allow you to release your hands completely while driving at high speeds at this stage.
“The styling and features of Electra-X are very similar to those of mass-produced cars. It is a preview of SAIC GM’s new generation of mass-produced pure electric cars,” said Yao Fei, general manager of Buick’s marketing department.
In the future, the new generation of Buick electric vehicles based on the Ultium platform will be named after the Electra series. Perhaps, this is the direct significance of the existence of Electra-X.
Returning to the car itself, the two most important features are:
First, the Ultium platform.
This is General Motors’ latest global electric vehicle platform. The wBMS wireless battery management system it uses can reportedly reduce wiring harnesses for battery packs by 90%. The significance of wBMS is not only to save wiring harness costs and improve battery energy density, but also to provide more flexible layout options. With this technology, the Ultium platform will offer great convenience for electric trucks and electric buses.
Second, Super Cruise.
In addition to what was mentioned before, it is an “able to let go” high-speed intelligent driving system. As of March of this year, Super Cruise has accumulated 30 million kilometers of accident-free driving records in North America. Before that, Super Cruise was only available on GM’s high-end brands.
Both of these are GM’s powerful technologies.
On the one hand, I think this is GM’s technology platform for all its brands. On the other hand, it can also be seen as GM pushing its powerful technology to the Buick brand.
If viewed from the perspective of Buick, this kind of push represents the upgrade of the Buick brand.
A more substantial brand upgrade, I think, is the deeper significance of the existence of Electra-X.
A rising mass-produced car
The first card in Buick’s brand upgrade has been played on the GL8.
To call GL8 the leader in the domestic high-end MPV market is definitely a humble statement.
This confidence not only comes from sales, but also from deeply rooted beliefs and unique product strength.
Until today, many people who are not interested in cars may not know which car GL8 is, but when it comes to “business vehicles,” the shape of GL8 is definitely what comes to mind.
From 200,000+ to 500,000+, GL8’s market position is unshakeable. Before this year, if you wanted to choose a mid-to-high-end MPV for business use in this price range, GL8 was almost your only choice.
However, in this year of the domestic MPV boom, the market has undergone some changes. In the first half of the year, two companies have introduced luxury new energy MPVs. According to the known information, there will be even more players in this segment of the market.
How should we face this situation? The GL8 Century is Buick’s answer to this challenge.
“Open up new horizons, set new standards” – this is how Buick defines the GL8 Century. And if you want something more concrete, just look at the nickname Buick gave to the GL8 Century – “a land-based aircraft.” You should have a pretty good idea of what it means.
Some people say that we should be friends with time. But Buick says that GL8 Century will help high-net-worth customers be the masters of their own time.
Buick did not mention detailed configuration information for the new car, but it did mention several scenarios – “a mobile living room,” “a mobile private theater,” “a mobile intelligent workspace.” What I understand from this is that customers don’t need to understand the configuration – GL8 Century will naturally provide them with a fulfilling journey without interruption, a comfortable trip without disturbance. Perhaps this is the higher dimension of confidence that comes with being an industry leader.
It is obvious that the burden of Buick’s upward development lies on the shoulders of GL8.
As the leader in the middle and high-end MPV market segment, it is widely known who GL8 will confront in the next step. I do not know whether this step can be made, but I do know that there is also a well-established leader in the upward development market segment.
Although the GL8’s current achievements increase my trust in the GL8 Century Century, confidence is not enough. We still prefer to believe in solid product power, especially in the current situation where the MPV market is fiercely competitive.
At this moment, all I can think of is “let’s fight” – ah, no, these are just topics for the second half of the year.
Professor Chang, it seems that it’s time to conduct a horizontal evaluation of the MPV market in the second half of this year.
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.