Author: Zhang Yi
The chip crisis has not yet abated, and the rise in raw material prices has added fuel to the fire. The outbreak of the epidemic in March and April dealt a heavy blow to Shanghai and Geelyn, two core automotive production bases. Under the pressure of uncertainty, like a raging storm, like a howling monkey in the sky, the progress bar for 2022 has already entered the “network delay” halfway through.
Now, with the easing of the tense situation of the epidemic, supply chains and industrial chains are gradually recovering, and production is gradually returning to normal. On July 1, the first day of the second half of 2022, eight new energy brands successively announced the sales data for June and the first half of the year.
On the list, well-known brands such as WM Motor are not surprisingly ranked, but surprisingly, the sales data of Xpeng Motors (XPeng) are outstanding. With only one model, the P7 sedan, Xpeng Motors delivered 4,302 units and demonstrated its strength.
Xpeng Motors’ Speed and Strength
Since the Xpeng P7 began deliveries in October last year, it has delivered 25,017 units to date. In the ¥300,000 to ¥500,000 ($46,500 to $77,500) price range for electric vehicles, Xpeng P7 ranks second only to Tesla’s Model 3/Y among domestic manufacturers in cumulative deliveries during the same period of the first nine months of last year.
Xpeng is projecting its strength onto the market at a fast pace, stirring the hearts of the public in a niche way.
Despite the impressive sales figures of XPeng P7 in June, there is one big factor limiting its ability to deliver more, and that is the unavoidable chip shortage. In the context of the global chip crisis, Xpeng’s lack of a “sub-health state” of chips is inevitable.
The Xpeng P7 is embedded with seven top-of-the-line 8-million-pixel cameras in the industry. Its imaging effect is close to that of 4K high-definition TVs, allowing the Xpeng P7 to have a longer detection range and a larger FOV field of view, thereby perceiving the surrounding environment more accurately and capturing finer road information to make the most correct and reasonable judgments.
Of course, clearer cameras require more advanced computing power, which requires more powerful chips to process. Unfortunately, the supply of chips that match these cameras is particularly tight, which hinders Xpeng’s delivery capacity.
Although faced with numerous difficulties in chip supply, Xpeng chooses to focus on users’ interests, withstand pressures and bring users long-term value. In addition, it has been reported that Xpeng’s exclusive production line established with Bestune Auto has now entered the production phase, and the overall production and delivery situation of the Xpeng P7 is expected to continue to improve.Based on the delivery volume of JiKe 001 in the past six months, JiKe has emerged from the delivery downturn caused by the pandemic and the delivery volume is showing positive growth. In May, JiKe ranked second only to Model Y in the luxury pure electric vehicle market with over 300,000 units, and firmly occupied the top spot among domestic brands.
At the same time, we have also seen that JiKe 001 achieved the breakthrough from zero to 20,000 deliveries in only 217 days, which is much faster than the leading new forces, such as WeRide. This also reflects that once the new force plans for the future, it will burst out stronger power.
Currently, JiKe is taking multiple measures to solve the chip supply problem, and is making every effort to ensure delivery. The delivery potential of JiKe 001 in the second half of the year is worth looking forward to.
Universe Layout
The popularity of the concept of the metaverse has led many car brands to lay out in this field, such as ZhiJi’s Yuan Shi Gu community, BMW’s Lida Factory, and JiDu’s metaverse car robot. JiKe also has an ambitious heart, but its tentacles have not reached the digital metaverse composed of 0s and 1s, but have flown to the real physical space universe.
On June 2, 2022, at 12:00 pm, Geely Future Mobility Constellation was successfully launched in a one-rocket-nine-satellites manner at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, marking the opening of the space segment construction of Geely’s integrated high-precision space-time information system. JiKe also became the exclusive partner of the remote sensing function of the first nine-star orbit of Future Mobility Constellation, giving birth to the space version of the SEA architecture of the JiKe driving experience.
Geely launched a satellite with centimeter-level high-precision positioning capability. With this satellite, JiKe 001 has a God’s-eye perspective when traveling, no longer relying solely on the car sensors to capture external information and then perform complex processing work, breaking through the limitations of the car’s perception and processing of the surrounding environment, and further flexibly dealing with complex road scenes.
In addition, as of June 30, JiKe has deployed 342 charging stations in 52 cities nationwide, covering three power dimensions of JiChong, ChaoChong, and QingChong. Intelligent home charging has also entered the homes of car owners in 299 cities in 31 provinces across the country, with more than 17,600 home charging poles installation orders received. Currently, JiKe has 100 offline stores, and it is expected that the scale of national stores will reach nearly 300 by the end of the year.
In the outer space, ZEEKR has made more advanced technological preparations; on the ground, ZEEKR is also continuously reducing the infrastructure gap with other older brands. ZEEKR is like a seasoned hunter, carrying out forward-looking and sustainable expansion.
User-centered, Steady Progress
From the fluctuating first half of the year that has passed, we can clearly see ZEEKR’s powerful risk resistance ability and further potential for growth.
On the product level, what is most recognized about ZEEKR 001 is the driving experience. From the full-automatic air suspension system, variable steering ratio system, to the 3.8 seconds zero to hundred acceleration, ZEEKR 001 is indeed a “luxury hunting coupe that is not boring”.
Of course, ZEEKR 001 has not been able to avoid the product trust crisis commonly encountered by new brand’s first car. Since delivery, the intelligent system and intelligent driving of ZEEKR 001 have been questioned by users, including problems such as stuttering, black screen, navigation failure, etc. The intelligent assisted driving function has also been criticized by users.
However, the core advantage of intelligent electric vehicles is supporting OTA. Currently, ZEEKR OS 2.0 has officially launched, fixing most of the bugs previously reflected by users, and unlocking four auxiliary driving functions, including ACC adaptive cruise control, LDW lane departure warning, AEB forward collision mitigation, FCTA front cross-intersection warning.
Now, users’ trust in ZEEKR 001’s intelligent assisted driving has also been restored. With the continuous upgrades of OTA, the advantages brought by the 7 top-level 8 million cameras buried in ZEEKR 001 will gradually be reflected, continuing to create the ultimate driving experience for users.
On the user level, ZEEKR insists on a user co-creation model, handing over a greater degree of personalized rights to users.
ZEEKR 001 has blazed the trail of allowing users to choose motor brands on their own, which is the first in the industry, allowing users to have a deeper sense of participation in the product. On June 26th, the nation’s first user co-creation charging station developed by ZEEKR and built on the suggestions of car owners landed in Wuhan, exploring a new model of new energy charging and energy supplement. User co-created charging stations will also be launched successively in Ningbo, Foshan, and other places in the future. Nothing is more acknowledging each other between brand and user than doing a win-win thing together.
On the marketing level, as a high-end brand, ZEEKR also has its unique high-end way of playing. Cooperating with the future travel constellation launch, ZEEKR launched the “Star Hunting Plan”, inviting users to capture the beauty of the universe through photography. This not only spreads the product but also further promotes the brand’s high-end positioning.
In the second half of the year and beyond, which is still full of variables, we believe that JiKe is standing on the shoulders of Geely and will gradually improve its corporate system, consolidate its corporate structure, and maintain a high-end but not unfriendly posture to focus on product polishing and be closely connected with users. Being together with users, JiKe will achieve more possibilities.
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.