Author: Zheng Senhong
In the choice between passive refresh and active refresh, Gaohe chose the latter.
For new players in the industry, attracting consumers’ attention is of paramount importance, and good design is the best tool.
Gaohe HiPhi X breaks people’s understanding of the conventional way of opening car doors, which is the primary means of attracting consumers’ attention.
Now, Gaohe HiPhi Z is trying to attract consumers’ attention with “digital life”.
What is “digital life”?
In short, it is as cool as Gundam and as smart as Jarvis.
In this understanding, Gaohe HiPhi Z is not just a car, but a robot. Driving is just a basic function, and its design focuses more on human-machine interaction.
No matter what command you give or what reaction you make, it can give you feedback outside the body through the light group and voice, and meet your needs inside the body through the HiPhi Bot robot.
Gaohe believes that this is what cars should look like 20 years from now.
How to Collect the Three Attributes of Masks, Toys, and Tools at the Same Time?
As one of Gaohe’s dual flagship products, Gaohe deviates from the competition route of SUV + car.
If Gaohe HiPhi X breaks the conservatism of traditional SUVs, then Gaohe HiPhi Z is an epoch-making attempt to redefine sedans.
Gaohe HiPhi Z is positioned as a four-door GT model, but abandons the design elements of traditional GTs such as fluid sculpture and rounded lines, retaining only the mechanical shell with interactive ability.
How does Gaohe interpret “mechanical”?
By utilizing the space advantage brought by the electric vehicle platform, Gaohe HiPhi Z combines supercar with four-door Coupe, and with low-roofed body and large-size wheels, it outlines a nimble body.
The front and rear three-stage diffuser, the white armored shell surrounding both sides, and the body covering that runs through the black cockpit of the car present a spacecraft-like form of Gaohe HiPhi Z.
Not only that, the active air intake system hidden in the car is combined with the front grille to form a breathing scale armor grille, which not only echoes the overall mechanical style of the vehicle, but also further improves performance requirements.
Combined with the design of the active spoiler at the rear, the grille will open and close according to the changes in speed and airflow during driving, achieving a super low drag coefficient.
Similar to sci-fi designs, there are also flywheel-like wheel hubs with unique soft rubber inserts that not only increase visual impact, but also protect tires from scratching.
If it’s just a mechanically shaped body, it still lacks “life force”.
Therefore, the Gaohe HiPhi Z has also created a set of human-machine communication language system.
Based on an interactive system composed of 4,066 LEDs, the Gaohe HiPhi Z can interact with drivers and road participants in different scenarios through lights.
For example, in addition to continuing the ISD technology of Gaohe HiPhi X in the front and rear of the car, Gaohe HiPhi Z uses the side door ISD intelligent interaction light for the first time, which can display built-in expressions or user-defined patterns and so on.
On the other hand, the Gaohe HiPhi Z is also equipped with the second-generation PML programmable intelligent headlight. With the new generation of air-cooled modules, the integration degree of the module has been improved, and the brightness and clarity are enough to perform like a private cinema.
From the futuristic appearance to the interactive experience under the LED lights, Gaohe HiPhi Z restores almost 95% of the concept car design.
Compared with the “popular” styles of other car companies, every detail of the Gaohe HiPhi Z is a bold attempt.
It can be said that Gaohe has taken a path of its own style.
So, what is the “interesting soul” behind the cool and futuristic appearance of the Gaohe HiPhi Z?
- Don’t be in a hurry.
Because before opening the “interesting soul” of the Gaohe HiPhi Z, Gaohe has always had unique innovative enthusiasm for the way of opening doors, such as the wing-opening doors of the Gaohe HiPhi X.
And this time, the Gaohe HiPhi Z uses the design of opposing doors with an opening angle of nearly 90°.
Compared with Rolls-Royce’s “suicide doors”, the unique feature of the HiPhi Z is that its four doors can automatically open and close. This is currently the only mass-produced car that can do this completely automatically.
This is mainly due to the HiPhi Z’s use of UWB ultra-wideband wireless communication technology with 10cm-level positioning, which can accurately detect the location of people and keys and control the timing of the door opening and closing.
Entering the car, HiPhi Z shows a “dual-tone” digital cockpit.
- Front row: Mechanical movement inspired by cyberpunk. With the enveloping feel of bucket racing seats, the iridescent fabric of the door panel and seats, and the dual-assisted touch steering wheel, you can experience the feeling of driving a spaceship.
- Rear row: Immersive comfort. With adjustable backrests, integrated audio, ambient lighting, and fragrances, you can enjoy an experience as comfortable as being in space.
But the real embodiment of the “soul” of the HiPhi Z is the car-mounted digital robot that can interact with users like a living creature-HiPhi Bot.
From nodding to music beat swaying, this digital robot can create the most appropriate atmosphere in real-time.
HiPhi Bot adopts a car-grade, 4-degree-of-freedom, 8-direction-adjustment, five-level full-range adjustment mechanical arm.
- Front-to-back movement completed in 1 second
- Horizontal and vertical screen switching completed in 2 seconds
- 3 high-frequency swings completed in 1 second
It is not an exaggeration to describe HiPhi Bot as a screen that is “the best dance performer.”
In addition to being a “digital robot,” with the support of the H-SOA super-body electronic and electrical architecture, HiPhi Bot also has a “digital wisdom” aspect.
In simple terms, it can abstract, sort, and combine hardware functions such as the mechanical arm, screen, electric seats, and electric doors, creating multiple modes, such as welcome mode, dance mode, and rocket mode, etc.
Finally, there is the HiPhi Pilot system independently developed by HiPhi, adhering to the “dual redundancy, high security” concept, with backup design in the six major systems of calculation, perception, communication, braking, steering, and power.## English Markdown Text
In addition, HiPhi Z from GAC provides two independent computing platforms for automatic assisted driving and parking.
The automatic assisted driving platform uses NVIDIA Orin-X chip and QNX native real-time operating system.
According to Wu Qifeng, the product manager of HiPhi, QNX system has higher real-time performance and function than the commonly used Linux system in the industry, while Orin-X chip provides ultra-large computing power.
Under the endorsement of the dual platforms, even in the extremely improbable event of failure of the automatic assisted driving platform, the parking computing platform can quickly take over and direct the vehicle to park safely.
In terms of perception hardware, HiPhi Z is fully equipped with 32 driving assistance sensors:
- 1 lidar
- 5 millimeter-wave radars
- 12 ultrasonic radars
- 13 cameras
- 1 three-zone disengagement detection sensor
“When facing complex and changing traffic environments and driving conditions, different sensors can achieve information complementation, enabling AI to more comprehensively and effectively understand the environment around the vehicle and the driver’s state, thus making more reliable decisions and planning,” Wu Qifeng added.
Based on this mainstream assisted driving system, and HiPhi’s continuous self-research direction, HiPhi is currently developing intelligent summoning, traffic light recognition, auxiliary control, and destination navigation assisted driving functions, which are planned to be launched in 2023.
After the launch of these functions, HiPhi will further connect the scenes, interconnecting these scattered functions, reducing manual intervention and function withdrawal, and ultimately forming point-to-point assisted driving functions covering urban, highway, and parking scenarios.
One is the cool interaction design like Gundam, the other is the clever HiPhi Bot robot like Jarvis. The combination of the two is exactly the way HiPhi imagines cars in 2041.
In this fiercely competitive race, innovation is obviously the most basic and competitive element.
But can the price of 600,000 to 800,000 yuan make it easy for people to chew?
A product that satisfies the attributes of a mask, toy, and tool at the same time is the tone that HiPhi is trying to create for the “domestic electric ceiling”.In the HiPhi X, designs such as the NT dual-opening doors and ISD projection lights are unique technologies in the industry.
As a pure electric vehicle with a positioning of a 4/6-seat mid-to-large-sized SUV, the HiPhi X should target the market of models such as Volkswagen ID.6 and Audi Q5 e-tron. However, with a price range of 570,000 to 800,000 yuan, it has rewritten the price of domestic electric vehicles.
The HiPhi Z also features unique technological innovations, such as the second-generation PML programmable intelligent headlights and the HiPhi Bot robot.
As a vehicle that combines performance and style, the GT has always been a unique presence among sports cars, with brands such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Ferrari being leaders in the GT field.
However, for GT models with a positioning of four doors, only luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi are available on the market, including the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, BMW 3/5/6 series GT, and Audi e-tron GT.
When we focus on pure electric vehicle models, only the Porsche Taycan and the Tesla Model S Plaid are comparable.
Compared with the traditional brand Porsche Taycan, which costs more than 800,000 yuan, the HiPhi Z wins in terms of price and intelligence.
Compared with the million-yuan Tesla Model S Plaid, the HiPhi Z mainly wins in terms of price.
However, in terms of brand value, HiPhi still has room for improvement.
Therefore, we can also recognize that the HiPhi Z, with a pre-sale price of 600,000 to 800,000 yuan, is still targeting a relatively “unclaimed” market, and its greatest potential is to compete with traditional luxury brands in the high-end market.
The number of pure electric cars priced above 500,000 yuan is small, let alone when we add another 100,000 yuan to the price, which leaves even less space for this niche market.
With 500,000 yuan as the base, the overall sales of the passenger car market in 2021 exceeded 20 million. If we refine it to the price range above 500,000 yuan, it only accounts for 4% of the entire market (1.054 million units).
If we further refine it to the new energy field, it becomes even more niche.
In 2021, the sales volume of luxury brand and new force high-end new energy vehicles was 617,000 units, of which the sales volume of pure electric vehicles was 465,000 units. These two numbers respectively account for only 2.9% and 2.2% of the passenger car market.
For example, Porsche Taycan, a brand with a history of a hundred years, only sold 40,000 units in the global market last year.
After the blind pre-order of the Gaohe HiPhi Z was launched, it was rumored that the number of pre-orders exceeded 500 units. Even if it could have a 100% conversion rate, this may already be its best sales performance.
Covering the price range of 500,000-800,000 yuan with two consecutive products, Gaohe’s dual flagship mode is rare among new players in the industry. NIO and Tesla are among the few, but the latter has already expanded its scale through the sinking market.
Gaohe needs to prove its “maverick” through market performance.
Is it easy to take the road of being a maverick?
At the 2022 China Automotive Blue Book Forum, Ding Lei believed that there will only be more challenges left for Chinese car companies.
For example, in the past, vehicle model, engine, and chassis control system were the focus of car manufacturing. Now, the focus is on how to create a specific scenario experience, whether or not to self-develop, and whether or not to include chips…
Faced with the entry of industries such as the Internet, IT, and mobile phones, engine displacement and space size are no longer the first choices of consumers.
Gaohe takes “liking innovation” as its brand spirit and likes to call each model a “work” rather than a “product” because it represents Gaohe’s perception of “new high-end luxury”.
From the initial “smart car, smart road, and smart city” three-intelligence strategy to today’s exploration of the future intelligent and technological development of cars, Gaohe’s strategic change is based on foresight of product development trends and functional considerations.
Ding Lei said that when entering other segmented markets, the first consideration is how a work can resonate with users, rather than defining a product based on price.
In other words, “new high-end luxury” is about creating a future-oriented product.
As Ding Lei said, starting from scratch in the new era, we have the most say in how to create a future-oriented car.
Talking about the “future” to the outside world is inevitably somewhat empty, so Gaohe takes “scene-defined design”, “software-defined car”, and “co-creation-defined value” as its brand concept.
From defining design by indicators and functions in the past to defining design by scenarios today, Gaohe’s vision is to no longer let users adapt to cars, but to let cars meet users’ needs.
Ding Lei said that Gaohe not only wants to break the monopoly of overseas luxury brands for half a century, but also wants to create a world brand from China. From “wanting to go higher” to “liking to create,” Gaohe is proving itself.Therefore, by its own efforts, GAC Aion pushed the price of domestic new energy vehicles to over 800,000 yuan, which is referred to as innovation in a concept that is difficult for ordinary people to understand, and GAC Aion has taken a unique path.
Looking at the global automotive market today, it is difficult to find a second GAC Aion.
Compared with other new players, GAC Aion always gives people a sense of “composure”, without worrying about technology, funding, and sales.
But the automobile industry is ultimately an industry that requires scale for profit. The cumulative sales of GAC Aion HiPhi X are only 6,272 vehicles so far, with average monthly sales of less than 500 vehicles.
Making cars is already a super burnout game. Even though Ding Lei has repeatedly stated that GAC Aion is not short of money and funding for listing, product sinking is undoubtedly the most solid direction.
Although the entry point is the high-end market of 600,000 to 800,000 yuan, GAC Aion hopes to make Chinese brands cover from high-end to entry-level, and make good cars that everyone can afford.
From “evolutionary” to “digital life”, GAC Aion is telling how to refresh the transition of the old and new era of the automotive industry in its own way.
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.