Let’s talk about Geely’s Evolution Night
Last night’s Geely Community was as lively as the New Year. Several car owners’ groups became “…” if they didn’t check the information for a while. Of course, I myself was very happy and excited. Looking back at this press conference, from the preheating stage to the official opening of the conference, the core idea of the marketing plan was to make car owners feel that the cars they purchased can maintain their advanced nature, be worthwhile, and even feel that they have taken advantage of the main factory, thus recognizing the brand value of Geely. I believe that it can be written into MBA textbooks as a classic case. As an old car owner, today I dare to talk about Geely’s Evolution Night.
Intelligent Anti-Skid System
Congcong started with this topic. In fact, as a car owner, the biggest feeling I have in terms of mechanical quality is that the car is easy to drive, comfortable, and the chassis suspension filter makes it feel more advanced, like a BBA executive sedan. As a family-oriented car, I am already satisfied with the current state. The Intelligent Anti-Skid System enhances the limit of control. With the example of ice and snow circular road, it can continuously improve the vehicle performance on the basis of the existing system, which is something I never thought of. As a southern car owner who doesn’t see ice and snow all year round, this upgrade doesn’t have much effect on me, and I won’t drive so fiercely in my daily life anyway. It’s like the 3.8S 0-100 acceleration, which I can do without in my daily life, but you have to have it.
Lightning Switching System
Do you feel betrayed? The answer is yes and no. On the issue of choosing the motor for the ES11 last year, the official actually released news through some media that the Vision Star series would receive more OTA updates in the future, after all, it was their own child. In the end, I also chose oil cooling between water cooling and oil cooling. Even if Geely allowing old car owners to upgrade their cars with the new system, I won’t feel too unfair psychologically. Moreover, Geely has not allowed old car owners to upgrade, mainly considering the selling point after the increase in the car price. **The confusing part is since the new U has added this function, why not just cancel the electric motor instead? It even allows U version users to choose. If it is a supply agreement issue, Geely could have let WE version users digest it. As for the range? From the CLTC conditions of use test results, the range with the Lightning Switching System only increased by 32KM, and I am willing to believe that the extra 32KM is caused by changes in the test rules. The significance of this upgrade should be mainly in two aspects. First, Geely is showing off its muscles, “See, we can achieve the conversion of rear-drive, part-time four-wheel drive, and full-time four-wheel drive with two permanent magnet synchronous motors, industry-leading!” Second, it caters to a small number of users who love driving, giving them more choices.
8155 Chip
Firstly, I refute the opinion that this is something that should have been done well by GEEKZOLOGY before it is handed over to users. I admit that this view has some validity, but throughout the new energy vehicle industry, everyone defaults to exchanging time for space in order to compete for the market and users. I do not deny that the car system developed by GEEKZOLOGY is currently the worst among the popular new energy vehicle brands on the market. I can even say that if they don’t improve, this brand may decline before it even develops. But so what? As long as the OEM continues to constantly update and iterate on the OTA experience for users, they will not be left behind in the new energy vehicle market. Nothing is achieved overnight. You can’t expect the style of work of a company that has just established an Internet mindset to be as sophisticated as that of a successful entrepreneur who comes from the Internet industry. Mr. Cong said that the 8155 chip was launched from the very beginning when the project was established. On the contrary, I personally think this is just his words. At last year’s press conference, they were confident about using the 820AP chip, and they emphasized multiple times that the chip they used was different from others because it had an additional “P”. It was said that it would definitely get better when the car was delivered. But what was the situation after that? If you look at any major forums, you will find that there are countless complaints about the car system. This made them change their statement and announced that the 8155 chip was already in intense development. I have expressed my opinion on the car’s delays more than once. The most important thing is that, in addition to hardware, software optimization is the key to improving the situation. XPeng and Ideal, which also use 820A, are better than GEEKZOLOGY in terms of software optimizations for their car systems. From the videos of car owners who have upgraded to the 8155 chip, it can be seen that the transition animation has still not been added, but at least the smoothness is commendable. As long as OTA continua, I firmly believe that the transition animation will be added in the future. I would like to call the current GEEKZOLOGY 001 “Iron Warriors” because of their ability to transform in six ways. Moreover, the improvement in sound quality is also significant, which solves the problem of the native Android SRC. I will definitely upgrade and experience it carefully.
Winning the reputation of all users with 300 million RMB. How did other car companies do it before today? The largest player who likes to educate car owners directly switched over and abandoned its old customers. Companies that tout user experience with prices over 9,000 and a desire for 5G have the nerve to quote such prices – who wants to be friends with you if you don’t have the money? A start-up brand, also backed by a large factory, offered a so-called cost price of 5,000, which seems quite reasonable compared to the companies mentioned above. As for Zeekr, it was not surprising that it offered its product for free. From the perspective of an ordinary car owner, when someone asked me about the car, I usually responded that it’s pretty good if you use it as a gasoline car, but there is still some gap compared to the so-called intelligent EV, with many functions not perfect, and some minor bugs that do not affect driving safety need to be overcome. If you want to buy, it’s best to experience it thoroughly before making a decision. I believe that many ordinary users share my thoughts and are not impulsive to replace durable consumer goods. After the launch of the 0 Yuan purchase, the last shortcoming of the car is basically solved for free. Those users who are still in a wait-and-see attitude can safely place an order now, and those who have already received their cars but are worried can continue to maintain the quality of the car. I believe that many people are still willing to help Zeekr with free publicity and conversion into non-staff sales.
I didn’t understand what SEA Platform meant by “continuous evolution throughout the entire lifecycle” when it was announced. Seeing the modular replacement this time, I suddenly understood. This is because Zeekr considered the upgrade problem brought about by the performance decay of the vehicle’s chips at the beginning of the design, and I don’t think Zeekr imagined that it would happen so soon! After all, they were quite confident about the 820AP last year. If the 800V platform becomes popular in the future, Zeekr can still modularly replace and upgrade to the 800V platform. I dare not think about it. Don’t cut me off, I’m just dreaming.
Advanced Driver Assistance System
Compared to these features such as the antelope evasion, what I am more concerned about is how well the L2 level of the ADAS is. From the various media videos, some are good and some are bad, and I can’t comment since I haven’t tried it myself. Let’s base everything on personal experience!
Co-creation of ME Model by Users
Last year, I thought that the ME version would be a car that had better performance and was more suitable for the next track than the YOU version. It had carbon ceramic brakes, rear-wheel steering, and double-clutch transmission. However, it turned out to be a downgraded version of the YOU model, with air suspension and electric doors removed. At the time when the minimum threshold for a fully equipped YOU model was 400,000 yuan, a model priced around 350,000 yuan was truly needed. From the user’s perspective, last year’s extreme generosity to open the market was indeed too much. Even the airbags for the air suspension were covered under lifetime warranty. This year, airbags are no longer covered, and automatic doors will cause collision in some scenarios. The ME model seems to be a car created to meet the needs of potential users, rather than a user co-creation project.
Regarding physical keys, can a card key be enough? I personally think that it depends on the adaptation of the mobile phone key. If the mobile phone key works well, then it’s enough; otherwise, it’s not. Obviously, Extreme adopts the latter. When I first picked up the car, I used a Samsung Note10+, but I had to use my old iPhone XS because I was often punished for standing. However, it didn’t work either. The explanation given by the manufacturer was that there are too many models of mobile phones, and they cannot be adapted one by one. Finally, I had to buy a new Xiaomi 11U in April, and it worked well due to the upgrades of the car’s system. Knowing that there are too many models of mobile phones to be adapted, why not offer a physical key? The manufacturer only needs to adapt to this one key, and the mobile phone key can be adapted gradually. If a physical key was included when delivering the car, I believe Extreme would not receive such harsh criticism. This can be regarded as a compensation from Extreme to its users.
We should give more time to enterprises that have good quality, think from the user’s perspective, and solve problems. Be friends with time, watch the ups and downs, and take things lightly. After watching the conference, as a supporter of Extreme, will you continue to support Extreme, and will you buy and recommend Extreme’s products in the future? If the answer is yes, then congratulations, Extreme has succeeded today.
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.