Issue No.6

On September 9th, I participated in the test drive of Avita 11 in Shanghai.
As the Avita empowered by “Three Giants” – Changan, Huawei, and CATL, how strong is its first product?

Elegance

Straight lines and curves are the two basic elements that draw the contour of a car, resulting in two classic design styles: sharpness and elegance. Represented by Lamborghini and Ferrari, respectively.
Obviously, Avita 11 belongs to the elegant type.

Recently, Ferrari announced its first SUV, and some people said: isn’t it just Avita? It shows that Avita’s design is indeed remarkable.
I talked with Avita’s designers about the Avita 11’s design.

The most challenging part of designing an electric car is the front face, because it uses a closed design, making it difficult to differentiate. Avita 11’s solution is the headlights. It uses a highly recognizable F-shaped curve headlight.
In fact, making differentiation through headlights has become the choice of more and more car companies. From this trend, the role of headlights will be similar to the grille before.

Avita 11’s sporty SUV positioning is reflected in the side and rear.
Avita 11 uses the classic supercar-style liftback design of a high body and low window on the side. The most difficult part of this posture is the C-pillar. Many domestic liftback cars have failed here, but Avita’s handling is relatively simple and neat; the intersection of the upper and lower body is coordinated.

Other highlights of Avita 11’s side design include hidden door handles (in fact, it is already a standard for advanced intelligent electric cars in 2022), laser radar on the fender (it is probably the most pleasing arrangement of laser radar currently), and according to Avita’s designers, there is a millimeter-wave radar integrated under the door.

I think Avita 11’s most revolutionary design is the rear. It does not use a conventional liftback design, but compresses the rear window and folds the tailgate. The upper part is horizontally arranged, and the lower part is still the conventional vertical surface. Among domestic cars, this design is quite bold, but the effect is indeed great.

This sudden inspiration design makes Avita 11 not just an ordinary sporty SUV but also has the style of a supercar.Although this design brings exceptional performance, there are advantages and disadvantages in engineering: the advantage is having enough space to arrange the spoiler (Avita 11 is the first domestic intelligent electric vehicle with a spoiler); the disadvantage is that the space of the rear window is compressed, so electronic rearview mirrors are used in the car.

Regarding the spoiler of Avita 11, it is usually designed to be hidden but will automatically activate at high speeds. Additionally, it can be manually or voice activated (which is probably the coolest way to use voice activation).

For excellent car design, distinctive local design is the first layer and a highly coordinated global design is the second layer. On top of that is some inspiration.

Avita 11 undoubtedly belongs to the third layer, which is rare for domestic hatchbacks. The only downside is that Avita 11 was designed by Avita’s global design center in Munich, Germany, and domestic designers need to add to it.

Changan’s design has erupted in recent years and provided this classic design to Avita 11, even establishing a separate brand for it. This is a common but effective approach. Switching from gasoline to electric, or even mediocre design, would not provide Avita, a brand new high-end brand, with power in a short period of time. However, the difficulty lies in the need for continuous updates and not breaking continuity.

Style

Just like its appearance, Avita 11’s cabin design is also full of style.

First is the front-row cabin. Although Avita 11 features a three-screen design, they are not connected. The center control screen is set up separately, and the driver’s screen is connected to the passenger screen through an air conditioning vent called Vortex Emotion Flow. Compared to the fancy up-and-down screen of the Landtu, Avita’s emotion flow appears to be more artistic and less monotonous than a regular “three-screen” configuration.

The gold-encrusted steering wheel, roller, shifter, integrated rain and headlights, window regulators, seat switches, and other Avita 11 front-seat design elements are both cutting-edge and stylish. I think this should be the basic color for a luxury intelligent electric vehicle.

Regarding center control operation, Avita 11 basically uses the “zero button” method. However, we are not sure about the performance of its stability system and whether it will crash. In fact, many new brands like Avita combine buttons with touch screens to build a foundation of user habits, but perhaps it is due to Huawei’s support that Avita is so confident.# Avita 11: A New Standard for High-end New Energy Vehicles

Regarding the rear compartment, Avita 11 is available in both 5-seater and 4-seater configurations. I tested the 4-seater version and it boasts an adjustable seat angle range of up to 40 degrees and good comfort.

However, despite the 2975mm wheelbase, the rear space on the Avita 11 is not as spacious as expected, which may be due to the elongated rear seats.

In addition, the Avita 11 is equipped with electric suction doors and a borderless design, taking style to the limit.

It is safe to say that every function of the Avita 11 is a manifestation of the brand’s pursuit of style. For those who demand luxury and refinement, the Avita 11 is a top choice in its class.

RNC

In the face of Changan, Huawei, and CATL, some people would consider Avita to be just all show and no substance. However, it has its own unique technology: RNC – Road Noise Cancellation.

The principle of RNC technology is to collect road noise data through vibration sensors and microphones placed in specific parts of the chassis, calculate and analyze it with the independent amplifier DSP chip and self-developed algorithm in the car, and then generate active sound waves from the car’s speakers to reduce road noise and create a quiet in-car environment.

During the test, with RNC active noise reduction turned on, the Avita 11 saw a comprehensive decrease in road noise (40-500Hz) and a reduction of 3 decibels in total sound pressure level and 13 decibels in peak sound pressure level, achieving a leading level of quietness in its class.

Currently, only a few luxury brands use active road noise reduction technology, and Avita is the first domestic high-end new energy brand to adopt this technology.

According to Avita’s engineers, RNC technology is three times more difficult than the well-known ANC technology.

To demonstrate the RNC technology, Avita arranged a short road test drive. Although I personally did not notice a significant difference, another female teacher who rode along confirmed that there was indeed a reduction in road noise.

Given that electric vehicles have a natural advantage of lower noise than fuel cars, the significance and necessity of developing RNC technology for EVs is still worth debating.Translate the following Chinese Markdown text into English Markdown text in a professional manner, retaining HTML tags inside Markdown, and only output the results.

Of course, RNC technology is not easy. If the study is very deep, can we use RNC technology to reduce other noise reduction measures?

In addition, when experiencing RNC, I felt a lack of composure when going over manhole covers and speed bumps, and I felt the lack of a sense of luxury. There is still room for optimization in the chassis.

Test drive experience

The event site also arranged a simple test drive experience, including zero to 100 acceleration, deceleration, lateral slope, and cross-axis testing.

The Avita 11 is equipped with a Huawei DriveONE dual motor intelligent four-wheel drive system as standard, with a maximum power of 425 kW and a maximum torque of 650 Nm. The zero to 100 acceleration time is only 3.98 seconds.

Although the official zero to 100 acceleration data is less than 4 seconds, in the actual acceleration process, whether it is in standard mode or sport mode, compared to some extreme acceleration athletes, the Avita 11’s initial acceleration still lacks a sufficient sense of aggression.

In fact, I had the same feeling when test driving the M5 in the past, and it nearly had the same meaning. Is this a common problem with Huawei electric drive?

The Avita 11’s braking distance is less than 35 meters, and among its peers, it has excellent performance. However, the body posture is more pronounced when braking abruptly.

In the lateral slope test, the doors of the Avita 11 open freely, and the body stiffness withstands the test. In the cross-axis test, the Avita 11 also passed through with ease, and the four-wheel drive performance is solid.

Insight into electric drive

Recently, there have been occasional voices in the community saying that Avita is already half cold… This statement is too absolute, but it is not without basis. The inability to sustain the hype is indeed Avita’s dilemma.

As for the reasons behind this, the restrictions from state-owned enterprise Changan should be the first to blame, followed by the lack of experience in operating new energy and high-end brands. In fact, the operation of Changan’s new-energy sector is also difficult to call a success, so the difficulty of Avita is actually expected.

For example, the marketing strategy that people talk about the most, I also briefly discussed it with the Avita people on-site.

Avita 11 is positioned as an emotional intelligent electric coupe SUV, but what does “emotional” mean? Compared with concepts such as three-electric, intelligent, and even women and family, the emotion of Avita 11 is too vague and difficult to form a short-term connection with users.

It is really difficult for a brand new brand and an elusive product impression like Avita 11 to make people remember and even discuss it.The person also said that Avita adheres to long-termism. This statement is not wrong, but it is too vague. In the era of new energy revolution, if a new brand fails to make a strong impression at the beginning, it will be difficult to succeed since the threshold for launching a new brand is already quite low. Moreover, Avita is a brand with support from multiple parties. If the market feedback is not good, it will inevitably lead to a decrease in confidence from all sides.

Therefore, Avita can only rely on itself, and this requires the management team led by Tan Benhong to eliminate traditional restraints, actively embrace change, and find a breakthrough for the brand. Of course, this step is not easy, but as long as they keep moving forward, the story will always be a good one.

Many traditional car professionals are very disdainful of new forces, new things, and new ways of thinking. However, when they personally lead the way, they often encounter many difficulties, which makes people ponder deeply.

Recently, a marketing veteran in my friend group shared an article titled “It’s not that your brand is old, it’s just that you don’t know how to play anymore.” In fact, there is no boundary between new and old car manufacturing. The so-called boundary is just an excuse for being afraid of change.

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.