Text by Joey

In 2021, an Apple-1, assembled by Steve Jobs himself in 1976, was successfully auctioned for a whopping $400,000.

This old household computer has now become a pile of “industrial waste”. After all, times have changed, and now an iPhone 14 with a A-series chip probably outperforms the Apple-1 in computing power. But for Apple, the spirit of Steve Jobs, his unwavering belief in the future, and his continuous pursuit of technology are the consistent and integral part of the company’s DNA.

As Steve Jobs said, “customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This is also the reason why collectors are so crazy about and attracted to those products.

In short, buying a decades-old computer, or even an iPhone that has long been surpassed by many other smartphone manufacturers in functionality, is nothing but a passion and love for Apple, for Steve Jobs, and, to put it more severely, a pursuit and love for those who are dedicated to innovation and technology.

Of course, such stories are not only happening to Steve Jobs…

Technology is the core support for the first echelon

Several years ago, Qian Yingyi, a famous economist who was then the dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, had a conversation with Elon Musk.

In this debate, Qian Yingyi talked about sending people to Mars, the significance of the character X for Musk, and his proposal for a super high-speed rail technology. But what was most interesting and what people wanted to find out the most was his question about Space X: How did you, an outsider of the rocket industry, become a rocket expert in a short time?

Regardless of the answer, this is obviously a challenging question that is in line with Musk’s life experience. After all, from PayPal to Tesla, and then to Space X, Musk’s road to success has never been repeated, but each step seems to have been very smooth. Inevitably, he has the ability to capture and seize opportunities with keen insights into the development trends of different industries. What is more important is that each time he can create a product that is technologically more advanced and can change the industry landscape.The secret to success lies in believing in constant innovation and advanced technology, which will inevitably be accepted by the market. This concept has not only shaped their success, but inspired many others.

Among these people are Li Bin from NIO, He XPeng from Xpeng, and Li Xiang from Li Auto. Like Musk, they have never built cars before, but they firmly believe that they have an important opportunity as the auto industry is at a crossroads of change. They will leave their mark in the future history of the automotive industry. Obviously, at this stage, they have all achieved this goal.

At the same time, there is another person who is also qualified to join their ranks. That is the founder of Zeropark, Zhu Jiangming.

Zhu Jiangming had never had any knowledge or experience related to building cars before founding Zeropark. At the beginning of the car building process, he didn’t even know what kind of talent to recruit from the job market. However, one thing was certain, and that was to use Tesla as a target to catch up to, and produce products that were technically better and in line with the characteristics and market demands of new energy and smart technologies. This is an important goal of Zeropark.

For many people, their familiarity with Zeropark comes from their hottest selling product, the ZP T03. However, more people should know that Zeropark has never given up on pursuing and researching its own technology while selling this widely popular product.

As early as 2019, Zeropark announced that it was the second manufacturer to have complete independent research and development capabilities and master core technologies for intelligent electric vehicles after Tesla.

Over the years, Zeropark has achieved modular and platform-based development of underlying software and hardware through its comprehensive self-research. Zeropark’s factory has complete production capabilities from core components to the entire vehicle, enabling the independent design, development, and manufacturing of core systems and electronic components including electric drive systems, battery systems, autonomous driving systems, and intelligent cockpit systems. This has enabled Zeropark to quickly apply the latest self-developed technology to all intelligent electric vehicle models. This is Zeropark’s “comprehensive self-research”.

It is precisely due to their pursuit of technology and their desire to master core technology that Zeropark has gradually emerged from the elimination round of new car brands and become one of the top brands with high sales volume in the new car industry.

Now, with the full maturity of its self-developed technology, Zeropark has entered a new phase.

Between value and price, Zeropark is trying to find the true order.

The new era began on September 28th, with the release of the ORA C01 model.

This time, the ORA C01 model offers five different versions within the price range of 183,800 to 276,800 yuan, with the main differences between the versions being found in the battery capacity, and the single or double motors. In addition, all versions come equipped with over 80 intelligent and luxurious features, including standard hardware with 28 high-precision sensors, and 23 intelligent driving assistant functions, as well as suede headliners, Nappa leather steering wheels, and panoramic skylights, covering every aspect from the exterior design to interior décor, to intelligent entertainment and safety features.

In essence, before, the most important features defining the pricing of different versions were obtained through add-ons, however, ORA has made all of these features standard, aiming to achieve the goal of “entry-level ready-to-use high-end.” From this perspective, the ORA C01 can be viewed as a “phenomenal” product within the ORA range.

In the words of Japan’s management guru, Kazuo Inamori: “Establishing a price system that customers can accept is the path to a successful business.” In essence, “pricing is the starting point of everything.” This is not only related to the future development of companies but also mostly to what customers can get from the same amount of money.

So, how does ORA answer this question? Contextualization is a very interesting interpretation direction.

At the launch event of the ORA C01, ORA created various virtual scenarios using online tools, displaying a variety of contexts including outdoor business travel, free leisure, and family life, highlighting the versatility and extensive applicability of the product.

For example, the large body size of 5050mm and NVH optimization, together with Nappa leather seats, highlight the car’s executive image; AI face recognition and the associated 25 user-preferred settings, combined with the digitized cockpit equipped with the 8155P chip, create a strong digital entertainment feature in the “3D Little Zero”.

The variable architecture, high-performance twin-oil-cooled electric drive of the Zero Run C01 is capable of delivering a maximum power of 400kW and a maximum torque of 720Nm, adjoined by a 0.226Cd ultra-low air resistance, carbon fibre set, 4-piston aluminum performance calipers, 20-inch sport wheels, and a maximum acceleration from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.66 seconds. This model emphasizes superior driving control and user value in its products.

The emergence of the Zero Run C01 underlines the company’s complete transformation and change from brands, markets, to products in order to provide customers with more value-driven products, thereby re-establishing its product and pricing system.

More valuable products represent a significance beyond products

On the product level, the launch of the Zero Run C01 is a breakthrough in intelligence, performance, and scene specialization levels, utilizing better pricing to provide consumers with more value-driven products. Across multiple dimensions, the missions and tasks undertaken by the Zero Run C01 extend far beyond this. For example, on the technological front, Zero Run has achieved greater breakthroughs with its CTC battery-chassis integrated technology.

Zero Run Automotive Chairman Zhu Jiangming said, “Zero Run’s innovation must be based on the differences between electric and fuel-powered cars, not blindly innovating.” The CTC battery chassis integrated technology may satisfy the aforementioned mission and tasks of Zero Run, ultimately.

In April of this year, Zero Run released the CTC technology that can integrate battery, chassis, and underbody design together. Using this technology, Zero Run greatly reduces the installation gaps between battery packs and the car body, giving space to effectively increase the size of the battery pack. The reduction of battery and cabin structure allows for more battery insulation layer designs, improving winter endurance performance and effectively reducing user range anxiety.

Through this technology, Zero Run has solved the redundant structural design of electric cars at the chassis level. Improvements in chassis space utilization and system-specific energy conversion rates can also significantly improve the battery’s ability to absorb shock, while the car’s torsional rigidity can increase by 25% and the car’s overall weight can be reduced by 15kg.Obviously, we cannot simply regard CTC as a technological improvement for electric vehicles. More often, it may compete with battery swap technology and sliding chassis technology, and the integrated thinking behind this competition reflects the emphasis and pursuit of Zhu Jiangming and his team at Leapmotor on electric vehicle technology. Equipped with CTC, the Leapmotor C01 has become a “masterpiece” showcasing its self-developed achievements and an excellent platform for technical demonstrations.

At the enterprise level, the launch of the Leapmotor C01 has significantly enriched Leapmotor’s product line and signaled a more competitive player in the 300,000 yuan price range where competition is intensified with other rivals like Tesla, NIO and XPeng. This demonstrates Leapmotor’s confidence in “self-developed” technology.

At the market level, Leapmotor has introduced a balanced and versatile technology and configuration that can create rich scenarios. In short, in the choice of products in the same level market competition, the Leapmotor C01 wants to establish a new order of price and value for new energy intelligent vehicles, by providing more reasonable consumption to gain richer application scenarios and higher product and usage value.

Where is the value of technology?

It lies in the fact that after 45 years, people are still willing to pay a fortune to buy an electronic product that has long been useless and regard it as an art piece to be preserved and treasured. It lies in the fact that anyone who masters this technology can enter any promising field and lead new conversations. More importantly, it relies on technology to create new value, break the inherent balance of the market, and establish its own new order.

Today, Leapmotor has successfully gone public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as the fourth new force to be listed. From submitting the listing application to formally being listed, Leapmotor only took 6 months, and the core reason for this smooth transition lies in its self-developed technological route. Judging from the net fundraising of HKD 6.057 billion from this public offering of shares, Leapmotor has a good chance of truly joining the first-tier of new emerging players.And the product is also the best embodiment of core technology. Therefore, for LI, the significance of C01 goes far beyond being just a new car. It represents the concentration of LI’s self-developed technology and pioneers the exploration of a brand new market. Furthermore, it establishes the order in the process of LI attempting to establish a closer connection with consumers. This is the real importance of LI C01 to LI.

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.