The New Forces of the Auto Industry: A Changing Landscape

The term “new forces” no longer has much to do with the word “new”. Counting on our fingers, we can see that the so-called new carmakers are now almost ten years old. Time flies, and the once-new carmakers are no longer new at all.

As behavior changes with time, some rules in the old car-making world, like changing the shell and name to become a new generation or cutting entry-level configurations to lower prices, are now appearing in new car brands, even among leading new brands.

Meanwhile, traditional car companies have also launched new independent brands, starkly different from their old image. To gain attention and competitiveness, they sometimes seem even more “new” than new carmakers. There is no absolute new force, only relative newness. No matter where they come from, there will always be younger and fresher competition behind them.

On the other hand, these “newer new forces” can rely on the experience and accumulation of traditional big companies while avoiding the mistakes and pitfalls of the first wave of new carmakers. They are more competitive than old brands and newer than new carmakers.

The Power of Choice

At the birth and early development of new carmakers, compared to traditional car companies with multiple levels of configurations ranging from four or five to over ten, new carmakers tended to provide only “one option, one price” with “full-series standard configuration” as their main selling point.

Objectively speaking, both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. However, in the context of new carmakers flourishing, people seem to only see the significant reduction of choice anxiety brought about by “one option, one price.” They overlook the fact that unified configuration and reduced level-setting actually reduces consumer choice.

While the ad shows consumers saying, “I want them all,” in reality, most consumers are just ordinary people with different needs and preferences. Thus, the fewer levels and gradations of car configurations, the more likely it is that consumers will have to pay for features they do not need.

New car brands tend to standardize most hardware, reducing the number of SKUs and simplifying the consumer decision-making process. Even today, when expensive hardware like LIDAR starts to appear, some new carmakers choose to make it a full-series standard, regardless of whether consumers need advanced driver-assist functions that utilize LIDAR or whether other non-LIDAR functions are available at the highest level.Translate the following Markdown Chinese text into English Markdown text, with a professional approach, preserving the HTML tags inside Markdown and outputting only the results

Sometimes, even higher-level features that truly depend on lidar technology will have to wait for OTA. There will certainly be consumers willing to pay for the future, but there will also be consumers who are not willing to pay in advance. A unified configuration obviously takes away the right to choose freely. In another parallel world where lidar is not a standard feature, the basic version of the car may cost tens of thousands less.

In fact, this single configuration strategy is faltering. New entrants who once proclaimed “one configuration, one price” are now launching Pro and Max versions for the same model. Some brands not only don’t have lidar as a standard feature across their series, but also try to offer their main intelligent driving assistance only for mid-to-high-end models, and ultimately abandon it in response to public opinion.

The ability of traditional car companies to control consumer demand, especially their experience in setting hierarchical configurations, coupled with their complete control over the supply chain and pre-sale and after-sale services, enables them to easily create rational vehicle configuration plans that meet the needs of as many consumers as possible. At the same time, unlike the new entrants who are generally still losing money, traditional car companies do not face severe and urgent pressures to raise their average prices.

Take the Fevuan R7, which originated from SAIC Group and has just been launched. In addition to lidar, the brand new Fevuan R7 also comes standard with the mass-produced Premium 4D Imaging Radar for the first time. The powerful perception capabilities given by the 4D imaging radar enable the R7 to achieve high-end intelligent driving functions without relying on lidar.

Returning the choice to the user is not just about wielding the configuration cleaver, otherwise the functional disadvantages will also deter consumers. By leveraging the debut of the adoption of the Continental Premium 4D Imaging Radar in the Chinese market and making it a standard feature across the series, the Fevuan R7 offers intelligent driving assistance hardware across the board and an optional high-end intelligent driving software package, while offering lidar hardware as an optional package and giving consumers the right to choose.

As a new high-end intelligent driving sensor, 4D imaging radar can provide point-cloud perception capability by increasing the number of transmitting and receiving channels. This capability allows it to obtain and output four parameters: distance, speed, azimuth, and altitude. Compared to 3D radar, the detection rate of static objects has increased greatly, and the recognition and classification of front objects is also improved.

Flyaway R7 is the first model in the series to be equipped with the Premium 4D Imaging Radar, which has a maximum detection distance of 350 meters and is not affected by light; the precise point cloud imaging detection method can obtain height data of objects. Because of the 4D Imaging Radar that comes standard in the entire series, Flyaway R7 can achieve advanced autonomous driving functions without relying on LiDAR.

Therefore, it is only with the 4D imaging radar that Flyaway can return the choice of LiDAR back to consumers, who can choose according to their budget and preferences whether to look forward to LiDAR’s future possibilities or make full use of the capabilities of the 4D imaging radar to save costs.

True freedom is not just about “having it when you want it,” but also “being able to live without it.” The “LiDAR freedom” granted to consumers by Flyaway R7 is based on the standard 4D imaging radar. Therefore, for Flyaway RISING PILOT autonomous driving system, LiDAR is no longer necessary. Even the initial version of RISING PILOT has already entered the top tier of the industry, and Flyaway R7, which is already on the market, can achieve high-speed navigation function in stock.

For consumers who choose LiDAR, Flyaway R7 can also be optionally equipped with the world’s first mass-produced LUMINAR 1550nm wavelength LiDAR. Its maximum detection distance reaches 500 meters, far exceeding the current mainstream of 200 meters, and the 1550nm laser wavelength is also safer than the existing 905nm, which is almost harmless to the human eye.

From the first application of the Continental Premium 4D imaging radar, we can see that “new forces” like Flyaway, although born out of traditional large manufacturers, are more active in pursuing new technologies than the so-called “new forces” of the past. After its transformation, Flyaway, out of its time anxiety and “convert zealotry” as a newcomer, is often more aggressive and competitive than old brands.

EA-EV, which has just become completely independent from Guangqi and revealed a new logo, has taken the lead among Chinese electric vehicle brands to enter the supercar market with prices over a million. Groud-Up Auto has also become the first to offer free replacement of the Snapdragon 8155 chip to car owners, paving the way for free chip upgrades and regaining “people’s hearts”, which has made many new energy vehicle owners envious.# The launch of FF R7 today has reached new heights, directly using the same RISING MAX 3+1 giant screen system as Mercedes-Benz EQS, combined with RISING OS interactive system, making FF R7 become the “screen dominator” in the intelligent cockpit field. With Snapdragon 8155 chip, it achieves a smooth smart cockpit experience, with smoothness comparable to or even surpassing some new forces.

Once upon a time, battery swapping technology appeared in everyone’s vision due to some new force brands, which once triggered the debate of “supercharging vs. battery swapping”, but then it fell into a lonely struggle. Since then, no heavyweight car company has invested in the battery swapping track, but instead bet heavily on the ultra-high-voltage and high-power supercharging line.

Even among the new forces, there is no more support for the battery-swapping army. It was not until new brands such as FF and Rui Lan, born from traditional factories, entered the battery swapping industry that battery swapping once again ushered in a turning point, and the competition with the supercharging line was restarted. FF is not only a new energy brand that supports battery swapping, but also cooperates with China Petroleum and China Petrochemical to jointly invest CNY 4 billion to establish a joint venture company-Jieneng Zhide.

Compared with the supercharging line, the battery swapping line can easily achieve a qualitative leap in the speed of replenishing energy for electric vehicles. FF’s self-developed QUICK CLICK reinforced battery quick swap patent is more advanced than the existing battery swapping technology of other brands, which can complete the quick swap in just 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and can switch with no need to get off the vehicle, without interrupting the air conditioning and audio experience during the battery swap process.

Compared with the supercharging which has a huge load and extremely high renovation requirements for existing infrastructure such as the power grid, the difficult problems of infrastructure construction for battery swapping are concentrated in the layout density and unified standards of battery swapping stations. As the first strategic cooperation partner of Jieneng Zhide, FF can rely on the dense network of more than 50,000 gas stations owned by “Two Barrels of Oil” to quickly promote the establishment of battery swapping stations. In September 2022, the first FF battery-swapping experience station has been built in the Anting Delivery Center in Shanghai. By 2023, there will be 300 stations, and by 2025, there will be more than 3000 stations.

With more advanced and exclusive battery swapping technology, coupled with the strategic cooperation with “Two Barrels of Oil”, FF’s participation has given the battery swapping camp a huge possibility to break away from being a minority and become mainstream. The battle between battery swapping and supercharging, which has been interrupted for a long time, has thus been reopened.Tonight at the product launch event, RisingAuto announced an unexpected surprise. Users who lock in RisingAuto R7 by December 31, 2022, will enjoy a lifetime free experience of RISING PILOT, a fully integrated high-end intelligent driving software system worth 30,000 yuan (including highway/city navigation assistance, parking memory, valet parking, and intelligent summoning).

This is a loyal user feedback in return for the core advantage function, which is more updated and more hardworking than others.

Conclusion

In fact, there has never been an absolute new force or old force in the world. Any car company, as long as it continues to survive, will slowly become “old”, so naturally there is no new or old. What is new and old are people and thinking, and the concept and spirit of the car companies. Just as we have always called the new forces, today they are also beginning to compromise with old habits for survival.

And the so-called traditional car companies in people’s mouths are also nurturing a new generation of “new new forces”. They are sometimes more proactive than the previous new forces, while also picking the essence of the “old world” that the new forces once ignored, and returning the freedom of choice to consumers.

It is only with such a two-way running and collision that mutual integration will occur, and the world will no longer have new or old distinctions. In the end, there will only be superior business concepts and more perfect product forms.

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.