Author: Huangshan
Editor: Wang Lingfang
The sales of Geometry Motors have improved significantly.
From January to September, the cumulative sales of Geometry Motors were 104,200 vehicles, which is twice as much as the total sales for the whole year of last year.
Geometry Motors, which once claimed to produce “the best electric cars in the eastern hemisphere”, did not develop satisfactorily in the past two years. However, in 2021, the sales volume of Geometry Motors was only 49,500 vehicles. It seems that this year has ushered in a turning point.
This achievement was made with only a few car models, A, C, and E3. The challenge for Geometry Motors next is how to enter the more mainstream C-end market, keep up with their competitors’ pace of product development, and capture a larger pure electric market share.
Since its independence, Geometry Motors has always focused on the car market for models costing between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan. This market is also considered the most difficult market for pure electric models.
Because it is difficult to pull the product gap between pure electric models and oil car models with the same price, in the terminal market, we can also see that the domestic pure electric market is still a dumbbell-shaped structure, with A0, A00-level models costing less than 100,000 yuan and mid-to-high-end models costing more than 200,000 yuan dominating the market.
This requires pure electric models costing between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan to have both product competitiveness and differentiation.
At the Chengdu Auto Show in August this year, Geometry Motors launched two new models —— G6 and M6. At first glance, aren’t these just upgraded versions of A and C?
The appearance and interior have been fully upgraded with HarmonyOS car systems and advanced driving assistance. However, how much difference is there?
With this question in mind, I was invited to participate in the test drive experience of Geometry Motors’ G6/M6 before the National Day holiday. I drove about 180 kilometers throughout the day, covering city roads, highways, mountain roads, and other road conditions, which gave me a new understanding of this car.
Fill the gap in intelligentization
The test drive model this time was the top-of-the-line M6 version, and the biggest change compared to the Geometry C is to fill the gap in intelligentization.
On the one hand, it is the intelligent cockpit.
G6 and M6 are the first products of the strategic cooperation between Geometry Motors and Huawei. The entire series comes standard with the HarmonyOS car system from Huawei.
There are some changes in the experience of getting on the car. Geometry cleverly combines the scene of getting on the car with the startup. As long as you open the door, the car machine will be powered on and start up. After you sit in the car, the car machine is already on, and the startup speed is within 3 seconds without any waiting annoyance.
The 14.6-inch central control screen in the middle supports quick interface layout by sliding up, left and right, and the operation is extremely smooth. All APP applications that are available in the Huawei application market are supported.
With the Hongmeng car machine, the most significant improvement is in voice recognition and control. Just say “Xiao He Classmate” to wake it up, and it supports 90 seconds of long-time listening. With one wakeup, you can issue voice commands within 90 seconds without the need to repeat the frequent wakeups. This feature is very practical.
Moreover, it can achieve “visible and to be spoken.” Except for the functions on the screen, everything can be controlled and opened or adjusted directly by voice, and it can also realize “visible and to be spoken” of third-party applications, completely freeing your hands.
It also has a dual-tone zone recognition function, supporting the voice control recognition of the main and co-pilot driving areas. It executes corresponding voice operations according to different voice command areas and also has semantic rejection function, only accepting voice instructions from the main or co-pilot.
On the other hand, it is intelligent driving.
G6 and M6 are equipped with L2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) throughout the series. Although it lacks functions such as high-speed navigation assistance, I think it is just right, and it meets the needs of most users now.
Now ADAS can’t be used in the city because of complex and sudden road conditions, but it is still very helpful on the highway.
The Geometry M6 has functions such as adaptive cruise control (ACC), lane-keeping aid (LKA), multi-target recognition, and TSI traffic sign recognition, and it is still very stable after combining with the functions such as forward collision warning (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB).
Especially during the test drive, it can still maintain automatic lane keeping and driving stability in a long tunnel.
In addition, it supports full automatic parking (APA) and can achieve automatic horizontal parking, vertical parking, support for slope parking, optional parking, and can also control the vehicle to park in and out automatically through the mobile phone. This feature is also very practical for some inconvenient getting on and off the car or rainy day parking.
The L2 advanced driver assistance system is standard throughout the series, and Geometry is the first car company to achieve this level.## Maintaining Long-Lasting True Endurance
For the past few years, the most talked-about feature of Geely Automobiles among car owners is “True Endurance.” In early February, we conducted a final 10% endurance test on Geely C, and the performance was very stable. Interested friends can watch the video below.
This time, the test drive model is the high-end version of M6 with a range of 580km, which is 30km more than Geely C’s. During the full-day test drive, the vehicle drove normally in urban areas, cruised at a constant speed of 100km/h on the highway, occasionally turned on the air conditioning, and drove on up and downhill roads. In the end, I traveled 180km with 130km of electricity, and the electricity consumption was 11kwh per 100 kilometers.
In the current situation where the range of other brands has to be discounted, Geely M6 can achieve a performance beyond range, which is really eye-catching and once again proves the hard reputation of “True Endurance.”
Moreover, I noticed that if you use adaptive cruise control and let the vehicle drive itself, the control of electricity consumption will be more accurate and economical than human driving.
After the test drive, I felt that the Geely M6 showed excellent performance in power, endurance, intelligent cabin, and assisted driving at this price level.
What Are the Differences Between M6 and Geely C?
When we see Geely M6, it is easy to associate it with Geely C.
This is because M6 and Geely C have exactly the same body size and wheelbase parameters, although M6 has been comprehensively upgraded in appearance, interior, intelligent driving, and cabins, which has completely surpassed Geely C.
However, the underlying platform is the same, so it is difficult for people to avoid comparison when buying a car.
In terms of price, the price of Geely C ranges from CNY 139,700 to CNY 175,700. The pre-sale price of Geely M6 is CNY 152,800 for the 450km range version and CNY 174,800 for the 580km range version.
The low-end price of Geely C is CNY 139,700, which is CNY 10,000 cheaper than the low-end version of M6.From a product perspective, the Geely Geometry M6 is impeccable at its price level. However, the only issue lies with Geely itself, as the upcoming M6 model may have conflicts with the currently selling Geometry C model. It is yet to be determined how the two models can coexist, or if they are meant to replace each other. Nonetheless, as the M6 is ready to hit the market, making certain trade-offs will be necessary to achieve good market performance.
The New Series Models Highlight Intelligence
As for why Geely is launching two new models, the G6 and M6, this year, it may be related to the resource allocation of the entire Geely Group. News from last year stated that Geely was expected to adopt the new global modular architecture platform to introduce new models, which cannot currently be achieved.
The G6/M6 is the all-new intelligent series of Geely’s vehicles, demonstrating their commitment to intelligent transformation. The new series adopts a naming method of Brand + Alphabet + Number. “G” represents sedans, derived from “G” in GEELY&GEOMETRY, meaning inheritance and innovation; “M” represents SUVs, derived from “M” in GEOMETRY, meaning intelligence and technology. The number “6” represents the model specification. Using this new naming method, future products such as M8, M9, G8, G9, and others may also be introduced.
If the Geely brand receives more support in terms of resources and vehicle models, its performance will improve.
During previous communication sessions, Ye Qin, Deputy General Manager of Geely Sales Company, stated that if it were not for various black swan factors such as chips and the pandemic this year, Geely’s sales volume could reach 180,000-200,000 vehicles. Currently, there are still 20,000-30,000 outstanding orders for the Geely brand that have not been fulfilled, and production capacity is also a major issue. Geely Automobile will need to sell more than 20,000 vehicles per month going forward.
Just a few days ago, Geely Automobile released its September sales data, with a total of 130,500 vehicles sold, of which new energy vehicles accounted for over 30%, reaching a total of 39,200 units, and the Geely brand accounted for nearly half of that.
As of now, Geometry is Geely’s high-end electric vehicle brand, while the Geometry brand will cover the mid and low-end markets, with series A, C, G, and M models ranging from CNY 100,000 to 200,000, as well as the Geometry E priced between CNY 80,000-100,000. There are also rumors of the upcoming A000 model, priced at around CNY 50,000.
Therefore, based on these model plans, the Geometry brand bears the mission of leading Geely’s large-scale electrification movement, based on the direction of the mainstream pure electric vehicle market and deploying more models in different subdivisions of the market to further perfect the Geely automobile product matrix.
We await to see what the future holds for the Geely brand, as they address their weaknesses in intelligence.
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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.