Author: Zhang Yi

The trend of electrification is unstoppable, and for the entire automotive industry, this is an era of fierce competition and intense change. To thrive and not be overtaken by the times, we must soar to the highest heights and descend to the netherworld, finding ways to control our own destiny.

NETA, a young brand born out of Hezhong New Energy, has been on a four-year journey since 2018. Faced with today’s unprecedentedly fast iteration and changeable market, NETA is increasingly aware that to stand firm, one must have deep roots, be firmly established, and flourish.

So for the past four years, NETA has been committed to systematizing technology and ecologizing industrial layout. Whether it’s the launch of the Shanhai platform, which was fully self-developed by NETA last year, or the start of presales of its high-end model, NETA S, this year, it’s evident that NETA is steadily gaining a foothold and seizing the commanding heights of the market.

And now, NETA has taken another important step.

On November 21, NETA released its new technology brand – Haozhi, which includes Haozhi supercomputing, Haozhi electric drive, and Haozhi range extender. Combining high computing power, high driving force, and high energy efficiency with the original Shanhai platform, Haozhi empowers NETA’s continued evolution, aiming to lead the “second half” of electric vehicle development.

First, let’s take a look at Haozhi supercomputing.

Haozhi supercomputing is NETA’s central supercomputing platform, with a computing power of up to 1,000 tops, which can handle a large amount of information captured by all 18 8-million-pixel cameras. Based on this level of computing power, combined with 5G, NETA will support L4 advanced autonomous driving, integrating intelligent driving with cockpit, in the future.

According to NETA’s official information, Haozhi supercomputing will be installed in vehicles by 2024, taking NETA’s intelligence to the next level.

Second, there’s Haozhi electric drive.

NETA’s Haozhi electric drive adopts an 800V silicon carbide high-performance electric drive system, which will be officially installed in vehicles in 2023.

The system has two major features. First, the increase in recuperation efficiency brought about by 800V high-voltage electricity, allowing for 200km of additional driving range with just a five-minute charge. Second, the reduction in thermal loss during energy transmission due to the material characteristics of silicon carbide, resulting in a system efficiency improvement of up to 91.5%.

Based on these two major features, Haowise Electric Drive has achieved a significant improvement in the overall efficiency of the vehicle’s power system.

The final peak motor power is up to 250KW, with a maximum torque of 420N·m, and a maximum output torque of 4600N·m. With Haowise Electric Drive, the NETA model will easily reach an acceleration of 0-100km/h in just 3s.

Lastly, there’s Haowise Range Extender. Traditional range extenders on the market typically consist of a simple combination of an internal combustion engine, generator, and controller, which are often large in size and heavy in weight, negatively impacting the vehicle’s space and economic performance. NETA’s solution to this is “integrated development.”

Haowise Range Extender uses a high-efficiency three-in-one range extender developed by NETA itself, which is 5-10% smaller in size and 10% lower in cost than other extenders at the same level. It is 5% more efficient than the industry average and quieter by 3-5 decibels.

In addition, there are four power driving modes: pure electric, range extender + battery charging, range extender + battery-driven, and safety escort. These modes can intelligently adjust the electric and fuel-driven functions based on traffic flow, road slope, remaining distance, and other factors, achieving optimal energy efficiency control under all circumstances.

Haowise provides users not only with a solution to their range anxiety but also with a smart driving assistant while on the road.

Haowise’s release has improved NETA’s technological system at a higher level. As market competition heats up, NETA now has sufficient strength to adapt to a constantly changing environment. With Haowise, the NETA brand has also taken a new step towards high-end development.

It is well known that the best way to shape a high-end brand is to go with the flow from top to bottom. For example, Tesla and NIO, their route is summarized as brand + technology. They first let the users accept their high-end brand, and then experience the technology with the brand filter.

However, NETA is different, and NETA is on the low-end route, seeking stable sales first. Once low-end brand positioning is formed, it is difficult to reverse the image in the users’ minds. Therefore, it is especially difficult for NETA to move upwards in its branding. The brand+technology route is obviously not working for NETA.

Since there is no brand filter to rely on, it can only rely on core technology to bring core value to users, continuously improving user recognition of the brand starting from the technology and gradually realizing high-end branding. At this time, the significance of technical background is very important.

Because although heroes don’t ask for their sources, but in car manufacturing, a strong technical background still determines the quality of a car. Therefore, the distribution of Haozhi may help NETA to take the brand+technology route.

Therefore, in the future, NETA could focus on marketing the Haozhi brand, or even create an IP for it, providing its products with well-known technical backgrounds, and eventually adding value to NETA by using Haozhi’s market premium.

Finally, in the view of the “Electric Momentum” reporter, the reason why the Haozhi brand was released and possessed its unique features is fundamentally because NETA is a brand with an “ism”- technological equality.

At the Haozhi product release conference, NETA CT0 Dai Dali said: “Technological advancement is to create new value and experiences for users. Through technological innovation, we can realize technological equality and make high-quality intelligent electric vehicles within reach, which is the value and vision of NETA Motor.”

NETA’s high-endization is not about pursuing high prices, but pursuing high-end value. Moreover, this kind of high-end is accessible to more people.

With technological equality as its ism, NETA’s development direction is more clear and firm, and there are more internal forces supporting NETA to find a way to control its own destiny in the unpredictable market.

NETA is a Slow-Burning Enterprise

Many say that NETA is a slow-burning enterprise, which doesn’t engage in Internet celebrity marketing or come up with astounding quotes. This may make NETA seem dull and uninteresting in the entertainment-obsessed era.

However, it’s precisely this slow-burning approach that allows NETA to calmly accumulate and pave the way for a later explosion, resulting in a beautiful marginal increment curve. Moreover, NETA’s monthly sales have been ranked first among new car makers for four consecutive months.

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.