Author: Qiu Kaijun
In 2022, Great Wall WEY didn’t have a good year. As of November 2022, the cumulative sales of WEY brand were 35,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 27.53%. What people remember more is the “war of words” among the top management.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of the year, WEY finally “showed its sword” and launched the new flagship six-seat intelligent SUV Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV. Although Blue Mountain still belongs to the coffee series, it has already departed from the original hexagonal big-mouth grille design language, enclosed the grille, and looks more like a new force and a new energy vehicle. This new appearance is the result of WEY listening to user feedback and represents the new, low-profile posture of Great Wall WEY.
Great Wall WEY has high expectations for this car. CMO of WEY, Zhou Wen, hopes that Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV can become the NO.1 six-seat SUV in the sub-segment of the market.
The king of the six-seat SUV in the new energy field is undoubtedly Ideal Auto. Great Wall WEY’s Blue Mountain is undoubtedly going to challenge Ideal L8 and L9 head-on.
Compared to the past, Great Wall WEY, the leader of domestic independent brands’ high-end development, has become a follower, but this is the correct posture that Great Wall WEY should have.
Still Coffee, Different WEY Cars
The appearance of Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV is somewhat unexpected.
In October 2022, WEY applied for a new declaration to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, intending to launch a “new flagship large six-seat intelligent SUV” (temporary name “WEY 80”). However, there were many criticisms about its appearance.
The WEY team also reacted quickly to this. Just five days later, the announcement was made to invite users to participate in the co-creation and contribute suggestions for the exterior design and naming.
About two months later, at the Guangzhou Auto Show, the WEY 80 underwent a major facelift, the front face design was greatly adjusted, and the naming maintained a coffee series name, indicating its flagship status, and chose a high-end coffee variety—Blue Mountain.
CMO of WEY, Qiao Xinyu, had conducted a survey on the exterior design style and model naming on Weibo at that time.
The result shows that “most people chose the ‘simple and technological’ new design for the front of the car.” Wei Auto accepted this suggestion. The Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV exhibited at the Guangzhou Auto Show features a simple design style. The grille is mostly enclosed and only half is open. It is completely different from the hexagonal large-mouth grille of the previous Mocha, Latte, and Macchiato models. The headlamps are also redesigned into separate units, with slim daytime running lights on top and high/low beam lamps on the bottom.
Although this design style does not adopt the trendy through-type headlamp design, the overall style tends to be new brands and new energy.
Wei Auto stated that the design was developed “based on user co-creation. Nearly 160,000 people participated in the interaction and nearly 200 original design works were collected during the two-month period.”
Regarding the naming, most voters chose a combination of Wei + English + numbers. However, Wei Auto ultimately chose “to continue the coffee series and use Chinese naming,” and selected “Blue Mountain.”
As Wei Auto’s new flagship vehicle, the Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV has a very large size and is a large SUV. Compared with several popular six-seater SUVs currently available, it is only surpassed by the Ideal L9 in size and larger than the Ideal L8, NIO’s all-new ES8, and the Changan Uni M7.The Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV adopts a 2+2+2 six-seat layout, which will bring a good third-row space experience. Compared with its biggest rival, Ideal L9 and L8, the Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV may be cheaper than L8, but has larger dimensions.
The Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV will also be equipped with Great Wall’s leading new energy technology – intelligent DHT new energy technology, with a maximum torque of 933N·m and a 0-100km/h acceleration of only 4.9 seconds.
What is commendable is that the fuel consumption per 100 kilometers of its high-voltage system is 6.7 liters, and the WLTC pure electric cruising range is 180 kilometers. The comprehensive cruising range will exceed 1000 kilometers. Zhou Wen also emphasized that it can also run on 92 octane gasoline. The DHT used by the Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV is an upgraded version of Great Wall’s DHT, which is more energy-saving and intelligent.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show, Zhou Wen also announced the news of the first upgrade of the intelligent DHT technology. After the upgrade, the total cruising range of Wei Pai DHT-PHEV product under full fuel and electricity in the WLTC is increased by 73 kilometers, perfectly realizing “dual decreases in oil and electricity” and making the car more “powerful”. At the same time, users can “freely choose” among the three power modes: intelligent hybrid, (mandatory) pure electric, and pure electric priority. Wei Pai users can upgrade at 4S stores.
Regarding the just-passed 2022, how does Wei Pai see it? How does it welcome 2023?
Zhou Wen said that 2022 is the first year of Wei Pai’s high-end intelligent new energy transformation and can be said to be the year of Wei Pai’s accumulation of power.
“This year we understand more about deep plowing and laying a foundation. We have already established good product reputations among users and media for our Mocha DHT-PHEV and Latte DHT-PHEV.”
For 2023, Zhou Wen said that it will continue to expand and strengthen the coffee intelligent series (SUV), “We also hope that the Blue Mountain DHT-PHEV can become the NO.1 in the six-seat SUV segment of the market, and will also showcase the first MPV model at the Shanghai Auto Show.”Zhōu Wén duì Lánshān de lèguān yùqī yǒu jǐ gè yuányīn。
Shǒuxiān，tā rènwéi liù zuò SUV shìchǎng hái yǒu hěn dà kōngjiān。
Tā jièshào，2019 nián 30 wàn – 50 wàn de liù qī zuò SUV zǒng xiāoliàng zài 25 wàn liàng zuǒyòu，dào 2021 nián yǐjīng dào le 40 duō wàn liàng，2022 nián nénggòu túpò 50 duō wàn liàng，měi nián yǐ chāoguò 25% de sùdù zēngzhǎng. 「Zài zhěnggè qìchē shìchǎng xiàhuá de dà huánjìng xià，zhège xìfēn shìchǎng hái nénggòu yǒu zhèyàng de yīgè zēngsù，wǒmen rènwéi fēicháng zhídé shēnrù tànsuǒ.」
Cìcì，tā rènwéi zhè yī shìchǎng de jìngzhēng bìng bù chōngfèn. 「Zhège xìfēn shìchǎng pái zài qián sān de chǎnpǐn xiāoliàng àn dào le dàgài 44% fèn’é，zài zhèyàng yīgè qíngkuàng xià，gāo jízhōngdù yìwèi shìchǎng jìngzhēng bùgòu bǎoshí.」
Dì sān，tā rènwéi réng yǒu xūqiú tòngdiǎn méiyǒu bèi mǎnzú。Tòngdiǎn zhǔyào bāokuò kōngjiān、dònglì、nénghào sānfāngmiàn。Kōngjiān fāngmiàn，tā zhǐchū shìmiàn shàng dàbùfen liù zuò SUV qíshí shì jīyú wǔ zuò jìnxíng gǎiliáng，qiáng xíng lā cháng chēshēn duì yònghù de tǐyàn fēicháng bù hǎo，tèbiéshì dì sān pái.「Ér Lánshān DHT-PHEV dì sān pái zuòuì gāodù dádào 340mm ， bǐ lǐxiǎng L8 hé ào dé sī dōu gāo.」 Dònglì fāngmiàn，tā rènwéi xiànzài shìchǎng shàng hěn duō zēngchéng diàndòng dà liù zuò、qī zuò SUV dònglì bùgòu qiáng，yóuqián zài pápō、kuīdiàn děng gōngkuàng xià，jiàshǐ tǐyàn fēicháng bù hǎo。Ér Lánshān DHT-PHEV jìnshí de niǔjué dádào 933N·m，chàbuduō shì chuántǒng 4.0T fādòngjī de dònglì biǎoxiàn，kānchēng 「diàndòng V8」。「Lánshān DHT-PHEV zhèyàng yī kuǎn 2 tún duō zhòng de chē，réngrán kěyǐ zuòdào 4.9 miǎo de língbǎi jiāsù，zhè zài dà liù zuò SUV jīběn méiyǒu shénme duìshǒu.」
Néng hào fāngmiàn，「Lánshān DHT-PHEV kuīdiàn yóuhào jǐnyǒu 6.7L/100km，zhè shì xiāngdāng yú rìxì A-jí juǎchē de yóuhào shuǐpíng，zhègè jiéyóu xìng jīngjìxìng shì fēicháng túchū de，zuòwéi duìbǐ lǐxiǎng L8 kuīdiàn yóuhào dádào 7.7L/100km」.
Duìmiàn xiànshí，rújīn de Wèi pái gèng wèi dī zītái。2023 nián guóbǔ tuìchū，Wèi pái méiyǒu zhǎngjià yǐ dǐxiāo bǔtí tuìchū zēngjiā de chéngběn，ér shì juédìng wéichí zhǐdǎo jià bù biàn. Bāokuò mùqián zài shòu de Mókǎ DHT-PHEV 0 jiāolǜ zhìxiǎng bǎn，nátiě DHT-PHEV、mǎqíduǒ DHT-PHEV quán xì chēxíng dōu zhíxíng cǐ zhèngcè.
Gānggāng guòqù de 2022 nián，Wèi pái yě jīnglìle zǔzhī tiáozhěng。Wèi pái hé tǎnkè zài zǔzhī guǎnlǐ shàng quánmiàn zhěnghé，tǎnkè pǐnpái CEO liú yàn zhāo jiāndān Wèi pái CEO，duì Wèi pái hé tǎnkè shuāng pǐnpái de jīngyíng guǎnlǐ jí xīnnéngyuán jìnjié de dǎzào quánmiàn fùzé，liǎng dà tǐxì jiāng shíxiàn gèzì shuāng pǐnpái yùnzuò.## Translation
Zhou Wen said, “The most important thing behind organizational change is to adapt to changes in the market and user needs. The current market competition environment requires us to have faster response speed, better focus on resources, and improve efficiency. Everything is based on market demand and user needs.“
Indeed, Weipa once led the wave of high-end independent brands in China, but now in the wave of new energy and intelligence, Weipa is sailing against the current. If it does not advance, it will retreat, so it should lower its posture, strive to catch up and make efforts.
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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.