Writing: CH_陈函
2023 Extreme Kayo’s sales target: 140,000 units!
Entering 2023, Extreme Kayo has good news.
First, it announced that the total delivery of 71,941 vehicles in 2022 has achieved the annual sales target, while launching the 2023 model Extreme Kayo 001. Next, it teamed up with two autonomous driving technology companies, WAYMO and mobileye, to take center stage at CES, an American consumer electronics show.
A few days ago, Extreme Kayo 009 was delivered on schedule, and it set a new record for the delivery speed of Chinese luxury pure electric vehicles, taking only 76 days from going public to delivery.
2023 has just begun, but Extreme Kayo’s promising situation has already fully unfolded. For Extreme Kayo, this year will be a milestone year. It is almost a foregone conclusion that the annual sales will reach 100,000, but more importantly, Extreme Kayo will also bring two new cars with lower prices and higher sales volume, and the action of entering the European market is also imminent.
Undoubtedly, in terms of product strength and market sales, Extreme Kayo is steadily entering the first camp of new car manufacturing. For a brand-new brand released in April 2021, achieving today’s results has exceeded the expectations of many people.
(Vice President of Extreme Kayo Intelligent Technology, Lin Jinwen)
What are Extreme Kayo’s advantages and future directions?
At the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of last year, we interviewed Lin Jinwen, Vice President of Extreme Kayo Intelligent Technology, and gained a more comprehensive understanding of the company’s past, present, and future.
Extreme Kayo’s Advantages and Disadvantages
In summary, Extreme Kayo’s advantages are two words: “Geely.”
Despite being released late, Extreme Kayo, born with a golden spoon in its mouth, has already paved the way for Geely Group’s electric and intelligent development. “SEA” brings together Geely Group’s electric and intelligent development, and the new smart factory, which was put into production in 2021, integrates advanced manufacturing technologies such as 5G/AI/industrial big data.Translate the Chinese Markdown text below into English Markdown text. Preserve the HTML tags within the Markdown and only output the translation and improvement of the text, without explanation.
These two large projects requiring billions of investment were born with Jidu Automotive, which many newly established car companies cannot afford.
At the same time, the large-scale Geely Group also has huge research and development investment. According to Lin Jinwen, Vice President of Jidu Intelligent Technology, the annual R&D investment of the Jidu brand alone has reached the level of billions of dollars.
“Firstly, because the overall financial performance of the controlling shareholder (Geely Holdings) is still relatively good, which I believe you all can see.
Secondly, as a company that started relatively late, Jidu must invest more resources, All of Jidu’s money is invested in software and hardware products. After the release of the NZP high-speed navigation assistance driving, Jidu 001 basically has no major shortcomings.”
Lin Jinwen explained the source and purpose of the billions of R&D investment.
The reason why Jidu 001 can make up for the software shortcomings in such a short time stems from this.
Money can really make a difference. Jidu announced on July 11, 2022 that it will replace the 8155 car central control chips for all old car owners for free, which is definitely a key turning point in Jidu’s development. For this, Jidu invested 300 million yuan.
Regarding the earlier software shortcomings, Lin Jinwen believes that intelligent cars consist of two parts, intelligence and cars. Jidu chose to first achieve high scores on the automobile part, which it excels at and cannot change later, such as the chassis and control part.
The software part requires time, experience, and data accumulation. Jidu started late in intelligentization but can catch up with later software and hardware upgrades.
Regarding how to catch up with leading companies in the field of intelligence, Geek+ has its own set of methodologies.
“As a follower, as long as we are good at learning, willing to invest, and choose both self-developed and cooperative paths like Geek+ does.”
For the development plan of intelligence, Geek+ divided it into two stages. In the initial stage, in order to catch up with competitors quickly, Geek+ chose to cooperate with the world’s top companies, such as Mobileye. The NZP high-speed navigation-assisted driving system developed through the cooperation of the two parties has now met the production requirements and is about to start media and user testing.
The M-Vision concept car, developed in cooperation with the autonomous driving technology company Waymo, is another direction of technological exploration. Geek+ claims that the M-Vision concept car will be compatible with almost all intelligent driving software systems worldwide, which reflects Geek+’s understanding of future autonomous driving vehicles.
In the second stage, Geek+ will use self-developed and cooperative approaches in assisted driving.
“The self-developed assisted driving of Geek+ has always been on the road. We also cooperate with NVIDIA, but our direction is not about starting on one car with this, and then on another car with that. We basically design it based on the features of the car. For some cars, we use cooperative solutions, while for others, we use self-developed solutions. This is relatively stable. Our future scenarios will lean towards self-development, and our products in the next few years will be more mature third-party cooperation solutions.“
Geek+’s 2023: Doubled Sales + Overseas Expansion
In the interview, Lin Jinwen expressed a gloomy outlook for the overall automobile market in 2023, due to the impacts of subsidy cuts and unexpected economic recovery rates. However, on the other hand, he remained confident in the new energy vehicle sub-market and Geek+’s sales growth.
“Luckily, the market that Geek+ is in is the new energy market. Our forecast for this new energy market will decline from this year’s growth rate of 70% to 80% to a growth rate of about 30% to 40% next year. But the market is still growing, which means that the pie and the ceiling are still expanding. (Forecast) Next year, the penetration rate of new energy will be between 42% and 45%, so the overall business scale in the field of new energy will continue to rise.“
At the previous CES North American Consumer Electronics Show, Jidu Auto CEO An Conghui made clear the company’s goals for the year:
“Jidu Auto aims to double its sales volume to around 140,000 vehicles in 2023, and plans to expand its sales in Europe.”
Increasing sales and entering the European market are undoubtedly the two most important things for Jidu Auto in 2023.
Regarding the former, Jidu Auto will release two new models to enrich its product line this year, an SUV in the middle of the year and a sedan at the end of the year, both smaller than Jidu Auto 001. This means that they will be more affordable, targeting the mainstream market with a price range of 200,000-300,000 RMB. These two models will become important growth points for Jidu Auto’s sales in the next two years.
As for the existing models, Jidu Auto will continue to expand its direct sales channels and charging and energy supplement system. Currently, Jidu Auto’s transaction volume in first and second-tier cities accounts for nearly 50% of the total transaction volume, while the proportion of sales in lower-tier cities is relatively low. This means that with the gradual increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, Jidu Auto still has a lot of room for development in lower-tier cities.
Jidu Auto has never hidden its ambitions. In 2022, Jidu Auto 001 has become the sales champion of Chinese brand pure electric vehicles with an average transaction price above 300,000 RMB. The recently delivered Jidu Auto 009 aims to be “the best-selling luxury MPV above 500,000 RMB,” which means that it will sell better than the Mercedes-Benz V Class and Toyota Alphard.
On the other hand, in terms of the strategy for overseas markets, Jidu Auto will first enter the European market. The reasons behind this are two-fold: one, the rapid growth of the new energy vehicle market in Europe, and two, because Geely Group already has more than 2,000 employees in Europe and Jidu Auto’s products are all designed in Europe.# The Future Prospect of Jidu Auto
As for when Jidu Auto will officially go overseas and what models will be launched, the key details have not yet been disclosed to the public.
According to earlier information, Jidu Auto has submitted IPO materials to the US SEC, and the details of its overseas strategy may be announced after it is listed in the US.
Regarding future plans, Lin Jinwen, Vice President of Jidu Auto, made it clear that Jidu Auto will not produce cars priced below 200,000 yuan. Although Jidu Auto 001 and Jidu Auto 009 currently have a relatively large price “bandwidth”, he doesn’t think a brand can cover both over 500,000 and below 200,000 yuan price ranges. For the lower price range, Geely Group already has other brands in place.
In terms of products, Lin Jinwen also made it clear that Jidu Auto will not produce battery-swapping cars. On the one hand, the charging infrastructure is already relatively perfect, and Jidu Auto is still continuously layouting its own energy replenishment network. On the other hand, the range of existing Jidu Auto models is already long enough. The longest range of Jidu Auto 001 is over 700 kilometers, and the longest range of Jidu Auto 009 reaches 822 kilometers, making battery-swapping unnecessary.
In terms of sales and service, Jidu Auto will continue to adhere to the policy of full self-operation, providing users with high-quality sales, after-sales and replenishment services directly. However, Lin Jinwen believes that it is difficult for services to sustain long-term competitiveness.
“Providing users with good service is certainly necessary, but I think it is difficult to sustain long-term competitiveness, especially since there are a lot of second-hand buyers and third-hand buyers for electric cars. I believe that many of you are owners of second-hand and third-hand cars. They are seen as a means of transportation, and only a part of the car models and target groups indeed use them for fun. However, overall, I think the capacity of the system is still the key.”
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.