To get a more tangible insight into Geely’s vision for its future products, the Galaxy E8 is currently the best option.
On January 5, the Galaxy E8, the first product from the Galaxy series, Geely brand, and the entire Geely system for 2024 was officially launched, including 5 versions:
- 550 km PRO for 175,800 RMB;
- 550 km MAX for 185,800 RMB
- 665 km Starship Long-Range for 198,800 RMB;
- 665 km Starship Smart-Drive for 218,800 RMB；
- 620 km Starship Performance for 228,800 RMB.
Looking at the starting price of 172,600 RMB, which is 12,200 RMB lower than the Galaxy E8’s pre-sale price of 188,000 RMB, Geely is living up to the trend of seizing market share in the current electric car market.
With the Galaxy E8, Geely has shown competitors in the 200,000 RMB electric car market a model of how to compete from 2024 onwards.
A More New Force-Like Geely
The first time I saw the Galaxy E8, I wondered if I could still recognize it as a Geely car if the logo was covered?
The answer is no. I don’t think I would. The reason is simple. The Galaxy E8 has essentially revolutionized Geely’s past design in terms of both exterior and interior, making it look more like a product of the new generation.
Although the Geely Galaxy Series had already launched the Galaxy L7 and L6 before the Galaxy E8, both successors, to a great extent, retained the design language of Geely’s past, which is not the case with the Galaxy E8.
Rewind to February 23, 2023, when Geely unveiled the Galaxy Light Concept and revealed that the production model would make its debut by the end of the year.
Undeniably, the Galaxy Light’s production model has been materialized as the Galaxy E8, which closely adheres to the Galaxy Light’s design, including a light-emitting tiger-like front face crafted with micro-hole laser carving technology, a wide and low-drawn body with a drag coefficient as low as 0.199, a 1.13 m 8K 45-inch center control screen, and more. These features give the Galaxy E8 a sci-fi feel that distinctly separates it from Geely’s older models.
Still, amid the sci-fi vibe, the Galaxy E8 also carries a design style inherited from Geely’s other models — the Chinese artistry.
Visually, the Galaxy E8 comes with six exterior colors inspired by the seasonal view of the West Lake and taillights that resemble a rising sun. Internally, it features floating speakers sculpted into the shape of the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon and door panels decorated with landscape patterns.When the aforementioned sci-fi feel combines with the national style on the GEELY E8, the final presentation falls on the simple.
Having said the visible part of the GEELY E8, let’s talk about the invisible aspects.
First of all, the GEELY E8’s intelligent feature is definitely a pleasant surprise. In terms of the cockpit, the GEELY E8 is equipped with the most advanced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chip. The system is Geely’s self-developed GEELY N OS – Unlimited Edition, which also supports Flyme Link Interconnection. The presentation carrier for these three trump cards is a massive center control screen that measures 45 inches and has clear 8K clarity.
What is worth mentioning is that this time in the cockpit, the GEELY E8 also introduced a large AI model, which can generate dynamic MVs according to the music, turn photos into cartoon styles, etc., and the playability is very high. The specific presentation effect is hard to explain in words, you can refer to our previous push “After HarmonyOS and Surging, is GEELY N OS + Flyme Link powerful enough?”
In terms of Smart Driving, the GEELY E8 Smart Driving Edition is equipped with 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, 10 cameras, and 1 lidar, supporting advanced assisted driving, and its AEB use range has reached 4-150 km/h.
It is noteworthy that the GEELY E8 is also equipped with satellite communication, which can not only help users with outdoor safety but can also improve intelligent driving capabilities through high-precision positioning. Moreover, according to Geely’s official information, GEELY will push GEELY OS 2.0 within this year, by then, the GEELY E8 Smart Driving Edition will be able to realize urban commuting NOA.
As for other versions of smart driving configurations and capabilities, they are quite ordinary, because after Geely’s research, they found that a considerable part of the user group facing the GEELY E8 doesn’t have a strong demand for smart driving and are not willing to pay for it.
In terms of EV systems, the GEELY E8 is equipped with a standard Geely Shield battery across the entire range, ensuring battery safety. In addition, the GEELY E8 620 km Starship Performance Edition supports 800V high voltage performance, which can achieve a charging effect of adding 180 km of endurance after 5 minutes.
What needs to be emphasized is that behind the GEELY E8, the computing power of Geely’s Starman Smart Computing Center, which currently reaches 102 sextillion operations per second, will monitor vehicle parameters in real-time in the cloud, safeguarding users’ driving safety.It is evident that for the release of the Galaxy E8, Geely has mobilized all available resources. Geely Auto Group CEO, Li Shufu, told us:
We aim to set a benchmark in the mainstream market…to let our strength speak for itself.
Geely’s Ambition, Dictating the Market with a Single Move
What exactly sets the benchmark in the mainstream market?
Almost every automaker likes to mention the term ‘benchmark’ when launching a new car, but very few explain what they mean by it in a clear and straightforward manner.
However, the official translation from Geely was somewhat simplistic and slightly arrogant – outselling the best-selling one. To achieve this, Li Shufu noted:
The product must be of ultimate quality; right out of the gate, it has to have the best price.
As such, Geely’s ambitions are evident – to control the current pure electric market with the Galaxy E8.
In essence, given Geely’s and the overall market situation, this is a pressing need for Geely’s transition to new energy.
In fact, as early as 2015, Geely announced its new energy strategy, the “Blue Geely Action,” aiming to break into the new energy market and set a goal of new energy vehicle sales accounting for over 90% of Geely’s total by 2020. However, by 2022, only 22.9% of Geely’s sales were new energy vehicles.
Regrettably, during that era’s new energy vehicle market, when new entrants were still struggling and traditional independent brands had yet to actively transform, even BYD was far from unstoppable as it is today.
However, Geely failed to seize this opportunity; while it launched the new pure electric brand Geometry in 2019, it didn’t successfully operate it. Now, Geometry has taken a step back to become a series under the Geely brand.
Evidently, the “Blue Geely Action” ended in failure and is still far from realization.
At the beginning of 2021, Geely proclaimed “Two Blue Geely Actions,” aiming to ramp up the proportion of hybrid vehicles and devote resources to developing pure electric intelligent vehicles.
In April of the same year, the ZEEKR brand was launched; in October, the “Intelligent Geely 2025” strategy was released. Geely once again took to the forefront of the pure electric market with ZEEKR as the entry point, while simultaneously developing intelligent energy, manufacturing, and services at a strategic level.
It was then Geely began taking a more pragmatic and solid approach in response to the trends of electrification and intelligence. Li Shufu told us that it was during the two or three years following the launch of “Two Blue Geely Actions” that Geely had made advancements in the new energy market.
Viewed from the broader perspective of Geely Holding Group, Geely has established itself in the pure electric vehicle market under the ZEEKR banner. However, if we focus on the Geely brand, the core of Geely Holding Group, it is clear that Geely’s progress in the pure electric vehicle market is still in its early stages.In February 2023, Geely launched the Galaxy series, introducing the Galaxy L7; a model that did not disappoint Geely, realizing successful sales volume. After two to three years of strategic planning, Geely has finally achieved significant results.
However, it should be noted that, whether it’s the Galaxy L7 or the later Galaxy L6, Geely has never managed to step out of its comfort zone with fuel-based cars. In other words, in the pure electric market, Geely still remains silent.
This implies that, if Geely wants to dominate the pure electric market with the Galaxy E8, it must overwhelmingly outcompete products within the same price range.
In the new energy market under 200 thousand, considering the space, the Galaxy E8 boasts a length of more than 5 meters and a wheelbase of nearly 3 meters. For intelligence, the Galaxy E8 provides users with an 8295 cabin; In terms of design, the Galaxy E8 has almost shed its traditional garb, dressing more in line with new trends.
More importantly, the Galaxy E8 is the first product from Geely based on the SEA vast architecture. What does this mean? Just look at which cars are currently being produced under the SEA vast architecture.
According to official information, the models currently being produced under the SEA vast architecture include the LOTUS ELETRE, VOLVO EX30, ZEEKR 009, ZEEKR 001, ZEEKR 007, JIYUE 01, smart elf #1, and smart elf #3. This implies that, despite the Galaxy E8 being a car selling from 175,800, its manufacturing quality matches that of high-end luxury brands.
It’s worth mentioning that, with the Galaxy E8, it’s not just the pure electric market; it’s also competing with fuel-based cars.
QUOTED TEXT: Given the overall volume, currently, the jointly-owned and foreign brands’ fuel-based cars occupy over 90% of the B-class car market. Under the current trend of new energy, Galaxy E8 has great prospects. QUOTE
“We must both aim to supersede fuel cars and achieve the super replacement of the previous generation of new energy products.”
In conclusion
From the aggressive pricing style and cost-no-object configuration plan of the Galaxy E8, Geely once again demonstrated what systemic operation means to the market.
In fact, the Galaxy E8 not only represents Geely’s best choice for future product thinkers but also a good choice for observing Geely’s systemic capabilities – the StarSmart Computing Center is the cloud brain of the Galaxy E8; satellites can ensure safety and enable intelligent driving through precise positioning; the SEA vast architecture ensures manufacturing quality and cost advantages brought by mass production.
In the new energy car market, where the price war is the main background, for auto enterprises, to withstand the uncertainties brought by rapid market changes, they must build a strong system and fully output it. And this is precisely Geely’s core competitiveness.However, one significant issue facing Geely is that compared to the overall industry development, Geely is lagging behind and currently is making up for lost time with all its might.
For Geely, in the face of such intense competition that is utterly separated from the era of fuel cars, how Geely bridges this gap, and manufactures and markets products with the mindset and methods of the new energy era is a significant challenge.
Nevertheless, through the GEELY E8, it’s noticeable that Geely’s vehicle manufacturing mindset has experienced a distinct transformation, as quoted by Gan Jia Yue:
The customer’s needs are explicit and latent, explicit in configuration requirements, latent as the basic safety requirements of the product. How to combine these needs so that we can both manufacture and provide a positive user experience is the fundamental logic behind Geely’s intention to develop a global technology system.
Previously, Geely invested a great deal in latent needs such as safety and driving control, and users did not have strong explicit demands. However, as the market changes, users’ demands for smart technology and design, which are explicit needs, are increasing, an area in which Geely, who overlooked the shaping of explicit value in the past, is rather weak.
However, looking at the revolutionary performance Geely has achieved with the GEELY E8, Geely is changing its mindset, and using all resources at its disposal to compensate for its past weaknesses.
Moving forward, the performance of the GEELY E8, to a certain extent, concerns the honor of Geely as the leader among independent brands.
This article is a translation by AI of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.