Words by Joey

To be honest, my emotions towards the IM L7 are different from other cars.

There is no reason other than the fact that I joined IM Automotive as a brand promotion agency member before the brand was even established. If people like to describe some new car brands as “PPT cars” nowadays, then at the time I joined the project, the name IM had not yet appeared.

Now, IM Automotive, which was once still in its infancy, has completed its system construction in less than two years, and the car that was only on paper has also been built. Just two days ago, at a minimalized press conference due to the epidemic, IM Automotive’s Co-CEO Liu Tao officially announced the price of the IM L7 Pro – 408,800 yuan.

Actually, this is not the first time we have met the IM L7. At the Chengdu Auto Show last year, the IM L7 started the Angel Round presale, with the same price of 408,800 yuan. It’s just that now, compared to when the car was still in the exhibition stage, the IM L7 has undergone more changes. First of all, it can be driven (such as a test drive event for the Angel Round users of the L7 model organized by IM at the Tianma Mountain Racetrack not long ago). More importantly, IM has found the positioning for L7 – “New World Driving Flagship.”

Driving the car shows that IM has truly implemented its plan in less than two years and presented its brand positioning and technical strength through products. Finding the right positioning for L7 is also a new breakthrough and direction for IM’s transformation from car manufacturing to car selling in the next stage.

Now, your question must be, what is “New World Driving Flagship”?

It’s your new world, as well as everyone’s

The new world must be in comparison to the old. Perhaps in IM’s view, a world full of electric and new energy cars on the road undoubtedly forms a distinct contrast to the world driven by gasoline and internal combustion engines.

Such differences not only bring changes in energy forms and environmental characteristics but also a significant improvement in car performance. In fact, no new energy vehicle manufacturer does not boast about performance. As long as it is an electric vehicle, regardless of whether it costs 1 million yuan or less than 100,000 yuan, it will undoubtedly write the 0-100 km/h acceleration performance in its product propaganda column.

However, this is only a general technological improvement brought about by motor technology characteristics. In other words, as long as this technology is used, performance can make qualitative leaps, but if everyone makes a leap, it is equivalent to the beginning of a new round of competition.Therefore, nowadays, for car manufacturers who want to work on new energy vehicles, they will focus mainly on intelligent driving assistance and intelligent cabin human-computer interaction. Although in these technology areas, various new energy manufacturers are equally committed, with sufficient investment and effort, new breakthroughs may be possible. However, it seems that there may not be so many places to invest in performance, just the motor, power, and acceleration.

But perhaps in the eyes of Zhi Ji, things are not so simple.

First of all, Zhi Ji L7 has indeed gained the advantage in power and torque of electric vehicles. As they say, the maximum power and torque of 475kW and 725N·m, respectively, are more than twice that of luxury fuel-powered cars of the same class (which are mostly 2.0T displacement engine models). Thanks to such power performance, this car can also enter the 3-second club with an acceleration time of 0-100km/h in 3.87 seconds.

In the old days, it took a basic 8-cylinder engine or even a stable 12-cylinder engine to achieve such acceleration results. Nowadays, these results can easily be achieved with only two permanent magnet synchronous motors. Therefore, you can see in Zhi Ji’s press release that L7 Pro will use surging power to strike a blow to traditional fuel-powered cars.

However, if this is all of the new world driving control, obviously all spectators, including you and me, may not agree, because many cars may be able to achieve this performance. Therefore, continuing to explore where there is no room for digging and furthering progress where there is no room for advancement is what the “New World Driving Control Flagship” should do.

Therefore, Zhi Ji has found the Williams Advanced Engineering team to tune the chassis of the car to achieve better driving performance. Such tuning is not only about adjusting the suspension of the car, but also updating technology to enhance the chassis and add color to driving control.

These updated technologies include “electric four-wheel vector drive”. If you are puzzled by this term, a more straightforward description is four-wheel drive + four-wheel steering. Unlike in the “old world”, four-wheel drive is a very high-end proprietary technology (such as Audi’s famous Quattro technology except for lighting), and four-wheel drive in electric vehicles is relatively easier to implement. As long as one electric motor is distributed on the front and rear axles, power can be distributed to all four tires of the vehicle.

But more importantly, four-wheel steering will give four-wheel drive more flexible driving control. This is a technology that truly only appears in high-end cars, including Porsche’s Taycan and Mercedes-Benz’s EQS. With this technology, the rear wheels of the vehicle will rotate at a corresponding angle when the vehicle turns, thereby reducing the turning radius.Actually, the principle of this turning is easy to understand: when a vehicle turns, the rear wheels change the center point by steering, making turning easier for the vehicle. How significant is this change? Taking L7 Pro as an example, its rear wheel turning angle exceeds ±12° (6° for inner and outer turning respectively). This can reduce the turning radius of L7 with a length of over five meters to 5.4 meters.

Now your question is, is this a small angle? Let me tell you, the Porsche Taycan model has a rear wheel turning angle of ±2.8°, while the EQS of Mercedes-Benz is ±10°. Obviously, neither Porsche, which focuses on sports, nor Mercedes-Benz, which focuses on luxury, can do better than IM regarding this indicator.

In addition, L7 Pro has made more efforts on the ground clearance of the vehicle. As we all know, the ground clearance can determine the height of the vehicle’s center of gravity and the airflow rate between the chassis and the ground when driving at high speeds. Less airflow determines less rising flow, making the vehicle more stable. However, it is not easy for electric cars to achieve this because of the thickness of the battery.

In the process of making electric cars, it is an important task to balance the thickness of the battery modules with the overall height of the vehicle and the space left for passengers in the cabin through repeated experiments.

This is also why, in the early days of electric car manufacturing, everyone liked to make SUV models. Because SUVs can have a higher ground clearance than cars and a higher height inside the car, there is an opportunity to balance various requirements for space in the battery space. Therefore, this is also the difficulty in lowering the vehicle’s chassis height for IM L7.

However, IM had a mechanism to solve this problem from the beginning. At the beginning of the establishment of the company, IM relied on SAIC Times and Times SAIC, which they jointly developed with CATL, to research and develop their battery pack and battery cells. The benefit of doing so is to first master the core of electric vehicles, and more importantly, to gain innovation capabilities.

Through this innovation, IM redesigned the entire vehicle battery structure and launched the first “mass-produced horizontal battery cell solution”. Simply put, the battery cells, which were originally placed vertically, are now placed horizontally to reduce volume. At the same time, by increasing the energy density of the battery, the endurance is maintained. It is thinner and lasts longer. Another advantage of doing this is that space is saved, the chassis has room to lower, and IM L7 Pro obtains a low center of gravity of 490mm.

Here is the understanding of New World Driving Control by IM L7. It not only includes stronger power data but also relies on technology and innovation to create a new understanding of pure electric driving.

More than just handling, it’s flagship

What I just mentioned only contains the relevant content of L7 Pro New World Driving Control. So what about flagship?

As the first model of IM brand, its positioning must be higher. This logic is also easy to understand. After all, the first car of any brand should not only embody technology and science but also become the brand’s facade and benchmark. The significance of doing so is that once there are more cars with different positioning in the future, there is enough space left in pricing.

Based on this demand, a more luxurious and high-end positioning is what L7 Pro wants to present. For example, IM has created L7 Pro’s cabin space through natural materials, odor purification technology, and intelligent technology. In addition, A-round users after the angel round have also clarified their rights in this price release.

For example, luxury configurations such as the Nappa punching head-layer leather seats, Brembo integrated four-piston calipers, and advanced driver and passenger comfort massage seats that can be upgraded for free, and top-level Bavarian half benzene leather seats that only high-end cars can have at 6,800 yuan.

Through these luxurious configurations combined with intelligent interaction systems, IM believes that it can create a driving experience that allows users to enjoy “Fun to Drive” with every moment of their journey.

But in my opinion, all of these still cannot be called the new experience that a new car brand embracing the “new world” should provide. The most important thing is how to have deeper interaction with users.

In fact, from the birth of IM Auto, they have been very enthusiastic about creating a truly co-creative model with users and relying on such a way of thinking to create a data rights system that includes raw materials and points.

Users contribute data to IM in exchange for points and raw materials, which can be used to exchange relevant rights. For example, Angel round users can enjoy a lifetime free IM AD (Intelligent Driving Assistance System) right. A-round users can also enjoy their own exclusive rights.

According to Liu Tao’s introduction, A-round users will be able to use the IM AD intelligent driving assistance system that can be upgraded for 3 years for free and can choose to buy it out for 8,800 yuan or exchange it for data rights equivalent to the value of “raw materials” and enjoy it for life.

Meanwhile, A-round users can upgrade to the Laser Radar Fusion Intelligence Driving System and the Super Advanced Energy Battery by using a combination of “Data Equity Tokens + Cash”. In addition, they can own the battery through monthly installment payments instead of monthly rentals.

Compared to NIO’s battery rental mode, the advantage of this approach is that as the core component of an electric vehicle, users can own a complete electric vehicle after completing the monthly installment payment for the battery, which can provide a higher resale value in the future when trading in for a used car. In the foreseeable future, as the price of batteries continues to rise, this battery installment payment model is obviously more user-friendly.

For IM, the release of L7 Pro has opened the door to a new era. In this new era, opportunities and challenges undoubtedly coexist. By redefining technology and luxury, IM has already won new opportunities in differentiated competition by undermining same-level fuel cars.

However, challenges also come with it. Whether it is the high-end GAC, which has already gone up and survived, or BMW, which has launched the i4 model with driving experience comparable to the M3, or Mercedes-Benz, which has a complete series of electric vehicles, or Porsche, who has always been keen on driving, they will all compete with IM in this new world.

First of all, this is not a bad thing. After all, IM has at least gained some competitiveness from a product perspective. Of course, the market situation remains complex, given the fierce trend of traditional car-makers’ electrification. But the good news is that with the possibility of competition, there is a chance of winning. Having the opportunity to face old-line luxury car makers with the ability and confidence is obviously difficult for SAIC to achieve in the old era.

However, the question remains: where does IM go from here? What can it do to ensure its acceptance by consumers, to ensure that it can survive and continue to grow? These are questions worth looking forward to.

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.