Author: Su Qin
When it comes to new energy vehicles, you can’t miss the three brands of “NIO”, “XPeng” and “Li Xiang”. However, as the most expensive domestic new energy vehicle, GAC Aion, with a price almost 1.5 times that of NIO, 2 times that of Li Xiang, and 3 times that of XPeng, is like an ever-rising skyscraper. It is spectacular, yet few people have heard of it or paid attention to it. And GAC Aion’s founder, Ding Lei, is an absolute towering figure in the automotive industry.
Ding Lei has no relationship with NetEase, and he has held many extremely important positions in the political and business circles, such as the General Manager of Shanghai General Motors, the Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Co., Ltd., and the Vice Mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area.
However, what is most talked about is that Ding Lei was the co-founder of LeEco Super Car and the Vice President and Asia-Pacific CEO of LeEco Auto, and he spent two years working with Jia Yueting.
Through ups and downs of the business world and twists and turns of the officialdom, Ding Lei has been working in the automotive industry for more than 30 years. Now, he is embarking on a journey of his own will again with his GAC Aion.
High
In 1988, after Ding Lei received his Master’s degree in physics from Fudan University, he joined Shanghai Volkswagen. In 1995, he participated in the establishment of Shanghai General Motors, and after a decade of hard work, he finally became the General Manager of Shanghai General Motors in 2005. Under Ding Lei’s leadership, Shanghai General Motors won the sales crown of China’s auto market for three consecutive years.
In 2008, the financial crisis broke out. Although China’s auto market did not suffer a fatal blow, the sales of Shanghai General Motors continued to decline. Under pressure, Ding Lei started to transform the joint venture model with General Motors, changed the vehicle gene, and implemented a multi-brand development strategy. By 2010, Shanghai General Motors had become the first auto company in Chinese history to produce and sell over one million cars annually. Ding Lei made great contributions!
Also in 2008, Ding Lei proposed the “Green Future” strategy for the development of new energy. Although it brought great economic benefits to Shanghai General Motors, Ding Lei thought that new energy could only be an embellishment and could not bear the heavy responsibility at that time. It was not until Ding Lei dealt with Tesla that he started to really pay attention to new energy, especially pure electric energy.
In 2013, Ding Lei served as the Deputy Mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area, where he led the introduction of Tesla.
At that time, Ding Lei discovered that Tesla had completely overturned the traditional internal combustion engine design. Although he did not approve of Tesla’s cabin design, when Ding Lei test drove the Model S and stepped on the accelerator, the driving experience of less than 4 seconds for accelerating to 100 km/h with super strong silence still shocked his mind. Tesla’s design of integrating all physical buttons into the central control screen reminded Ding Lei of the revolutionary leap from Nokia to iPhone.
Years of experience in the automotive industry told Ding Lei that Tesla might change the traditional automotive industry, and the times were changing!
Gaohe
Although Li Bin and others had stirred up the trend of Internet entrepreneurs entering the car-making industry, it was another Internet veteran, Jia Yueting, who was active in the new energy market at the time.
Jia Yueting was attracted by Ding Lei’s rich experience in traditional automotive companies over the years, as well as his strong cross-industry resources in politics and business. At that time, Jia Yueting’s “Automotive Ecosystem Strategy” also deeply touched Ding Lei’s persistence in the identity of “car people.”
The two quickly hit it off, and in 2015, Ding Lei officially joined LeTV with his own funds, team, and project, becoming the co-founder of LeTV Super Car and the global vice president and CEO of LeTV Auto in the Asia-Pacific region.
With the combination of traditional and Internet industries, the windfall in the new energy market, and the support of national policies, for LeTV Auto at the time, even the air saturated with PM2.5 was sweet. However, even with luck by their side, “people” were still lacking.
For two years, Jia’s supercar remained in the PPT stage, and the crisis of LeTV Auto became increasingly apparent. In March 2017, Ding Lei finally chose to part ways with Jia Yueting and officially left LeTV. In the same year, LeTV completely collapsed, and Jia Yueting flew to the United States in June, with his return date forever marked in the next week.
Two years! Ding Lei got up early and worked late, but he was still behind. Within two years, NIO’s ES8 had already been launched, and XPeng’s first mass-produced car had already been put into production. Ding Lei had to start all over again.
Over the past twenty years, Ding Lei has traveled between politics and business and witnessed the development and changes of the Chinese auto market. His story is like the fantasy of every young man, with ups and downs and waves of emotion, but the Gaohe he built with hardships is like a pampered second-generation rich kid, with a halo on his head and with substance camouflaged by outward appearance.
Gaohe
The same year that he left LeTV, Ding Lei founded Human Horizons and launched the “Three Intelligence Strategy,” consisting of smart cars, intelligent transportation, and smart cities, which is essentially an upgraded version of an “automotive ecosystem.”After all, Ding Lei is an advocate of “solidarity and practicality to build a new nation”. Huaren Yuntu has quickly demonstrated impressive results. In 2019, in the Zhangjiang Smart Park, Huaren Yuntu showcased the future of travel with a “zero accident, zero emissions, zero congestion” plan, and then built the world’s first intelligent city road based on a vehicle-infrastructure cooperative autonomous driving system in Yancheng, Jiangsu.
Following the three principles of “scene design, software-defined cars, and co-creation of value”, on September 24, 2020, Gaohe released its first ever evolving supercar SUV, HiPhi X. The lowest price is 570,000 yuan and the highest is 800,000 yuan.
Despite its seemingly cloud-like price, there are still many outstanding features of HiPhi X that are worth noting. The so-called “evolutionary” software and hardware separation of HiPhi X’s software system can constantly improve vehicle performance and driving experience through autonomous learning and software iteration, laying the foundation for Huaren Yuntu’s “vehicle-human-city” in the future.
Additionally, whether it’s the globally innovative NT Exhibition Wing door or the PML programmable smart headlights, in terms of appearance and technological sense, HiPhi X has both exceeded users’ expectations and completely outperformed other new energy products. The design sense of the interior and scenario-based interactive experience is also far ahead of Tesla.
It’s ironic that HiPhi X looks like a twin brother of FF, giving people a vague feeling of Ding Lei and Jia Yueting’s untold past.
On November 6, 2021, Gaohe Auto released its second flagship Digital GT-HiPhi Z mass production model. Its digital mech exterior, life-like interactive interior, and multi-axis displacement vehicle-mounted digital robot look like they’re straight out of a sci-fi movie. It’s also possible that its price will reach one million!
Undeniably, the first sight of Gaohe is breathtaking and even enchanting. However, over time, the fleeting novelty will gradually fade away, the initial excitement and impulse will disappear, just like watching superhero movies again and again, the once exciting scenes can no longer bring audiences to the climax!
So even though Gaohe appears extremely colorful on the surface, it cannot conceal its pale bottom line – an expensive toy!It wants to package all futuristic elements together and present them to users with radical coolness to numb their brains. But GAC Motor should understand that all stimulation will eventually make people numb, and their long-term companionship with users will still require sufficient product power and strong brand power.
In 2021, GAC Motor’s cumulative sales were only 4,237 vehicles! And most of their users are luxury car owners, for whom GAC’s vehicles are considered low-end. Buying a GAC vehicle for them is essentially buying a large toy for temporary pleasure.
But GAC Motor must keep going and cannot rely solely on a few rich and idle high-end players to support them!
What Ding Lei calls “tech luxury” is no different from the luxury elements on traditional fuel vehicles; they just serve a symbolic purpose, with wood decorations being replaced by technology instead!
GAC Motor cannot simply pile up flashy technological elements. They must find a rational tool that can bring together these toy-like elements, making them a representative of some spirituality or culture, and ultimately achieving mutual recognition with users. Otherwise, GAC will only be like a child’s toy, momentarily exciting but then tossed to the side.
In this regard, brands like XPeng, Nio, and Li Auto have not been entirely successful. They successfully bypassed the issue of strong toy attributes by increasing their product tool attributes, such as Nio’s battery swapping, XPeng’s automated driving, and Li Auto’s range extender.
True luxury must break free from the shackles of tool attributes and become a cultural symbol beyond cars. Only then can GAC Motor truly distance themselves from other brands and become a genuine luxury brand.
To achieve this, it’s essential to tell a good story!
Conclusion
People are more willing to consume symbols than simply material objects. To produce symbols, a good story must be told. But stories are not created by metaphysical concepts or accumulated over time. Sales figures of self-produced luxury new energy vehicles are not enough to prove a good story. Instead, a good story gradually emerges from the brand itself.
Years ago, Nio overcame the bumps and undulations of the Nürburgring with the EP9, breaking the production car record with a time of 6 minutes and 45 seconds. This instantly established their high-end image.
In fact, Ding Lei is an excellent story for GAC Motor. He has been unwaveringly committed to the automotive industry for decades, stepping forward step by step, switching between various roles, and even in his fifties, still filled with passion and unlimited drive. His eyes see the world, his heart is filled with the future, always young, always in love, always embracing new things.
In a sense, Gaohe can become the outer expression of Ding Lei’s soul, just like Steve Jobs to Apple in the past and Jack Ma to Alibaba today.
Regarding HiPhi X and HiPhi Z themselves, there are many outstanding features in terms of appearance, interior design, performance, concept, and strategy. To attract truly loyal users, Gaohe needs not only a futuristic appearance but also a story that can carry the future!
Ding Lei once said, “I am a graduate in natural sciences, and personally, I am nothing special. It’s just that I have been lucky enough to benefit from the Chinese market. Achievements can only illustrate the past. Let us start over from scratch.”
Gaohe without a story would probably be Ding Lei’s mishap! Building Gaohe from scratch is not just a boastful statement but a reality that Ding Lei has to face.
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.