As a car owner, I have to say Zeekr is a great car, with a stylish look, spacious interior, excellent performance, good handling, and affordable price, satisfying the needs of many young users and families. However, it’s sad to see you’re so proud of last year’s ppt and the number of orders.
- The delivery volume histogram is really well done, and when adding up the total delivery volume, it’s clear to see that Zeekr’s delivery volume is increasing rapidly. But why are you so satisfied with it? Is it because you made great progress in May due to the low starting point in April? Why not take a look at M5’s delivery volume next door? Just focus on improving the relationship between each delivery link and stop using the policy of not producing cars without a signed contract. There are so many people who received cars with flaws and had to endure long repair periods for compensation. Is this the way a direct sales model should work?
- It took your team six and a half months to build the infrastructure, revealing just how chaotic your company is internally. Just looking at the articles you’ve posted on your public account, how many have gone through strict reviews? What about the 4 major upgrades, Zeekr001 not being equipped with Zeekeros, 250kw/kg, and the countdown of equity rights with 5 days left on May 31st? An outsider’s analysis of your company’s internal problems reveals that your top management is unclear-minded and only knows how to read from a script. Middle-level cadres are caught up in power struggles, not united, and only care about the immediate tasks and targets of their respective departments, while salespeople at the bottom are running around trying to achieve their sales goals and even sabotage each other. How can a company with such a confusing leadership, middle management that lacks departmental cooperation, and unconnected links move forward? Everything is left to chance, and it’s just a pity.
- Your statement of being a user-created enterprise sounds great, but what exactly have you created together? When users posted their own solutions to a simple seat-rattling problem and suggested adding it to the app, why was it censored? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that leaders will see some disharmony? Are you afraid that your product is flawed and won’t sell? Are you afraid of admitting your shortcomings? Turning a blind eye to problems, pretending that everything is harmonious, just filtering out car owners’ voices through middle managers, and cheating customers like old-fashioned SOEs. Where is the clarity in your vision of being a user-oriented enterprise? Can you honestly tell car owners what it is? Does hiding the problem make it go away?
IV. The promised OTA update cannot be completed on time. Since December last year, you have been talking nonsense and promised to complete the 2.0 major update by the end of December. But it was not until the end of March this year, almost April, that it started to be pushed out. What went wrong? Can you tell the users? The users do not lack understanding of you, but only need your open and honest attitude. Blaming the epidemic, anything can be postponed when the epidemic comes. Shouldn’t you have been prepared for this long ago? This year, you only completed one upgrade of the 2.0 version of OTA, and only opened an ACC that is not easy to use and an AEB that is like a lunatic. By implementing imperfect functions, you are harming the car owners. Some car owners have been injured due to your AEB that is like a lunatic. With your functions, the driving scenario has indeed changed. Originally, you could just put it in gear and go, but now you have to open the settings first, endure the card-loading that is half-dead, and there is a great chance of seeing a red screen, and then turn off your so-called proud ACC and AEB functions. Is this what you call assisted driving? Isn’t assisted driving supposed to make driving safer for users? Oh, by the way, don’t hold conferences like the 2.0 commendation and bragging meeting. When others ask about your car system, you bring them to visit the factory, and the spokesperson only reads the script from a prompter. This is not for users to see, it is for investors to see. You did a good job, don’t do it again next time.
V. The lowest-ranking car system in the industry. General Manager An was full of enthusiasm and made great promises at the shareholders’ meeting to make Zeekr’s car system a benchmark in the industry. Yes, it really is a benchmark, a benchmark that is in the bottom. It has been a whole year, from the car system completely freezing, to the patched 1.1.1, and then to the disabled 2.0 that was released. You have worked very hard, but have accomplished little. I won’t talk about the underlying architecture or the car system that was built with the help of well-connected princes. Neither Geely nor Lynk & Co seem to be able to see their own problems? Users do not require you to compete with companies like Huawei and XPeng, but you cannot deceive users with a half-finished product, which is where you are rogue. All problems are said to be postponed to later OTAs or small versions with alphabet letters, which consumes the time of car owners to upgrade in the 4S shop. One generation of garbage is inherited by the next generation of Zeekr. This sentence is for you. Our expectations for you have changed from intelligent cockpit to be usable, and now to be able to remain stable without bugs. This has consumed too much emotion and expectation. By the way, in recent times, most recently, this year, and soon, these words have been overused by you. What we always hear from you are ambiguous words that give yourself a way to retreat. Come on, you are a company, you should speak with integrity and facts, not as diplomats here.
There’s still plenty to criticize, and the words spoken and actions taken are all in the open for a company that is about to go public, especially when most of their car owners are adults. Don’t play the stocks like you’re playing the car owners. Futures trading involves risks, so be careful when entering the market and be warned of possible setbacks.
In conclusion, no one cares if you’re tired, they only care if you can handle it. A company without centralized leadership, a powerful core, noble ideals and beliefs, and a solid theoretical foundation, has no direction to move forward to face user questions, improve shortcomings, and collect existing problems with a more positive attitude, solve accidents with strong executive power, and move forward with higher morale towards the future.
Yours sincerely,
A humble and extremely devoted car owner.
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.